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pyTivoX

347K views 1K replies 205 participants last post by  elmeng 
#1 ·
pyTivoX is an Apple Mac OSX application that lets you view movies that are stored on your computer via your Tivo.

It provides both pyTivo and streambaby, and all necessary support applications/libraries.

You can read more about it and download it at http://pytivox.googlecode.com/

It has a very simple user interface, and 'just works'.

And yes, it's entirely free. No registration required. Source code available on the same web page.
 
#179 ·
Thanks for trying this out. I had hoped to use pyTiVoX as a replacement for TD on my Mac. I guess I'll either have to get all the dependencies installed. I'll be sure to post back here if I get it working.
I tried the pyTiVo music and photos (when I had pyTiVo installed by hand) and really didn't like it. TiVo Desktop seemed to have much better options for dealing with playlists in iTunes. Just my two cents.
 
#180 ·
There were no dependencies when I installed PIL on my Mac. It was a nice simple package. I don't remember where I got it, but perhaps this will do:

http://pythonmac.org/packages/py25-fat/index.html

I have to say, I'm very disappointed to read that pyTivoX was released without testing photos or music.
Hey thanks for that link! Let me see if I can repackage the contents of that with pyTivoX...

As for disappointment.. Sorry :).
 
#181 ·
There were no dependencies when I installed PIL on my Mac. It was a nice simple package. I don't remember where I got it, but perhaps this will do:

http://pythonmac.org/packages/py25-fat/index.html

I have to say, I'm very disappointed to read that pyTivoX was released without testing photos or music.
Based on the output above, doesn't it look as though I have PIL installed?
 
#182 ·
Based on the output above, doesn't it look as though I have PIL installed?
from this chunk
Code:
'/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/PIL'
I would guess you do.. You can always verify by checking that there is something in that directory :).

However, a 'clean' mac has nothing in site-packages. And I'd rather not tell people 'to use photos, you must go install PIL and whatever requirements it has'.

That said, in an earlier message wmcbrine pointed at a build of PIL that has all non-default dependencies linked in, which I am now toying with. So if it works out, I'll just include it, and hopefully it will get things working.. (building stuff right now).
 
#185 ·
Will pyTiVoX somehow install the pkg that was referenced earlier? Will I need to "uninstall" the library that I've already installed?
It will 'just work' (it will include the necessary files in the pyTivoX.app bundle).
You do not need to install or uninstall anything

If you feel like trying it out, download the latest beta...

edit: I should point out the latest beta has the latest code of a bunch of things, including
pytivo, ffmpeg (+underlying libs), streambaby, etc...
 
#186 ·
It will 'just work' (it will include the necessary files in the pyTivoX.app bundle).
You do not need to install or uninstall anything

If you feel like trying it out, download the latest beta...

edit: I should point out the latest beta has the latest code of a bunch of things, including
pytivo, ffmpeg (+underlying libs), streambaby, etc...
Downloading it now...I'll let you know if it works for me.
 
#189 ·
The only issue I've noticed is that AAC audio files don't play correctly, but TiVo Desktop has the same problem.

Thank you!
If you do some Google or forum searches on this you'll find the answer. There's an error in the Tivo firmware that flips some bits in the AAC codec or something like that. There's a script you can run on your Mac that flips the bits so it works with Tivo. I did it last spring when I got my TivoHD and I forgot the exact details but it works just fine.
 
#190 ·
If you do some Google or forum searches on this you'll find the answer. There's an error in the Tivo firmware that flips some bits in the AAC codec or something like that. There's a script you can run on your Mac that flips the bits so it works with Tivo. I did it last spring when I got my TivoHD and I forgot the exact details but it works just fine.
Just curious - is this PPC Macs you're talking about and the big endian/little endian difference between PPC and x86? All my Macs are Intel-based now; but I do remember (unrelated to Tivo) occasionally having to do some "endian magic" with some music files - specifically when I was trying to make ringtones for my phone on my old Powerbook.
 
#191 ·
It worked! Thanks a lot! BTW, I also tried out the streaming feature and it rocks. Be sure to let me know when you release an official version. I'd love to mention it on my blog.

Also, what does "video:pytivo" mean in the type column? How is it different than just "video"?
It was requested that I allow you to specify some directories to be served by pytivo only, and some by streambaby only. I'm still debating removing this since it feels more like it's confusing than useful (again, simple program for people who don't want advanced features...).
 
#192 ·
I may have spoke too soon ;). StreamBaby is saying that most of my directories don't contain any video. Thus far I've only gotten it to work with one directory where I have .mp4 files.

does streambaby only work with h.264 encoded content?
Is it listing nothing? I believe streambaby only lists files that end with a file extension that matches any of these (from the wiki):

extensions= (default:mp4,mpeg,vob,mpg,mpeg2,mp2,avi,wmv,asf)

Ok the wiki is a little out of date, I believe mkv was added to that list. Do your filenames match that? It will only 'as-is' stream mpeg-2 and mp4 (h264/aac-ac3) files, but other files it will gladly convert on the fly and stream...

However, things are still being ironed out :).

Oh and did you hit 'apply' after changing your lists of directories?
 
#193 ·
Just curious - is this PPC Macs you're talking about and the big endian/little endian difference between PPC and x86? All my Macs are Intel-based now; but I do remember (unrelated to Tivo) occasionally having to do some "endian magic" with some music files - specifically when I was trying to make ringtones for my phone on my old Powerbook.
Hmm.. I have an intel mac and haven't had any issues with AAC (except for that problem I mentioned earlier when streaming as-is h.264/AAC, it got dropped to 2-channel even though the aac source was 5.1).
 
#194 ·
Hmm.. I have an intel mac and haven't had any issues with AAC (except for that problem I mentioned earlier when streaming as-is h.264/AAC, it got dropped to 2-channel even though the aac source was 5.1).
Sorry I wasn't clear (and it was asked simply out of curiosity anyway) - then endian issues were back when I was on a PPC-based Powerbook. PPC uses Big Endian architecture while x86 is Little Endian. Actually I think PPC CPUs can go either way, but PPC Macs ran in Big Endian mode by default. IIRC I used to have to tell lame to output in Little Endian mode if I wanted the ringtones to play at all on my phone.

But it sounds like this wasn't even related to the problem mentioned anyway.
 
#196 ·
It was requested that I allow you to specify some directories to be served by pytivo only, and some by streambaby only. I'm still debating removing this since it feels more like it's confusing than useful (again, simple program for people who don't want advanced features...).
I'm really finding the feature useful, but then I requested it. ;) Maybe if the option was video:stream, video:now playing, video:both that would clarify. I won't die if you remove the feature, but I will cry a little.

On an unrelated note, I downloaded the latest beta, and now the stuff I stream only goes for 5 minutes and then the TiVo drops back into Live TV. I tried a number of videos, rebooted the TiVo and restarted pyTiVoX and the result is consistent. It's like the TiVo doesn't realize streambaby is doing something.
 
#198 ·
On an unrelated note, I downloaded the latest beta, and now the stuff I stream only goes for 5 minutes and then the TiVo drops back into Live TV. I tried a number of videos, rebooted the TiVo and restarted pyTiVoX and the result is consistent. It's like the TiVo doesn't realize streambaby is doing something.
I just installed pyTivoX yesterday for the StreamBaby capabilities on my Mac. I am seeing the same behavior also (plays for 5 minutes then kicks out to Live TV). I can go back into the file and it gives me the option to resume playback at the point I was kicked out and the show resumes at the right spot.

I have also noticed that if I play a show but hit Left to go back to the previous menu, about 3 out of 5 times, the pyTivoX StreamBaby menu item disappears from the choices of HME items. The only way to get it back is to go to my Mac and open the config menu and hit 'Apply' and it comes back to life.
 
#200 ·
I suspect latest pyTivoX streambaby portion may have been built based on current SVN code from streambaby which has wrong fix for idle handling.
It indeed does use the latest svn code (yay beta). Any idea when that will be fixed? I can drop it back to 0.19, but it seems like plenty of nice new things were added....

edit: Well given that the choice is between only working for 5 minutes or losing some nifty new features... I'd guess people prefer the working :). So I'll go build another beta right now... (should be up in a few minutes).
 
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