How to Transfer Shows from the TiVo Box to PC

TiVo offers a unique service called TiVoToGo, so you can transfer recorded shows from your TiVo box to your desktop or laptop PC. You then can watch your favorite TV shows wherever you go. It is pretty basic to transfer shows from your TiVo box to your PC.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• TiVo Series2 DVR
• Computer (for transferring) equipped with Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP, DirectX 9.0 or later, a 500MHz or faster Pentium processer, at least 256MB RAM, 25MB free disk space for TiVo Desktop installation and at least 5GB free disk space

1. Make sure your TiVo Series2 DVR is connected to your home network.

2. Install version 2.0 or higher of TiVo Desktop for Windows. Download TiVo Desktop from www.tivo.com/desktop. TiVoToGo transfers require you to download the lastest version of TiVo Desktop.

3. Make sure you have the latest version of TiVo software installed on your DVR.

4. Enable transfers in Manage My Account (MMA) if it is not automatically done. Next, be sure that Allow Transfers column is checked next to the DVRs from where you want to transfer programs.

5. Launch TiVo Desktop by double-clicking the TiVo Desktop icon on your desktop or the TiVo icon in your Windows taskbar.

6. Click Pick Recordings to Transfer.

7. Select the TiVo DVR from where you want to transfer a program to your PC. You might have to wait for a few seconds till the system processes your request.

8. Choose the programs you would like to transfer to your PC by clicking on the checkbox next to the title.

9. Click Start Transfer and the selected programs will begin transferring to your PC.

10. View the status of your transfers on the screen for details about the transfers, restart an interrupted transfer, or remove a transfer from the list by clicking Transfer Status.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to disable Parental Controls on your DVR, or you will not be able to transfer programs to a PC.
• You might need to adjust your home network settings to enable TiVo Desktop to read programs stored on your DVR. You will need to contact your home networking equipment manufacturer for specific instructions on changing settings to transfer shows from DVR to your PC. Usually, you will need to adjust your VPN software or if your system is operating behind a firewall, you will need to either adjust the settings or turn off the firewall.
• With PCs formatted with FAT32, programs larger than 4 GB will not transfer because FAT32 can't handle files that large. However, Windows 2000 and XP use the NTFS file system by default so this will rarely affect any TiVo customers.
• Transfer times vary, but may take at least as long as the program duration (for example, a two hour movie may take two or more hours to transfer to your PC from your DVR).