Announcing: TivoSlimserverClient (alpha)

[mondelicious]

TivoSlimserverClient 0.1a

Basically, I decided to replace Tivo Desktop's iTunes sharing with something more useful to me. I have a large number of albums and artists, which Tivo Desktop renders as long lists. Only useful for artists or albums starting with "a" or "b." SlimServer's web client is great for browsing music and building playlists.

This is NOT a port of SoftSqueeze. Because Tivo is limited to mp3 playback, I opted to take advantage of the remote http streaming capabilities of SlimServer, and turn the Tivo into a Banana-fied web client.

There is still a lot of functionality in SlimServer that could be implemented in this client in the future. And because this is not only my first Tivo HME app, but my first Java project, the code could do with a lot of optimization/refactoring.

Still, what is there is usable and I hope that this app will help more people enjoy their mp3s in their living rooms (without buying more gear).

announcement: http://edmondcho.com/blog/?p=13

Enjoy!
mondelicious

[gonzotek]

Awesome! I'll try this out as soon as I have time.

[atulc]

Dear mondelicious,

I a new to TiVo HME apps. Could you compare and contrast your TivoSlimServerClient application with the Galleon HME client? If all one can stream to TiVo is MP3 files, what is the value add from using Slimserver and the TivoSlimServerClient vs. other MP3 clients such as Galleon? Does TivoSlimServerClient offer better user functionality than the Galleon client?

Thanks

[mondelicious]

Hello, atulc.

I have happily used Galleon to listen to mp3 files and to use TivoToGo-like features from my mac. It is definitely a very useful set of apps and a handy framework. In fact, I will soon post a download link of just the app jar itself, so that it can be launched within a framework like Galleon.

What I think is gained from SlimServer is the ability to remotely stream a wide range of formats as mp3. This depends on having lame encoding available. See this article:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?RemoteStreaming

What this means is that any format that SlimServer can transcode to mp3 can now be streamed over to my Tivo! SlimServer has a very large set of supported file formats. There is a FAQ section devoted to file formats here:
http://faq.slimdevices.com/index.php?sid=34485&lang=en&action=show&cat=7

Instead of having Tivo open mp3 files from your desktop computer, this is more like opening up a streaming radio station, which is based on your desktop. SlimServer controls what plays on the station. And you control SlimServer from TivoSlimserverClient. Queue up songs jukebox-style and manipulate the queue.

The main reason I decided to pursue this solution is that TivoDesktop for Mac was frustrating to use. Browse Artists presents me with one list of every artist in my collection. Hardly workable with over 800 artists. It took forever just to get to the letter B. I wanted a way to jump to artists that start with S or Z.

I had been using this for a while and thought that other people might enjoy it. It is much more enjoyable to listen on the couch than sitting at my desk in the home office.

Thanks for your interest.
mondelicious

[brunson]

Mondelicious,

Sorry, but I don't get how it's supposed to be run. Is it an application to run under TivoHME/Galleon? The jnlp has an absolute path to your home directory in it and it fails with trying to run it with Java Web Start, so it throws an exception and I have to abort.

Thanks,
e.

[atulc]

Hello mondelicious,

Thanks for the detailed reply. Now I understand the motivation behind TivoSlimServerClient -- the ability to leverage Slimserver based transcoding to MP3 of other audio formats and Slimserver's ease of browsing a large music collection. I will give your application a try. I will provide you feedback in case I can think of possible enhancements.

Regards,
atulc

[mondelicious]

Mondelicious,

Sorry, but I don't get how it's supposed to be run. Is it an application to run under TivoHME/Galleon? The jnlp has an absolute path to your home directory in it and it fails with trying to run it with Java Web Start, so it throws an exception and I have to abort.

Thanks,
e.

Sorry about your troubles. To answer your first question, yes it is supposed to run under TivoHME. BUT, I guess it could be confusing because after successfully launching, the app doesn't show on the desktop until it is called on from the Tivo. It just lurks in the background.

Although, it sounds as if you haven't been able to get that far. I just tried downloading and running from outside my home directory and things seemed fine. I will upload the latest development version I've been tinkering with. Maybe you'll have better luck with it.

mondelicious

[mondelicious]

I have updated the downloads on my website with version 0.2a of TivoSlimserverClient. There are now 2 options: jnlp and jar.

The jar is provided for Galleon users who would like to run TivoSlimserverClient from the Galleon service. Just follow the instructions here: http://galleon.tv/content/view/41/47/

The line to add to the launcher.txt file is:
com.edmondcho.TivoSlimserverClient

There is no administration screen at the moment. You'll have to go to your Tivo to test if things are working.

Before I came onto the Java Web Start solution, I was using Galleon as my tivohme environment to host TivoSlimserverClient. Back then, I added the jar to Galleon's "apps" folder, not the "hme" folder as is stated in the FAQ. If the "hme" folder doesn't work, you can try that.

I hope that this new jnlp takes care of the exception that was occuring in 0.1a.

mondelicious

[mondelicious]

I have gotten another report of java web start problems. Since I am not having much success with jnlp, I am dropping it for now.

There is a new download available containing the TivoSlimserverClient jar and the necessary hme and bananas jars, along with a script to launch.

Find it at: http://edmondcho.com/products/tivoslim.php

mondelicious

[mondelicious]

Bonus update! I have put together a rather crude Mac OS X app bundle and made it available on my website.

Just one window with a text area that shows terminal output. Launching the application just runs the same start script that comes in the app + hme jars version. This just insulates Mac users from the command line a bit. No need to type any commands.

mondelicious

[diomark]

Hey there,

I was totally looking for a slimserver solution like this - but on my series 3, it's hung up on the 'please wait...' when starting:(

-mark

[mondelicious]

Hey,

Congratulations on the Series3!

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a Series3 and I don't know how well TivoHME works on it.

What I do know is that with a large music library/slower computer, the Please Wait... screen can take a long time.

This is something I'd like to change for next time. I won't be able to load faster, but maybe I could load the app before I analyze the library instead of the other way around.

Ed

[diomark]

I have about 30k songs in my collection, so maybe I'll try giving it more time.. Was this designed with a particular version of slimserver in mind? (I'm running 6.5.1)

-mark

Hey,

Congratulations on the Series3!

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a Series3 and I don't know how well TivoHME works on it.

What I do know is that with a large music library/slower computer, the Please Wait... screen can take a long time.

This is something I'd like to change for next time. I won't be able to load faster, but maybe I could load the app before I analyze the library instead of the other way around.

Ed

[mondelicious]

Uh oh, looks like I'm falling behind. I am running 6.3 without problems.

The changelist for 6.5 raises some major flags. In particular these 2 items:
Major rework of CLI internals
In particular see the what's new section for some information on changes that could break existing clients

Looks like I might have a lot of work to do...

[diomark]

(lame - I just had to go back and post some quick replies in the coffee forum to be able to post a link in this thread...)

6.5 is awesome compared to 6.3.. (speedwise..) - i'm used to 6.3 pausing the music/lagging a bit when searching/etc.. none of those concerns w/ 6.5...

Try it you'll like it..

Also have you seen this?
http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pdw/slimp3slave/

It's one of the simpler slim-protocol clients that I've seen (and open source w/ the cvs accessible..) - I used to use the url/stream.mp3 to stream my slimserver box; lately I've started using this and/or the softsqueeze just because going from song to song (skip song/etc) is so much faster with it (none of the 5-6 second lag that you get from just streaming) - incidentally at least in 6.5 you still have the ability to transcode down to an mp3 format using the slim protocol.

Keep up the great work! Your hme looks awesome although I'm sad that I can't seem to use it:(
-mark

(ps - finally got an error from the please wait screen - 'An error occured while running the application. HTTP failure (HTTP connection error: 0x50005)



Uh oh, looks like I'm falling behind. I am running 6.3 without problems.

The changelist for 6.5 raises some major flags. In particular these 2 items:
Major rework of CLI internals
In particular see the what's new section for some information on changes that could break existing clients

Looks like I might have a lot of work to do...

[mondelicious]

hello.

I am about to travel for a few weeks, but before I leave... here's a gift.

TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a

Just made a few minor adjustments to let users of SlimServer 6.5 use my hme app.

http://edmondcho.com/blog/2006/11/11/tivoslimserverclient-021a/

Let me know if it works on the Series3! The background may be cropped if you have a widescreen hdtv. I went 4:3 to begin with.

[mondelicious]

I'm leaving tomorrow, so I don't have time to make the OS X wrapper work. The dmg download remains at 0.2a for now.

Ed

[diomark]

Hi,

I'm having an issue with this.. It keeps picking up the wrong network interface (MDNS: http://172.16.37.1:7288/tivoslimserverclient/ is grabbing a different IP subnet then my tivo...)

Is there a way to force it to use a different interface?

Thanks,
-mark

[mondelicious]

Mark,

According to this post:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3750750&&#post3750750

You can try adding --intf 172.16.37.1 after com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Main when launching the hme host.

Make this change in start.sh, if that is how you are launching.

In the future, I will try to support that flag in the start script so that it's not necessary to edit the actual script.

Ed

[diomark]

That worked:) but it's crashing now -

On tivo, it's getting an 'error occured while running the application. the application closed during a write (0xffff)'



On the linux box, it's crashing with the following error -

56 status - 1 player_name:172.16.15.156 player_connected:1 mode:stop playlist%20repeat:2 playlist%20shuffle:0 playlist_tracks:0
playlist index ?
laylist index 0
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "laylist index 0"
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatE xception.java:48)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:447)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:497)
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient$Stat us.loadIndex(TivoSlimserverClient.java:412)
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient$Stat us.<init>(TivoSlimserverClient.java:363)
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient.init (TivoSlimserverClient.java:108)
at com.tivo.hme.sdk.Application.open(Application.java:428)
at com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Listener.handleHME(Listener.java:28 0)
at com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Listener.handle(Listener.java:381)
at com.tivo.hme.host.http.server.HttpConnection.run(HttpConnect ion.java:123)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
null
players count ?
?
?
players count ?
?
?
LOG: HME receiver disconnected


(there's alot of what looks like scanning activity prior to that...)

-mark

Mark,

According to this post:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3750750&&#post3750750

You can try adding --intf 172.16.37.1 after com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Main when launching the hme host.

Make this change in start.sh, if that is how you are launching.

In the future, I will try to support that flag in the start script so that it's not necessary to edit the actual script.

Ed

[WhoAmI]

I tried this today and got a similar error as the one diomark posted. I'm new to this HME stuff, so bear with me (though I know Unix and write software).

I'm using a G3 Mac with 10.3.9 and a TiVo MCD540 (Series 2, stock). I downloaded SlimServer 6.5.0 and it seems to be running (the web interface is up, shows tunes), but I haven't connected any other clients to it (tried a little with iTunes, didn't get too far). I downloaded your .dmg 2.0a version first, and it repeatedly died when I connected to it with the TiVo, with an error "closed during a read (0x50006)". The console shows this right after "artists?":

Note I had to edit my console dumps because they look like URLs which as a newbie I can't post... I can e-mail you proper dumps.


The%20El%20La%20Los%20Las%20Le%20Les
artists ?
?
LOG: HME receiver disconnected
LOG: Unexpected error: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -5


Then I looked in this thread and saw that the .dmg was out of date, so I got the 0.2.1a zipped copy and ran that. It gets a lot farther, but dies with the same "read error" on the TiVo and this error on the console:


playlist index ?
ist index 0
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "ist index 0"
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatE xception.java:48)
<snip>
null
players count ?
?
?
players count ?
?
?
LOG: HME receiver disconnected
LOG: Unexpected error: java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "?"

[briguymaine]

Hi all,

Can someone who knows what they are doing give the rest of us a step by step on how to get 0.2.1a running on a mac. I love this HME app but Terminal and I don't get along very well!

Thanks in advance
B

[WhoAmI]

Can someone who knows what they are doing give the rest of us a step by step on how to get 0.2.1a running on a mac. I love this HME app but Terminal and I don't get along very well!

It's pretty easy (trust me, as Unix stuff goes, this is very simple):

1. download the TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a.zip file
2. unzip it (Stuffit might do it automatically depending on your brower); you should then have a folder of stuff
3. run Terminal, open a new terminal window

now here's the only potentially tricky part -- finding where you put it
if it were on the Desktop, it'd be in ~/Desktop, but you might have it somewhere else
there's a neat trick with Terminal where you can drag an icon to the window and it
will give you the path to it

4. in the terminal window, go where it is (type this stuff after the $ prompt)
'cd' means 'change directory' (directory=folder)
if it's on your desktop, you could do something like this (note the extra '\' in front of the space in the folder name):
cd ~/Desktop/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a\ Folder/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a/
if you put it in Applications, you might do this:
cd /Applications/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a\ Folder/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a/
if you want to use the drag-and-drop trick, type 'cd' and then a space and then drag the folder from the Finder and drop it on the Terminal window; the path to the folder should appear -- mine on the desktop looks like this:
cd /users/me/Desktop/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a\ Folder/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a/

5. run it (type this in the Terminal window)
./start.sh

6. you'll see text output in the terminal window, including errors

7. to stop it, type ctrl-c (hold down Control and 'c') in the Terminal window

[briguymaine]

That got it running, thanks!

Now I just have an issue that started last week and got me trying to install all of the updates. I start to browse any of the options, Artist, Album, Genre, PLaylist and I get "an error occured while running the application. The application closed during a read (0x50006)"

Anyone have any ideas? I'm running iTunes 7 with my music on an external drive but the library file in Brian/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library

Here is what Terminal had to say when it wigged out:

LOG: HME receiver connected
192.168.1.102 status - 1
192.168.1.102 playlist index ?
TivoSlimserverClient[#1,uri=null] warning: resource 2063 not found.
TivoSlimserverClient[#1,uri=null] warning: resource 2063 not found.
LOG: Received event for unknown resource id. Id = 2063, event = 2063.RESOURCE_INFO(complete, {})
?
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "?"
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatE xception.java:48)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:447)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:497)
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient$Stat us.loadIndex(TivoSlimserverClient.java:412)
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient.tick (TivoSlimserverClient.java:128)
at com.tivo.hme.sdk.util.Ticker.run(Ticker.java:143)
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.NowPlayingScreen.showStat us(NowPlayingScreen.java:180)
at com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient.tick (TivoSlimserverClient.java:130)
at com.tivo.hme.sdk.util.Ticker.run(Ticker.java:143)
192.168.1.102 playlists 0 1000
192.168.1.102 playlists 0 1000
LOG: connection to receiver closed
LOG: HME receiver disconnected
LOG: Unexpected error: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
LOG: 192.168.1.2 icon.png HTTP GET - to factory /tivoslimserverclient/

[mman]

winxp pro - no firewall
Slimserver 6.5
Tivo S3
TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a started with:
java -cp lib/bananas.jar;lib/hme-host-sample.jar;lib/hme.jar;lib/TivoSlimserverClient-0.2.1a.jar com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Main --intf x.x.x.x com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient

And this is in my cmd window when I try to connect from the tivo.
Does anybody know what could be causing this ?
Does anybody have this working with XP?

playlist index ?
laylist index 0
java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "laylist index 0"
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Unknown Source)

[WhoAmI]

I'm not a Java programmer but I do know other languages -- these all look like the same basic error to me. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the format of some of the Slimserver data has changed, and this client is a bit brittle about it and is blowing up as a result (hey, whatdya want for 0.2!). It's probably pretty straightforward to fix, and I would guess the author will know what it is fairly quickly after looking at it (when he gets a chance). I doubt it is due to TiVo or OS varieties, though it's always worth checking. One way to test this theory is to roll back to Slimserver 6.3 -- does anyone have that (I don't)?

[jlac839]

Hi,

I wanted to try your TivoSlimserverClient and set it up on my Windows 2000 server system where I also run TiVo HME. My music library is set up on an Infrant ReadyNAS 600 Network storage system which has the ability to run slimserver built into it. It wasn't until I had it all set up (and it wouldn't work) that I saw the remark on the download page that the client will only run on the same host as TiVo HME.

The error I received was a "Connection refused" error which first of all led me to review security settings etc. However, if the TivoSlimserverClient is looking for slimserver within the same host, then the error makes sense.

Anyway, my request is, of course, to allow the specification of a different host for the slimserver itself either by IP or DNS or both.

Thanks for listening.

[mondelicious]

I am back.

Quickly, the first thing I found is that the "players count ?" command is no longer valid. I had to change it to "player count ?" to get anywhere.

Sorry to leave people hanging like that.

Anyway, I am making these little changes as I find them. Thanks for all the reporting here.

I will attempt to allow a separate server in a future release.

Ed

[diomark]

I just bit the bullet and bought another squeezebox for our living room.. (other was in bedroom)

I'll still test this when i get a chance tho... Thanks for working on it!
-mark

I am back.

Quickly, the first thing I found is that the "players count ?" command is no longer valid. I had to change it to "player count ?" to get anywhere.

Sorry to leave people hanging like that.

Anyway, I am making these little changes as I find them. Thanks for all the reporting here.

I will attempt to allow a separate server in a future release.

Ed

[diomark]

PS - personally now I'd love to see my 'now playing' list for any given squeezebox on tivo:) or if the player was using the slim protocol and not streaming, you could just sync the player w/ tivo...
-m

I just bit the bullet and bought another squeezebox for our living room.. (other was in bedroom)

I'll still test this when i get a chance tho... Thanks for working on it!
-mark

[mondelicious]

Hey,

Any of our more experienced users want to give me advice on modifying my shell script?

Specifically, I would like to support an optional --intf flag that would allow a user to start up hme on a specific interface. If the flag is called by the script, use it with the java command. Otherwise, just leave it out and use the default interface.

Thanks.
Ed

[mondelicious]

There is a new version (0.2.2a) of TivoSlimserverClient available.

As always, you can get the latest version here:
http://edmondcho.com/products/tivoslim.php

A short list of changes here:
http://edmondcho.com/blog/2006/12/10/tivoslimserverclient-022a/

I hope this finally fixes compatibility with 6.5.

Ed

[gonzotek]

I had success running it under WinXP with 6.5 today, with two repeatable exceptions. When the queue or playlist containers are empty the session is dropped, yet you can re-enter the app from the simulator or TiVo menus. Nonetheless, great work! Let me know if I can do any specific testing or whatever.

[briguymaine]

Hi, great app (loved it when it worked for me!)

OK, I downloaded the new version and I'm attempting to run it on a G4 with OS X.4.8 and Slimsever 6.5.

I can browse, add music to the queue, and choose prefs but Play Now doesn't work and checking the queue makes the app crash. (during a read 0x50006)

hmm, lil help...

Thanks, Brian

[mondelicious]

Hi, brigyumaine.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. The queue screen crash was reported by gonzotek in the previous message, and I consider that a known issue now. I will fix it in the next version.

The first thing I would check is the Choose Player screen. Make sure that you are adding songs and trying to Play Now to the right stream. Your Tivo's ip should be highlighted yellow.

If that is still not working, try waiting for a few seconds for the slimserver to respond.

When you Play Now, do you get the "playing song now..." message that fades away?

[briguymaine]

The first thing I would check is the Choose Player screen. Make sure that you are adding songs and trying to Play Now to the right stream. Your Tivo's ip should be highlighted yellow.

If that is still not working, try waiting for a few seconds for the slimserver to respond.

When you Play Now, do you get the "playing song now..." message that fades away?

I did check the settings and the IP looked right but I didn't double check it.

And yes, I get "playing song now..." and it fades away, I will try waiting longer for the tunes to start!

I love the app and was stoked to see you had built this, slim server is the best interface I've used. Thanks for your hard work.

[gws]

Any hope for us poor Directv customers? I have hacked my tivo and enjoy the added featuers and access to content. I was recently pointed toward the slimserver software and would like to stream from that rather than from hme. This client seems great accept that it is not compatible with the directv series2 tivos. Anyone have any plans to port it?

Guy

[mcharkowski]

Gonzotek, any chance you'd mind sharing the command you're using to start it up? I can't seem to get anything to work. I think I've just got the syntax wrong on the command. Any help would be appreciated.

[briguymaine]

Just to report back on my problem mentioned above, I checked the ip of my tivo and I am choosing the correct one. I clicked on play now and left it while I did the dishes and nothing ever happened.

Like I said, great idea and when I had it working, it was awesome. I received an xbox 360 for xmas and that is handling my music, photo, and video streaming needs now (even on my mac). I guess what I'm saying is, don't worry about me, I'll be fine! ;-)

[gonzotek]

Gonzotek, any chance you'd mind sharing the command you're using to start it up? I can't seem to get anything to work. I think I've just got the syntax wrong on the command. Any help would be appreciated.I switched laptops recently, and I still need to migrate my files from the old one. I'll post the batch file as soon as I can :)

[Fofer]

Looks awesome. Off to check it out now.

[Fofer]

So I installed the latest SlimServer on my iMac G5... made sure it was running, browsed my library in the SlimServer web service.

Then I downloaded and installed TivoSlimserver Client 0.2.2a, and ran it by double-clicking.

When I go into my Series 3 TiVo's "Music, Photos, & More" screen, I see "TivoSlimserverClient." When I select that, it says:

Can't Run
An error occurred while running the application. The application closed during a read (Ox50006.)

What am I doing wrong? All the other HME apps I've downloaded seem to work fine (AudioFaucet, Flickr/TiVo Viewr, etc.)

[dearing]

Having a similar issue to Fofer. Running XP Home, and other Galleon Apps (like Desktop) work fine, so no firewall issue. When I select TivoSlimserverClient from the apps screen, I get "Can't Run...application closed during a write (0xfffff).
I'd be happy to help test new releases or fixes.
Thanks!
Jason

[mondelicious]

hello,

I am not sure if the command line plugin is turned on by default, but it is necessary for TivoSlimserverClient to work.

You also need to have LAME installed for transcoding:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?LAMEForTranscoding

Another potential problem: TivoSlimserverClient does not support password protected Slimservers.

I hope you get up and running!

Ed

[sfielder]

I am currently running TivoSlimserver through galleon on xpsp2 and works fine. is there a way to run the app as an extension to tivo desktop, or as a complete standalone on windows?

thanks

[riddick21]

Beautiful app. Unfortunately, there's too much of a delay when switching songs. Also if you could make the client run in the background like in the prefpane it would be a little cleaner. Definitely the best looking HME app I've seen though.

[mondelicious]

Thanks, riddick21!

You have just inspired me to get back to working on this again.

The reason there is such a delay in switching songs, is that the stream buffer has to run out before you start hearing the new song. It was mentioned in the slimserver faqs, and I am not sure if there is a way to reduce it. It would require making the buffer smaller. I'll look to see what can be done.

I agree that a prefpane would be great for mac users. That's another learning curve, so it may take a while.

mond

[jlib]

This is a truly useful and serious app! It runs basically fine on Win2K and TiVo S3. I only found two catastrophic problems. Pressing "clear" to kill the current song in the queue crashes with a write error so there is no way to stop playing a song. And the known problem when opening the playlist screen (same error and crash).

Enhancement suggestions:

A start.bat file for windows users.

Use at least all 9 lines for the alphabet groupings in the top level browse screen to allow for a finer granularity (some of the groupings are too large with a big server).

Add a browse folder feature.

Be able to manually enter alternate player address to send stream to. I want it to go to my Squeezebox instead of TiVo.

Again, this is great work. It is something I can imagine using all the time.

[nrc]

I'm finally back to a real TiVo after years in exile with DirecTV and I'm very pleased to find that I can use the slimserver software to stream music to my TiVo. It's much nicer than navigating folders in the normal HME interface and allows me access to all my OGG files. I hope work will continue on it.

One problem I noticed is that the screen saver mode shows the current album art when launched and then the art for the next track, but it never seems to update after that.

[Neil_Smithline]

First, this is a wickedly cool app. I just downloaded and, once I tweaked the start.sh script, everything ran just perfectly. The tivo app took a read error when I was first playing around but I was able to just start it up again so no biggie.

The start.sh had a problem that it didn't work on Windows. On Windows a semicolon is used to separate classpath items, not a colon. Besides changing the colon to a semicolon, I dramatically simplified the classpath creation (see script below). To run it on a real Unix box (as compared to Windows + Cygwin), just change the semicolon in the "classpath=" line to a colon.

I also added some double-quotes in the command line in case somehow a weird character creeps into the classpath. I don't see how that could happen but 20+ years of shell-scripting have taught me better safe than sorry.

By the way, I'm running this on my oldest Win XP box. It is using the MS installed Java from /WINDOWS:
java version "1.4.1_02"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1_02-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1_02-b06, mixed mode)


The modified script:
#!/bin/bash -x
classpath=$(echo lib/*.jar| sed 's/ /;/g')
java -cp "$classpath" com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Main com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient

It needs a .bat script so it can be put into the Startup folder. Right now I have to run this by hand. I'll see if I get a chance to do that in the next few days.

[Neil_Smithline]

I see there was a request for adding the ability to the script to pass a -intf argument to the Java program. Here's the modification to do that.

Remember that if you run on a Unix box you must replace the semicolon in the second line with a colon.

The modified script:
#!/bin/bash -x
classpath=$(echo lib/*.jar| sed 's/ /;/g')
java -cp "$classpath" com.tivo.hme.host.sample.Main com.edmondcho.tivoslimserverclient.TivoSlimserverClient "$@"