I'm not nearly as savvy as the rest of you seem to be, but I stumbled across this program and LOVE that I can convert my Tivo files to a file type that will play on my tablet.
For some reason, I couldn't create a SourceForge account but Kevin was kind enough to exchange a few emails with me to get me up and running. I have read through the Wiki manual section and a lot of it was a bit too technical for me. I was hoping I could throw a few questions out to the community and maybe get some assistance.
I have a Windows 10 computer with 12 GB of RAM, and I have a Tivo Premiere XL. My speend test on WiFi generally is about 95 mb/s. However, when I'm downloading files from the Tivo, it's taking 4-5 hours for a one-hour HD program. I just ran the speed test while it's downloading and it's using about half of my bandwidth. Is that about right? I have been running the program since about 10 last night (it's now 8:04 the next night), and only about 5 of the 10 programs in my queue have transferred. Is this normal?
On my settings, I have checked: decrypt, Ad Detect, Ad Cut and Encode. Encoding profile is ff_h265_high_rate (that was it defaulted to, should I change?). Here's what I want to do: I want to transfer the Tivo files/TV shows to my laptop so I can play the probably as an MPEG (haven't tried transferring to my Galaxy tablet yet). Does it download a version of each type of file? Or does it download one file and then run a program to axe the commercials? I have several versions of each file and Kevin explained they are a, independent of each other, and b, I can configure my settings to delete them upon completion. If what I want to do is what I mentioned earlier in this question, are those the right settings? Could the Encoding profile be what's causing the transfers to take so long?
When I click on "disk usage", it tells my Tivo is 99.3 percent full. Yet if I open my Tivo directly, it's only 79 percent full. I have nothing in my deleted folder that could be taking up that space, so... ?
Sorry for the long post, but I'm a total newbie and want to use this program the best way I can. It really is awesome.
Thanx so much,
Jamie
Last edit: jamie simon 2017-12-13
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Don't know if you'll get this reply as you posted WAY back in December...
Anyway, for the sake of trying to be helpful, I will pitch in my 2 cents...
Transferring from TiVo to PC:
Transfer needs to be either Transport Stream (TS) or Program Stream (PS) format.
If your TiVo content is already h.264 you MUST use TS transfers.
TS is faster than PS
BUT TS can cause glitches and audio-sync issues.
PS will prematurely abort if there is a problem with the TiVo recording.
For me, PS is better than TS in terms of consistency. (i.e., less aborts than "glitches").
My TiVo Premiere Ethernet is 100mbps. Not very fast.
TiVo Premiere XL4 is MoCA, which is faster than 100Mbps.
I would recommend connecting the KMTTG PC to Ethernet for best transfer speed.
TiVo files are encrypted, and need to be decrypted
You can setup KMTTG to either decrypt after files are dowloaded, or,
You can setup KMTTG to decrypt simultaneously WHILE they are downloaded
(I use decrypt while downloading).
Once the file is downloaded and decrypted, you can then work with them.
Working with your transferred files.
Once you have the decrypted file on your PC, it's either mpeg2 or h.264 format.
The editing takes place on your PC with the transferred file.
So Ad detect and commercial cutting takes place on your PC.
After that finishes, the encoding process also takes place on your PC.
The encoding process re-encodes the file into a format and container you want.
Containers "contain" a video stream and audio stream(s).
Containers can be ".mp4", "mkv", etc...among others.
Re-encoded video streams can be h.264, h.265, mpeg2, etc. (amongst others)
Re-encoded Audio streams can be AAC, mp3, AC3 (DD.51), DTS, etc.
So the "Container" contains something like: h.264 video + AAC audio + AC3 audio
The above example is what an iTunes .mp4/m4v container looks like, and is very popular.
The idea is to create a container that matches your player capabilities.
For me, I prefer mp4 container like iTunes format above...it is compatible with ALL my players
So, I use the Handbrake Apple TV3 encoding preset in KMTTG.
You indicate you selected h.265 encoder preset, but that will be less compatible with players/devices than h.264. h.265 is becomming more mainstream, but is not quite there yet. Older devices cannot play h.265, so if you make a h.265 file, it will need to be transcoded again for any player/devices that can only handle h.264. h.264 video looks great for up to 1080p video.
Personally, I prefer Handbrake to do the encoding, and I've installed the Hanbrake CLI within KMTTG. If you've installed the KMTTG tools, then there is a version there, and I'd suggest using the encoder Handbrake presets. Just pick one that covers the common denominator of what your devices/players support. For me that is is the hb_appletv3 profile. All of my devices can support that format...so I don't need to have multiple files. Also, this is a 1080p format, so I'm getting pretty good quality. (I cannot see the difference on my 1080p 70in TV between blu-ray and a KMTTG / Handbrake encoded mp4 file...provided the orginal TiVo recording has good...
Finally, encoding an mpeg2 2hr movie to mp4 (h.264 + aac + ac3) takes a long time...on my 4 core/8 thread Intel i7 machine anywhere from 2-4hrs depending on the content and using a custom encoding preset I've created.
Hope this is helpful!
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi,
I'm not nearly as savvy as the rest of you seem to be, but I stumbled across this program and LOVE that I can convert my Tivo files to a file type that will play on my tablet.
For some reason, I couldn't create a SourceForge account but Kevin was kind enough to exchange a few emails with me to get me up and running. I have read through the Wiki manual section and a lot of it was a bit too technical for me. I was hoping I could throw a few questions out to the community and maybe get some assistance.
I have a Windows 10 computer with 12 GB of RAM, and I have a Tivo Premiere XL. My speend test on WiFi generally is about 95 mb/s. However, when I'm downloading files from the Tivo, it's taking 4-5 hours for a one-hour HD program. I just ran the speed test while it's downloading and it's using about half of my bandwidth. Is that about right? I have been running the program since about 10 last night (it's now 8:04 the next night), and only about 5 of the 10 programs in my queue have transferred. Is this normal?
On my settings, I have checked: decrypt, Ad Detect, Ad Cut and Encode. Encoding profile is ff_h265_high_rate (that was it defaulted to, should I change?). Here's what I want to do: I want to transfer the Tivo files/TV shows to my laptop so I can play the probably as an MPEG (haven't tried transferring to my Galaxy tablet yet). Does it download a version of each type of file? Or does it download one file and then run a program to axe the commercials? I have several versions of each file and Kevin explained they are a, independent of each other, and b, I can configure my settings to delete them upon completion. If what I want to do is what I mentioned earlier in this question, are those the right settings? Could the Encoding profile be what's causing the transfers to take so long?
When I click on "disk usage", it tells my Tivo is 99.3 percent full. Yet if I open my Tivo directly, it's only 79 percent full. I have nothing in my deleted folder that could be taking up that space, so... ?
Sorry for the long post, but I'm a total newbie and want to use this program the best way I can. It really is awesome.
Thanx so much,
Jamie
Last edit: jamie simon 2017-12-13
Hi Jaimie,
Don't know if you'll get this reply as you posted WAY back in December...
Anyway, for the sake of trying to be helpful, I will pitch in my 2 cents...
Transferring from TiVo to PC:
Working with your transferred files.
You indicate you selected h.265 encoder preset, but that will be less compatible with players/devices than h.264. h.265 is becomming more mainstream, but is not quite there yet. Older devices cannot play h.265, so if you make a h.265 file, it will need to be transcoded again for any player/devices that can only handle h.264. h.264 video looks great for up to 1080p video.
Personally, I prefer Handbrake to do the encoding, and I've installed the Hanbrake CLI within KMTTG. If you've installed the KMTTG tools, then there is a version there, and I'd suggest using the encoder Handbrake presets. Just pick one that covers the common denominator of what your devices/players support. For me that is is the hb_appletv3 profile. All of my devices can support that format...so I don't need to have multiple files. Also, this is a 1080p format, so I'm getting pretty good quality. (I cannot see the difference on my 1080p 70in TV between blu-ray and a KMTTG / Handbrake encoded mp4 file...provided the orginal TiVo recording has good...
Finally, encoding an mpeg2 2hr movie to mp4 (h.264 + aac + ac3) takes a long time...on my 4 core/8 thread Intel i7 machine anywhere from 2-4hrs depending on the content and using a custom encoding preset I've created.
Hope this is helpful!