TiVoToGo for Mac Announced

An anonymous reader writes "After much anticipation, some backpedaling, a bite of hope, and a delayed release date, TiVoToGo Mac Edition is here. While there have been some unofficial hacks, those solutions have not been ideal for everyone. With support for transferring shows and burning to DVD/iPod, TiVoToGo is bundled as a part of Roxio's Toast Titanium software that will be announced tomorrow at Macworld."

Too bad, almost sounded useful

Bundled as part of Toast? Well, so much for that idea then. A CD burning application that costs $100 and breaks with every security and system update that apple puts out? No thank you, I'll stick with the "unofficial hacks" (which work just fine).

Re:Too bad, almost sounded useful

Bundled as part of Toast? Well, so much for that idea then. A CD burning application that costs $100 and breaks with every security and system update that apple puts out? No thank you, I'll stick with the "unofficial hacks" (which work just fine).

I don't understand, I haven't updated toast 7.0 since it came out and haven't upgraded to 7.1--or whatever it's at now (I'm doing 10.4.8 on a Mac Pro now).

Toast has always been the 'end-all' of burning software since I started using it nearly a decade ago.

These days it can take in raw video, including mpeg2, and burn a DVD with no other software. It'll auto-compress video (and video_ts) to fit DVDs.

Combined with ElGato's software, burning TV shows from Miglia or EyeTV devices can be done without recompression. I used to do this three or 4 times a week, putting 2 hours on each disc.

It even started doing dual layer way before Apple even offered the option.

I've never had compatibility issues, even though I rarely upgrade. In fact, I've never had a single issue with Toast, and I use it for all sorts of crazy stuff.

Of course it it...

I just spent all weekend getting two-way video working between my new iMac and Tivo.

back PEDALING, not peddling

back PEDALING, not peddling.

Unfortunately... There's DRM

According to Engadget.com:

"Take heed, the software does indeed embed a non-visible watermark of your Media Access key into converted video -- same as the PC kiddo."

Click below for the full details:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/roxio-deliverst ivotogo-for-mac-yes-roxio/ [engadget.com]

Not Exactly

More like meta data. DRM would hinder actual play of video files on players, btu it will encode it for iPod and PSP use, so calling it DRM isn't correct.


If anything, this is the proper way I'd like to see content distributed with protection.

"We'll give you free reign, but we're marking it."

Re:Not Exactly

No, it's not DRM. It's a watermark. It does not and cannot prevent you from doing anything at all with the video; all it does is provide the content owners with a means of identifying copyright violators, should the video show up in a torrent somewhere.

I agree with shirizaki - this is the proper way for media to be distributed online. This watermark will never be an issue for you until after you've already, publicly violated someone else's copyright.

Placeshifting

Hmm, so it sounds cool for Mac users to be able to place/timeshift their Tivo. I've been trying to get VLC to stream out video from my Hauppage card so I can send TV to my girlfriend's machine across the apartment over 802.11g. While a slingbox could probably do what I want, it doesn't have linux support.

Does anyone know of hardware that will allow the cable tv to be streamed to a laptop or TV where I can't run coax? She just wants to be able to watch TV in bed.

I saw this coming.

This timing, of course, is not coincidental. The open-source hack tivodecode [sourceforge.net] has made .tivo file decoding possible on non-Windows platforms. Tons of people are using tools like the TivoDecode Manager [thebenesch.com] to replace the functionality not available from TiVo officially...until now.

Dissappointing

Clearly, this is an attempt by Roxio to stay relevant on the Mac. But there's no word yet of iTunes integration for full-size videos. Therefore, I have doubts (which hopefully will be settled tomorrow) about how this will work with 'iTV".

DRM

Talk about timing....I was about to start trying my Mac because my pc is cutting it. I worked off and on all weekend to get my .tivo files to work through my mediaplayer.

I do not care how, but I need to get rid of that DRM. I've tried graphedit and xumxer (msp?), but I'm still not getting sound when I play them through my mediaplayer. Admittedly supposedly graphedit is supposed to prompt for the media access key and I am not getting that prompt. The graphedit created video file is playing fine on my pc.

help.

Likely to work with a Series 1?

The UK only ever got Series 1 hardware - is this likely to work with a series 1 device?

Incidentally, for some more of those infamous hacks might I recommend TivoTool for the Mac [tivotool.com] and my own cross-platform TivoPodcast [eruvia.org] for handling podcasts of digital radio.

Cheers,
Ian

Not available without Toast?

It looks like there's no transfer-to-Mac capabilities without purchasing Toast:

"Roxio is the exclusive official provider of TiVoToGo(TM) for the Mac--and Toast 8 Titanium is the way to get it and enjoy your favorite shows on the Mac, on DVD, and on-the-go."

http://www.tivo.com/mactivotogo/ [tivo.com]

So what.

At home I'm mostly a Mac guy. By bundling the new software only with a pay product when the Windows version is free is just insulting and bad business.

I just want to be able to copy some of our programs to a computer to watch. So I can watch my Sci-Fi when my wife or daughter are watching one of their programs, or so my daughter can watch one of her shows when the TV is otherwise busy.

We have no dvd burner in the computer and no desire to save these shows after viewing. Just want to have another screen to view them on.

And...

...still no love for DirecTiVos. And, I guess, never. From http://www.tivo.com/4.9.4.1-1.asp [tivo.com]
"The TiVoToGo feature is not currently available on Series3. This feature will not be available [emphasis mine] on the DIRECTV DVR with TiVo or the original TiVo boxes (TiVo Series1)."

All I want to do is download shows. I've got two hackable TiVos (and even a supported USB/network adapter) but I've never been able to get it to work, and with two jobs, a newborn, and no "spare" PCs anymore, it's difficult for me to try--my last attempt was over a year ago. Are there any reputable services/people that can hack my TiVo for me? I'm not trying to get around TiVo's fees, I just want to have it make shows available for download, and maybe a web-based frontend for recording/deleting shows and the ability to make its daily call over the network would be nice, too. Any suggestions?

$100 vs free

And note that while Windows users get it for free, Mac users only get it as part of a $100 application; one that you hardly need with all of the built-in CD and DVD burning services.

Roxio Discount

I'm pretty sure I'm in line with everyone else in that I don't really want to buy a $100 dollar piece of burning software just so I can download and view my tv shows on my mac.

But for those that are into that. If you go to Roxio's site to an invalid URL (Like this one [roxio.com]), you can get a 10% off coupon for their online store.

It's still TiVo - I won't go there

Unless TiVo change their policies about gathering information on what I watch, forcing downloads of advertising and other content that I don't want, etc., I don't want a TiVo.

I think I'll wait and see what Jobs & Co. have cooked up in the new "iTV" device. Anybody heard anything from the Macworld keynote yet?

Titanium

Titanium huh? What is it that makes this metal more valuable Silver, Gold, and Platinum editions of various products? For sure Aluminum was once as costly as gold, and now we make "Tin Cans" out of it.

eyeTV

Why would you use Tivo for this? If you want to digitally record TV and transfer video to other devices, why wouldn't you ditch the Tivo and get a mac mini and eyeTV?

"Tivo To Go" is aptly named

With my increasing frustration with TiVo's performance (recording shows I've already seen), not even an attempt at trying to do something about cut off shows, zero innovation in their series 2 product and apparently not that much more in series 3... "TiVo To Go" will be the headline of my next blog post. At this point, why continue paying $12.95 if I can get only slightly more inferior products for about half that from the cable company?

Yeah, right.

This has been on Wired's vaporware list for like 3 years now. I'll believe it when I see it installed on a computer and working.

Stick with TivoDecode/TivoDecode Manager

I am VERY happy with TivoDecode and TivoDecode Manager. The work David Benesch has been doing is awesome. It is VERY easy for a newbie to deal with. It also proves that if Tivo really gave a damn about Mac users, they could have put a very small amount of resources on it and come up with something. They really don't care and the efforts of people developing tivodecode and TivoDecode Manager for Tivo users is really awesome.

http://thebenesch.com/tdm/ [thebenesch.com]

Tivo is has been going down the same road other device companies have gone down where they support multiple platforms equally and later they create platform feature parity so the under-supported platform (Mac in most cases) is so bad that no one uses it and they have a reason to cancel it because of lack of interest. Here it seems rather than cancel, Roxio can use it as a lifeline to push their own product. Tivo is no longer about creating cool stuff for it's users, it really is more about bundling what hold it has left on its base with other companies (through ads recently and now this).

Tivodecode is slick and easy to deal with. Get tivo a good network connection since 30 minutes of show is right around 600 megs of data to transfer down. The great thing about the 'Manager' is the decode on the fly.

Now I just need MythTV for Windows!

Or at least a working frontend.

Then again, if I'm going to complain about the MythTV project, I'll start with MythMusic. Whoever designed the user interface to that plugin should be drawn and quartered. I am honestly planning to use it as a case study in how NOT to design an interface.

WARNING! TiVo transfers are BROKEN

Some time after Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November for us Yanks) I discovered that several of my transfers from my TiVO to my TiVOToGo PC fails after 1-5 Megabytes downloaded. Nothing works. The problem is in the TiVO software, not TiVOToGo. Therefore, the problem exists in the Macintosh version also. If you try using the TiVO web interface, the problem exists. The problem has lasted for over 6 weeks now, and TiVO seems to pretend that the problem is trivial or doesn't exist.

So if you Mac folks download this, be warned that you may have transfer problems, and that it is not necessarily a bug in the new Mac software.

Re:cool beans

Cant wait till tivo does this for linux, that way i can really take my mac book, with Debain linux and have (about 5 hours) of fun!

Re:... a bite of hope...

You're just not masochistic enough.

Re:In other news...another badly ported, late app.

>> Tell me again why the Mac is a better platform is the apps lag by years?

The main virtue of the Mac platform is that it pisses guys like you off.

Re:Roxio is the opposite of apple

Uhhh, what does Apple have to do with it? Roxio and TiVo are independent of Apple.