If you are intending to edit TiVo recordings in Avid MC, Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas, you may wish to read this post. It presents a workaround to transcode TiVo shows to editable files for use in Avid, Premiere and Vegas with optimum performance.
How can I edit TiVo files in Avid Media Composer?
“Is anyone here using Avid Media Composer to edit TiVo files? If so, how are you doing it? I’d like to be able to import several TiVo files into Avid and edit it. Anyone doing such a thing? What’s your workflow? Thanks for any replies.”
How to make Sony Vegas Pro 12 work with TiVo recordings?
“I have Sony Vegas Pro 12 on a Windows 7 (64 bit) machine. I also have TiVo Roamio, with their transfer software which will copy shows from the TiVo box onto my computer hard drive. I have recorded some movies which I want to edit in Vegas Pro. The issue is that Vegas Pro will not recognize TiVo recoridngs as import. So, the question becomes, how can I make Sony Vegas Pro recognize and handle filename .TiVo files? If anyone can tell me a solution, it would be much appreciated.”
From what we have read TiVo files use MPEG2 video compression, but MPEG2 codec is not the issue…We believe that the answer resides in the TiVo wrapper for the file. To be able to use TiVo file in NLEs like Avid, Premiere and Sony Vegas, you will need 3rd party TiVo converter. Here’s a quick guide on how to convert TiVo shows for editing in Avid, Premiere and Vegas smoothly.
[Guide] How to convert TiVo recordings for use in Avid, Premiere and Vegas?
Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter
Follow these steps:
Step 1: Transfer recorded TV shows from your TiVo box to your PC or Mac so you can use them in HD Video Converter to perform TiVo to other format conversion. There are programs like TiVo Desktop that can help you transfer TiVo shows to computer, a quick googling will get that for you. Or you can follow this instruction to transfer TiVo recordings to your PC.
Step2: Start up HD Video Converter as the best TiVo shows Converter. When its main interface appears, click ‘Add Video’ to load your TiVo files.
Step 3: Enter Media Access Key
If you are the first time using this program to transcode TiVo shows, a message will pop up asking ‘If you’d like to import *.tivo file(s), please enter the correct Media Access key and import the file(s) again.’ Click ‘OK’, and enter your Media Access Key as required.
Click ‘OK’ when you’ve entered your Media Access Key and go back to the main interface to click ‘Add Video’ again to import your TiVo shows to the program.
Step 4: Select output format for your NLE
1) To convert TiVo files for Avid: from the ‘Format’ bar, choose ‘Avid Media Composer’ > ‘Avid DNxHD (*.mov)’ as output format.
2) To transcode TiVo files for Premiere: if you are running Premiere on a Windows machine, you are recommended to choose ‘Avid Media Composer’ > ‘Avid DNxHD (*.mov)’ as output format.
If you are running Premiere on a Mac machine, you are recommended moving to ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue, and select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as target format.
3) To encode TiVo recordings for Sony Vegas: from the ‘Format’ bar, choose ‘MPEG-2 (*.mpg)’ as output format from ‘Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas’ column.
Step 5: Customize video and audio settings if necessary. You are allowed to do advanced settings on video bit rate, frame rate, resolution, audio sample rate, audio channels and more.
Step 6: Click ‘Convert’ button to start encoding TiVo files for using smoothly within Avid MC, Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas. Soon after the conversion is complete, you can hit ‘Open’ button to get the generated files for post production in your NLEs.
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