Time to switch from tytool to TTG?

[wh232]

I've been running a DSR6000 happily for years now, and hacked it last year to add a 120GB drive, turbonet, tserver/tytools, tyshow and TWP. It all works (more or less), thanks to the efforts of the fine hackers here. However, the announcement of Tivo's new Tivo2Go is making me wonder if it's time to rethink things. I thought it might be good to get some opinions before making the jump...

I'm thinking about switching to a Humax recorder unit + stand-alone DirecTv receiver. I know that the Tivo dvd recorder units implement T2G yet, but that's fine for now since it can record dvds. Alternatively, maybe I should go with a T2G unit, and do the recording on my laptop (once Sonic comes out and/or you guys show me how to do it).

I wish the Humax would allow me to edit out commercials when making dvds, but the time and effort needed with tytools just isn't worth it to me. Plus I'm thinking that the improved usability of HMO over TWP for picking programs to record will be a big plus, especially for my wife. I am concerned that I won't be able to hack the Humax if a cool hack does come along (I probably won't be mucking with Prom reprogramming). I have the impression that I can still add a larger drive however (that's true, right?).

So bottom line... is it a mistake to trade in my hacked DSR6000? And if not, would a dvd recorder unit or a T2G unit be a better choice? Thanks for your input!

W

[hayreass]

I wish the Humax would allow me to edit out commercials when making dvds, but the time and effort needed with tytools just isn't worth it to me.
W
I'm having a hard time imagining a faster way to edit out commercials than TyTool.
With very little practice (very little), you can make all the FAE cuts on a half hour to one hour show in 1 to 3 minutes.
For giggles I just edited the last episode of 24 in just over 2 minutes.
I doubt it would be that fast to pull off on the Humax were it available, or the Sonic software if it allows it.

My personal opinion is that I really love the speed I get on my S1 over my S2, and probably won't give it up just for that reason. With the Cachecard, the menu's are dramatically faster, and I can download from it almost 2x as fast as the S2.

I think if you are planning on burning using T2G, you might as well stay with the Dtivo, since we already have wonderful software, and it's free!
On the other hand, 4.x software with folders, and HMO is pretty damn cool, so you may want to consider an S2
I don't think that I'd get too hyped about T2G when we can do everything already with DTV equipment.

[wh232]

hayreass - Thanks for your reply. I have been using tytool quite a bit to make copies of things, and think I've gotten fairly good at it. However, its usability leaves a _lot_ to be desired. I mean, I'd like to tell my wife "make your own dvds". :-)

I really want something as simple as "insert a disc, check off the files to burn, and come back in half an hour and I'm done". Just as a comparison, I've spent several hours tonight trying to get 3 shows onto a dvd with tytools -- time to copy them over, make the keys, edit the commercials, make the vobs, create the menus (extremely tedious), and finally... I'm sitting here looking at Nero with a disc image that's a few hundred bytes too big -- Nero refuses to burn it!

So I think I want a Humax... but I want to put in a bigger drive... and maybe someday I might want to pull a show down to my laptop to watch or edit them (if that's possible). I want to know whether a DRT800 is going to make me happy, or whether some other can of worms will take tytools place.

Thanks again for your response. It's interesting to hear that the S1 is so much faster than the S2 -- I didn't know that.

[captain_video]

I'm having a hard time imagining a faster way to edit out commercials than TyTool.
I'm guessing that's because you haven't tried VideoReDo yet. There are no key files to create and it's more accurate and makes cleaner cuts than TyTools. Speed isn't really a factor since you can easily miss the correct cut point if you rush things.

[hayreass]

I'm guessing that's because you haven't tried VideoReDo yet. There are no key files to create and it's more accurate and makes cleaner cuts than TyTools. Speed isn't really a factor since you can easily miss the correct cut point if you rush things.
True, I haven't. I'll check it out.
But I tend to do things in batches, I'll select a bunch of videos to download, and have TyTool automatically create the key file as it downloads. I come back later to edit, select all the shows to edit, and edit them. I never really rush, guess I just have my technique down. When I'm all done editing, I drag the slider bar back to the beginning, then click the very bottom > button, and it lets me see if I missed any commercials, since it fast forwards, and skips the cuts.
Once I have everything edited, I tell it to vob/mux all the files at once, move them to a diferent folder, and delete the extra files created.
Now I can make movies on my whim.

I'd like to tell my wife "make your own dvds".
I see where your coming from. It definitely not wife friendly. I used to use a set-top recorder for that myself. Just a stand alone recorder, but for the same reason.

I'm sitting here looking at Nero with a disc image that's a few hundred bytes too big You could try running it through DVD Shrink. I try and avoid that to keep from re-encoding, but every now and then, a fileset is just a couple of percent too big.

create the menus (extremely tedious)
Have you looked into one of the latest features in TyTools menu? It associates all the vobs with a menu item for you. Edit>Auto Assign Names
Really made the menu creation a lot simpler, especially if you are recording a bunch of short shows onto 1 DVD.

It's interesting to hear that the S1 is so much faster than the S2 -- I didn't know thatI'm not sure it is for everyone, but it is for me. I've tried a lot of stuff, and doubled the download speed of my S2 recently, but TyTool download speeds for me are right around 2 meg/sec on S2, and real near 4 meg/sec on the S1

Man, I would love to tell her "make your own DVD's"

[captain_video]

VideoReDo has a batch feature that allows you to make your cuts and then save the project in a queue for processing later so you can mux them all at once.

Making menus in TyTools really isn't all that difficult or tedious once you get the process down.

Sometimes I encounter an mpeg file, usually from a Dish PVR, that won't import properly into DVD-Lab after demuxing. I just do a VOB-mux and then process it in TyTools.

When I do use TyTools for making DVDs I like to mux them to an mpeg first, edit them with VideoReDo, and then VOB-mux the files so I can create IFOs in TyTools. The initial muxing process doesn't take much longer than creating a key file but the resulting edits are absolutely seamless with VideoReDo.

[hayreass]

I'll have to play around with it and see how I like it.
Sure sounds like you're a fan, that's good enough reason for me to try.

[wh232]

hayreass - Thanks for the pointer to DVD Shrink. It rocks! (...Amusing to see it's use of the AppleScript icon that my team at Apple did all those years ago. :) )

captain_video - Thanks for your comments and the info on VideoReDo -- I'll check that out too.

Anyone else out there have any thoughts on what I'd be giving up by switching to S2 + HMO/TTG? Thx,

[hayreass]

hayreass - Thanks for the pointer to DVD Shrink. It rocks! (...Amusing to see it's use of the AppleScript icon that my team at Apple did all those years ago. :) )

Your quite welcome, It's one of my favorite pieces of software.
I use it to backup all my commercial DVD's.
I generally hate all the special features, menu's, etc..
If you select re-author, and just chose title 1 in the main movie section, you can then select the compression taab, and unselect all the extra languages, etc.. and you end up with an autoplaying DVD with no menu, and the minimum of compression, all on 1 DVD. I love it.

[captain_video]

I've just started backing up commercial DVDs as well. I recently joined NetFlix because I bought a new 60" Hitachi HDTV and a Marantz DV-9500 universal disc player and my TyDVDs no longer cut it by comparison. I've been reluctant to try any of the compression programs for DVD because of the potential loss in quality which is what got me there in the first place. Most of the DVDs I've rented lately have been over 6GB for just the main movie so I've been splitting them to two DVD-RW discs using DVD Decryptor and DVD-Fab. If they were only slightly larger I'd consider using the compression program but for now I'll go with the two-disc split. If dual-layer rewriteable discs were available at a reasonable cost I'd go with them but that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I've found many of the menus on commercials DVDs somewhat annoying and not always easy to navigate. I've actually re-authored many of the DVDs to contain simple menus and just the main movie without all of the frills. If I wanted to keep the movied I'd buy it outright but for rental purposes I just want to watch the movie and not all the extras. I then erase the movie and reuse the disc for more rentals.

[shawn]

Try CloneDVD2 with Slysofts ANYDVD.
I have had great success with that setup.
2 disk movie is unacceptable to me. Long as it stays over 75% quality you will barely notice it isnt an original.

[rudiger]

Captain Video
You should take look a DVD Rebuilder to convert a commercial DVD to a regular 4.7 GB DVD. It is a little time comsuming but there is almost no lost in quality.

rudiger

[Fugg]

...
Anyone else out there have any thoughts on what I'd be giving up by switching to S2 + HMO/TTG? Thx,What are you giving up switching from a dtivo to a series 2 sa?
Speed, smaller mpeg2 files, higher quality, dual tuners and the joy of not having to deal with drm.

[captain_video]

rudiger,

Thanks for the tip. I read about DVD Rebuilder and the other programs mentioned in the previous posts a while back. I peruse the forums and download sections at Doom9.org from time to time to see what the latest apps and processes are. I plan on giving DVD Rebuilder a shot as soon as I get everything downloaded and set up.

[AlphaWolf]

FWIW, an initial test suggests that tivotogo works fine with directivo streams.

[Walter Mitty]

FWIW, an initial test suggests that tivotogo works fine with directivo streams.
Media Key was obtained how?

[AlphaWolf]

Media Key was obtained how?

How else?`

[Fugg]

How else?`Ouija board, of course!
;)

[bato]

When I do use TyTools for making DVDs I like to mux them to an mpeg first, edit them with VideoReDo, and then VOB-mux the files so I can create IFOs in TyTools.
If you only vob-mux the mpg from VideoReDo, you can output a TyTool vob-mux compatible mpg with latest VideoReDo beta, you will not get the .chp file that TyTool creates, but it doesn't matter if you didn't do cuts with TyTool or setting chapters prior to vob-mux.

Well that's the theory. The output from VideoReDo is used for other dvdauthor tools so my guess is that it will work with TyTool also.