TiVo Desktop codecs and wierdness

[TerminalAddict]

Heres the story:
I have a movie that I *acquired*
I place it on my laptop (win7 ult x64) which runs tivo desktop, go to the tivo, click download etc, and the movie plays.

I have a fresh install of winXP (pro x86), which I installed tivo desktop on.
I copy the movie to the winXP box, go to the tivo, click download etc, and the movie plays .. with no sound

I suspect TiVo Desktop requires some codecs to re-encode as it sends the file to tivo, any ideas?

if all else fails, I guess I can reinstall my garage "server" with win7, but I'd really like to know what the real problem is here.

Halp

[catdog]

I guess a simple test is to see if you can play the file with windows media player 11. If it has no sound, then I'd say you're right about it being a codec issue.

I am using the "K-Lite Codec Pack" with the default settings, which seems to work ok. (I'm sure someone else can recommend a better/newer codec pack).

[TerminalAddict]

problem solved .. I hadn't open windows media player EVER, so hadn't been through the "activation" (genuine advantage) bollocks

all is well now

[TerminalAddict]

nope . .too soon .. I still have stuff that has no sound once it reaches the tivo

[TerminalAddict]

so I upgraded to win7 yesterday, and I have the same problem !! gah!

TiVoHD does not make an easy media player so far

[TerminalAddict]

progress ....

here's the scenario
I turn on win7 machine .. go to tivo, d/load something .. all is well.

I sit on my laptop, remote desktop to my win7 machine, disconnect, go to tivo d/load something, NO SOUND !!!

I go to win7 machine (physically) to discover the desktop is now locked (requires password to login), I login in, go to tivo, d/load something, all is well !!!

freaky.

the fix so far: disable remote login, turn off screen saver etc etc etc, so the win7 machine is always unlocked

I suspect that when windows locks, it also disables the sound card (power saving maybe?) and without a sound can tivo desktop can't transcode

Thoughts?

[CheshireCat]

I take it this is windows remote desktop? MIght be doing some freaky things like disabling sound for bandwidth efficiency - check your remote desktop settings are for preserving sound. The Tivo agent might run in userspace (IE not as a service) and so be susceptible to the desktop options.

For the record, I have used WinVNC for remote console to a Windows XP box and this did not mess up sound on any transferred videos.

I have successfully transferred both AVI and MKV video, although with MKV the subtitle stream is lost.

Also, I have noticed that if your PC has a wireless network card with power efficiency enabled (IE 'disable card on inactivity') then this can screw up the transfers entirely.

[TerminalAddict]

spot on .. I haven't done any further testing, but I have done some reading in the rdp protocol and how that may effect sound.

TiVo Desktop (software) DOES run in userspace, and presumably uses the sound card to transcode; when I RDP I redirect all sound functions to the machine I am rdesktoping in from, removing this function from the tivo machine (and therefore removing the sound card that tivo desktop software uses)

I have already installed a vncserver (coz the garage is sooo far away, and I must preserve my couch grown lard ars3 )
This weekend I will try locking the desktop (from the console) and see what is affected, if anything.

[catdog]

Have you tried changing the RDP settings as CheshireCat suggested?

Under
Remote Desktop Settings -> Local Resources -> Configure remote audio settings
change
Remote audio playback to "Play on remote computer"