Tivo conversion, storage, organization, and playback.

[socialstudy]

Hi,

I'm sure there are a ton of people out there in the same situation as me. I'm looking for the best method(s) to do the following:

1. Transfer my Tivo recordings from my Tivo to my PC/NAS to save space on the Tivo.
2. Convert those huge tivo files into something more manageable like Divx or Xvid.
3. Store those converted video files in a central location.
4. Organize them in a way where I can search and find programs easily.
5. Find a relatively easy way to playback those files on my TV.

Here is how I am doing this as of right now:
First I transfer programs from my Tivo over to my main PC using Tivo Desktop 2.3. Then I use Direct Show Dump to convert the .tivo file into a regular mpeg2 file. Now I encode the file using PocketDivxEncoder to an Xvid file (avi). Most of my Tivo programs are 2.5GB in size and once I encode them to Xvid they are about 500MB. Storage and organization is where I am having a hard time. I have these programs stored on both my PC and a Buffalo Terastation NAS. Organization consists of using windows explorer to create folders for the files in a way that hopefully makes sense. For playback I can burn 8 to 9 Xvid files to a DVD+-R disc and play that on my Philips standalone DVD player which supports Divx and Xvid files.

There are a couple of steps I would like to cut out of this process if possible and I would like to come up with a system for organizing and finding programs I want to watch. I used to use Dr. Divx 1.0.6 and Tivo conversion was a one step process. I can only get this to work on one of my Windows XP machines and on my main PC the audio is bad or Dr. Divx crashes on Tivo files . If anyone is currently using Dr. Divx as a one step process for Tivo conversion please let me know which version of Dr. Divx you are using and which codec. For now I can live with dropping the files in directshowdump and then using pocketdivxencoder.

Now the hard part: storage, organization, and searching for programs. Some of you may be asking why I don't just upgrade the capacity of my Tivo, well I have already done that. I have two drives in my Tivo: a 40GB drive and a 160GB drive. The problem is that I record and save a lot of shows (for myself and my girlfriend). I purchased a Buffalo Terastation NAS not too long ago. I use it in a Raid5 configuration so my actual storage space is about 700GB. 700GB sounds like a lot of space but you'd be surprised how fast it goes. I also store a lot of large files like hard drive images, backups, etc. I also have a 145GB partition on my PC where I can store Tivo programs. This seems to work ok for me now in terms of storage.

Organizing and finding programs is the biggest pain. Right now I just make folders to store the different programs (UFC Unleashed, Pride Fighting, Cheerleader Nation, Project Runway, etc.) Cheerleader Nation and Project Runway are my girlfriend's programs ok! With my UFC Unleashed programs I want to catalogue all of the fights on the show so I can look up a certain fight or fighter quickly then burn the Xvid file to DVD and watch on my DVD player in the living room. Is anyone else in the same situation as me? If so, how are you managing this? One product/service I have heard of recently is MyFabrik which targets people with lots of media files. I read an article that described the service and signed up for a beta account. The company apparently has two offerings that let you organize, store, and share your media files. One is the online version (which I signed up as a beta tester for) and the other is a physical NAS type unit from Maxtor called the Maxtor Fusion which has the MyFabrik software embedded. In using the online version it seems very easy to use and has some cool features such as tagging where I can tag my files with keywords which help me find files according to those keywords. In the example of my UFC Unleashed programs, I can add the name of a fighter as a tag and when I do a search all of the UFC unleashed programs with that fighter will show up.

Since I have a ton of programs uploading all of them to a web service would be costly and time consuming. Right now they are giving away free beta accounts of up to 2GB which you can bump up to 5GB by referring three friends. It looks really usefull for photo sharing (which also do quite a bit of), but I really want to get my hands on one of the Maxtor Fusion devices to see how that works. Has anyone tried the Fusion product? If so, how do you like it? Is anyone using anything else that is sort of an all-in-one solution for storage and organization? I would love to hear what other people might be using. Write back letting me know if you are in the same boat as I.

Thanks,
Sal.

[rkr1958]

Wow ... that's a detailed process you've laid out there.

I have a Series 2 TIVO, with only a 80-GB harddrive. Like you I use TIVO-to-go to transfer my captures to my PC and Direct Show Dump Utility to free them in order to be edited and authored.

I have a Humax DRT800 with a DVD-RW drive. I sometimes use DVD-RW discs to transfer programs but I find that TIVO-to-go is the easiest way even though it takes longer.

Anyway ... my TIVO unit captures at 720 x 480 which means that once I free them up using the Direct Show Dump utility I can load them as compliant mpeg2 video & ac3 audio streams into my authoring program (TMPGenc DVD-Author), cut out commerials, author and burn to DVD. I use Imgburn to burn.

One on my computer this whole process runs quickly. Per hour of source material process (which results in 40 to 41 minutes of final material), Direct Show Drump takes 2-3 minutes, editing (i.e., cutting out commericals) takes 5 to 10-minutes, authoring 5 to 10-minutes. I generally get 2-hours of final from 3-hours of source captures per DVD-R (single-layer). I then keeps these in DVD-Wallets (size 24 DVDs per wallet). If the final DVD is of something I really want to keep, I make a second copy and store that in a plastic baggie in a plastic bin in my closet. I then use MediaMan, which is now payware and which I got for free when it was beta, to keep track of my DVD collection.

[socialstudy]

Interesting... I can't believe I've never seen ImgBurn before. It looks very similar to the old DVD Decrypter program, and it's freeware gotta love that! In regards to the TMPGenc DVD-Author program you use for authoring, $90 is a little stiff. There are some programs that I actually burn to DVD but I usually import them to Nero for authoring and burning to disc. I can't really justify putting all of the other programs onto DVD though. First of all there is the cost of that many DVDs and second of all DVD is not really that great of an archival media. I'd rather have a decent quality file on my PC or NAS which I can make backups of. I'll do a search on MediaMan, it sounds interesting. If you are keeping track of a ton of DVDs with this software it must do a great job. Thanks for the reply I'll check those programs out.

BTW, is TMPGenc DVD-Author easy to use?

[rkr1958]

BTW, is TMPGenc DVD-Author easy to use?

Very easy. I have TDA 1.6 w/ac3 plug-in. I believe I paid around $80 3+ years ago for the combo. You can get a 30-day free trial for TDA without the ac3 plugin. You need the plugin in through to be able to hear ac3 audio, which is the audio we get in the TIVO captures. Without the ac3 plugin in you'll still be able to edit the TIVO video & audio (after running it through the Direct Show Dump Utility) and cut out the commerials. However you won't be able to hear ac3 in TDA. You'll have to wait to after you author it and play it on your PC or desktop player. With the ac3 plugin you're able to hear in TDA.