Convert TiVo Recordings to Mac H.264-compliant videos for iPad 3, iPod and Apple TV 3 playing

Summary:Here it shows some useful information on how to convert & transfer TiVo files to mac iTunes for Apple TV 3, new iPad 3, iPod streaming and playing with best HD video quality using a top TiVo Converter for Mac.

As the most advanced and innovative DVR (digital video recorder) ever built, the TiVo brings the best entertainment from cable and the web together in one place. That way we could record what we were already paying for and watch shows when I had the time to watch them. Yeah Tivo has a monthly fee but it's the principle of the thing! Besides, a new toy is cool and fun to play with. Our biggest problem with TiVo was working out how to get the shows from the TiVo box to our Apple TV 3, iPad 3, and iPods where we could watch them the way we wanted to.
 

 
As is well known, the standard application for moving recordings from the Tivo box to the Mac is Roxio Toast. It's what Tivo recommends and it's what Hollywood has blessed. The problem with Toast is that DRM Tivo attaches to all recorded shows doesn't allow any editing or transcoding of your recorded Tivo file. That's when I started looking around for another way. What I found that worked best was an application called Pavtube Video Converter, a top Mac TiVo Converter.
  
The program is a great little application that allows you to download your Tivo recordings to your Mac. And it packs perfect support for TiVo recordings as well as HD footages, Flash videos, General Video, QuickTime video(*.mov), etc. With the application, you can easily convert TiVo HD shows to Mac iTunes compatible formats without quality loss for smoothly streaming with Apple TV 3, iPad / iPad 2 / new iPad, iPhone 4S and other iOS devices.

Free Download the TiVo Converter for Mac

For Mac / For Windows

Convert/Transfer TiVo recordings to Mac iTunes for streaming to Apple TV 3, new iPad 3, iPod with original HD quality

Step 1: Launch the best TiVo Converter for Mac iTunes, Click on the "Option" button, switch to TiVo tab, and enter your Media Access Key. Click "OK" to confirm.
 

 
Step 2: Drag and drop the *.tivo files to the software.
 

 
Step 3: Click on the pull down menu of "Format" and then tap "Appele TV", the preset "Apple TV 3 1080P Dolby Digtal Pass-though(*.m4v)" is recommended to you. The profile is speically designed for Apple TV 3 with 1080p HD effect.
 

 
Some more helpful features of the app:

1. Settings- Click to set video resolution(1920×1080/1280×720/720×480), bitrate（from 2Mbps to 10Mbps）, frame rate for different needs. For example, you can set birate from the default "8Mbps" to "4Mbps" for new iPad 3. (Note:The file size is based more on bitrate than resolution. I find that bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible quality loss)

2. Editor (next to "Add" icon)- click to set deinterlace, denoise, mute, volume up, trim, crop, etc.

Step 4: Start the process by converting TiVo to Mac iTunes H.264-compliant MP4 for Apple TV 3, iPad and iPod.

Step 5: Import new .mp4 file into iTunes (drag .mp4 file to the iTunes icon on the dock)

PS: Transferring TiVo recordings to Mac is not that easy and straight-forward as to PC. The TiVo Desktop software for the Mac (supplied by TiVo) does not allow user to transfer TiVo recordings to Mac, here I take some help from the freeware TiVoDecode Manager which gives you some of the features for taking content from your TiVo, moves it over to your computer, and automatically adds it to iTunes. Although it does have support for conversion, the quality of the result videos is poor and converting speed is so slow yet the output for apple devices are terrible.

On Apple TV 3, I browsed the iTunes library for the movie and it played the converted TiVo shows smoothly. I found the quality to be excellent and see no difference when compared to playing the TiVo recordings themselves. Of course, the same result as on iPad 3 and iPod.

If you want to enjoy your HD Videos, Blu-ray movies , DVD discs and DVD (ISO) videos to your Apple TV 3, iPad and other Apple devices, you can also find the best solutions on Pavtube software, Now, you can get the biggest discount from Back to School special offer. Enjoy it!    

5 Tips to Get Your Movies Fit for Asus Transformer Prime Playback

My job requires international travel and I always watch movies on fight, with my 10.1-inch Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201. The Prime's big screen, quad-core processor and long battery life make it a perfect gadget for watching HD movies even Full-HD movies. Personally I think the device does a good job playing movies and gives sharp and vivid image. I was surprised by the fact that so many guys are having problems with movie playback when hanging around the forum and decided to share what I learnt with green hands. Hope this helps.

The 1st Tip: Better Put Asus Transformer Prime friendly videos to the device. The Prime plays various kinds of videos, but this does not mean it can play everything you throw at it. Let's see the Transformer Prime supported file types: 

Video: 3gp, mp4, wmv, mkv (Codec: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, XviD).
Audio: MP3, AAC, FLAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, MIDI

We don’t see VOB or MPG format here, which means the stock player does not play them.

The 2nd Tip: With a powerful third-party media player you can play more videos, e.g. the above mentioned vob and mpg videos. There are various android optimized universal video players. Recommended media players:

Rock Player (FEEWARE)
MoboPlayer (FEEWARE)
QQ Player (FEEWARE)

The 3rd Tip: Don't put copy-protected contents onto the Asus Prime Tablet. Movies purchased from online video stores (e.g. iTunes, Amazon) are restricted to specific computers and devices only. Unfortunately the Android devices have not get a license to play DRM contents which means Asus Transformer Prime is not granted to play DRM-protected videos. To have the device play these movie purchases, get yourself a DRM removal tool first (e.g.ChewTune).

The 4th Tip: Compress/convert your HD videos when necessary. By necessary I mean when the Asus Tablet pops up an error message saying unsupported file or plays video in slow motion.

Before long I owned Asus Transformer Prime, I noticed the Prime delivers smooth and clear 1080p video, but some 1080p contents still tend to run very slow on the device. Lower resolutions run pretty well. When it comes to some 1080p .mkv and avi videos, the playing speed slows down. I tried several other media players and finally realized it has to do with the hardware itself, seems like the device can not handle very high bitrate properly. After down-scale bitrate to 4mpbs the videos plays just fine.

The 5th and last Tip: The best settings for converting videos to Asus Transformer Prime depends. I’ve seen people asking for the “optimal settings” 3 or 4 times elsewhere, and am trying to answer this question. It is said that H.264 codec gives best quality at smallest file size, but I don’t see much difference between H.264 and MPEG-4. I tried to encoded an HD .mkv video to .mp4 with H.264 and MPEG-4 and find both play fine. DivX .avi videos look great too. I think the image quality is more related to video bitrate. When video bit rate is set higher, the converted video looks sharper. Here I put some test videos with settings for evaluation.

(click the links to play or download the sample videos )

These sample videos source a recent release Blu-ray “Thor”, I created them with a trial version of Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate (SHAREWARE), so there’s a watermark on the screen. Personally I think Sample 2 balance file size and video quality best. 

Money saving boundles:

ByteCopy($42) + Video Converter Ultimate($65) = Only $79.9, Save $27.1 
Video Converter Ultimate($65) + Vidpie($29) = Only $74.9, Save $19.1
Video Converter Ultimate($65) + DVD Creater($35) = Only $64.9, Save $35.1

DVD Movie Reviews: Opening This Week (August 18-24, 2014)

Below, our editors have selected top 5 interesting films debuting this week, listed in alphabetical order.

Top 1. A Haunted House 2 DVD

Release Date: August 18th, 2014
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Production Year: 2014

Movie Information: 

Crossing new lines and breaking old barriers, A HAUNTED HOUSE 2 is the sequel to the hilarious box-office hit starring Marlon Wayans as Malcolm who, after exorcising the demons of his ex, is starting fresh with his new girlfriend and her two children. After moving into their dream home, Malcolm is once again plagued by bizarre paranormal events. With spine-tingling tension and hilarious punch-lines A HAUNTED HOUSE 2 is inspired by the latest supernatural horror movie franchises and shows that this time... it's not just the house that's haunted!
  
Top 2. Toy Story of Terror DVD

Release Date: August 19th, 2014
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Production Year: 2014

Movie Information: 

“Toy Story of Terror!”is available today (August 19, 2014) on Blu-ray, DVD and DMA (Disney Movies Anywhere). First seen on network television last fall, the Blu-ray release is available at a perfect time. It will give you a number of opportunities to watch it leading up to Halloween, and because of the Bonus Features (more on them below), it should allow for a good amount of replay-ability for your entire family. 

Top 3. The Quiet Ones DVD

Release Date: August 19th, 2014
Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Production Year: 2014

  

Movie Information: 

From the producer who brought you The Woman In Black and Let Me In comes the unnerving tale of The Quiet Ones. Tucked away in an estate outside of London, Professor Coupland along with a team of university students conduct an "experiment" on Jane Harper, a young girl who harbors unspeakable secrets. What dark forces they uncover are more terrifying than any of them expected. Inspired by true events, the film stars Jared Harris (Mad Men and Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows), Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel), and is directed by John Pogue from a screenplay by Craig Rosenberg and Oren Moverman and John Pogue, and based on a screenplay by Tom de Ville. 

Top 4. Leprechaun: Origins DVD

Release Date: August 22nd, 2014
Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Production Year: 2014

Movie Information: 

Backpacking through the lush Irish countryside, two unsuspecting young couples discover a town's chilling secret. Ben (Dunbar), Sophie (Bennet), David (Fletcher) and Jeni (Roxburgh) quickly discover the idyllic land is not what it appears to be when the town's residents offer the hikers an old cabin at the edge of the woods. Soon, the friends will find that one of Ireland's most famous legends is a terrifying reality. 

Top 5. Jarhead 2: Field of Fire DVD

Release Date: August 19th, 2014
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Production Year: 2014

Movie Information: 
  
Battle-scarred and disillusioned by the war, Corporal Chris Merrimette is put in charge of a unit whose next mission is to resupply a remote outpost on the edge of Taliban-controlled territory. While driving through the hostile Helmand province, a Navy SEAL flags down their convoy and enlists the unit on an operation of international importance: they must help an Afghan woman famous for her defiance of the Taliban escape the country. Without tanks or air support, Merrimette and his team will need all the courage and firepower they can muster to fight their way across the war-torn country and shepherd the woman to safety. Intense and action-packed, Jarhead 2: Field of Fire stars Stephen Lang (Avatar), Esai Morales (Criminal Minds), Cole Hauser (Olympus Has Fallen), and Bokeem Woodbine (Riddick).

If you wanna buy this wonderful DVDs and worry about which DVD Ripper is the best and can convert Any DVDs on your collection, you can read this guide.  Also, if you are interested in some great 3D Blu-ray movies to add your collection, check out my listing of Best 3D Blu-ray realease for viewing here.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this great movies!

[Back to School Huge Discount] 20% OFF Pavtube Video Converter for Mac

Now it's almost time to back to school, have enjoyed a color and meaningful Summer break? Let's get ready and be excited for another great term! Meanwhile, after a long summer holiday, are you looking forwared to see everyone and prepare some cool gifts for your classmates or teachers?



Welcome to the Pavtube 2014 Back to School Promotion Center where Up to AMAZING 35% OFF Back to School Specials are waiting for you. You be surely be entertained at your free time.

The giveaway includes Blu-rays, DVDs and HD Videos related software which will give you great experience when enjoying these videos and movies on Android/Apple/Windows devices. Besides that, you will have no worry about any compatibility issues when editing the MTS/MOV/MXF files in Mac editors(FCP, FCE, iMovie, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere, etc.), and Windows editing programs (Sony Vegas, Premiere Pro, Movie Maker, etc.)!

Hurry to get- 20% OFF Video Converter for Mac now!

Best video converter and editor to handle SD and HD videos, Tivo and DVR recordings for free enjoyment and free importing to professional editing programs like FCP, FCE, iMovie, Avid Media Composer, etc.



TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLIED:

The deal is valid from 15th Aug to 15th Sep, 2014
 
More details are here:

http://www.multipelife.com/back-to-school-specials-2014

From: http://formatplayable.jimdo.com/2014/08/15/2014-back-to-school-huge-discount/

Directly Copy DVD via XBMC Media Center for playback on Mac Mini

“I have a 2011 mac mini the i5 one with separate graphics card, but upgraded RAM to 8, samsung BD rom, seagate 2TB external HD. I’m looking for an easy way to directly copy my DVD collections via XBMC Media Center for playback on Mac Mini for home media center. Is there any converter can help me do that "Directly Copy" loseless function?” This is a simple question asked frequently in yahoo answers. Now I'd like to say the answer is yes.  

When you are starting to build a collection of your favorite movies on DVD Disc, it’s wise to preserve those copies in pristine condition. With DVD directly copy software, you can do just that. Here, Pavtube Bytecopy for Mac is needed, It is a professional Blu-ray/DVD ripping program. Except Backing up Blu-ray/DVD movies on your PC/Mac hard drive, you can also use it to rip and convert Blu-ray/DVD movies to any format you want or any tablet, smartphone or HD media players with optimized video formats. 
   
To directly copy DVD via XBMC Media Center for playback on Mac Mini, we need to know more about XBMC at first: 

XBMC Media Center is a free cross-platform media player software and entertainment system application framework for Linux, Mac, and Windows. The program's interface is very simple and easy to use. Almost all of the video files are supported, even FLV and MKV can be played without any problems. It can also play the VOB files copied from a DVD. 
  
XBMC Supported formats:

Video formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4 SP and ASP, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, RealVideo, RMVB, Sorenson, WMV, Cinepak.

Audio formats: MIDI, AIFF, WAV/WAVE, AIFF, MP2, MP3, AAC, AACplus (AAC+), Vorbis, AC3, DTS, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Monkey's Audio (APE), RealAudio, SHN, WavPack, MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+, Shorten, Speex, WMA, IT, S3M, MOD (Amiga Module), XM, NSF (NES Sound Format), SPC (SNES), GYM (Genesis), SID (Commodore 64), Adlib, YM (Atari ST), ADPCM (Nintendo GameCube), and CD-DA.
  
Now let me show you how to backup DVD movie without quality lossless in 3 steps.
  
Step 1. Download this Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac Work on both with Mac OS X 10.9 and Mountain Lion 10.8 perfectly. Then, you can launch it. Load DVD and Click “Load file” icon on the top left to import the DVD disc.



   
Step 2. Choose “Directly Copy” to backup the main content. 

Under “Format” menu, there are many formats and devices for you to choose. If you just want to backup the main content of the DVD, go to find “Copy” option and choose “Directly Copy” that can meet your demands well. 
 


Tips: With Pavtube Bytecopy for Mac, you can get the container format with multiple audio tracks and subtitlesincluded. Besides retaining multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitles in an video files without transcoding and quality loss. A simple guide about DVD to lossless MKV. 
   
Step 3. Start ripping.

Click big “Convert” button to start conversion. It won’t take much time for conversion and then you will get the main content of the DVD. Once completed, hit “Open” button you will go to location of generated files. 

After you finished all the tasks, you can transfer the converted VOB files to XBMC Media Center for playback on Mac Mini. Have fun! 

If you’re also interested in How to Backup DVD to NAS for playback with XBMC on a Raspberry Pi on TV, you can read this Full Guide. What’s more? We will show you the best solutions about How to Rip your BD/DVD disc or Enable 2D/3D Blu-Ray for using on HPC (XBMC) and Android Tablet.

Encode Blu-ray to Lossless MKV via Synology 415play on WD TV 2

Since the advent of WD TV 2 Media player, it has taken the fancy of public. WD TV 2 provides an simple and fast way to play your digital formats on your HD TV. It bridges between your TV set and USB facilities. It support regular video, audio and subtitle formats. So, users can feel free to enjoy a wide variety of most popular videos both from your download files and your camcorder. 

Nevertheless, with such a multi-functional player, why there are still some complaints and hurdles received from users? It turned out to be that those users meet the video or audio problems. They complained that some rare video formats like Blu-Ray clips you stored on Synology 415play can not be supported by WD TV 2 Media player. They want to rip the blu-ray to mkv with quality lossless. Therefore, this article is intended to help solve the problem. 
  
In order to play your Blu-ray movies to Lossless MKV via Synology 415play on WD TV 2 Media Player, you need to rip these Blu-ray discs to Lossless MKV for WD TV 2 supported video formats. Here, you need a professional tool:Pavtube ByteCopy. This software is designed to backup music DVDs or other video sources to MKV with all information including chapter markers, audio tracks and subtitle streams included. You can backup your music DVDs to lossless MKV with chapter markers preserved and store them on Synology 415play. Now I will show you how to lossless backup your Blu-ray to via Synology 415play for playback on WD TV 2. Mac version is available here: Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac; well support Mac Mavericks! 

How to convert Blu-ray to lossless MKV via Synology 415play on WD TV 2 for playback. 

Software Download: Pavtube ByteCopy. (Windows 2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 8.1) 

Step 1. Run this best Blu-ray to lossless MKV converter and launch it. Click “Load Disc” to import movie titles from Blu-ray with BD drive.
  
Step 2. Choose MKV format as output, here “Format > Multi-track Video > Lossless/encoded Multi-track MKV (*.mkv)” is recomended for you. 
 

Step 3. Select audio codec for output. Click “Settings” button on the main interface; you are brought to Multi-task Settings. Here detailed parameters of multiple audio and subtitle tracks are listed and you can change any of them at will. In default system setting, every track is checked for lossless MKV output. If you want to remove one of them, just uncheck it from the list. 
   

   
Note: If you change audio parameters under “Encode” option, you will get a encoded multi-track MKV file, not lossless multi-track MKV. Recoding Blu-ray to MKV will take a little more time for conversion than lossless output. 
 

 
Step 4. Backup Blu-ray to lossless MKV to WD TV 2.

When everything is ready, you can click “Convert” button to start Blu-ray to MKV conversion. Once finished, go to “Open” the generated multitracks MKV. 

The running process will be finished in a few minutes. After that, you can drag the converted files to your Synology 415play and then connect it to your WD TV 2 Media Player for enjoying. 

Learn more about ByteCopy guides:
  
Rip Blu-ray to MKV with AC3 5.1/DTS 5.1 audio toWD TV 
How to play Blu-ray and DVD movie on WDTV

Enjoy DVD & ISO/IFO image files to Kindle Fire HDX

If you have a large DVD and ISO/IFO files collection, it should be such a cool thing to enjoy them on Kindle Fire HDX anytime and anywhere. But how to make it? What should we do to transfer DVD and ISO/IFO image files to Kindle Fire HDX for playback? After read this article, you will get the best answer. 

  

Perfect-color display, plus powerful quad-core processor for fast, fluid performance and immersive entertainment, the new Kindle Fire HDX is a really good device for us. However, just like other Android tablets, the new Amazon’s tablet doesn’t have a DVD-ROM for playing DVD movies and it also can not play the ISO/IFO files. So, no matter you use ImgBurn or Disk Utility to create DVD ISO/IFO image file, or download the ISO/IFO file from sites like BitTorrent to your computer, they all can not work. To get your favorite DVD and ISO/IFO files onto Kindle Fire HDX for amusement, you need to convert DVD and ISO/IFO files to Kindle supported video format first and then transfer the result videos to the Fire HDX. 
  
I usually use Pavtube DVDAid and would like to recommend it to all of you, a powerful and simple tool including DVD Ripper and ISO/IFO File Converter, which can rip latest DVD to Kindle Fire HDX friendly playback format in few steps. I’m surpised to find it is on sale with 30% off at Pavtube Summer Holiday special offer here is our customer’s experience. 

Tutorial: How to play DVD & IFO/ISO image files to Kindle Fire HDX

Step 1. Run this DVD Ripper; click “Load files” to import DVD, DVD IFO/ISO or DVD folder. ISO image files would be recognized by Pavtube DVDAid directly, so there’s no need to run virtual drive to mount them. 



Step 2. Click “Format” menu to find the “Android” option in the dropdown list, choose “Amazon Kindle Fire HD(*.mp4)” for output. It is the most compatible format, which is especially made for Kindle Fire HDX. 
  

    
Step 3. Customize video specs (Optional).
Click “Settings” to enter Profile Settings interface. Here you can free choose video size, bitrate, frame rate and other settings, all at your needs. Here 1280*720 video size and 1500~2000kps video bitrate are recommended on this Android tablet.
   


Step 4. Start Conversion.

Now hit the big red “Convert” to start converting DVD & ISO/IFO files to MP4 format for Kindle Fire HDX. After conversion, you can click “Open output folder” to quick locate the converted video then transfer the converted video files to your Kindle Fire HDX Tablet. 
   
Tips:
1. Select your preferred subtitles keeping with your output movies by clicking the Subtitles option. Or you choose to only show forced subtitles if you want. 


   
2. Before the conversion, you can click “Edit” button to edit your videos by cropping, trimming, adding watermarks, subtitles, etc. What’s more, you can choose the subtitles and audio track for the target video on the main interface. 

There, now you know how to get DVDs and ISO/IFO image files onto your Amazon Kindle Fire HDX for playback. you could get an amazing movie enjoyment on it wherever you go. 

If you want to Play MKV, AVI, VOB, Tivo, WMV, MPG, FLV, F4V on Kindle Fire HDX 7, you can read this Full Guide. If you have lots of Blu-ray movies and want to enjoy them on your Kindle Fire HDX with subtitles, you can read this Full Guide.