TiVo Network Remotes for iPhone, Ubuntu

Thanks to last Fall's update to the TiVo OS, there was an undocumented way to telnet commands to your TiVo that Dave Zatz describes in this post. It was a bit of a hack and not much more than a proof of concept but it looks like a few enterprising developers have created TiVo remote control apps for linux and the iPhone.

While nothing compares to a real TiVo remote in terms of functionality and ease-of-use, having an iPhone backup might be nice in the off chance you lose your remote or it's in need of repair. Cooler still is the idea of automation applications that could take advantage of of the telnet port and do away with the buggy IR blasters. I could imagine a future version of the Slingbox that could issue command over the network and confirm with a TiVo OS directly that the action took place, rather than set up an IR blaster and hope it changed the channel correctly.

Seeing people build whole apps based on discovered hacky interfaces reminds me that there is still indeed a healthy hacker culture around TiVo boxes and that if TiVo wanted to make some bold moves and document this kind of thing and any other APIs developers could use to control/tweak their TiVo devices, we'd see a nice array of innovative applications and products spring up to further enhance the TiVo experience.

May 12, 2008 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wii and PS3 Media Centers

If you've got a Nintendo Wii, Wii Media Center X looks like a new way to stream various media to your console and onto your TV.

It's by Red Kawa, the same people that make popular iPod/PSP video converter Videora and they've also got a PS3 Media Center app to boot.

June 13, 2007 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (2)

How To Run TivoToGo 2.4 on Windows Vista

Reader Shane wrote in with detailed instructions on how to get the newest TiVo Desktop running in Windows Vista (which is unsupported at this time):

As you know, 2.4 came out the other day without *official* support of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 (both of which I had 2.3a installed). Well, using Orca and a simple tweak of a setting in the TivoToGo 2.4 .MSI installer, I've got it running on Vista.

Here's how I went about it on Vista

Download and install Orca - http://www.pek.com/projects/msi/orca.zip

Download TivoToGo 2.4 - http://www.tivo.com/4.9.4.1-2_win.asp

Run the TivoToGo installer with administrator privileges

When the installer gets to the point where it says it can't continue due to an invalid operating system, DO NOT click ok.

Point Windows explorer at C:\Users\<YOURUSERID>\AppData\Local\Temp

Sort the view by date so that the latest files appear at the top

Find the file with a .MSI extension with a random name consisting of alphanumerics with the time and date near when you launched the installer.

Right click on the file, copy.

Paste to your Desktop and rename to TivoToGo24.msi

Click OK on the Tivo installer.

Launch Orca.

Open TivoToGo24.msi with Orca.

Left click to select the LaunchCondition row in the left window pane.

Remove all entries from the right window pane.

Save the file, exit Orca.

Launch TivoToGo24.msi, install and enjoy.

May 13, 2007 in Hacks, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (51)

Slingbox + exercise = no more couch potato

A few months back, I got an elliptical trainer in order to get some exercise indoors during the cold winters. I found myself barely using it (it's quite boring) until a friend mentioned that he could balance a laptop on the top of his and surf the web. Once I heard that, I knew what I should try on my own elliptical trainer. I could kill two birds with one stone, getting 30-40 minute workouts while also catching up on the previous night's programs on my TiVo.

It's pretty easy to do. As you can see by the picture, I've got an elliptical trainer, a laptop perched on the vertical grips, and I'm running a full-screen slingplayer that's talking to my TiVo downstairs. It helps to enable the 30 second skip, so jumping through commercials only requires 5 or 6 clicks to jump back to the program.

I never seem to have time for late night comedy programs and I don't like taking time out of my workday to sit on the couch watching them, but with this setup, I can get through the previous night's Daily Show and Colbert Report shows in about 35-40 minutes together. It's the best of both worlds: I get my exercise out of the way (sweating) and I get to watch TV (laughing) doing it. When I'm finished, I'm amused and slightly exhausted, but it feels great for the rest of the day.

April 11, 2007 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (9)

Slingbox recording on a mac

Last night I had a dilemma: a friend in Germany missed a segment of the Oscars featuring a friend of ours (long story) winning an award. I had it on my Series 3 TiVo, but there was no way to get it off, thanks to TiVo not allowing show downloads.

That's when I remembered my Slingbox.  In researching how to record a slingbox stream, I could only find this old product for the PC, but it only worked with the original Slingbox with the old firmware. Turns out the Slingmedia folks started encrypting the streams so people couldn't dump the video to their computers.

I knew there had to be a way though, given that the video was playing on my computer and a computer is a pretty flexible tool. And that's when it hit me: why not try a simple screen capture utility? On my mac, the excellent (but horribly named) Snapz Pro X offers motion capture of anything on your desktop, along with the audio. I launched my slingplayer, started a high bitrate Snapz Pro X capture, saved that to my drive (700Mb file!), converted to compressed quicktime (10Mb file), then uploaded to youtube.

Here's the result, which I sent to my friend in Germany, and he got to see the less than 2 minutes of the Oscar show that really mattered to him. This method isn't useful for long captures, since the filesize of the video capture get really big really fast, but for grabbing a minute or two here to demonstrate a point or share a moment, it works great.

February 26, 2007 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (3)

Flickr on XBox MC

Jon at jonsthoughtsoneverything.com has a number of interesting plugins to allow Flickr on XBOX Media Center and Tivo Media Center as well. If anyone can get these to work, please post your impressions here or at Jon's site.

To me, it's clear that the companies building "media center" platforms need to enable their users to tie in data (in the case of flickr, it's photos) from other platforms that have open APIs in a simple and easy manner.  This is a great way to extend the platform of whatever "media center" you might purchase and would be a clear differentiator.

Jon’s Thoughts On Everything � Tivo Xbox Media Center Plugin Updated
Jon’s Thoughts On Everything � Introducing Flickr For Your Xbox Media Center
Jon’s Thoughts On Everything � Flickr Plugin Updated

August 7, 2005 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

TivoTool released for OS X

TivoTool is a pretty cool new app for managing your TiVo video on the network through a nice OS X GUI application. There aren't a lot of TiVo tools for macs so this is a nice new development.

It's not for the faint of heart -- it does require some fairly sophisticated hacks to be running on your TiVo in order to download and stream video unencrypted, but if you've gone that far with your TiVo, this app gives you a nice TiVoToGo-like interface on a mac (there is also a command-line version that works with both mac and linux).

Check out the screenshots of it in action. The integration with iTunes is very impressive stuff and being able to transcode video or send it to iMovie is an added plus. Hopefully when TiVo releases an official TTG mac client, their app approaches the usefulness of this package, allowing users to save and view video directly in iTunes (and transfer video to future video ipods).

July 28, 2005 in Hacks, News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack

TiVo Now Playing dashboard widget for OS X Tiger

The new version of OS X from Apple includes Dashboard, a sort of API using simple web scripting to build widgets you can manipulate on your desktop. There are hundreds of them available already to do all sorts of things, but one noteworthy new dashboard widget is the TiVo Now Playing widget.

It works with standalone TiVos with the 7.1 OS and TiVo Desktop, showing you what's available on your TiVo in real-time. It also looks pretty cool.

May 5, 2005 in Hacks, News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Google Maps on TiVo

Google Maps was released a few months ago and quickly took the online world by storm due to the ingenious way you can drag around inside the maps.

Recently, they added satellite map views which don't really help you get where you want to go as much as look really cool when you zoom around your own neighborhood.

But cooler than all that is a HME hack that puts Google Maps on your TiVo, complete with dragging, zooming, and both satellite and normal map views, just like in a web browser. Also worth noting is that it was created by none other than the founder and CTO of Strangeberry (currently TiVo's lead engineer for TiVoToGo, HME, and other new TiVo technologies whoa! He just left TiVo).

April 21, 2005 in Hacks, News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack

PSP Home Control 1.0

liquidice recent wrote in describing a pretty crazy PSP hack, reportedly using it as a wireless controller for his entire entertainment system, including his TiVo. Without a PSP and his code, I can't verify that this is real and it's possible it may be a hoax, but I'll reproduce his post in full and let you decide, because it looks like a really cool hack:

I have not seen anyone else do something like this with the PSP, so I am posting it in hopes to inspire others to do something cool with their PSP. The closest thing I have seen is a controller page for XBMC, but it was just some text links, and did not impress me.

I've taken it a step further. I now have the ability to turn my lights on and off. Have full control (Play, Stop, Pause, Menu) of my DVD player, TIVO, and High Def TV, all wirelessly from my PSP. I did this in a few hours using Photoshop to make some graphics. I put an image map on the graphics and created some HTML pages which are hosted on my WACI NX server. The links are crafted so that when the PSP highlights and clicks on a spot on the image map, it instructs the WACI NX server to send an IR signal to my A/V equipment or triggers it's relays to cut power on the lights.

Apologies for the blurry pictures. The PSP is not very photogenic.

My next step is to add some temperature monitors, and more integration with my PC and some AV switching equipment to stream video signals around the house. Hopefully there's a way to embed a little video clip or live stream in the new browser.

I hope that Sony realizes the potential the PSP has. If firmware update on May 1st adds a browser that resides in flash that can be called from the 'start' menu, I will be able to quickly surf to my control page and start controlling things throughout my house. Currently, I just leave Wipeout in browser mode and put my PSP to sleep. Wipeout has so many menus and loading screens to get to the web browser.

Oh and before everyone goes around screaming that this is another hoax like the AIBO PSP controller. I can assure you this is real and it works, and I use it every day. I snagged the WACI NX web server left over from a home theater install job I did last month. It's great because it has an HTTP and FTP server and uses regular HTML to issue the commands making it the perfect match for my PSP, which does not support any fancy Javascripts or DHTML. For more info on the WACI NX you could check out waciworld.com

Also view the original post here:

http://psphacks.blogspot.com/2005/04/psp-home-control-10.html

April 16, 2005 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

PSP PVR Plz

Sony's first handheld console, the PSP, is finally out in the US and people are doing whatever they can to cram whatever media they have on it. First up, Zatz Not Funny has updated their TiVo To Go guide with a guide to put .tivo files on a PSP. Short version: strip the DRM, convert it to MPEG4 and stuff it on a memory stick.

Then we have the case of PSP Video 9, which bills itself as "a free PSP video conversion and management application." Sort of like iTunes for PSP media. The cool thing is that when you combine it with Videora (previously mentioned on PVRblog) you can subscribe to BitTorrent feeds and automatically download videos to your PSP. Obviously the first priority for this amazing amalgam of technology is PSPr0n.

I don't have a Windows system or a PSP to test PSP Video 9 with (for some reason Sony forgot to send PVRblog a pre-release PSP to review) but since it handles all the transcoding for you, I wouldn't be surprised if it could also handle TiVoToGo files. Has anyone tried this out?

March 25, 2005 in Hacks, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBack

TiVo to DVD via Mac OSX

Matt Kingston is a TiVo hacker from way back (I use his scripts to show what's on my TiVo) and recently wrote in:

Not finding any recent info on the web, I put together a guide on how to transfer video from a Series 1 TiVo to the Mac and edit/burn it to DVD (or VCD/SVCD).

http://www.hitormiss.org/2005/03/07/tivo-to-dvd-via-mac-osx/

There aren't many tools or guides for working with TiVo files on a mac, and Matt's tracked down all the tools that work on OS X and you can even use iMovie and iDVD at the end to edit and burn.

March 8, 2005 in Hacks, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

EtiVo - TiVo add on for Windows Media Center

Maybe it's because I get 100% of my information about Microsoft from Slashdot, but one of the points that surprised me from Thomas Hawk's interview with Media Center bloggers was that plenty of Media Center people have TiVos too.

Charlie Owen: Also by the way, You might be surprised to hear me say this, but if you try and like a TiVo, buy a TiVo. If, on the other hand you want something with more power, flexibility, adaptability and upgradeability choose a Media Center PC.

However, and a big however, I don't believe this is a entirely a Media Center vs. TiVo choice -- I know lots of people with both in their homes, peacefully coexisting (including eHome team members). I believe the market is big enough for both to thrive.

That point is illustrated perfectly with EtiVo by Shahar Prish (via Matt Goyer). It's a program that takes video files off of a hacked Series 1 TiVo and turns them into WMV files. While it isn't a MCE app, it seems like it could be integrated pretty easily. You can already control EtiVo from a web interface or a WinCE PDA.

Maybe some enterprising hacker will build an MCE front-end to TiVoToGo for people with MCE and Series 2? Heck, while we're lazywebbing, how about a TiVoToGo interface for Xbox Media Center?

March 1, 2005 in Hacks, TiVo, Windows Media Center XP | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Play AACs with TiVo Desktop 1.9

Being a zealot for both TiVo and Apple can be tough at times. We can't watch TiVoToGo files yet, even though the CEO is a switcher. We have to listen to people constantly telling us about how the companies are about to die. At least now people who encode their music in Apple's AAC format have a way to play their music on their TiVos through TiVo Desktop 1.9.

According to Dennis Wilkinson on the TiVo Community forums, 1.9 includes a program called "SoundConvert" that will run AACs through LAME, if LAME is installed in /usr/local/bin/. All you need to do is install LAME and restart the TiVo Desktop. macosxhints has a guide to installing LAME, or you can get it from Vas the Man.

Unfortunately, you can't play songs you bought from the iTunes Music Store because they have DRM. If you thought you should actually be able to listen to music you bought on your TiVo, you'd need to strip out the DRM with something like jHymn.

February 23, 2005 in Hacks, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Extracting HD video from a Motorola 6412 and playing it on a mac

Thanks to a helpful comment in the Motorola DVR rolling out to Comcast thread, there's a great step-by-step guide to connecting a mac to the Motorola box via Firewire, extracting the video, playing it back, and even using iCal to schedule recordings. It's basically a complete home theater system for recording, saving, and editing video on a Mac. Another handy guide covers the software and hardware requirements of HDTV, from a mac perspective.

If you've got the new Comcast box and an old G4 laying around, this solution just might be perfect for you.

update: here are some instructions for doing the same process on a PC

January 10, 2005 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (23)

All my TiVo's output, for the world to see

As an update to an earlier post here, I present: everything on my TiVo. I've also put a link to it in the sidebar, along with the currently playing show.

It's a new drive, so I haven't quite caught up to redoing all my old season passes. Also it's being stored and served from another server of mine, so I've had to use iframes to pull it in, but it was a fun couple of hours of tinkering that got it all running.

January 3, 2005 in Hacks | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

PTVUpgrade releases network hacks for Series 2 DirecTiVo

PTVupgrade, a site that has been around for years selling pre-upgraded TiVo hard drive kits and upgrade services, has recently started work on a package for hacking DirecTV Series 2 TiVos, called PTVnet. The current Series 2 DirecTiVo hardware can run all the applications the standalone hardware can, but DirecTV never released the 4.0 OS to their customers. To let those users make the most of their crippled hardware, PTVnet will make upgrades and hacking easy by selling a pre-built hard drive ready to drop into a DirecTiVo box.

It sounds a lot like the Sleeper ISO method in this guide to hacking a Series 2 DirecTiVo I pointed to last month. My guess is that they have taken all the best and most useful tools out there in the hacking community, and baked them into these drives, ready to drop in with no muss and no fuss.

What's funny is that I just got back from a trip to Fry's to buy a new upgrade drive for my own Series 2 DirecTiVo, which I intend to upgrade tonight, but now I'm not so sure. The DirecTiVo hacking world doesn't have too many tools beyond the Sleeper ISO and it's not that easy to tweak out a drive for all the capabilities. I'm shooting for adding the TiVo 4.0 OS and TiVoWeb to my own drive, and will document it for later republishing on this site. Maybe the PTVUpgrade guys can get me a kit to test out here as well, which I can compare with the "doing it by hand" method. [thanks MegaZone]

November 20, 2004 in Hacks, News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack