Tivo Demo - DVD to MPEG2 to Tivo

To prepare DVD's for Tivo you will need to rip the content to hard drive and then convert it to MPEG2. But I'm going to let you in on a quick hack that will work for many DVDs... but don't tell Netflix. By changing the DVD output file extensions from .vob to .mpg you can bypass a true conversion. DVD Shrink is a free app that allows you grab the content off of DVD. When using it we want to increase our odds of success by simplifying the source material as much as possible - dumping subpicture info, extra language tracks, etc. and limiting output to one .vob file.

Converting DVD

1. Launch DVD Shrink

2. Set preferences for the first time
Click Edit > Preferences and then click the Output Files tab. Uncheck Split VOB files into 1GB chunks. Click the File I/O tab and uncheck Enable burning with Nero if selected. Click OK.

2. Locate your disc
Click the Open Disc button then browse to your DVD drive and click OK. It may take a minute or two to load up the movie.

3a. Reauthor your movie
Click the Re-author button, then double click Main Movie folder in right pane under the DVD Browser tab. Double click what appears to be the movie (in this case Title 1) to move it to the authoring pane on the left.

3b. Reauthor your movie
Click the Compression Settings tab in the right pane and uncheck everything you don't need or can't use such, as subpicture and alternate audio tracks. You can adjust your compression levels using the drop-down box and slider - smaller movies take up less hard drive space and transfer faster but their quality may suffer.

4. Rip your movie to hard drive
Click the Backup button. Adjust folder location and filename if you choose, uncheck Create subfolders if present, and then click OK to begin processing. Click OK to acknowledge conversion completion.

Transferring to Tivo

5. Prepare you video for Tivo
Once DVD Shrink processing has completed, locate your newly created .vob file. In this case VTS_01_1.VOB. Replace the .vob extension with .mpg. You can feel free to change the file name to something more relevant, if you hadn't earlier. FYI under_score_symbols are displayed as blank spaces on the Tivo. Now you can cut (not copy, trust me on this) and paste your mpeg file to the My Tivo Recordings directory.

6. Playback movie on Tivo
On your Tivo navigate to Tivo Central > Now Playing. Once there, select your networked computer and then select your new movie. Choose Watch on this TV and Transfer this video to begin copying video from your PC to your Tivo. You can let it copy in the background or watch the movie as it comes in. If watch it live, you may want to pause the video and wait a few minutes to build a sufficient buffer to view without pauses.