Settings to burn Tivo files to DVD?

[petern1674]

What encoding settings should I use to burn a TiVo file to a video DVD? I can't find any specific information in the help file or online support files about this.

 

I bought and installed Toast8 yesterday and burned a few Tivo files to DVD that I had previously downloaded via the web interface. The TiVo files played fine in the included Tivo player, and included all program information (cool!).

 

I found a support document on the Roxio website about burning Tivo files to DVD - and in one of the screenshots the encoding settings were at "automatic" and "best quality" - so that's what I used. However that took Toast8 several hours to make a DVD disc image of 2.5 hours of medium quality shows. I assume this is because Toast8 was reencoding the files - although when I mounted the disc image on my Mac I noticed video/audio sync issues.

 

Also - the video resolution didn't change after hours of reencoding by Toast8. Medium quality TiVo files are 352x480 resolution, which is apparently compatible with most DVD players. That's what my resulting DVD resolution was also - so Toast8 didn't rescale the video. I've read that other TiVo qualtity settings (especially High and Best) have resolutions that are apparently incompatible with most DVD players (like 480x480, I think?). Will Toast8 rescale TiVo files to DVD-compatible resolutions? Is there an option to set the resolution?

 

I assumed that Toast8 would have built-in presets for TiVo file encodings - but it really doesn't seem any different to Toast7 (which I still have installed on my machine).

 

 

PS: Where's the new TiVo style DVD menu that I've seen floating around the web? The menu styles seem the same as Toast7.

[tsantee]

I don't have Tivo so I can't be sure of this, but go to the custom encoder settings window. Choose Never next to Re-encode. Then burn your DVD. If Toast says it is multiplexing then it isn't re-encoding and the process will go quickly.

 

I have no information about the TiVo menu style for Toast 8.

[peedeebee]

Tsantee,

Choosing "Never" made an enormous difference. I tried to burn a two hour movie yesterday. After an hour, the re-encoding was about 20% complete, so I cancelled it. Today, the multiplexing took about 20 minutes total. Now it's actually worth doing!

Thanks a lot!

[petern1674]

Tsantee,

Choosing "Never" made an enormous difference. I tried to burn a two hour movie yesterday. After an hour, the re-encoding was about 20% complete, so I cancelled it. Today, the multiplexing took about 20 minutes total. Now it's actually worth doing!

Thanks a lot!

 

 

I found the same as well. Switching to "never encode", it went from five hours to under an hour to make a disc image of about 2.5 hours of medium quality TiVo shows. (this is on a 1GHz G4 eMac) Plus the disc image is smaller, so you can fit more on a DVD. Thanks for the advice (although I'm still wondering if higher quality TiVo files will properly play in a DVD player due to the resolution issue)

[tinach]

I found the same as well. Switching to "never encode", it went from five hours to under an hour to make a disc image of about 2.5 hours of medium quality TiVo shows. (this is on a 1GHz G4 eMac) Plus the disc image is smaller, so you can fit more on a DVD. Thanks for the advice (although I'm still wondering if higher quality TiVo files will properly play in a DVD player due to the resolution issue)

 

I tried "Never encode" and found that it would not play nicely on my Sony DVD player (an older model), but when I reencode the files, it plays perfectly. So, you might want to test it to make sure it works in your DVD player before you archive important movies.