How To: Adding a Rule

Rules are used to determine which shows AutoPilot downloads and what actions are performed on each TiVo file after it is downloaded. This "How To" will show you how to add a television series as a rule and have AutoPilot automatically convert it into a iPod compatible format. It will then automatically load into iTunes, and if the iPod is connected to the computer, the iPod will download the file. While this is specific to the iPod, most other devices follow a similar pattern.

Step 1: Select "Setup Download Rules..."

If AutoPilot is running, there will be a small television icon located in the system tray (usually located on the right bottom corner of your screen). Click on the television icon and a menu will pop up. To organize and create new rules, select the "Setup Download Rules..." menu item.

AutoPilot will spend a few moments downloading the latest list of shows from your TiVo.

Step 2: Select "New Rule" Button

After downloading the list of shows from your TiVo, a dialog window will appear that lists all your current rules. From within this window, you can delete existing rules, and perhaps more importantly, you can create new rules. To create a new rule, select the "New" button.

Step 3: Editing the New Rule Dialog

When you select the "New" button, the "New Rule" dialog will appear.

First, select one of the shows from the list you wish to download. Next, type in a name that will help you remember what this rule does.

AutoPilot can record an individual show or an entire series. If you want to record a series, AutoPilot keeps track of what shows you've previously downloaded in the past and only downloads new ones as they appear on your TiVo. To download an entire series, select "All Episodes of this Show" in the "Select Recording Type" section.

AutoPilot can perform several actions on a downloaded TiVo show depending on your needs. Select "Custom..." in the "Select what to do after downloading" section.

When you are satisfied with your options, click on the OK button.

Step 4: Creating Custom Actions

If you selected "Custom..." in the "Select what to do after downloading" section, an "Edit Actions" dialog should appear. This dialog lets you setup actions to perform on the shows that get downloaded based on this rule.

The action list is split into four columns. Order specifies the order in which each action is performed. Action lets you pick what action to perform. Each action can potentially create a new version of the Tivo Show and the File column lets you decide which version of the show to perform the action on. Parameters lets you specify specific options for each action.

Step 5: Convert to iPod Action

Start by clicking on the "New Action" button. This should create a new entry in the action list. Next, click on the new entry's action and change it to "Convert to iPod". Finally, click on the entry's parameter field and select "Options...". This will bring up an informational alert.

Click on the Ok Button. A new dialog will appear entitled "Quality Settings".

Select the quality you wish to use. The better the quality, the more disk space will be used. You can also specify "Use h264 compression" which could give you a smaller file size, but the conversion we use is still in its infancy so it also could create more playback errors. The final setting, "Do Two Pass Compression" will give slightly better quality, but will take twice as long to perform. When you are satisfied with your settings, click the OK button.

The next dialog to appear will be entitled "Ad Removal" and uses the opensource engine, ComSkip which analyzes the video and tries to determine where the commercials are. While this technology is impressive, recognizing the commercials is not 100% accurate. Select "Remove Ads with ComSkip" if you want ComSkip to analyze and remove television advertising. Click on the OK button when you are satisfied with your choices.

The final dialog lets you optionally have the file load the converted file into iTunes. Select "Load into iTunes" and click the OK button if you want this to happen automatically.

Step 5: Delete the original TiVo file

After you finished setting the options for the iPod conversion, you'll be returned to the "Edit Actions" dialog. When a new show is downloaded, the "Convert to iPod" action will create a new iPod compatible file. However, the original TiVo file is still on your hard drive, so at this point, we'll delete the original file since it isn't needed at this point.

Click on the "New Action" button.A new action entry will be created. Select the action entry's action field and change it to "Delete Action" There are no parameters to select so we are done. Click the OK button to close the "Edit Actions" dialog.

Step 6: Repeat as needed

You can repeat steps 2 thru 5 to add as many rules as you like. When you are finished, select the OK button.

Step 7: Downloading

At this point, you can just let AutoPilot wait until its next regularly scheduled download, or if you prefer to download the shows right away, click the television icon and select "Download Shows Now" from the menu.