Could we categorize every tool? - right on and a challenge

[jemenake]

--- In ExtractStream@y..., "Mark Weaver" <mweaver@u...> wrote:
> The cookbooks that are out
> there only list a single way to accomplish the end game

Right.... and it's often hard to tell which ones are the "old way" 
and which ones are newer, easier ways. For example, some newer tools 
(TiVoApp, for instance) seem to incorporate several of the steps I 
outlined. It even contains (and, hence, supercedes) a few older tools 
like tyconvert, etc.

However, there's another aspect of this that I haven't addressed... 
and that's how traumatic you want the process to be. Some people are 
fine with pulling the hard drive from their TiVo on occasion and 
extracting a whole mess of stuff really fast and then putting the 
drive back in the TiVo. Some other cookbooks I've seen tell you to 
kill the "MyWorld" program that runs TiVo's GUI on the TV. In this 
case, you have to reboot your TiVo after you're done downloading your 
shows from it.

However, I'm not in a hurry so long as I don't have to babysit the 
extraction process. I'd like to queue up a few hours of shows for 
download and then run off to work. The transfer can take all damn day 
for all I care... but I want my TiVo to be able to operate normally 
through the whole process... including recording new shows.

So, here's what I ultimately think that we need. We need a little web 
page where people can indicate their preference of transfer-speed vs. 
the amount of effort required to "restore" their tivo to proper 
operation afterward. It would also ask them what platform (Linux or 
Windows) they'll be doing the "off-tivo" processing on. Lastly, it 
would ask them what format they want the files in: VCD, SVCD, AVI, 
mpeg, whatever. Then, the website could offer up the cookbook that 
will give them the best results for what they want.

Also, each cookbook could offer a few different options based upon 
ease of use, quality of results, monetary cost, speed, etc. For 
example, for a step where they convert from some generic mpeg format 
to a VCD format, the cookbook could say:

Best - Ulead Media Stuido ($199)
Better - Pinnacle Studio ($99)
Good - TMpgEnc (Free)

Does this sound like a good idea?

- Joe