Supplement/Replace Tivo?

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We've had a Series 2 Tivo for several years now and love the convenience. However, my wife recently got a iPod video and would like to watch some of the recordings on that.

I know I can (and I have) transfer the video to a PC and convert it to iPod format, but I can't do it on my Mac. So, I am looking at possible alternatives that would simplify the whole iPod process and possibly replace the Tivo when it eventually dies (and with all the new software "updates" that Tivo has been releasing that just seem to make the system slower and slower, I think that may happen sooner than later).

Any suggestions from people who have successfully augmented or replaced the Tivo in this way?

I've seen a lot of posts on EyeTV (with EyeTV hardware or 3rd party hardware) for recording - how about playback on the TV? Is there anything besides the Eyehome? Should I wait for Apple's soon to be released and renamed iTV?

Thanks!

[volcs0]

You will find a lot of evangelists for EyeHome/EyeTV here. It has worked very well for some, and I'm sure much information will follow this post.

We have a Tivo and a Replay. I use my Macbook Pro (under Parallels) to transfer and convert video from the Tivo all the time.

But for your purposes, maybe this would help:

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(...order.aspx

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[quote volcs0]
But for your purposes, maybe this would help:

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(...order.aspx
Not sure how that piece of hardware would help my situation. It seems to record onto a memory card, but then what do i do with the memory card?

I would like to have something functionally like a Tivo in that you schedule the recordings.

[ADent]

I have a S1 Tivo with a CacheCard. TiVoTool will download and put it into iTunes.

S1s don't get and SW ugprades and the CacheCard makes it the fastest Tivo.

S2 should work, but hacking those is a bit harder to quite a bit harder depending on which model you have.

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Actually one way is to get a standalone DVD recorder then put the DVDs in your Mac and use many of the DVD to iPod tools.

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[quote ADent]I have a S1 Tivo with a CacheCard. TiVoTool will download and put it into iTunes.

S1s don't get and SW ugprades and the CacheCard makes it the fastest Tivo.

S2 should work, but hacking those is a bit harder to quite a bit harder depending on which model you have.

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Actually one way is to get a standalone DVD recorder then put the DVDs in your Mac and use many of the DVD to iPod tools.
I don't really want to get into hacking the Tivo. It works fine as it is, just missing this video to iPod piece that is available to windows users, but not Mac users.

I also don't really want to start consuming a bunch of DVD's just to get shows to the iPod.

The whole thing would be unnecessary if Tivo had (or would) release a version of TivoToGo that supports Mac. Unfortunately, after almost 2 years, it is still windows only.

If I hadn't paid for the lifetime membership when I bought the Tivo, I probably would have moved on to something else already.

[Gareth]

I've read that using Galleon (a Java based interface to the TiVo) will allow for transferring shows to the Mac. However, in the few minutes I played with it, I couldn't get it working.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/galleon/

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[quote Gareth]I've read that using Galleon (a Java based interface to the TiVo) will allow for transferring shows to the Mac. However, in the few minutes I played with it, I couldn't get it working.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/galleon/
I've actually been using that to supplement my Tivo's disk space. You can offload shows and put them back later, but you can't do anything with the files on the Mac. They can only be de-DRM'ed on a Windows box.

Setting it up was really easy if you use the double-clickable replacements for the shell scripts.

[volcs0]

FWIW, De-DRM'ing the shows on Windows (I'm using XP under Parallels), takes about a minute.

ReplayTV's functionality is similar to Tivo. We have both and think Tivo is easier to use, but both are fine, and Replay has commercial advance. Also, if you use ReplayTV, you can use DVArchive to transfer shows to your mac, and there is no DRM.

[Mike Johnson]

Maybe it's time to get a new mac, one you can use as a Windows box from time to time.

Boxes like the Plextor PXTV402U work well but you would have to hook it up to your TiVo and press record and let it do its thing for 30 or 60 minutes. On the bright side, on my Powerbook it only takes up about 10% of the processor, so your mac is still usable while the plextor is working.

I wouldn't wait around for iTV because for all we know it won't support anything but videos purchased from the iTunes store. I think picking up a refurbed eyeHome for about $100 is a much smarter option. No HDTV playback, but that's not a major problem for most people.

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[quote Mike Johnson]Maybe it's time to get a new mac, one you can use as a Windows box from time to time.
Not quite ready for that. I am still waiting to see if they will release something between the iMac and MacPro. Maybe they will call it just a "Mac"?

[quote Mike Johnson]
Boxes like the Plextor PXTV402U work well but you would have to hook it up to your TiVo and press record and let it do its thing for 30 or 60 minutes. On the bright side, on my Powerbook it only takes up about 10% of the processor, so your mac is still usable while the plextor is working.

I wouldn't wait around for iTV because for all we know it won't support anything but videos purchased from the iTunes store. I think picking up a refurbed eyeHome for about $100 is a much smarter option. No HDTV playback, but that's not a major problem for most people.
I wouldn't be hooking the Tivo to this box, I'd use it stand alone and just record the shows directly to it (not to the Tivo first).