Zatz Not Funny! » Hacks

TweeVo: Tweet Your TiVo Recordings

Dave Zatz — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:46:17 +0000

Click to enlarge

While TiVo employees program automated laundry machine tweets, TiVo customers continue to give their DVR a Twitter voice. About a year ago, we first saw TwiVo – which tweets newly completed TiVo recordings and was hacked together in PHP, primarily for the author’s own usage. However, this weekend, the new and far more sophisticated TweeVo has been released to the masses by Brian Peek.

Like TwiVo, TweeVo periodically polls your TiVo’s Now Playing list (via embedded web server) to determine and then broadcast new recordings on Twitter. But TweeVo also provides a GUI for easy and smart customization (above left), when the Windows system tray app isn’t running in the background. (.NET 3.5 SP1 required.) Additionally, TweeVo mates your recordings to Zap2it show information so followers can optionally learn more.

However, the question remains… Do tweeting TiVos serve any sort of practical purpose? I can get behind the idea of social gadgetry. However, like the blog, I prefer to engage in a dialogue over a monologue. So let’s link our TiVos, and let them communicate amongst themselves. Even if we can’t share our recordings, let’s share recording suggestions. Guru Guides by and for the people.

Yup, This TiVo Tweets

Dave Zatz — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:40:43 +0000

While we haven’t yet arrived at Todd’s (cybernetic) activity stream vision, mere days after our post, Darren Cloutier has answered the call:

I saw the post about this on Friday night and thought it would make a great weekend project! From my old PC in the basement, a PHP script logs into the web server on each TiVo box and grabs the XML file with everything that is currently on the box. This part was written by somebody on the community forums back when TiVo2Go was first released as a way to translate your now playing list to an HTML document. Since I already run this script every hour to update my website, I simply added some more code which looks for recordings that have a start time greater than one hour ago, format the text as a nice Tweet and then redirect these to Twitter via the Twitter API which is easily accessible in PHP.

A little imagination and some PHP elbow grease is all it took to give Darren’s TiVos a voice. Again, not quite as interactive as what Todd envisions. But a cool project, nonetheless. And, if you’re feeling voyeuristic, those TiVo recording tweets can be found here: http://twitter.com/TwiVo

In other Twitter automation news, Macworld’s Jason Snell documents a variety of ways to script or filter tweets. But, wait. There’s more! The Twitter team recently documented the incubation and evolution of their 140 character service. Plus, yours truly has been anointed as a top tech tweeter by Jason Hiner of ZDNet.

Will Your TiVo Tweet?

Todd Barnard — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:23:56 +0000

TiVo programmer Ryan Rose has hacked his washing machine to send text message notifications over Twitter when his clothes are done. He did this for a practical reason, to prevent forgetting about his laundry which might sit in the damp washer and mildew. You can follow the washing machine’s activity on Twitter (412 people, including myself, already do) to be instantly informed when Mr. Rose’s laundry is done. Why would you want to? More on that later… Here’s video of “PiMPY” in action:

I’m a big fan of Activity Streams such as Twitter and FriendFeed. Once current user contributions across all the social web sites are freely distributed, with an emphasis on privacy, a new web era will arrive. My vision originates from Professor David Gelernter’s “Life Streams” as defined in his 1993 book Mirror Worlds: The Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox – How It Will Happen and What It Will Mean.

Apparently I am not alone in my opinion that Activity Streams are the next big thing. Some of the most influential people in social media (MySpace, Google, Plaxo, Comcast, Nokia just to name a few) recently attended a DiSo meeting to discuss the future of how their user’s activity will be published. (Ian Kennedy, formerly of Yahoo and now head of Nokia’s Ovi service, kindly recorded the DiSo meeting using his phone.) One of the points discussed during the event was that activity streams are not just generated by people but that machines, like PiMPY, can also broadcast what they’re doing. Mr. Rose’s place of employment is noteworthy, and it got me thinking about the possibilities of machines with their own activity streams – particularly TiVo.

Talking TiVos
If we were to imbue a TiVo PVR with the means to broadcast its activities, it might look something like this:

There’s a definitely a simple convenience factor in receiving a message from your DVR, but that alone may not be enough of a value proposition to cause every TiVo owner to embrace this. What more could be extracted from letting our favorite little STB “speak” publicly?

Back to that earlier challenge
Why would you want to start following a washing machine on Twitter? The Los Angeles Times suggested a reason:

One subscriber to PiMPY’s laundry [activity] feed is the Whirlpool Twitter account. Brian Snyder, Whirlpool spokesman who oversees the appliance manufacturer’s social media accounts, reached out to Rose on YouTube after spotting the video. He said the company was “always looking for new ways to connect our appliances to the Internet.

Corporate marketing firm Razorfish has another:

Marc M. Sanford Ph.D., in a detailed white paper titled ‘Social Media Measurement: Widgets and Applications‘ finds that consumer purchase behavior directly correlates to how deeply a Consumer engages with a piece of social media and where they discover the media. Not surprisingly, referrals from friends (or influencers) are 4x more effective.

So if the Razorfish paper offers evidence that people are four times more likely to buy goods and services they see referenced in social media, such as an activity stream, it would be trivial for thought leaders like TiVo, Netflix, Roku and Amazon to offer a revenue sharing program. In theory, the people following your TiVo’s activity stream just might earn you some money by clicking on the show its recording. I would consider this reason enough to participate, would you? Now if we could just get Ryan Rose to write the code…

Netflix Watch Now On 4+ PCs

Brent Evans — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:32:41 +0000

If you’re a heavy user of Netflix’s streaming movie service “Watch Now,” you may have run into the Netflix-imposed restriction of registering a maximum of three computers. Attempting to install and use Netflix Watch-Now on a fourth computer will most likely result in an error having you to contact customer service for another “key.” This hack has been around on the forums for a while now, but Tech-Recipes today posted the simple how-to on getting around the limitation without needing to contact Netflix Customer Support.

If your wondering how one would ever need to use Netflix Watch Now on more than three computers then consider this scenario: I have three HTPCs at home, one laptop from work that goes with me everywhere, my daughter’s laptop and my wife’s laptop. Any of those computers are likely to access Netflix Watch-Now at any time to pick up a show or movie.

The workaround for this is pretty simple involving a registry hack and a few additional steps. Check it out at Tech-Recipes.com. I’ve tried it on a fourth PC and it worked perfectly.

Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.

Network Remote Control of TiVo (iPhone!)

Dave Zatz — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:22:42 +0000

The latest TiVo hack doesn’t actually require any hacking. Last fall, TiVo partnered up with Creston to integrate the Series3 into their home automation framework. While I haven’t heard anything since, it turns out the hooks are wide open (via Omikron) to any application or hardware on one’s home network – and possibly well beyond by implementing router port fowarding. Until something more polished is developed, the telnet protocol allows you to manually feed a variety of remote commands to a networked TiVo. For example, in the video above, I’m using a terminal application on my jailbroken iPhone as a rudimentary WiFi remote control. There’s some real interesting potential here…

But don’t take my word for it, give it a try. Launch any sort of terminal or command window app, telnet to your TiVo’s IP address using port 31339, and enter a few of these commands:

IRCODE PAUSE
IRCODE TIVO
IRCODE LIVETV
IRCODE THUMBSUP
IRCODE RECORD

Here’s two apps I’d like to see…

1. I’d like a nice graphical virtual remote for my iPhone (or other WiFi handset). I doubt it’d see much use in practice, but wouldn’t it look cool?

2. I want some sort of web app in which I feed it my IP address and TitanTV (or similar) credentials, and then at 5 past and 35 past the hour both tuners on my TiVo are polled. If anything is being recorded, the channel number is mated up to my lineup and guide data from TitanTV, with the resultant data being posted on the blog sidebar or to my Facebook status that says: Dave is recording Future Weapons on Discovery HD. Related, how about TiVo embed this sort functionality directly into their new MyTV Facebook widget?

TiVo Series3 Multi-Room Viewing Is Here! (sort of)

Dave Zatz — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:15:44 +0000

While twiddling my thumbs waiting for the official Multi-Room Viewing (MRV) and TiVoToGo (TTG), I went ahead and cobbled together my own very nice MRV solution.

I’ve read online that the max distance for a non-amplified HDMI cable run may not meet my needs, but quite a few vendors offer long HDMI cables. So I took the plunge and paid $51.01 (including shipping) for Monoprice’s most expensive 35′ HDMI cable. That allowed the living room Series3 to power the 42″ plasma locally via component, while simultaneously powering the 30″ bedroom HDTV via HDMI (with the help of a $5 13/16″ drill bit) as shown below. Video and audio come through very well, and there’s no indication that the source TiVo is out of range.

The next challenge is remotely controlling the TiVo… And at the same time this plan was percolating, Monster offered me their Harmony-powered IR+RF remote (AVL300) for review (MSRP $400). I’ve programmed it to control the bedroom TV via IR and the livingroom Series3 via RF. Response through the walls and around corners has been instantaneous, again with no indication the TiVo is located somewhere else.

Overall, this solution is very nice. I’m enjoying the immediate playback from a remote DVR, including HD content… unlike TiVo’s Multi-Room Viewing which doesn’t always stream (standard def content) real-time without having to wait for the buffer to build. I also like the idea of having one DVR to manage, though I’m limited to recording on the two Series3 tuners. (I still have a Humax DVD-burning TiVo in the bedroom… for now.)

So what’s next… I haven’t tacked down the HDMI cable yet or dressed up the hole in the wall. I intend to explore more solutions for controlling the TiVo from another room, since not everyone is in the market for a $400 remote. Smarthome offers several possibilities, at lower price points, such as IR over Coax and the Powermid IR/RF set. Also expect a full review of the Monster remote in the next month or so. I can already tell you that I really appreciate the small five-way joystick and prefer the matte grip over the Harmony equivalent (890).

Unofficial Apple TV Development Kit

Mari Silbey — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:20:15 +0000

Whether you like Apple TV or not, last100 (via AwkwardTV) reports it’s relatively easy now to create plug-in applications with the unofficial AppleTV software development kit (SDK). In a closed ecosystem like AppleTV, having a hacker’s SDK is probably crucial to acceptance and proliferation among the geek community.

What will be interesting to me is how the Apple development environment ends up comparing to deliberately-open TV environments. For example, the Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) is designed to make it easy for third parties to create cable set-top applications. Motorola (my employer), among others, has introduced an OCAP SDK that will be packaged alongside a Motorola set-top for anyone who wants to build apps for cable TV hardware. Mind you, we’re probably talking about development shops as opposed to individuals, but I do wonder how innovation will play out differently in an open environment versus a proprietary one. And yes, I do recognize the irony in considering cable TV an open environment.

Top 5 TiVo Hacks (for non-hackers)

Dave Zatz — Fri, 11 May 2007 00:59:09 +0000

1. 30 Second Skip

ReplayTV offered the consumer friendly Commercial Advance feature, which probably contributed to their court woes and ultimate demise. Fortunately, TiVo provides a “secret” (shh, don’t tell) code for enabling a 30 second skip. Press the ->| button 4-5 times to quickly bypass most commercial interludes. It’s not quite as cool as Replay’s feature, but hey TiVo is still selling hardware.

TiVo Platforms:

Series1, Series2, Series3/HD, DirecTV

Directions:

Play a TiVo recording
On your remote hit Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select
Live life commercial free

2. Expand Storage

One of the easiest ways to increase the value of your TiVo is to enlarge your recording capacity by upgrading your internal hard drive with something a bit more roomy. You could do it yourself, but most folks will be most comfortable buying a prepped drive. You won’t find any bargains, but you’ll save yourself some time and energy.

TiVo Platforms:

Series1, Series2, Series3/HD, DirecTV

Directions:

Visit DVRUpgrade
Find your TiVo model, select your capacity, enter your credit card info
Record every episode of Stargate and Stargate Atlantis

3. Transfer Video To TiVo

TiVo hasn’t done a great job of publicizing this feature, but for at least a year and a half they’ve supported moving video from a home computer onto your TiVo for playback. This may require a little more elbow grease than the first two hacks, but if you’d like to store and view your home movies and ripped DVDs on your TiVo it’s worth the effort. For a newly introduced and friendlier process (at a cost), check out One True Media.

TiVo Platforms:

Series2, Series3/HD

Easy Directions for PC:

Download TiVo Desktop 2.6 and purchase the Plus Key ($25)
Transcode and transfer WMV, QuickTime, and MPEG 2/4 video

Powerful Directions for PC:

Download Videora TiVo Converter (free) or
Download pyTiVo (free)
Do your homework here and here

Mac owners:

Learn to transfer

4. Remove TiVoToGo DRM

In early 2005 TiVo introduced TiVoToGo, a nifty feature to transfer recorded shows off the TiVo and onto your computer. Unfortunately that video in encumbered with DRM, limiting playback and transfer options. Fortunately, some clever folks have solved that problem.

TiVo Platforms:

Series2, Series3/HD

Directions for PC:

Transfer shows using TiVo Desktop
Download DirectShow Dump
Free your recordings

Directions for Mac:

Download TiVoDecode Manager
Transfer and free your recordings

5. Stream Music

TiVo Desktop, both Mac and PC versions, allow you to stream MP3s from to your TiVo. That’s a good start, but what about folks with AAC, WMA, and OGG Vorbis files? While this hack won’t let you play protected content (like iTunes purchases), it will handle just about everything else you might want to throw at it.

TiVo Platforms:

Series2, Series3/HD

Directions for PC:

Download TiVo Desktop Universal Audio Plug-in
Publish your music
Rock on