# My TiVo, My Mac, and My Tunes

- Link: https://www.timprobst.com/2007/07/29/my-tivo-my-mac-and-my-tunes/
- Published: 2007-07-29T12:22:57-05:00
- Author: Tim Probst

I have turned into quite the TiVo fan since we bought one about nine months ago.
 It seems that I’m not alone based on all of the blogs and discussion boards 
focusing on everything TiVo.

We had used DVRs from our cable companies in the past, but the TiVo is so much more
than just a DVR. When you hook your TiVo into our home network, it opens the door
to all sorts of Internet-based content and becomes a bridge to the photos and music
on your computer. The ability to listen to Internet radio is really nice especially
when the TiVo is connected to a home entertainment system. You can also subscribe
to audio podcasts if you’re into that type of thing. I have also taken advantage
of TiVo’s partnership with Amazon to download movies directly to the TiVo. The
movies look and sound great, and you don’t have to drive to the store or wait 
for a DVD to arrive in your mailbox.

My favorite feature of the TiVo is the ability to play the music that is stored 
on my Mac through the TiVo. This is very similar to the Apple TV although the TiVo
cannot play music bought through the iTunes Store. There is another downside to
all of this insanely cool functionality. The TiVo can only natively play files 
in MP3 format, and I have a mixed iTunes library of MP3 and AAC files.

This weekend, I finally decided to do some research to see if there was anything
I could do about this shortcoming. Surely, other people are in the same boat as
me. I am happy to report that there is an undocumented feature in the TiVo software
for the Mac that provides the ability to translate AAC files to MP3 files on the
fly. Apparently, the functionality has been there for a couple years, and I’m
kind of mad at myself for not reading about this earlier. The TiVo software has
code that calls a program called LAME. LAME is an open source MP3 encoder and is
freely available. All I had to do was install LAME, and the TiVo software recognized
it immediately. At last, all of my non-iTunes Store tracks could be seen and played
through the TiVo. I was so excited that I had music playing all day yesterday.

I am still annoyed that Apple and TiVo have not gotten together to allow iTunes 
Store tracks to play on the TiVo. It would just be considered another computer 
that would need to be authorized. Of course, now that Apple has the Apple TV, I
don’t really see them licensing other companies to basically do the same thing,
but it sure would be nice.