MPEG from AVI for Tivo streaming

[rb9999]

Tivo has a feature in which you can take an MPEG file and pull it from your computer to the Tivo hard drive and watch the show on your TV. Here is a description of an issue I am having that hopefully someone may have a suggestion for. Tivo has a description of the spec here:
http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv251080.htm?

I have two Tivos...one Humax DRT800 (this unit has a DVD burner in which you can burn your videos) and another is a Series 2. The Humax is attached to a 51 inch Sony Projection TV through the Composite Video out connections of the Tivo. The Series 2 is connected to a cheapo Magnavox 20 CRT TV via the RF connection.

When I take an AVI and convert it to MPG via many different utilities that I have (I tried most of them...TMPGEnc, WinAVI and many more) they don't work on the Sony but they work on the Magnavox. The picture on the Sony looks like for each line of resolution there is a blank line then another line of resolution (picture). When I pause the picture, all of the lines disappear and the picture looks fine. When I unpause it, the picture goes bad again. Sometimes I don't get the sound either...sometimes I do. Regarding the picture, it looks like a reverse interlace so to speak.

When I attempt to play the same file on the Magnavox it looks fine. I have tried encoding with many different settings and can't get it to work. I have encoded a few AVI that have worked...though not many. 80 percent of everything I have tried does not work and I cannot figure out what those that don't work have in common.

I have tried outputting the Humax video through the standard RCA video output plug to see if it was the composite connections or something and it still didn't work. I tried tweaking a lot of the Humax Settings (interlaced/non interlaced) and that hasn't fixed it either.

Any suggestions appreciated. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure this one out and cannot.

If anyone is willing to start a private dialog with me on this to help me figure it out I would appreciate it. I could give you some examples and specifics of some of my settings and URLS to some of the test videos I have tried.

[rb9999]

I have made a short video showing the problem described above. See them here:

Small TV in which the ecoding plays properly
http://home.sc.rr.com/rbarr/Working.avi

Large TV in which it does not:
http://home.sc.rr.com/rbarr/NotWorking.avi