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Easier to use pyTivo - pyTivo Desktop

265K views 3K replies 233 participants last post by  KevTech 
#1 · (Edited)
I have just completed a new version which now includes a full feature UI called "pyTivo Desktop" which includes TiVoToGo support. I hope it works well for everyone. Please let me know if you have any trouble with it...

New website...

pyTivo Desktop

Release builds
Last Updated - Windows: 12/24/19 5:06am - v1.6.22
Last Updated - Mac: 12/12/19 5:34pm - v1.6.20

Beta builds
Last Updated - Windows: None
Last Updated - Mac: None

I've created an easier to use/install version of pyTivo. It's compiled into a standard Windows exe and does NOT require you to install python on your PC to work. It also includes a simple UI for setting up and managing shares. Some of the advanced features still have to be setup using the web UI or by editing the config file by hand, but this should be a lot easier for people to get going if all you want to do is transfer videos from your PC to your TiVo or use Music/Photos.

pyTivo_setup.exe

pyTivo_setup.zip (alternative for those getting antivirus warnings with exe)

In a future release I plan to add a UI for some of the advanced settings and maybe the TTG portion too.

I'm also going to try creating Mac and Linux versions too when I have some more time.

Edit: 4/2/17 Updated version with settings dialog
 
#2,027 ·
I installed pyTivo on my Windows PC desktop, and can see both my Bolt and TiVoHD on the pyTiVo. I can transfer shows to the PC from either TiVo. On the TiVoHD, I can see "My Computer" and the transferred shows as well as initiate a transfer to the TiVoHD. I can't do any of this on the Bolt. Is there a reason why the Bolt doesn't work with pytivo (desktop to bolt)? Am I missing a setting somewhere?
 
#2,032 ·
Unfortunately I don’t have a machine capable of running Catalina to test with.

I also tired building pyTivo recently with the newer Node/NPM and the upgraded versions of all the libs and it completely failed.

This stuff changes too fast and every lib is introducing breaking changes, and I just don’t have the time, or motivation, to fix it. And even if I did my Mac will only go up to High Sierra, so that's the best I could ever test on. (no intentions on getting another Mac anytime soon)
 
#2,033 ·
I just don't have the time, or motivation, to fix it. And even if I did my Mac will only go up to High Sierra
Works on Catalina for me, as I previously noted. I am having very minor issues but I think they are coincidental and not caused by Catalina itself.

The Installer does not work for me, again as I noted; my Catalina version of pyTivo is simply a brute force copy over from my previous working version and I'd suggest that to anyone else having install failure. I'm hoping the installer doesn't do anything else subtle.
 
#2,034 ·
I know most Mac programs are just a single file, but because of the way the python packager I use for pytivo, the java packaged I use for tivolibre and the electron packager I use for the UI part all work it was basically impossible cram them all into a single file, so the installer just made more sense.

At this point I think I'm done with updating pyTivo Desktop. I "might" figure out how to get it to build on Windows again so I can fix a small bug that prevents it from working with VideoReDo v6, but only if I can muster the motivation. The Mac build is likely stuck where it's at for good.

With the Edge not supporting TiVoToGo at all, and PC to TiVo transfers having been Removed from hydra, the writing is on the wall. TiVo doesn’t want to support this functionality any more and I don’t want to waste time on something they could kill off at any moment.
 
#2,035 ·
it was basically impossible cram them all into a single file, so the installer just made more sense.
Understood.

Hence my original question, in the absence of an Installer that works any more: Is it OK to just brute force fresh install pyTivo Desktop on a Mac by copying the entire pyTivo Application folder from a working Mac and copying the startup to the System library? Does the Installer really do anything else I need to be concerned about?

(obviously I needed to update paths and such to match the new environment)

As I said before, this is working for me in Catalina. The issues I'm having I'm 90%+ certain are from other causes and I can track them down eventually but I'd love the reassurance that there aren't some other subtleties in the Installer I need to pursue.
 
#2,045 ·
What you are trying to do, just get your files off a Tivo, can be done just as well with kmttg. That is still the most widely used method for that purpose and it still works fine under Catalina, .
I went to Kmttg's website and followed their directions in regards to command prompts from the terminal in the utilities folder as well as installing java, etc...still no luck with my MacBook Air. Any suggestions on how to make that work too?
 
#2,062 ·
You can’t send shows from the PC to the TiVo. You have to create a share, point it at a directory with files, then on the TiVo the PC will show up in the Devices section.

However be warned that feature only works in the old UI. In the new UI they removed the ability to see PC shares.
 
#2,063 ·
You can't send shows from the PC to the TiVo. You have to create a share, point it at a directory with files, then on the TiVo the PC will show up in the Devices section.

However be warned that feature only works in the old UI. In the new UI they removed the ability to see PC shares.
oh the old school way... yeah i can see them this way. I was under the impression i could mass upload them instead of having to click on each one on the tivo side and do transfer recording... oh well.
 
#2,068 ·
One more request ...

After selecting the first few shows to download, pyTivo Desktop tells me there may not be enough space to save the shows. The hard drive I'm using has more than a terabyte of free space.

Can you fix it to use a more accurate free space estimate, so I don't get this error as much?
 
#2,073 ·
I am new to this and am transfering Northern Exposure series to my Tivo Premiere. It's working fine, except it will not group the episodes all into the same folder. I have a default.txt with the seriesId and also a txt for each episode. They transfer fine, but just won't group. The only place that I could find the SeriesID was on Tvdb.com. It said it was 71383. But I read in the pytivo wiki that the SeriesID should be 6-8 chars long, and begin with SH. I also tried it with SH71383 and SH071383 and 071383 but it still won't group into folders. Any help is appreciated.. Thx.
 
#2,078 ·
I ripped these from dvds that I bought years ago for the entire season. They are not .tivo formats. Or are you saying I should tranfer the episodes that I already sent from the pc to the tivo, back to the pc again? And then send them back again as .tivo format?

I cut the cable on my Tivo last week. It still has an internet connection though. I would assume it gets it's data from the internet?
 
#2,082 ·
So here's a suggestion, Dan, for a tweak*: would it be possible to enlarge or otherwise make more prominent the icon used for pyTivo Desktop? On my Win10 taskbar, the pyTivo Desktop icon is significantly smaller and less-noticeable than all of its neighbors. By now I have it/its location memorized, but otherwise it could be a bug smashed on a windshield. ;)

* Yes, I know that this is going to sound ridiculous, but here goes, anyway.
 
#2,084 ·
So here's a suggestion, Dan, for a tweak*: would it be possible to enlarge or otherwise make more prominent the icon used for pyTivo Desktop? On my Win10 taskbar, the pyTivo Desktop icon is significantly smaller and less-noticeable than all of its neighbors. By now I have it/its location memorized, but otherwise it could be a bug smashed on a windshield. ;)

* Yes, I know that this is going to sound ridiculous, but here goes, anyway.
Looks normal size to me...

Rectangle Gadget Font Display device Electric blue
 
#2,085 ·
I did download Metagenerator 3 this morning but couldn't figure it out. So I just took another look and was able to figure it out..

I did a title search for Northern Exposure and it found the series and episodes. When I viewed the episodes the seriesID was blank. So I just entered SH71383 and saved it with a folder.jpg image button. It added all of the actors and other data, and changed my seriesId to SH0000071383. I did that for both episodes and then transferred them over to the tivo. All of the new data (actors/directors/etc..) came over. They did not group into a folder and the folder.jpg was not used.

I would at least like to verify the correct seriesID before I give up. The pyTivo wiki says the seriesID should be 6-8 digits, but the only one I could find (on TVDB.com and TVTime.com) is 5 digits long. And Metagenerator 3 makes it 10 digits long?
seriesId
Usually starts with "SH" and followed by 6-8 digits. TiVo uses this to allow for grouping once a program is transferred to a TiVo, provided the TiVo is set to grouping in the NPL (Now Playing List). Leaving this field blank or omitting doesn't seem to cause any problems, except when it comes time to group when transferring to TiVo. Will not group without a series ID.
  • SH is for general TV shows.
  • MV is for movies (e.g. Amazon Unbox).
  • SP is for sports.
  • TS is for Tivocast content.
SeriesId can be located at zap2it.com for a show. These values will all start with EP and must be changed to SH before using.
And a search on Zap2it.com for Northern Exposure finds nothing?
 
#2,088 ·
I did download Metagenerator 3 this morning but couldn't figure it out. So I just took another look and was able to figure it out..

I did a title search for Northern Exposure and it found the series and episodes. When I viewed the episodes the seriesID was blank. So I just entered SH71383 and saved it with a folder.jpg image button. It added all of the actors and other data, and changed my seriesId to SH0000071383. I did that for both episodes and then transferred them over to the tivo. All of the new data (actors/directors/etc..) came over. They did not group into a folder and the folder.jpg was not used.

I would at least like to verify the correct seriesID before I give up. The pyTivo wiki says the seriesID should be 6-8 digits, but the only one I could find (on TVDB.com and TVTime.com) is 5 digits long. And Metagenerator 3 makes it 10 digits long?

And a search on Zap2it.com for Northern Exposure finds nothing?
The series ID stuff got all messed up when they switched to using Rovi data a few years ago. So someo of the information you're finding might be out of date or incorrect. Even TiVos themselves had issues with the transition and TiVo had to create a huge database of ID changovers that didn't all work. I say if you can get them to group at all then just leave it and move along.

The custom jpg file for the folder hasn't worked since the old, old, UI used on the Series 2 systems, so that's too be expected. Just be lucky this works at all. On the new Edge TiVoToGo transfers both TiVo to PC and PC to TiVo are broken and presumed never to be fixed. So this could be the end of the line for this feature anyway.
 
#2,093 ·
Thanks for the fix!

Testing with 1.6.19:
  • pyTivo Desktop shows VRD version matching my installed version
  • Deregistered v5 and pyTivo still works with QSF
  • Uninstalled VRD5, rebooted, and pyTivo works with QSF
  • Still has the same free space issue. The free space shown in pyTivo Desktop settings matches what I see in Windows Explorer. Almost 1.5TB free.
FWIW, pyTivo Desktop doesn't generally give the free space error when I click the download all shows in a folder button the first time. Even if I have 10 shows in a folder, I don't get the free space warning. However, when I click the next folder or show I get the error.

BTW, thanks for looking into my other suggestions. Not nagging, just wanted them on your radar if they're doable.

You said changing the filenames would be difficult, but you didn't respond to the OAD sorting. Any chance of this happening?
 
#2,097 ·
I still can't get pyTiVo to work. I downloaded the update and hoped that would fix things, but I still have the same problem. When I try to open the desktop it looks like it is loading and then the Settings window opens. Everything looks fine: it recognized my TiVo box and has the correct amount of space used. If I click Save, it says pyTivo is opening and then the Setting window opens again. If I just close the Settings page it says it is downloading the show list, but nothing ever downloads. Like, I leave it running overnight and when I go back the My Shows page is still blank and the cursor just shows it is still loading. Any suggestions would be welcomed
 
#2,108 ·
That's not an error. The way this all works is I package the python code along with the interpreter into an exe so it can run like a program. They way that works is it basically "unzips" all that stuff into a temp directory while it's running and then deletes it as soon as you close it.

Can you send me the full log? Just send it to the email address in the about dialog

Actually what I need you to do is open the settings dialog, and switch to the downloads tab, right before you send the log. The settings dialog and the actual post processing are the only parts that actually use this code, so I need to see it attempt to access the COM interface
 
#2,116 ·
Thanks for this. Am I ok not upgrading? When I try to upgrade, I keep getting the message that PyTivo is running and has to be closed before it can install. I've closed all PyTivo processes, but no luck. I've been very happy with the prior build.
if what you has works then keep it, but I'm not sure if I buillt enpugh logic into the upgrade detection for you to ignore it. I hope I did.been a while since I looked at that part
 
#2,117 ·
I received a prompt to upgrade pyTivo and did. Now I can not use pyTivo and have this message, "Error Connecting to Pytivo!"

It was working great before the upgrade on my Romeo Pro, TE3, and Windows 10. Same set up as before and after the upgrade.

Tried:
Removing and Reinstalling
Re entering TiVo Mak
Rechecked Firewall
Read through as much of this thread and Googled the problem as much as I could.

No luck.

I am sure the message, "Error Connecting to Pytivo!" means what it says, but I need help in fixing what was working great and now with this latest prompted update being updated, it's now not working.
Please, help me fix this, please.
Thanks
 
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