Burning DVDs from TIVO should not be this hard…

Jun 16

Posted by

I love TIVO..its one of the great tech innovations of the past 10 years.  I’ve had my TIVO wirelessly networked to our home computer network for a long time now, but only recently have I tried to burn my downloaded TIVO shows to DVDs.  This should be an easy task.  It is not (at least until you get all of the buggy software to work together).

Over the past week I have worked with both of the two leading DVD burning software packages in their "latest" incarnations – Roxio Media Create 8 and Nero Ultra 7.   I am using TIVO Desktop 2.2 software to download the shows from the TIVO unit.

Neither Roxio or Nero worked with TIVO out of the box without patches, etc…and I was never able to get Roxio to work with TIVO at all without using other 3rd-party tools.

After I frustrating week and wasting the price of the Roxio software, I’ve gotten Nero to work and will stick with them.

Lessons learned:

1.  Roxio Media Create 8 and Nero Ultra 7 cannot reside on the same machine..they have serious conflicts
2.  I was never able to get Roxio Media Create 8 to work with TIVO files at all, even though the box says that it will work with TIVO
3.  After Nero is fully patched, it will work with TIVO even though it does not advertise this fact
4.  Roxio does not seem to work with TIVO even after it is fully patched, even though it advertises that it DOES work.  The message boards are full of comments along these lines, so I know that I am not alone in this issue.
5.  Working with TIVO files has its own set of problems that are different from working with other media formats.

So, I dumped Roxio (which was my first choice) and am sticking with Nero.  Both products are buggy and dog slow (on my new Athlon 64 with plenty of HD space), but Nero seems to be less buggy and slow.  How’s that for an endorsement?   Why is making DVD burning software so hard?

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About mattsanf

Matthew Sanfilippo is currently Executive Director of PSII (Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator) and the CenSCIR (Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure), Associate Director of ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Prior to CMU, Matthew was Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, a large engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed a technology consulting division for Baker including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality (VR), visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services. Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on Information Security, Supply Chain, Network and Mobility Solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies after investment. Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, a Boston-based engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up division that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics. Matt is current board member and past Chairman of the Board for the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania, a board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), and a former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also a former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.

Posted on June 16, 2006, in Web/Tech. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Comment.

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