5 replies to this topic

[HiImaMac]

  
1.  I have a 1.83 GHz MacBook with 1MB RAM and a 60GB HD (40GB used)
2.  I have a Tivo Series 2 Tivo wirelessly connected to my home network.  I have a PC connected by CAT5 to the network and three computers connected wirelessly (2 PCs and my Mac).
3.  My CAT5-connected PC is able to transfer a 30-minute TV program (The Soup - 800 MB) in 30 minutes using the free Tivo to go program from the Tivo website.
4.  I have tried on three separate occasions to transfer a two-hour program ("24" - 3.2 GB) to the Mac using the Tivo transfer program in Toast 8 Titanium and have never been able to transfer more than 2.2 GB.
5.  The transfers have never terminated, they simply did not seem to progress much beyond the half-way point, which was achieved about 3.5 hours into the transfer process.
6.  I am now transferring today's Soup program and have downloaded about a quarter of the program in the first 45 minutes (225 MB out of 800MB).  The timer says that I have about 2 hours and 11 minutes to go, and it has increased it's estimate of the time to go as the transfer progresses (which has happened every time I have tried to transfer a program from the Tivo to the Mac using the Toast 8 Tivo transfer program.  I suspect there is something wrong with this algorithm).
7.  I have read several of the other posts in the Tivo to go for Mac forum, but none of the other posts seems to directly apply to my problem.  I don't think it is my network (though I can and will try connecting the Mac via CAT5).  1) Does anyone know why the transfer is so slow? and 2) Does anyone know why the longer programs seem to bog down half-way through?[color=#000099]

[HiImaMac]

Update:
1.  The Tivo transfer of the 30 minute "Soup" program (800MB) was accomplished in 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Remember that the PC connected to my network via CAT5 downloads a comparable program in about 30 minutes.
2.  I connected the MacBook via CAT5 to my network and began to download the 2 hour "24" program  (3.2GB) this morning.  Ater 2 hours and 30 minutes, about 300MB (or about a tenth of the total program content) had transferred to the Mac.  I will benchmark the time it takes the PC to transfer the program via CAT5 this evening.
3.  I am ready to form some initial conclusions:
[indent=1]

• Given my similar network conditions, the Mac using the Tivo to Go transfer software from Toast 8 Titanium is about five times slower than the PC.  I suspect that most will find this unacceptable.  
  
• While the problem could be hardware related, it appears that the software is causing the slow downloads (perhaps it encodes/decodes on the fly and bogs down).
  
• The Roxio folks have long experience in both the PC and Mac systems.  I have to believe they extensively benchmarked the Mac Tivo to Go software with as many computers and home networks as possible.  It will be interesting to read the transfer rate results of independent testers with access to multiple Macs and multiple network.  I am a good example of a Mac owner that jumped at buying the product without the benefit of published independent test data.
  
• I am frankly stunned with the seemingly slow performance of the product.  I hope to come back to this message forum with a complete retraction (if I can prove the problem is not related to the software), but I would recommend that potential eager Mac Tivo to Go buyers not buy this product for this purpose alone until Roxio is able to improve transfer performance.  The product is still a good performer for burning DVDs and CDs.

Edited by HiImaMac, 20 January 2007 - 10:09 AM.

[Mikeypow]

Mine takes forever. I'm glad to know it's not just me.

[HiImaMac]

I finally downloaded the first two-hour episode of "24".  It took the predicted twelve hours to transfer from my Tivo to my Mac.  There seems to be an exponential increase (as a function of program length) in time required to transfer.  Here are the times for my system:

• Two-hour episode of 24 - 12 hours (give or take a few minutes - I went to sleep before the predicted 2 AM finish time)
  
• One-hour episode of 24 - 5 hours
  
• 30-minute "Soup" program - 1 hour

The transferred programs play well on the Toast Video Player.  I have not burned the programs to DVD and tried playing them.  I need to download the second two-hour episode of 24 before I do that.

By the way, I was able to turn off the screen and computer sleep functions by using: System Preferences/Energy Saver and sellecting "Never" for the computer and screen sleep times.  You get a warning that this will eventually wear out the display, but it is only for the next twelve hours.  I won't want to transfer many two-hour programs.

I have yet to receive an answer on why the transfer times increase so dramatically for longer programs from any of the Roxio folks who monitor this community forum.

[ook]

I have a similar network set-up and am finding similar problems with transfer times...I am also glad that it's not just me.

[dhartlieb]

What was the recording quality setting on the TiVo?  My basic quality wireless g transfers take about half the run time of the program using TiVo Transfer.  I found it interesting that if someone is playing "Same Game" on the TiVo, it slows the transfer each time a button is pressed on the remote.