Best Method to Archive TiVo?

[rlschoemer]

Looking to phase out my Tivo's and would like to archive what I can off them. Understand have to playback / capture the protected shows, ugh.

But what is the best / normal way to save the downloadable stuff. Save in .TiVo format or use kttmg and convert to MPG?

Any suggestions appreciated, time to move on to the Silicondust HDHomeRuns, OTA & Cable.

[premiumcapture]

What are the TiVo models you have? Is the stuff mostly HD or SD? You have a couple of different options with TiVo.

[rlschoemer]

Have an XL4 and Series 3 Dual HD

50-50 between SD & HD

Mostly used kmttg so far with some encoding - also TivoDesktop just to download .tivo files.

Thanks for Response

[premiumcapture]

I believe with .tivo files you a few different options, which are to either reencode or remux, the difference being a loss of quality for potentially smaller size vs. simply keeping it mpeg-2 as it already is. I recommend the latter to retain quality, and most filesizes not being huge and hard drives being big you will be better off.

This thread should have some pertinent info for you:
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/2...s-onto-Blu-ray

[lordsmurf]

I've never been fond of TiVo, for this very reason -- it's a huge PITA to keep (archive) anything. In the MPEG-only days, the files were often non-standard for DVD. These days, I imagine it's still the same. But now, you also have non-standard H.2464/AVCHD transport streams. At least now we can all use WDTV, HTPCs, etc, to stream the kept files from a computer to the TV.

What you can do really depends on how you TiVo is recording the programs.