Windows front-end for Tivo-Mplayer

[WinVo]

Hey all,

For all those Windows folks out there, I've created a front-end utility for Tivo-MPlayer. It's only version 1.0 so there's plenty of room for improvements (and hopefully not too many fixes). Here's the URL to the download along with some screenshots:

http://www.3wells.net/winvo/

If you have TivoWeb installed, it will access additional information about shows. It also has the ability to delete shows.

Refer to the page above for additional comments about the program.

I hope you will find it useful. It's free! I look forward to any comments, suggestions.

-Paul :)

[sanderton]

Works nicely, cheers.

Is there any way your app could start vserver remotely?

[HuMan321]

Sounds great.
Thanks for sharing

What have you found regarding the amount of resources used by this on the Tivo itself? Can you watch a recording on the Tivo while someone else watches another program remotely?. Can it be recording while your program is running? etc.

Thanks

I will try these out myself also, but I upgraded my computer and no longer have M-Player installed. And I remember that it took me awhile to get that running correctly

[chris_tivo]

Many thanks WinVo, this is just wht I have been wanting for quite a while now!

(and of course thanks to ppl who did mplayer and vserver)

Call me lazy but I've not had chance to figure out how to get mplayer to play from the tivo and this does the job brilliantly.

I couldn't get it to play from live, but I'm guessing that is more to do with mplayer than winvo (correct?). Does it have to be recording to play live?

Many thanks

[WinVo]

Thanks for the comments all. Here are some quick replies to everyone's postings.

sanderton: I'm working on a way to start vserver remotely. It would involve having my program telnet'ing over to the Tivo box and executing the commands. I know how to do it, it's just a matter of getting to it. But it should get done soon.

HuMan321: I've found that with a fast network connection I've had relatively no problems "multi-threading" tasks. My wife typically watches her recorded programs downstairs on Tivo itself while I watch my programs upstairs on the PC. I believe we've also encountered times where Tivo has been recording and we've been watching programs upstairs.

chris_tivo: There are a couple of ways to play "live" TV. You can record the show, like you thought, and then play the show from the list. You can also change channels to the station you want to watch and then watch the "Live" program. I've found that I've had to manually change the channels to reset the "live" buffer. The only drawback to this option is that it only records 30 minutes by default (I'm sure there is a way to change this).

Hope that answers all your questions.

-Paul

[chris_tivo]

Thanks for the reply. It looks like its working now fine displaying live tv off the tivo so maybe i needed to reboot or something.

[pitt30]

this is great. thanks for this program. using it as we speak.

how about port support. i use tivo web on a port other than 80 and because of that can get any info.

just a suggestion,

thanks again for your hard work

[WinVo]

pitt30,

Just FYI. I'm working on an update that includes the ability to specify the HTTP port for TivoWeb.

-Paul

[Zyll]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I've been having many problems with mplayer hanging, and spent a lot of time trying various combinations of parameters and different versions, all without any success. With MuVo I've been able to view programs on my PC without any hangs at all!

The user interface is a big improvement, too.

It would be great to be able to start vserver automatically, since then my family would be able to handle using it too.

Thanks again!

Zyll

[pitt30]

what about for the tivo address? i would like to stream from work with a forwarded port. just a thought. sorry if im asking too much

thanks again

[Torak]

Excellent app. I tried to get mplayer working some time ago with no luck but this made the job easy.

If it could be possible to enable the playing of local ty files as well then I'd be :D :D :D :D .

[wkozun]

Great program! A couple of suggestions/questions:

Get the Now Playing list from multiple TiVos and allow a user to play a show without having to specify which TiVo you want to play from.

Has anyone written an mplayer for the TiVo that would allow you to play from vserver on one TiVo to another TiVo? This is kind of what cwingert is attempting to do with his HMO for series 1 I presume.

Adding a tivo remote app on the play page would make it useful to change channels if you are watching the live show - this is a way to distribute you digital cable/satellite throughout your house to any PCs you have.

What exactly do the arrows do? How much forward or back do they work?

Any advice on using WinVo to watch live TV - switching channels with the TV remote on TiVoWeb seems buggy - do others find this?

Finally, when I try to run WinVo/mplayer on an older PC (Pentium II) I get the following message :

MPlayer interrupted by signal 4 in module: init_audio_codec
- MPlayer crashed by an 'Illegal Instruction'.
It usually happens when you run it on a CPU different than the one it was
compiled/optimized for.
Verify this!
- MPlayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM.
Recompile MPlayer with --enable-debug and make a 'gdb' backtrace and
disassembly. For details, see DOCS/bugreports.html#crash.b.

At the beginning of the logs is the following:
CPU: Intel Celeron Covington/Pentium II Deschutes,Tonga/Pentium II Xeon (Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
Detected cache-line size is 32 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE

Does this mean that it won't run on a Pentium II or do I need to recompile? If I need to recompile then how do I do this? Is the problem that my CPU does not have MMX2 and SSE?

[nevets14]

NICE!! I was using the java front-end but this one is way better

[WinVo]

Hi all,

I've posted a minor update to WinVo on my site. Check out the update section to find out what's changed.

-Paul

http://www.3wells.net/winvo

[wkozun]

Thanks for the enhancements!

One more suggestion - how about being able to play a ty file from your local drive rather than a TiVo as mplayer is capable of this.

Where you now have the dropdown for Now Showing, etc. you can add browse PC or something to that extent.

[AVD]

Originally posted by WinVo
Hi all,

I've posted a minor update to WinVo on my site. Check out the update section to find out what's changed.

-Paul

http://www.3wells.net/winvo

WOW! this is excellent.

but I couldn't get the tivoweb module to work using port 8880.

thanks again

[zabs]

Excellent work on this.

If it helps sway you, I'm also looking for a nice GUI to mplayer that will play ty's from the local hard drive.

[WinVo]

By popular demand, the next version of WinVo will include the ability to play local .TY files. Expect a release in about a week.

Happy Tivo watching!

-Paul

[wkozun]

.By popular demand, the next version of WinVo will include the ability to play local .TY files.

Awesome!

This might be a little trickier, but how about the ability to play .tmf's as well since they are just rar'ed ty files with xml data appended. You could just unrar them to a temp .ty file and play from there. Would that be possible?

[pitt30]

Winvo,

great job on this. however im running into a problem. i put my user and password in and the appropriate port. but when i hit refresh list it wont pull anything, shows or info. disable tivo web and i can get shows and stream fine.
am i missing something? thanks

[AVD]

Originally posted by wkozun
.

Awesome!

This might be a little trickier, but how about the ability to play .tmf's as well since they are just rar'ed ty files with xml data appended. You could just unrar them to a temp .ty file and play from there. Would that be possible?

my understanding is that mplayer will play tmfs natively

[wkozun]

Originally posted by AVD
my understanding is that mplayer will play tmfs natively

I tried this but it didn't work as Mplayer didn't recognize the file. When I unarchived the file to its components - showing.xml and part00.ty I was able to play the ty file.

I even tried chaning the extension of the file from .tmf to .ty but it did not work.

[Mike_G]

Hey Paul,

Any future plans on making a WinVo version for HMO?

Thanks,
Mike

[boxx]

Is there a way to have the image DeInterlaced?

[drnull]

Originally posted by pitt30
Winvo,

great job on this. however im running into a problem. i put my user and password in and the appropriate port. but when i hit refresh list it wont pull anything, shows or info. disable tivo web and i can get shows and stream fine.
am i missing something? thanks

If you'll notice, on his webpage, he says

History
11/1/2003. Version 1.0.0.3.
You can now specify the HTTP port to use for TivoWeb.


That just means you can specify. He doesn't say he'll use it... :-)

Seriously, though, if your tivoweb isn't running on port 80, you won't be able to use that option yet.

[PortlandPaw]

I expanded my HDR-112 three years ago to a total of 58.5 gigs and am now getting around to upping the capacity to 200 gig and adding a TurboNET card. All because my wife bought me Jeff Keegan's book for Christmas!

While I've been waiting for all the hardware to arrive, I've been doing a lot of reading on these forums and doing as much as I can on my machines to get them ready.

In anticipation of accessing TiVoWEB from work, I've set up a URL with DynDNS.com and installed the Orenosp SSL proxy server with a random external port forwarded to the internal TiVo address on port 80 coming in through my LinkSys router.

So does this mean that from my office (with the bandwidth gods smiling) I could put my WAN IP with the random port into WinVo and find myself streaming from my TiVo at home?

If this is true, a "nice to have" thing would be to accept a URL and DNS entry in place of the IP, which might change.

Thank you for all your hard work on this...I really can't wait to try everything out!

[mrschwarz]

Since I have discovered WinVo I have enjoyed watching Tivo on my PC. It makes the somewhat complex command string required by Mplayer quite transparent.

I prefer Mplayer because of the way I can navigate through the file (to skip past commercials, for instance). As you know, mplayer requires cygwin to operate. One of the shortcomings of cygwin is its inablility to handle files larger that 2 GB. Mplayer has a workaround that lets the user specify which part of a multipart file to play. For example, mplayer tivo://tivo/248161/3 will play part 3 of the 248161 FSID.

Do you have any plans include this functionality in your program? This would make it possible to player movies or other programs longer than 1 hour (at high qualty.

Thanks again for a great program!

[wkozun]

So does this mean that from my office (with the bandwidth gods smiling) I could put my WAN IP with the random port into WinVo and find myself streaming from my TiVo at home?

You better have a BIG pipe into your home! That could work but you will need a lot of upload bandwidth. My upload bandwidth with my DSL is 128kbps (vs. 1Mbps download). That equates to 16kBps or about 1MB/minute. Even at basic quality the TiVo uses a lot more than that. I believe that Good quality on my SA TiVo equates to something like 28MB/ minute. That means you would need about 28* my upload speed or about 3.6Mbps - faster than 2*T-1. Note the differences between b=bits and B=bytes = 8 bits.

The other issue is that I have heard that it is not a good idea to have your TiVo exposed to the net as port scanning could cause it to crash. I cannot verify whether this is true or an urban legend.

[PortlandPaw]

Oh, well, it will be fun to try and see what happens. I have TimeWarner RoadRunner which they claim is twice as fast as DSL, but I don't know the up/download speeds.

As for security, I'm hoping that the SSL combined with username/password and my firewall will protect me from intruders. Information on tivohelp.com would indicate that this is a good, secure system. [fingers crossed]

[TivoGeezer]

I installed Winvo and it works great as an interface to Mplayer. I had Mplayer working but this is a much nicer interface. I have one problem with the TivoWeb interface to it though. If I set it up to use TivoWeb, it will not load any programs into the list. If I disable tivoWeb, then it shows me a list fine and will play from that list. If I then go to the setup page and turn TivoWeb on, and go back to the main list, I get the program information as I select programs in the list ok, which means it must be interfacing with TivoWeb ok. If I then click "Refresh", I lose the list. No programs loaded.

TivoWeb is installed and working fine from my workstation. I do not use a user ID or password and I use the default port (80 I guess). It seems to have some interaction since the program info shows if the list is already loaded but, if I refresh the list, I lose it. The list is also malformed when I do it this way, since the program name is in the first column, which is "Date" when TivoWeb is enabled. Thanks.

[WinVo]

First of all, I want to apologize to all for not having a new release in a while. I hope to get back to updating WinVo soon.

TivoGeezer, can you provide screen shots of what is happening? This seems really weird. I'll see if I can reproduce your problem. Thanks!

Talk to you all soon.

-Paul

[TivoGeezer]

Winvo, thanks for your reply. Attached are the images of the scren captures.

If I load Winvo without TivoWeb enabled, the program list loads fine (see winvo1).

If I go to the settings page and enable TivoWeb (see winvo2), then go back to the main page, the page format changes and, if I pick one of the programs, the description is properly displayed (see winvo3).

If I then click the refresh button to get a new list of programs, the list comes up empty (see winvo4).

I noticed that if I set the listing type to "ToDo", that list loads just fine (see winvo5). It only seems to be the "Now Showing" list that is affected. Thanks.

[TivoGeezer]

Well, whatever it was that was causing the problem with Winvo and TivoWeb, it is working correctly now. Not sure what I changed but I think I did reboot the Tivo in there someplace so maybe...

[jamesband]

Is there a way to have the image DeInterlaced?

put the following in the Misc options on the settings tab:

-vop pp=0x20000

[jamesband]

I was having a problem with 0 shows when using Tivoweb... Turned out that I had previously put Proxy settings in IE, which I do from time to time to keep certain websites from tracking me. I simply added the tivo's ip to the bypass list.

Winvo, thanks for your reply. Attached are the images of the scren captures.

If I load Winvo without TivoWeb enabled, the program list loads fine (see winvo1).

If I go to the settings page and enable TivoWeb (see winvo2), then go back to the main page, the page format changes and, if I pick one of the programs, the description is properly displayed (see winvo3).

If I then click the refresh button to get a new list of programs, the list comes up empty (see winvo4).

I noticed that if I set the listing type to "ToDo", that list loads just fine (see winvo5). It only seems to be the "Now Showing" list that is affected. Thanks.

[lonaman]

I am having the same issue. Where do I add the tivo IP to the bypass list? I do not put Proxy settings in IE, but I have used Spybot S&D to prevent tracking. Maybe that is causing the problem.

I was having a problem with 0 shows when using Tivoweb... Turned out that I had previously put Proxy settings in IE, which I do from time to time to keep certain websites from tracking me. I simply added the tivo's ip to the bypass list.

[gyre]

I really like winvo. I did notice that sound goes way out of sync on long movies tho.

Is there a way around this?

Thanks!

-- gyre --

[PortlandPaw]

Winvo, great app! Very handy. Some time ago you mentioned that the next version of WinVo would allow the playing of native .ty files resident on the PC. Any progress on that? I'd love to have that ability as, I would expect, many others.

[tryingtogetby]

You better have a BIG pipe into your home! That could work but you will need a lot of upload bandwidth. My upload bandwidth with my DSL is 128kbps (vs. 1Mbps download). That equates to 16kBps or about 1MB/minute. Even at basic quality the TiVo uses a lot more than that. I believe that Good quality on my SA TiVo equates to something like 28MB/ minute. That means you would need about 28* my upload speed or about 3.6Mbps - faster than 2*T-1. Note the differences between b=bits and B=bytes = 8 bits.

The other issue is that I have heard that it is not a good idea to have your TiVo exposed to the net as port scanning could cause it to crash. I cannot verify whether this is true or an urban legend.

wkozun,

So am I dreaming to think that I will or ever be able to watch shows off my dtivo from anywhere other than my home? If I setup a webpage, and sent captured video from my dtivo, wouldn't I have the same bandwidth issue? Any suggestions on a clean way to watch video on a notebook from my dtivo while I am traveling? Thanks for your help.

ttgb

[wkozun]

wkozun,

So am I dreaming to think that I will or ever be able to watch shows off my dtivo from anywhere other than my home? If I setup a webpage, and sent captured video from my dtivo, wouldn't I have the same bandwidth issue? Any suggestions on a clean way to watch video on a notebook from my dtivo while I am traveling? Thanks for your help.

ttgb

Yes, you always have the same bandwidth issue - whether this is feasible or not depends on your upload speed. I have DSL with Bell Canada. My internet download speed is 1Mbps but my upload speed is only 128kbps. That does not make downloads of video very feasible.

Maybe your home upload speed is better. If it is then perhaps when travelling you could download shows overnight. But with my upload speed it would take about 14 hours to download a 30 minute show recorded at good quality (I have an SA TiVo - you have a DTivo I am not sure what the bitrate is but it is probably similar). Depending on where you are travelling to you may not get great download speeds as well.

Of course the other problem is security - it takes a bit of work to set up proper security on your TiVo. Otherwise you run the risk of having your TiVo hacked into which isn't hard since by default the TiVo has zero security. I believe there is a way to set up an SSL proxy server - do a search on TiVoCommunity.

My suggestion is to transfer all the shows you may want to watch to your hard drive before you leave home. I realize this means you can't download shows that were on since you left home, but "thems the breaks".

[WinVo]

I'm back to working on WinVo. I hope to have an update... (gulp) soon. Yes, I know I've said that in the past. :)

This next release will probably be minor just to get it out the door. You should be able to play local .TY files and actually create a playlist of local files and remote shows on your Tivo. (as well as a few bug fixes)

The next release after that will be to add support for multiple Tivos.

Thanks for all the support.

-Paul

[PortlandPaw]

You should be able to play local .TY files and actually create a playlist of local files and remote shows on your Tivo.-Paul

Paul, I'm looking forward to this capability. I hope you can include .tmf files in the mix, as well. My other "wish list" item would be the ability to use device names rather than IP addresses. Not that big a thing, but it just looks more professional. And WinVo is definitely professional!

[Bushido]

I have to say, I loved WinVo. It was easy to use and looked simple and great. But, now it's as useful as putting David Bought on my Buddy List. I'm now getting the "0 shows" error that other people have posted about, and I haven't changed anything. I never had any proxy settings or change of network configuration. I even went as far as cleaning the internet cache (dunno if that did anything), removing the WinVo program, uninstalling mplayer-tivo, deleting the registry keys, and deleting the program folder, then redoing the whole casaba, and nothing.

I have TivoWebPlus 1.0rc5 installed on port 5950 with a username and password, but that TivoWeb setting in WinVo never worked from the getgo.

Can anyone figure this out? I had to set up a direct shortcut to my TivoWeb's Now Showing list in order to stream movies, but I'd rather be playing with WinVo.

Thanks in advance!

[SniperKilla]

nice app.. the tivo web support works, and i get a list of programs, andwhen i click on and hit play, it says playing, but nothing comes up, and if i look under log it is just flooding Cache Fill 0.00% for ever.. and nothing ever works :(

this is a Hughes DVR40 S2 Directv TiVo...

yes vserver is running, and yes winvo is in the mplayer-tivo directory.. but still nothing :(

[WinVo]

SniperKilla,

How fast is your connection to your Tivo box? Sounds like the problems I was having when I was connecting to my Tivo via a wireless network. The connection was just too slow to stream anything.

What do you have as your cache setting? If it's set too high, it might take forever to fill the cache.

-Paul

[SniperKilla]

its a FA 120 usb2.0 ethernet adapter.. i can get 1.70MB/s using tytools..

also streaming from TivoWeb Plus to WMP via the view links works fine with vserver running... :/

[Dalc]

Havn't found any info on this, but seems a major issue with mplayer that Winvo could at least make an attempt at working around. That is the limitation of the 2gb file limit, so even when streaming a file you can only view 2gb worth at one time.

Just need option to play certain parts of a video, and ideally option to play video say only 3 parts at a time, then play the next 3 parts and so on. Not hard to code, but would make winvo 100000x more useful for viewing anything but short programmes.

If winvo doesn't do it, I'll code my own little gui to mplayer to do the above.

[TheWickedPriest]

Maybe harder than you think, because vserver doesn't work that way -- you tell it which stream to play, not which parts.

Anyway, MPlayer under Linux doesn't have this limitation. Must be specific to the Windows port.

[Dalc]

You're half right. Yes, its an issue with the windows port, specifically cgywin, it can only handle 2gb files. It was just coded that way. May be a dif version of cgywin out there that doesn't have this limitation exists, but havnt found it so far.

And no, its nothing to do with vserver. Using mplayer manually, from the dos prompt, just as the mplayer docs describe, I can play any part I like. eg, a 2 hour movie has 11 parts. Using winvo I get bout 45mins max as it can only start from the 1st part. Using mplayer directly I can play any part or parts, starting and ending at any part, no problem whatsoever. Winvo just needs to support this functionality of mplayer. And besides its called Winvo, not Linuxvo, so however mplayer works in linux matters not.

[WinVo]

Aside from the usual excuses... like I'm busy with life... I have decided to add some more options to WinVo to address recent issues e-mailed to me, discussed here, and suggested from friends.

If you want a beta copy of the software, just e-mail me and I'll send you a copy. The beta version has the ability to play local .TY files, create a playlist, and download the .TY files to your local hard drive using the -dumpstream/-dumpfile parameters in mplayer.

I am in the process of coding some extra cool stuff right now. Here's what I need to work on:

(1) Need the ability to play multiple segments of a large Tivo stream. As you are aware by reading this thread, there is a limitation in mplayer/cygwin and ultimately in WinVo that will not allow you to play multiple segments of large streams. The fix will be to by default play segment 0 and then automatically try and play segment 1 after segment 0 is finished. It will keep trying to play successive segments until mplayer returns an error that the segment does not exist. Simple, yah?

(2) My Tivo hard drive crashed. Big time. I lost about 50 hours of programming. That prompted me to start looking into backing up my Tivo programs that were just sitting there. So I added a "Save" (download) button to the WinVo interface to allow users to download the file to their local drive (in the current beta). I need to add in the ability to automatically download multiple segments of larger shows.

(3) I also want to tie in the tools from tyStudio. Great program! I want to have a one-click solution to download a stream and automatically convert it into an MPEG file.

(4) A Linux port. Yes... a Linux port. This is just on the "things to do" list. I will not start working on this until everything is set with the next release.

If you have any more suggestions (please keep them simple for now just so I can get this next release out the door), please feel free to let me know.

Happy Tivo'ing,
-Paul

[wkozun]

(3) I also want to tie in the tools from tyStudio. Great program! I want to have a one-click solution to download a stream and automatically convert it into an MPEG file.

Do you mean tyStudio or TyTools. TyStudio is kind of dead these days while TyTools is going strong will JOsh adding lots of new functionality on a continual basis.

Great to hear about the other changes - they sound great.

[lenroc]

Winvo,

Thanks for the great app! I think it's great to finally have an alternative to the TWP interface for watching my shows.

Any interest in releasing the source? I have a couple of features floating around in my head that I'd love to try to hack in there...

[wkozun]

Winvo,

Thanks for the great app! I think it's great to finally have an alternative to the TWP interface for watching my shows.

I believe that Winvo has been around for longer than TWP's ability to play shows so TWP is an alternative to WinVo, not the other way around :)

[lenroc]

I believe that Winvo has been around for longer than TWP's ability to play shows so TWP is an alternative to WinVo, not the other way around :)

I wasn't speaking for everyone, just myself ;)

I had been using only TyShow previously, and now experimenting with mPlayer and WinVo has been fun.

[MagicPieGod]

Kudos to Paul for a great little app...

Does anyone happen to have the beta version he mentioned in his last post from April? I emailed him to request it a few days ago, as he invited anyone to, but haven't heard back. Seems like he's probably pretty busy, so I thought I'd see if anyone else got it and is willing (and allowed?) to share.... :D

Thanks!
Regards,
Mike

[honormeall]

Hi,

I know this is an older thread but I am hoping for some help. I am able to stream video from TivoWebPlus but when I use WinVo it shows no files available. If I enable the Tivoweb setting it will list the recordings but I am unable to play them. This is the error I recieved in the log "getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]".

This is the error when the Tivoweb setting is enabled,

"getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]

Playing tivo://192.168.1.111/834578.
Unable to open URL: tivo://192.168.1.111/834578"

thanks for the help

David

[AVD]

do you have vserver running?

[honormeall]

yes vserver is running. I am able to stream thru tivowebplus.

David

[finster869]

I can play files through tivoweb plus, but I get 0 files with winvo. Anyone have a fix?

[PEC1968]

nice app.. the tivo web support works, and i get a list of programs, andwhen i click on and hit play, it says playing, but nothing comes up, and if i look under log it is just flooding Cache Fill 0.00% for ever.. and nothing ever works :(

this is a Hughes DVR40 S2 Directv TiVo...

yes vserver is running, and yes winvo is in the mplayer-tivo directory.. but still nothing :(

I appear to have this same issue. I looked but did not see if a solution was ever posted.

[WinVo]

Hi all. Yes I have been quite busy with work and life. Before I get busy again, I wanted to post an update. This update should allow you to play local .TY files as well as create a playlist. If you have any questions regarding any of the new features please let me know.

I've been reading about these TivoWeb plus errors. Can anyone post a link to TivoWeb plus? I'm sure the format used by TivoWeb pages are different. I'll see what I can do.

Thanks.

You can find the download at:

http://www.3wells.net/winvo/

[lenroc]

I've been reading about these TivoWeb plus errors. Can anyone post a link to TivoWeb plus? I'm sure the format used by TivoWeb pages are different. I'll see what I can do.

The TWP thread is:
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38724

And the 'official homepage' is:
http://tivo.fp2000.org/twp

[RavenStL]

Good to hear an update. Very handy. What did you use to design it? VC++, VB ?

I wonder if you can have it pass command line arguments so I can choose between different tivos by picking which Icon?

My now playing lists seem to take a long time to fill in, but that is just as slow on TWP. So nothing you can do about it.

I am considering writing my own as well, but why when yours is great!

OOO, and what about tossing in the ability to use Tyshow and WMP? I know it was made for mplayer, but once you have this GUI, WMP is nice.

[greenbriel]

Hey WinVo, just wanted to say thanks a lot for your work, this is absolutely fantastic! I recently moved and don't have a TV in the bedroom. With this, I can stream wirelessly from the TiVo to a laptop. It's great!

One question: Do you know if there's any way to rebuffer the stream? If I skip through the commercials, it seems like it eats the buffer and never rebuffers, so it gets choppy sometimes. I know it's probably an mplayer issue, but I thought I'd ask...

Anyway, thanks again, great app.

-G

[ThePicMan]

I've been reading about these TivoWeb plus errors. Can anyone post a link to TivoWeb plus? I'm sure the format used by TivoWeb pages are different. I'll see what I can do.


Any news on the TWP front? Will WinVo work sometimes on some systems with TWP or is it always a no go?

[greenbriel]

Hey PicMan,

I'm having no trouble at all using WinVo with TivoWebPlus. Works like a champ.

[WinVo]

Sorry it takes so long to post replies. I only get one e-mail stating I have a response on the forums and by the time I get to the forums I notice there are at least 2 or 3 posts.

Lenroc/ThePicMan: I will do some research into TWP but it seems some people can get it to work. All I am doing is parsing the HTML that is returned from TivoWeb or TWP. If it's not working then it's simply a format I'll need to figure out how to parse. Since I'll probably not install TWP in the near future, can someone e-mail me a copy of the HTML that is produced from TWP? If you can, let me know and I'll tell you what HTML pages I need examples of.

RavenSTL: I use VC++. I will make a note to have command line options to pick and choose between different Tivos. Unfortunately I'm not sure about hooking into WMP. I would probably have to find a codec for WMP to translate the Tivo stream. For now though I think I'll have to stick with mplayer.

greenbriel: Unforunately it is a mplayer buffer issue. Sorry. I'm glad you like the program though. :)

Happy Tivo'ing!

[greenbriel]

Thanks for the reply WinVo. Oh well, I guess that's another reason to upgrade my Wireless to 54Mbs. It works beautifully when I plug in the ethernet.

Cheers.

[ThePicMan]

Sorry it takes so long to post replies. I only get one e-mail stating I have a response on the forums and by the time I get to the forums I notice there are at least 2 or 3 posts.

Lenroc/ThePicMan: can someone e-mail me a copy of the HTML that is produced from TWP? If you can, let me know and I'll tell you what HTML pages I need examples of.

Happy Tivo'ing!

Its currently running like a champ on my box w/TWP. I have been busy with drive changes and have not played with it much. What files would you like?

TPM

[hec1152]

I've scanned for info on my problem and haven't found it, so forgive post if I'm being redundant.

I have everthing (including mplayer) setup per instrucitons I've found. Sympton of my problem is that when I launch WinVo, it finds the "Now Showing" list from my Tivo and displays it. (I'm not sure it sees all of the recordings that are out there, but ...). Anyway, When I select any one of the recordings and press the green play button, I see the program info in the right hand window, but very quickly, I see "exiting, end of file" and then "Stopped" ni the status bar. No video shows up. It's like it's skipping to the end of the file without processing any of it.

I'm guessing that I have some kind of mplayer setup problem (?), but I have no idea where to begin to run this problem down.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

[hec1152]

Oh, by the way, here's the log from WinVo:

Exiting... (End of file)
MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring.
Cannot load font: c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]
Playing tivo://192.168.0.100/3144730.
Option stream url: This URL doesn't have a hostname part.
File not found: '3144730'
Failed to open tivo://192.168.0.100/3144730


Exiting... (End of file)
MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring.
Cannot load font: c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]
Playing tivo://192.168.0.100/3144732.
Option stream url: This URL doesn't have a hostname part.
File not found: '3144732'
Failed to open tivo://192.168.0.100/3144732


Exiting... (End of file)

[cwaring]

You guy's probably don't like simple "me too" posts, but I am having the same problem as the other chap.

However, I don't have any kind of streaming device set up actually on the Tivo. Do I need this?

Getting pretty-much the same error message...

MPlayer dev-CVS-050928-16:38-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Pentium 4/Xeon/Celeron Northwood (Family: 8, Stepping: 4)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring.
Cannot load font: c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]
Playing tivo://192.168.0.200/1357190.
File not found: '192.168.0.200/1357190'
Failed to open tivo://192.168.0.200/1357190


Exiting... (End of file)
MPlayer dev-CVS-050928-16:38-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Pentium 4/Xeon/Celeron Northwood (Family: 8, Stepping: 4)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring.
Cannot load font: c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]
Playing tivo://192.168.0.200/1357185.
File not found: '192.168.0.200/1357185'
Failed to open tivo://192.168.0.200/1357185


Exiting... (End of file)


I'm new to all this hacking stuff so be gentle ;)

[mikepy]

Hi
I'm struggling here to get this to work too!
I downloaded winvo and ran it under WinXP i didnt install anything to my series 1 Tivo but i had tivoweb and Mserver running although i've never used them before!
now when i run winvo i get the list populated with my shows and when i click on one i get episode information in the right pane and the green start arrow is enabled.
So far so good.
when i click the start arrow nothing happens! the status panel changes from how many shows i have listed to "stopped" and there is no log generated?

I assume i have done something stupid or missed out something?
can someone help me please

Mike :confused:

[darrin75]

Is winvo in the mplayer directory?

[mikepy]

But winvo is a windows program and mplayer is in the Tivo?

is it not? :o

mike

[mikepy]

I dont understand this at all. I have been looking at the Winvo site and that says to install it the mplayer directory too?
but the only file i got when i downloaded it was a windows exe. file???
i dont have a n mplayer directory on my computer so would someone please explain this to me?

Mike

[cheer]

I dont understand this at all. I have been looking at the Winvo site and that says to install it the mplayer directory too?
but the only file i got when i downloaded it was a windows exe. file???
i dont have a n mplayer directory on my computer so would someone please explain this to me?

Mike
Winvo is a Windows front-end for mplayer. If you don't have/aren't running mplayer, then you probably don't need Winvo...

[cwaring]

I do indeed have Winvo in the MPlayer directory. However, I did not install anything (other than Tserver) on my Tivo, and starting that doesn't help either :(

Any other ideas appreciated.

[mikepy]

Yes perhaps i'm not explaining myself properly here.
I DO have mPlayer and it is running on the TIVO - but how can i install a windows front end (winvo) in the same directory on my Tivo? Thats impossible surely?

Mike

[cwaring]

Hmmm. MPlayer is not running on my Tivo but it's on my PC. I'm all :confused: now. Yes, Winvo is a Windows app and won't run on Tivo ;)

[mikepy]

Have you got Hackman installed?
I have and when i look in that i have an option to start or stop Mplayer(vserver)
I have also found mplayer in one of the directories on the Tivo but I've got no mention of Mplayer in my PC?????

[cwaring]

Nope. Don't have Hackman installed. Yet :) Still new to this Tivoweb stuff. So I need it for this thing to work?

[mikepy]

hackman was already on my disk i think ! i just had to run it.

where is your msever installed on your PC then?

[cwaring]

where is your msever installed on your PC then?
What's MServer? I just have MPlayer (MPlayer-mingw32-dev-CVS-050928) in it's own directory. Nowhere special :)

EDITED TO ADD:
Right. Well, when I go to the main Mserver page (http://tivo-mplayer.sourceforge.net/) it tells me that:

TiVo-Mplayer is now in the main mplayer code base.

However, having another look at it, I might have missed something...
however you need to download the companion vstream-client
.. so I'll check that out first and report back :)

[mikepy]

what in *****! i've been mixing up Mplayer and Mserver!!

where did u get Mplayer from?
thanks

Mike

[cwaring]

Now I'm totally :confused:

Mplayer here (http://tivo-mplayer.sourceforge.net/) :)

[mikepy]

Me Too! LOL
I cant find any explanations of any of this! How do all these other people get to know ?

[cwaring]

No idea :) They musn't like new guys much in here ;)

[mikepy]

we'll get there in the end i suppose

[johnnytaco]

I figured this out from winvo's instructions, but will attempt to make it easier for you two:

1. run vserver on your tivo - link on 1st page of this thread (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tivo-mplayer/vserver-1.2.tar.gz?download)
2. install mplayer on your PC - link on 1st page of this thread
3. put winvo.exe in the same dir as mplayer - link on 1st page of this thread

run winvo - change settings to point at your tivo, then it all should work... you *may* need tivoweb or tivowebplus running on your tivo, not sure. I do.

Good luck! :)

jt

[cwaring]

Done all that. Might have missed something though, I suppose. Will double-check. Have TW installed too.

[mikepy]

Thanks JT

unfortunately when i run winvo the only difference is that i get
"exiting end of file" before i get the "Stopped"
it may be that it always said that but for some reason its running slower so i can read it? there is some text before the "exiting end of file" but its too fast to read.

I unzipped Mplayer into the winvo directory as you said and tried it out.
I then tried running mplayer first which gave me a dos box with lots to say but no time to read it!!!

Thanks for your help but have you any idea what's going wrong.
BTW the codecs folder is empty?

Mike

[johnnytaco]

Are you trying to view a program that is currently recording? I get a similar error when I do...

Click on the "log" tab at the top to see what all the text was that flew by.

Sorry I can't be of more help. :(

jt

[cwaring]

Nope. Only items in Now Playing (or Now Showing, as I think it is in the US :))

[mikepy]

No I'm not either!

Mike

[Smegger]

Has this problem been solved? Is there a work around? Winvo works great but only on 40 minute shows.

[6021tivo]

BUMP

I have just started using WINVO, and have also noticed it only works on shows in my case about 28 minutes, I am using mode zero. I havec been informed it may be something to do with a 2Gb limit on something?

[RipperZ]

Has anyone found a solution to this problem? I am getting this same error and cannot find anything on this forum that shows how to fix it.

I have TiVo S2 running vserver-1.2 (file found on here)
vstream-client-1.2 IS able to connect and get a show listing
mplayer version - Mplayer 1.0pre7try2-3.4.4.4



Oh, by the way, here's the log from WinVo:

Exiting... (End of file)
MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring.
Cannot load font: c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]
Playing tivo://192.168.0.100/3144730.
Option stream url: This URL doesn't have a hostname part.
File not found: '3144730'
Failed to open tivo://192.168.0.100/3144730


Exiting... (End of file)
MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.4.2 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton (Family: 6, Stepping: 0)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.

c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring.
Cannot load font: c:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf
getch2: 6 can't get number of input events [disabling console input]
Playing tivo://192.168.0.100/3144732.
Option stream url: This URL doesn't have a hostname part.
File not found: '3144732'
Failed to open tivo://192.168.0.100/3144732


Exiting... (End of file)

[ringo]

I would like a copy of the Winvo zip file, it is not on his website any more, can someone please post it here.

Thanks
Ringo