TiVo to DVD via Mac OSX

Matt Kingston is a TiVo hacker from way back (I use his scripts to show what's on my TiVo) and recently wrote in:

Not finding any recent info on the web, I put together a guide on how to transfer video from a Series 1 TiVo to the Mac and edit/burn it to DVD (or VCD/SVCD).

http://www.hitormiss.org/2005/03/07/tivo-to-dvd-via-mac-osx/

There aren't many tools or guides for working with TiVo files on a mac, and Matt's tracked down all the tools that work on OS X and you can even use iMovie and iDVD at the end to edit and burn.

Comments

[Steve C]

Now how about some enterprising young hacker coming up with a way to do the same with the Series 2 .tivo files (DRMed-To-The-Hilt-From-Our-Friends-At-Redmond) on a Mac as well?

[Aaron]

Check out the forums at http://www.dealdatabase.com they have a lot of guides on hacking and extracting video from a series 2 tivo or direct tivo. I myself am able to extract video from my S2 Directivo. It can be a lot of work but it is worth it.

[Joe Dunn]

I like your site. I read your article in Discover Magazine - Now I'm thinking of running ads on my site. Can you transfer TiVo to PC?

[WmLeeFrench]

I have a TiVo Series 2 and a Mac, OSX. As for complete Home Media functionality, I do not suffer well those longstanding promises that the TiVo organization has to offer. The Potos and Music part does work well enough but there is no reasonable explanation for the need to buy a Windoze PC just to get the full value of this product. Most of the workarounds seem to be for the Series 1 and so are of no real use to me. For my part those workarounds all seem to be a bit geeky and overly complicated, especially when I can download directly from my TiVo a .tivo file. A file converter seems to be more in order here. Since there is no such thing in sight I have opted for installing a Video Capture card with an S-Video and Stereo Audio inputs. I simply capture the entire program to Quick time with a variety of formats and manage things from there. For the best quality I use Component Video and edit the whole thing in Quicktime directly. By dropping the QT edit file into iMovie or iDVD the options expand from there. It seems to me that I have been put out by TiVo's neglectful behavior toward Mac users but it seems to me that Tivo is the Loser here after all I did spend my bucks on the capture card and I will not buy another Tivo again.