riddick21
12-18-2007, 12:55 PM
I started using TivoToGo with toast and it never really did what I needed it to, completely automate the process of getting shows off my Tivo to my iPod. There wasn't much ToGo in my TivoToGo. With the release of popcorn I thought this issue had been fixed because there was an option to auto encode downloaded shows and auto import them to itunes. Well this was incredibly buggy when it was released and didn't do what it promised. With an update from Roxio the encoded show finally goes into iTunes but they failed to fix an issue with the metadata so auto encoded files have no show description attached to them. At this point I was pretty pissed because I specifically told Paratox a Roxio employee working on the beta about this issue and it still wasn't fixed when it came out of beta. I sat around twiddling my thumbs for a few months while popcorn and my $80 Turbo.264 laid dormant.
Well the other day I decided to take matters into my own hands and have wrote two Applescripts that will automate Roxio's programs and get Tivo shows onto my ipod with no user intervention beyond setup. I'm listing the scripts below.
It's a little sloppy I'm not really an applescript/coding expert just a frustrated customer who was tired of waiting.
Heres the first script. It deletes the downloaded Tivo files from the previous day and opens tivo transfer for new transfers. Some minor adjustments will need to be made like folder locations. If you have the default Tivoshows folder location it should be in you home folder. Just put your user name where it says <insert your user name>. I have it set to empty the trash so if you keep stuff in the trash you might want to keep you will either need to change this practice or let me know how I can delete the Tivo files immediately without sending it to the trash.
You will need to create a folder called "Temp" in the TivoShows folder for this first script to work properly. I'll probably have the script automatically create the folder in the future but as of right now I figured it was easier to just make the folder manually.
TivoToGo Phase 1
tell application "Popcorn"
quit
end tell
tell application "Finder"
select (every item of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows" whose kind is {"Tivo Movie File"})
make alias to selection at folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows:Temp"
delete (every item of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows" whose kind is {"Tivo Movie File"})
move files of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows:Temp" to folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>1:TiVoShows"
empty trash
end tell
tell application "TiVo Transfer for Popcorn"
activate
end tell
--------------------------------------------------
The second part closes the Tivo Transfer program and opens the Tivo movie files with popcorn and then uses GUI scripting to intiate the encode process.
TivoToGo Phase 2
tell application "TiVo Transfer for Popcorn"
quit
end tell
tell application "Popcorn"
activate
end tell
tell application "Finder"
open files in folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows" using application file "popcorn" of folder "Macintosh HD:Applications"
end tell
delay 10
tell application "Popcorn"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "r" using (command down)
keystroke return
end tell
--------------------------------------------------
These are two different scripts and should be set to go off using iCal or cron a couple of hours after each other depending on how many files you have set to auto transfer. Also I'm using a turbo.264 so encoding doesn't take nearly as long as it would for someone with out it. Encoding must occur only after all shows have been downloaded and vice versa. This will require some estimating on your part as to when each process will complete on average.
Well thats all there is to it. Feel free to edit it but please post any tweaks that make the scripts better. Hopefully Roxio will build in these fixes in future updates but knowing how they do business they will probably charge for it.
This should go with out saying but use these scripts at your own discretion as I offer no guarantees as to how this will work on your specific system.
An addition I would like to see is the ability to immediately delete the Tivo files rather than sending them to the trash and having to empty the whole trash.
After using this for two days it works great the only issue I'm having now is that too many shows are being encoded. I have scrubs, futurama, family guy, and friends set to autotransfer. There's usually like 10 episodes transfered a day. I'm never going to watch all these episodes on my iPod so I need to figure out a way to stop downloading or encoding based on how much I'm actually watching the shows on my iPod and just keep enough on there for when I may be stuck in a situation where I have nothing else to do. Ideally I need a solution like Tivo has with Tivocasts, if your not watching them they don't download.
Ok I guess thats it for now. Thanks for reading and I hope these scripts help make TivoToGo on mac a little more useful then it is now.
Well the other day I decided to take matters into my own hands and have wrote two Applescripts that will automate Roxio's programs and get Tivo shows onto my ipod with no user intervention beyond setup. I'm listing the scripts below.
It's a little sloppy I'm not really an applescript/coding expert just a frustrated customer who was tired of waiting.
Heres the first script. It deletes the downloaded Tivo files from the previous day and opens tivo transfer for new transfers. Some minor adjustments will need to be made like folder locations. If you have the default Tivoshows folder location it should be in you home folder. Just put your user name where it says <insert your user name>. I have it set to empty the trash so if you keep stuff in the trash you might want to keep you will either need to change this practice or let me know how I can delete the Tivo files immediately without sending it to the trash.
You will need to create a folder called "Temp" in the TivoShows folder for this first script to work properly. I'll probably have the script automatically create the folder in the future but as of right now I figured it was easier to just make the folder manually.
TivoToGo Phase 1
tell application "Popcorn"
quit
end tell
tell application "Finder"
select (every item of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows" whose kind is {"Tivo Movie File"})
make alias to selection at folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows:Temp"
delete (every item of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows" whose kind is {"Tivo Movie File"})
move files of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows:Temp" to folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>1:TiVoShows"
empty trash
end tell
tell application "TiVo Transfer for Popcorn"
activate
end tell
--------------------------------------------------
The second part closes the Tivo Transfer program and opens the Tivo movie files with popcorn and then uses GUI scripting to intiate the encode process.
TivoToGo Phase 2
tell application "TiVo Transfer for Popcorn"
quit
end tell
tell application "Popcorn"
activate
end tell
tell application "Finder"
open files in folder "Macintosh HD:Users:<insert your user name>:TiVoShows" using application file "popcorn" of folder "Macintosh HD:Applications"
end tell
delay 10
tell application "Popcorn"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "r" using (command down)
keystroke return
end tell
--------------------------------------------------
These are two different scripts and should be set to go off using iCal or cron a couple of hours after each other depending on how many files you have set to auto transfer. Also I'm using a turbo.264 so encoding doesn't take nearly as long as it would for someone with out it. Encoding must occur only after all shows have been downloaded and vice versa. This will require some estimating on your part as to when each process will complete on average.
Well thats all there is to it. Feel free to edit it but please post any tweaks that make the scripts better. Hopefully Roxio will build in these fixes in future updates but knowing how they do business they will probably charge for it.
This should go with out saying but use these scripts at your own discretion as I offer no guarantees as to how this will work on your specific system.
An addition I would like to see is the ability to immediately delete the Tivo files rather than sending them to the trash and having to empty the whole trash.
After using this for two days it works great the only issue I'm having now is that too many shows are being encoded. I have scrubs, futurama, family guy, and friends set to autotransfer. There's usually like 10 episodes transfered a day. I'm never going to watch all these episodes on my iPod so I need to figure out a way to stop downloading or encoding based on how much I'm actually watching the shows on my iPod and just keep enough on there for when I may be stuck in a situation where I have nothing else to do. Ideally I need a solution like Tivo has with Tivocasts, if your not watching them they don't download.
Ok I guess thats it for now. Thanks for reading and I hope these scripts help make TivoToGo on mac a little more useful then it is now.