WholeHome

So, you have a TiVo, you recorded a really great episode of CSI and you want to share it with your best friend. If it is not clear, TiVo absolutely does not allow that, and while the networks also frown on it, you really really want to do it. Keep in mind that before the days of Comcast DVRs and TiVos there was a nifty startup called ReplayTV that allowed just this sort of thing – sharing between boxes and even [carefully] over the internet. TiVo, however, is careful to encode/encrypt everything and make it nearly impossible to access anything beyond the confines of their own walled garden.

There is a Chinese company, Moyea, that has released a new version of their video transcoder software that at least offers some hope in this area. I’ve purchased previous versions of their software – specifically to convert my video camera files to flash (Check out my flash creation – I sneak out from behind an active BOCS demo on the virtual BOCS page). Their software is extremely easy to use and worked exactly as advertised.

But, there are a few issues: Getting video off of a TiVo is a real pain in the first place. For some reason, downloading video from a TiVo (Series 2 and beyond only) is about the most frustrating thing a human can do. It is basically only a real time transfer – meaning a one hour show takes an hour or longer to get it off the TiVo. They have posed plenty of excuses, but personally I think they did it on purpose – perhaps even at the request of the ever-evil MPAA. So once you get it off of a TiVo, run it through the Moyea conversion software (assume again at least real time kind of time to convert unless you have a screaming computer) and then the time to upload… Yes, you can share your stuff with a friend, but something like three hours of effort to share a 1 hour show? It better be a friend-with-benefits. All kidding aside, this is at least a good step in the right direction…

DF