How-To: Transfer MPEG-2 Videos from Your PC to a TiVo Series 2 DVR
By Alexander Grundner |
August 15th, 2005
(1)Comments
TiVo support has just posted a How-To article on transferring MPEG-2 videos from your Windows PC to a network connected TiVo Series 2 DVR running software version 7.2 (via noDRM). Nice… now all you need to do is convert some of your favorite DVDs to MPEG-2 files and you’ve got an instant video jukebox.
And just in case TiVo changes its mind about posting the How-To, below you’ll find the instructions.
If you have a Series2 DVR with software version 7.2 or later, you can transfer and view personal video files from your Windows PC to your DVR. Here’s what you need:
- Your Windows PC and Series2 DVR connected to your home network.
- TiVo Desktop 2.2 or later installed on Windows PCs from which you want to transfer video.
- Video files prepared in MPEG-2 conforming to the specs outlined below.
You can save your personal videos as MPEG-2 files (with a .mpg extension) on your PC with many DVD authoring/editing applications.
Save these files to the TiVo Recordings folder on your PC (generally at My Documents >> My TiVo Recordings).
On your DVR, you’ll see your PC listed at the bottom of the Now Playing screen. Select to browse the PC’s TiVo Recordings folder and choose the videos you want to transfer and view on your DVR.
How to prepare MPEG-2 video files for a TiVo DVR
- Use a standard personal editing tool such as Sonic MyDVD, Adobe Premiere, or Nero to prepare a final cut of your video
- Use the export/save as feature and choose MPEG-2 format. This is the standard format used by DVD players
- Find the MPEG-2 encoding options and set them to the following parameters to ensure proper transfer and playback on TiVo DVRs:
Resolution: 720 x 480, 704 x 480 (D1), 544 x 480 (3/4 D1), 480 x 480 (2/3 D1), and 352 x 480 (1/2 D1). The higher the resolution, the better the video quality and the larger the resulting file, which means longer transfer time and more disk usage on your PC and DVR.
Bit Rate: 1 – 8 Mbps. The higher the bit rate, the better the video quality and the larger the resulting file. 4 Mbps is recommended for high-quality video.
Frame Rate: 29.97 (standard NTSC). Do not try any different frame rates.
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 (recommended) or 16:9
Audio: MPEG-1 Layer 2 for TiVo DVRs without DVD; AC/3 (Dolby) for TiVo DVRs with DVD.
Filed in: Software
-
nstohlma