Paying the Price for Digital Pirates

Updated February 20, 2006, 9:14 p.m.

As is often the case, policies meant to curb unlawful digital copying activity affect more than would-be criminals. Several days after first capturing video via TiVo, I am still working to get the first usable clip for research.

I can watch the video on my laptop with no problems; however, getting a portion of that video for use during an experiment is proving more challenging. TiVo outputs the file as a .TiVo file, even though it is just your ordinary MPEG-2 file.

This is just enough to prevent my standard software from getting its hands on of the content. Understandably, TiVo wants to protect itself from being sued under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. However, I have no interest in illegal use of this content. I just want 30 measly seconds to test participants' responses. Alas, no.

So until someone comes up with a way around the .tivo "wrapper," I have to use horrible MyDVD software to burn the TiVo content to a DVD, then rip the content from that DVD. How is that for circuitous?

Update: I finally successfully burned a DVD using MyDVD Ver. 8 tonight. I am now the proud digital owner of National Geographic's Most Extreme Moments.