DVD to TIVO

In this post, I am going to merge two topics that I've already blogged about (DVD Ripping and Conversion from DVD to PS2 or iPod) and I will take it one step further. I got this idea, because my wife wanted me to cut back on the amount of video's I was backing up. (Of course I am talking about home DVD's, and family wedding stuff, and nothing illegal. What you do is your business). She didn't want to have to store CD cases upon CD cases full of copied DVD's. She wanted to be able to view it and move on with out wasting space or media.

I got an idea. Why not play the DVD's that I converted to PSP format using Handbrake on my TIVO? The answer is simple, unless you have a series 3 TIVO, you cannot play anything besides MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 (They have expanded their codecs in series 3). I needed something to convert my new AVI files to MPEG.

Enter Videora TIVO Converter. Videora will convert AVI files to MPEG format so you can play it on your TIVO. It is really quite simple, just select the AVI file, and set your output directory to your TIVO directory (You have to have the free Tivo desktop software installed already to share it out to your TIVO). On your TIVO, go to your now playing list, scroll all the way to your bottom and select your TIVO server (Most likely will be your desktop computer where you just converted your AVI to MPEG). Scroll down the list until you see your newly converted video, and voilla! You are watching your movie on your TIVO.

Let's recap quickly. You rip your DVD to AVI using Handbrake (If the DVD is encrypted, rip it first to an ISO image using RipIt4Me then use Handbrake), then take the new AVI and convert it to MPEG using Videora. Last, transfer it to your TIVO using the TIVO desktop software. Yes...It is that easy!