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View Full Version : Scheduling recordings programmatically

ctaskiran
06-24-2009, 11:08 PM
Hi,

I am just getting started with HME and the main functionality I want to implement is scheduling a recording from a website, similar to how this can be done from TiVo Central.

The HME FAQ says thi sis not possible, i.e. "The HME SDK does not support controlling the DVR features of the recorder or playing back video today." But it also says that the HME does not support video streaming and there are many such projects around so I thought maybe someone has found a way to do the scheduling, too.

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Cuneyt
wmcbrine
06-25-2009, 01:58 AM
Unlike video streaming, scheduling is unlikely to ever be part of HME. It's just not the sort of thing that HME does. And scheduling recordings from a web site is definitively not something that would involve HME.

That said... There is certainly a network-based API for scheduling, since it's used by Zap2It, Yahoo, etc. It's not published, though you might be able to "partner" with TiVo to implement it. TiVo seems to make a big deal out of such partnerships. (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=428037) But if you don't want to get involved with that, your best bet is probably to screen-scrape m.tivo.com.
davidblackledge
06-25-2009, 10:18 AM
The thing is... it sure seems like TiVo Search is using HME and somehow it is able to at least take you to the internal screen for the particular show so you can schedule a recording... anybody ever tried sniffing the TiVo Search traffic for something useful?
(or am I not making sense? I don't have HD, so I don't use TiVo Search (or Swivel Search) very often...hard to read it)
wmcbrine
06-25-2009, 01:37 PM
Yeah, TiVo can not only place HME apps anywhere in the menus, but can launch regular menus from an HME app. However, that isn't the same as programmatic scheduling, and it's of no help to someone wanting to do web-based scheduling.

Someone certainly should try to figure out what TiVo is doing there. Their HME traffic is encrypted, but my understanding is that it doesn't check the validity of the certificates, so it's interceptable. I haven't tried.