Mac2tivo Transfer Does Not Start!

[Bob Cadoret]

I just installed Toast 10 and I am experiencing a weird problem.Trying to use Mac2Tivo to transfer some of my movies from my hard disk to my Tivo HD.I started Mac2Tivo, share my movie folder. Back on my Tivo I can see my Mac's folder and all the movie that I'm sharing. But when I select a movie, Tivo tells me that the transfer will start "soon"... but nothing happen.

 

I let it run for hours and the status does not change, tivo tells me that the transfer will start soon...

 

Any idea of what is wrong?

 

Bob

 

 

[DWY]

FWIW I'm having the exact same problem. I have H.264 MP4 files (7 of them) in a single folder shared and on my TIVO HD the folder shows up, I select the movie, and get the message that another posted about "waiting for other transfers to complete".

 

Sometimes I was able to get other movies to start, but at indetermined times the transfer just stops and it disappears from the transfer list on the TIVO and then I'm back to the previous scenario. I suspect that this aborted transfer has something to do with the hung-up transfer process, but have no idea how to fix.

[DWY]

Yeaup, tried both reboots and such and still get to the same point of initiating the transfer and everything just seems to hang.

 

Have you tried rebooting both the Macintosh and the TiVo? On the TiVo, it can also help to pull the plug for 20-30 seconds rather than using the "Restart" option in the menu options on the box.

 

If that doesn't help, you might want to try what I did with my MRV stuck transfer situation (see the post above yours)

 

- Bob

 

[SonicScott]

Are there any MPEG2's in the folder? If so, can you remove them and see if the transfer starts.

[Alan Poindexter]

I just installed Toast 10 and I am experiencing a weird problem.Trying to use Mac2Tivo to transfer some of my movies from my hard disk to my Tivo HD.I started Mac2Tivo, share my movie folder. Back on my Tivo I can see my Mac's folder and all the movie that I'm sharing. But when I select a movie, Tivo tells me that the transfer will start "soon"... but nothing happen.

 

I let it run for hours and the status does not change, tivo tells me that the transfer will start soon...

 

Any idea of what is wrong?

 

Bob

 

Same problem here, Bob. Mac2Tivo was working fine a few weeks ago. Now when I want to transfer, I can see the folder at the bottom of the Now Playing List. I select a file to transfer - the blue light on the Tivo comes on - then it says "Will start transfer after previously requested transfers are complete". Problem is that there aren't any previously requested transfers. The To Do list is empty except for my transfer which is in a "wait" status. I can cancel it and it disappears from the To Do list, but the light still stays on. I've tried numerous Tivo restarts and computer reboots, but nothing seems to work.

 

Any ideas out there?

 

 

 

[bedelman]

Same problem here, Bob. Mac2Tivo was working fine a few weeks ago. Now when I want to transfer, I can see the folder at the bottom of the Now Playing List. I select a file to transfer - the blue light on the Tivo comes on - then it says "Will start transfer after previously requested transfers are complete". Problem is that there aren't any previously requested transfers. The To Do list is empty except for my transfer which is in a "wait" status. I can cancel it and it disappears from the To Do list, but the light still stays on. I've tried numerous Tivo restarts and computer reboots, but nothing seems to work.

 

Any ideas out there?

 

I don't know if this will help, but I had a similar issue two nights ago -- but it was only with TiVo to TiVo transfers. I had an apparently invisible "stuck" transfer as well -- and any transfer I attempted would tell me that it would begin when the other transfers completed, but there were no others showing. I waited over a day hoping it would clear, but the situation continued.

 

Last night, I went into the Network settings for the TiVo and changed the settings from a static IP address over to an automatically assigned (DHCP) one. Of course, I made a note of the static IP address I was using before I changed it. My thinking is that this would force the networking stack in the TiVo to reload. It didn't help, so I rebooted the TiVo. After it came back up, the situation hadn't changed. I then changed the network setting back over to the static IP address and I went into my Now Playing List to see if anything started moving and it didn't look like it.

 

However, when I scrolled down, I saw that a transfer that I had queued up two days ago was now running (blue dot)! This transfer was not showing on the To Do List before either. Ever since then I've been OK

 

You may not be using a Static IP address as I was, but flipping from an automatically assigned one over to a Static IP address and then back should have the same effect.

 

- Bob

 

[DWY]

I've finally figured it out, but it's quirky as hell:

 

1) Start Mac2TIVO application

2) Make sure to have ONLY converted H.264 MP4 videos in folder. If you have a mix of video formats, regardless of the codec, hangs every time. I could only get it stable if everything was pre-converted to H.264 MP4 files only.

3) If you have more than 25 files, the app hangs (at least on my system). I played around with this and 25 works, 26 doesn't. Very strange. This is a "per folder" limit apparently. You can have multiple folders though...

4) On TIVO, start transfer. You can only do 1 at a time and queue 1 at a time. If you try anything more than 1, app hangs.

 

It also seems to me that some sort of TIVO conversion happens during the transfer because the process is a lot slower vs converting to TIVO format, then transferring. For example, using VisualHub to convert to TIVO format (~1 hour) then transfer file takes about 5 mintues. However, same file as MP4 takes little over an hour to transfer to TIVO.

 

Not sure if this helps any, but I had some time to experiment this weekend and like I said, it's quirky as hell but I finally got it to work. This entire process should be a no-brainer and right now it's a lot of work just to get it stable.

 

At this point, it's easier to switch to my xBox360 using Connect360 and stream direct to TV (no copy or conversion necessary).

 

OK -- did you try flipping the IP address setting as I indicated further up this thread? (with a few reboots in there as well)

 

[stoli212]

I've finally figured it out, but it's quirky as hell:

 

1) Start Mac2TIVO application

2) Make sure to have ONLY converted H.264 MP4 videos in folder. If you have a mix of video formats, regardless of the codec, hangs every time. I could only get it stable if everything was pre-converted to H.264 MP4 files only.

3) If you have more than 25 files, the app hangs (at least on my system). I played around with this and 25 works, 26 doesn't. Very strange. This is a "per folder" limit apparently. You can have multiple folders though...

4) On TIVO, start transfer. You can only do 1 at a time and queue 1 at a time. If you try anything more than 1, app hangs.

 

It also seems to me that some sort of TIVO conversion happens during the transfer because the process is a lot slower vs converting to TIVO format, then transferring. For example, using VisualHub to convert to TIVO format (~1 hour) then transfer file takes about 5 mintues. However, same file as MP4 takes little over an hour to transfer to TIVO.

 

Not sure if this helps any, but I had some time to experiment this weekend and like I said, it's quirky as hell but I finally got it to work. This entire process should be a no-brainer and right now it's a lot of work just to get it stable.

 

At this point, it's easier to switch to my xBox360 using Connect360 and stream direct to TV (no copy or conversion necessary).

 

So I'm having the same problem and this didn't work for me, but I think the problem is that the Tivo still thinks that something is being transferred (the blue light has been on for 4 days now but I've deleted all pending transfers from the To Do List). How did you manage to get the Tivo to "flush" the phantom stuck transfer? Thanks in advance for any help!

[bedelman]

FWIW I'm having the exact same problem. I have H.264 MP4 files (7 of them) in a single folder shared and on my TIVO HD the folder shows up, I select the movie, and get the message that another posted about "waiting for other transfers to complete".

 

Sometimes I was able to get other movies to start, but at indetermined times the transfer just stops and it disappears from the transfer list on the TIVO and then I'm back to the previous scenario. I suspect that this aborted transfer has something to do with the hung-up transfer process, but have no idea how to fix.

 

Have you tried rebooting both the Macintosh and the TiVo? On the TiVo, it can also help to pull the plug for 20-30 seconds rather than using the "Restart" option in the menu options on the box.

 

If that doesn't help, you might want to try what I did with my MRV stuck transfer situation (see the post above yours)

 

- Bob

[bedelman]

Yeaup, tried both reboots and such and still get to the same point of initiating the transfer and everything just seems to hang.

 

OK -- did you try flipping the IP address setting as I indicated further up this thread? (with a few reboots in there as well)

[Boyo]

i'm running 10.3 with updated mac2tivo and I am seeing more and more my video files that used to work fine now cause the tivo to say your transfer will start after the previous transfer completes (which there wasn't) the blue light on the S3 comes on and only a hard reboot turns it off. WTF is going on?

 

System Snow leopard 10.6.1

Tivo S3

 

Video files are various and all worked prior to upgrading to snow leopard.

 

I've tried resetting the Network setting from DHCP to Static and back

Removed all video files except 1 (which transferred with no issues prior to 10.6) from the shared folder

 

It's just not working anymore.

 

update: I setup mac2tivo on my other mac running 10.5.8 with the same video files and they transfer fine.

Something in 10.6.1 is causing my S3 to report previous transfer and putting it in limbo. So frustrating, but at least now I have a work around until this issue is resolved.

 

2nd Update: I did a complete uninstall and reinstall then redid the 10.3 update and now it's working on my 10.6.1 Mac. I have no idea where or what was causing the issue but so far it looks like I'm back in business.