Do I need to buy Toast to transfer video from my Tivo box?

[tivo newbie]

My system is set up properly and my Tivo icon appears in the System Preferences window. I can connect wirelessly to my airport home network from the Tivo box. I have the option of transferring iTunes and iPhoto from my computer to my Tivo box. However no video transfer option. Do I need to buy toast software to do this?

[cnsayre]

My system is set up properly and my Tivo icon appears in the System Preferences window. I can connect wirelessly to my airport home network from the Tivo box. I have the option of transferring iTunes and iPhoto from my computer to my Tivo box. However no video transfer option. Do I need to buy toast software to do this?

 

Yes and no.

 

You can transfer files to your mac by using a "secret" (it's not such a well kept secret though) FTP system built into Tivo.

 

Go to: https://your.tivo's.ip.address

 

Make sure you use the https, otherwise you'll just get a page saying, "yep. Your tivo is on the network..."

 

When prompted for a user ID and password, use tivo as the user ID and your MAK as the password.

 

You should then see a page with your tivo programs listed. You can download any of them to your Mac that you want.

 

However....

 

Playing them on your Mac is another issue entirely. They're protected MPG2's, so they have DRM in them. Those will only play on "approved" players. And I don't think there are any other than the one included in Toast's package.

 

So unless you have access to a PC (or Virtual PC), you can't do much with these protected files.

 

cnsayre