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Forum Discussion
Cannot transfer ReadyNAS content to TiVo
I've just bought a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 to use as a dedicated media server for a pair of TiVo units. This complements an existing ReadyNAS Duo I'm using for backup on non-video material. I'm having real difficulty getting its TiVo video content recognised and playable on my TiVo. I'm in Australia (TiVo Series 3 Model TCD663320).
Main symptom is that when I go to play a recording shown on the "now playing" list under the ReadyNAS, transfer begins but then terminates seconds later. Trying to play the fraction that did transfer results in a message "The TiVo device was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel. You may have been trying to record a channel that you don't receive". All of the relevant header info (title, recording date etc) shows up but on the TiVo but that's it. On the other hand, transferring a non-TiVo recording (regular mpeg video) works just fine.
Thinking that this may be a readyNAS Ultra 4 specific problem, I configured the ReadyNAS Duo and enabled ReadyDLNA on it and the same symptoms occur.
A bit more info.
- On the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 I enable ReadyDLNA, and specify the folder which contains the video. After checking the boxes "Automatically update database" and "Enable TiVo support" the two Tivo machines show up below. I activated them with the correct media access key.
- The ReadyNAS unit shows up in the now playing list of both machines just fine.
- Material (.tivo files) plays off the ReadyNAS on a PC just fine.
- Audio and pictures will play/are viewable on the TiVo just fine.
- ReadyNAS Ultra 4 unit came with firmware firmware rev. 4.2.17. I upgraded this to 4.2.19. In this case, when I enable TiVo support in the streaming services config of the ReadyNAS neither of the TiVo units subsequently appear in this config screen as they do with 4.2.17. So went back to 4.2.17.
- I've used the TiVo Desktop software to archive the material from the TiVo to the ReadyNAS. Not using The readyNAS to archive the TiVo videos.
- Configuring a PC with the same TiVo files as accessible on the TiVo's works just fine.
Has anybody gotten this to work properly, I presume so. Wondering if there is some incompatibility issue specific to Australian TiVo's.
Thanks, Bill.
Main symptom is that when I go to play a recording shown on the "now playing" list under the ReadyNAS, transfer begins but then terminates seconds later. Trying to play the fraction that did transfer results in a message "The TiVo device was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel. You may have been trying to record a channel that you don't receive". All of the relevant header info (title, recording date etc) shows up but on the TiVo but that's it. On the other hand, transferring a non-TiVo recording (regular mpeg video) works just fine.
Thinking that this may be a readyNAS Ultra 4 specific problem, I configured the ReadyNAS Duo and enabled ReadyDLNA on it and the same symptoms occur.
A bit more info.
- On the ReadyNAS Ultra 4 I enable ReadyDLNA, and specify the folder which contains the video. After checking the boxes "Automatically update database" and "Enable TiVo support" the two Tivo machines show up below. I activated them with the correct media access key.
- The ReadyNAS unit shows up in the now playing list of both machines just fine.
- Material (.tivo files) plays off the ReadyNAS on a PC just fine.
- Audio and pictures will play/are viewable on the TiVo just fine.
- ReadyNAS Ultra 4 unit came with firmware firmware rev. 4.2.17. I upgraded this to 4.2.19. In this case, when I enable TiVo support in the streaming services config of the ReadyNAS neither of the TiVo units subsequently appear in this config screen as they do with 4.2.17. So went back to 4.2.17.
- I've used the TiVo Desktop software to archive the material from the TiVo to the ReadyNAS. Not using The readyNAS to archive the TiVo videos.
- Configuring a PC with the same TiVo files as accessible on the TiVo's works just fine.
Has anybody gotten this to work properly, I presume so. Wondering if there is some incompatibility issue specific to Australian TiVo's.
Thanks, Bill.
8 Replies
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- Based on your post I'm a little confused as to what you are doing with my content.
In my case I've had trouble on occasion when archiving from TiVo to NAS. If for some reason the archiving is interrupted like a scheduled file system check, the TiVo will only create some small sized files for the episode being recorded on the nas. The next time it tries to archive it won't archive those videos it didn't finish on. Even if I delete those small files that don't work or show up on the listing through the TiVo, it will still not archive. I've also tried changing the keep until date to something besides keep until I delete and putting it back to keep until...
It seems like there is some hidden file on the TiVo or nas that tells the TiVo whether or not these movies were archived. Apparently it does not tell the TiVo and/or nas that it was not successfully transferred. It's a little frustrating because my TiVo starts filling up and I have to resort to deleting some episodes I really want but don't have time to watch in order for it to keep recording.
I don't know if somehow your issue is in any way related to this but it's what's been happening to me on occasion.
I have already scheduled my power on/off schedule and drive maintenance to not conflict with the times the nas is archiving the TiVo so that the archive isn't interrupted. - Your comment:"- I've used the TiVo Desktop software to archive the material from the TiVo to the ReadyNAS. Not using The readyNAS to archive the TiVo videos"
is a little confusing. Seems the same way both ways.
I have also tried starting and stopping the service on the Ultra 4 but to no avail. I have to either delete programs or watch programs when I don't really want to to keep up.
This doesn't happen often but I noticed it happened last night right at the time when the file consistency check started. Right at that point it just left the files in all the correct folders but they (the ones it had not transferred yet) were very small and unusable on the TiVo. They did not show up as archived shows on the NAS. - Thanks shallow_sport for the replies.
When I said that I've used the TiVo desktop software to archive the material to the NAS, I meant that I've been using the PC-based software available from TiVo to copy the video from the TiVo to the PC (in this case the NAS). In other words, not using the "Archive TiVo videos to:" configuration in the "Services/Streaming Services" page of the NAS frontview to transfer content. So I guess the NAS doesn't know the content is there until it does a scan (which I manually initiated).
As you have figured, it also seems to me that the NAS must maintain some kind of hidden content registration. So you got me thinking that there may be some issue if the NAS isn't used in the first place to archive content from the TiVo. I'll initiate some archiving this evening and see if it makes any difference.
By the way, unlike your situation the .tivo video files on the NAS are not smaller segments of the original TiVo content, they are on the NAS in their entirety since I can play them on the PC directly off the NAS. It's only trying to get them back to the TiVo that they don't get transferred in their entirety (in fact the transfer initiates but terminates almost immediately). - Ok. I see what you are doing.
I didn't know you could read those files on the PC.
Actually the correctly archived files are two per show. A small one and a large one that 2+ gb in size depending on whether it's a 30 min. Show or longer.
My PC is so old that it probably wouldnt play the files well but my quad core iMac would be up to the task, I don't know if they have the software for the Mac.
Come to think of it I think I used the PC software a really long time ago or something similar back on my old analog TiVo days. - Good luck on the iMac. The TiVo web site says that the in regard to the Home Networking Package (as it's called in Australia at least), "Mac users require additional third party software to take full advantage of it".
Some success here, thanks to your hints. When I use the TiVo archive to get the content from the TiVo to the NAS (rather than the TiVo desktop software) I'm able to transfer back to the TiVo and play! I see what you mean regarding the two files. It appears that the archiving facility on the NAS creates, in addition to the .tivo file, an additional .nfo file which is an XML file containing details of the item.
So I'll try creating a dummy .nfo file for some of the content uploaded using the TiVo desktop software and see if that then enables me to play back that content on the TiVo. - Good to see you had some success. This archiving of Tivo content is so awesome. Just yesterday I had another case of not completing my archiving. I was rewiring a subwoofer and snagged the Ethernet cable of the Tivo which dumb me had no clip to hold it in place (it had broken off and I forgot in crimp a new one) and interrupted my archiving. Needless to say I was not able to get the next two programs that still needed to be archived to archive after that. Good thing I have the TV, Tivo and some other equipment on a UPS, so small power outages that don't run the UPS out of battery will not affect my archiving. My NAS and networking gear is also on a UPS, so it keeps going for about 20 minutes in a complete power outage.
Good luck. shallow_sport wrote: In my case I've had trouble on occasion when archiving from TiVo to NAS. If for some reason the archiving is interrupted like a scheduled file system check, the TiVo will only create some small sized files for the episode being recorded on the nas. The next time it tries to archive it won't archive those videos it didn't finish on. Even if I delete those small files that don't work or show up on the listing through the TiVo, it will still not archive. I've also tried changing the keep until date to something besides keep until I delete and putting it back to keep until...
There are ways to force re-archival of shows from the TiVo in cases like these, by placing special files in the share. The process is described here.billaus wrote: I'm in Australia (TiVo Series 3 Model TCD663320). billaus wrote: - I've used the TiVo Desktop software to archive the material from the TiVo to the ReadyNAS. Not using The readyNAS to archive the TiVo videos.
I suspect it's this combination that is causing the problems. From what I gather, TiVo Desktop operates differently on Australian TiVos. Instead of pulling encrypted MPEG files encapsulated in a Program Stream (PS) container, it pulls it in a Transport Stream (TS) container. ReadyDLNA does not have any way of parsing metadata on encrypted TS files, so they are probably get presented to TiVo as PS files. The TiVo will probably then reject these files, because they appear to be invalid.
The ReadyNAS built-in TiVo archival function will pull the files in PS format, so those files should work fine.
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