by Rick Broida

Click to viewSo Apple wants you to pony up $1.99 per episode of Heroes when you're already paying the cable company for it? Nuh-uh. Don't think so. Seems like you should be able to copy that show—or any other—from your media center PC or TiVo right to your iPod.


You can, and it's easier than you might think. (Easier, even, than copying DVDs.) In fact, TiVo users have it embarrassingly simple: The free TiVoToGo software for Windows and Mac will automatically fetch recorded shows and encode them for iPod. No fuss, no muss.


Owners of Windows Media Center PCs (by which I mean those running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 or Windows Vista Premium/Ultimate) have to jump through an extra hoop or two, but it's still a fairly easy operation. Well worth it, too, as TV just seems like a better fit for the iPod's diminutive screen than movies. Let's get copying.

Boob tube to go

The hitch in copying Media Center recordings to an iPod is the file format: DVR-MS. Although it's really just Microsoft's proprietary version of MPEG-2, many video-conversion programs choke on it. Fortunately, a few good ones can handle it.


If you're willing to throw a few bucks at this endeavor, I can think of no better solution than Roxio's MyTV ToGo. It works inside the Media Center interface (meaning you can operate it from the couch) and lets you select shows to convert with just a few presses of the remote. Even better, its ReadySync feature will automatically transcode selected shows right after they're recorded, so they're all queued up and ready for copying to your iPod.


MyTV ToGo also supports Pocket PCs, Sony PSPs and select smartphones, and it can even transcode TiVoToGo files. The program costs $29.99, not a bad price for this level of ease and automation.

Of course, here at Lifehacker we're all about the free, so allow me to steer you to a pair of products that cost $29.99 less than MyTV ToGo: DVRMSToolbox and iPodifier. The former does the heavy lifting, while the latter provides a fashionable, easy-to-use front end. (Better still, it supports not only Windows Media Center, but also Beyond TV, SageTV and TiVo. If you decide to use it with any of those three DVRs, you won't need DVRMSToolbox.)


For the record, my first inclination was to use Videora iPod Converter, which played a prominent role in my DVD-conversion feature, but that program has trouble keeping DVR-MS audio in sync with the video. Same goes for 3GP_Converter and Any Video Converter. (Like I said, lots of programs have trouble with the DVR-MS format.) Even the much-revered SUPER choked on DVR-MS files.


Freebies save the day

Nearly ready to pitch this feature altogether, I stumbled upon DVRMSToolbox and iPodifier, which together managed to get the job done. It's not a perfect solution (iPodifier doesn't let you pick and choose individual shows to convert, only a specified number of episodes of each recorded show), but it works.


I should note that this procedure requires a Windows Media Center Edition 2005 system. A Vista-compatible version of DVRMSToolbox is currently in development, but it's not freely available (unless you send the author a donation). Here's how to turn those pesky DVR-MS files into iPod-ready MPEG-4 files:

Install DVRMSToolbox. You may want to include the optional components, like ShowAnalyzer and Commercial Skip (which can automatically remove commercials from your recorded shows—neat!), but they're not necessary for our purposes. Install iPodifier. The first time you run it, a setup wizard will walk you through basic configuration options, like selecting an output folder for transcoded videos. From there you'll run through the video-source wizard. iPodifier lets you configure any number of sources, but for now we'll simply create one called "TV Shows."


Next, select the type of video for this source (TV shows, natch) and the DVR software you're using (Windows Media Center Edition). Now you need to tell iPodifier where to find recorded TV shows. On most systems this is c:\documents and settings\all users\documents\recorded tv , though it may reside in your Shared Documents folder. If you're not sure, run a search for DVR-MS files on your PC and see where the bulk of them reside. Complete the wizard's remaining few steps, all of which are self-explanatory. (One option is to let iPodifier queue converted videos in iTunes and copy them straight to your iPod, making for an extremely automated solution).


When the wizard is done, click the "iPod video management" bar and check the box marked "Enable iPod video management." You'll see a list of all the recorded shows iPodifier detected in the folder you chose during setup. By default, the program won't transcode anything. Double-click any show, then enable the "keep all" checkbox or choose a maximum number of shows for iPodifier to convert ("keep at most"). I recommend the "keep all" option, but configuring iPodifier not to automatically copy shows to your iPod. That way everything gets transcoded, but you still get to pick and choose what gets copied.


Repeat this step for all your shows. Click the "Transcoding queue" bar. You should see a list of queued shows in the center pane. (Click the thumbnail for a full-size look at the window.) Now click the "Enable transcoding" button and go brew a cup of tea. iPodifier will tap DVRMSToolbox for preprocessing, then transcode the shows to the chosen iPod format. In my experience, it takes about 15 minutes to transcode a 30-minute recording, 30 minutes for a one-hour show and so on. Fire up iTunes. Click File > Add Folder to Library and navigate to the newly created folder. You should see all your transcoded videos. Sync your iPod and you're ready for some on-the-go TV goodness!


Rick Broida, Lifehacker associate editor, struggles endlessly to find time for Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, and other kick-ass shows. His special feature, Alpha Geek, appears every Monday. Subscribe to the Alpha Geek feed to get new installments in your newsreader.