idea for a new hack - play everything in nowshowing

[Montaño]

How about something that would allows a show or shows to be played in succession? Either 1 show over and over, or several shows one right after the other. My 3 yr old comes running every 1/2 hour to have me restart his favorite Dragon Tales episode. I also often wish I could just set up 4 or 5 shows to run together, so he could fall asleep faster ;)

Perhaps a TivoWebPlus module where you could pick shows from the Now Playing list, with an option to have 1 show repeat itself.

Just an idea.........

[JJBliss]

Search for mplay

[JJBliss]

I took pity.....

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12511&highlight=real+SendKey

[Montaño]

You didn't give me much time !!! I found it in the last place you knew I'd look... Series 1 support. I don't even own a S1 ;)

That's interesting, but could it improved upon? Is something like a Tivoebplus module possible? Where the shows in the NP list would have boxes you could check to play one after the other.

[JJBliss]

You didn't give me much time !!! I found it in the last place you knew I'd look... Series 1 support. I don't even own a S1 ;)

That's interesting, but could it improved upon? Is something like a Tivoebplus module possible? Where the shows in the NP list would have boxes you could check to play one after the other.
Since most of the heavy lifting is done, nows your chance to write your first script/TWP module. Necessity is the mother of invention.

The answers to your questions:

Yes, Series 1 support. Change it to Series 2
Yes, It can be improved upon
Yes, A TivowebPlus module is possible.

In fact, it is probably only a handful of original code. Everyrthing else can be lifted from existing modules.

Good luck. Sounds like a fun project.

[Montaño]

Where can I go to learn about writing scripts/modules ? I would really enjoy learning how to do this. I know Google will give me tons of links, but if you have something specific.........

[JJBliss]

Where can I go to learn about writing scripts/modules ? I would really enjoy learning how to do this. I know Google will give me tons of links, but if you have something specific.........
Google is a great place to start.

http://www.tcl.tk/scripting/

But:

Open ui.itcl in the /modules folder of your TW/TWP installation and start reading.

Take the mplay.tcl and read that too.

You're going to want to merge concepts found in each. this is kind of the way PortlandPaw went about doing hackman, as well as cojonesdetoro did some of his early TW scripts like runscript.

I also suggest reading a lot about tcl development here at DDB and even over at TCF.

I don't suspect that you will be finished with your project very quickly, but that makes it all the more fun and time consuming. It's really a great hobby.


EDIT for more hint/direction:

I would look particularly at the deletens proc as a starting point.

Think about it, if you have a TWP module that allows you to click checkboxes to delete a bunch of recordings in Now Showing, why not just change what it does? Instead of deleting the recordings, you make it play them in sequential order or by ordinal. Where have you seen tcl code that will do that? hmmm...

If you change what the Delete button does and rename it, you're half-way there.

It's far from that simple, but now you have something to do for a few weeks. Once your done, and the world loves your script, you can feel satisfied that the remainder of your free time will be taken up supporting it, and making revisions based on user request.

Yippie!
Good luck.

[Montaño]

Thanks JJ, I'm off to do some reading.

[snowman]

Montano, I have a similar, yet different problem. My 2 year old likes "mo" (elmo), so I took a bunch of Sesame Two programs off my Tivo using Tytool, cut Elmo's World out using GOPEditor, and made a DVD. There are instructions on here how to make each show run after the other and even how to make it "autoplay". Of course, she doesn't have her own Tivo, but is getting a DVD player and TV for Christmas. Just another possible route.

[AVD]

my daughter has been playing Dora cartoons with the remote since she was two, I just taught her to hit the tivo button twice and select the programs that start with the letter "D"

[StanSimmons]

Debbie Does Dallas? :eek:

[JJBliss]

Thread hijack warning.

[Montaño]

Debbie Does Dallas? :eek:
That's why my 3yr old has his OWN DTivo !!! I'll be in trouble if he ever figures out MRV ;)

[cojonesdetoro]

How about something that would allows a show or shows to be played in succession?

Search for merge.tcl. It's mbeem's way to do this under S1. He creates a 'pseudo recording' that has pointers to the recordings you want to play in succession

Look for some of my posts here and Tivocomunity as well. I wrote a script that built upon mbeem's script called fxpmerge, that also does on-screen menus and file transfers from the tivo interface. Acacia also wrote a merge.tcl tivoweb module.

I'm not sure if this will work on the S2. I know that mine won't work on S2/4.0 because the way to handle the remote is different (I'm not even sure reading remote keypresses is possible under 4.0 yet).

[Montaño]

merge.itcl seems very close to what I would like. I'm not at all familiar with taking something that works with 3.x and converting it to work with 4.x

This is already a tivoweb module, so If I can read somewhere, what's involved for crossing software versions....I could be that much closer.

[sanderton]

I tried using merge.tcl for this, but because it doesn't create a proper master block you can't use trick play - and with kids shows you really need to be able to FF through stuff.

[cojonesdetoro]

Yes the merge.tcl method is really only good for the fire-and-forget type of playing you would do to record to a VCR or DVD recorder. I find it useful to transfer shows to a Panasonic HD-DVD recorder. although expensive, it's a very complementary product to a Tivo. It allows simplebut relaible editing of shows while on the HD and then writing to the DVD-R. I can queue up 10 or so recordings and then chop them up on the panny. The other drawback besides cost is that you have an analog jump and subsequent quality loss.

As far as 4.0 goes, the Tivoweb module may be your only choice. I don't think a method for processing remote keystrokes exists under 4.0. I've read that 4.0 is missing the 'sendkey' function.

[psxboy]

As far as 4.0 goes, the Tivoweb module may be your only choice. I don't think a method for processing remote keystrokes exists under 4.0. I've read that 4.0 is missing the 'sendkey' function.
Released: sendkey for v4.0 and higher (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36758)

-psxboy

[Montaño]

I was also going to mention that sendkey comes with Hackman. So perhaps there is hope for a Tivowebplus module of this sort?

[JJBliss]

I was also going to mention that sendkey comes with Hackman. So perhaps there is hope for a Tivowebplus module of this sort?
How has your development process been going?

[Montaño]

Still reading and learning JJ. The merge.itcl (not merge.tcl) seems the closest to what I'm looking for. I don't mind if it's one long recording that can not be fast forwarded through. I'm trying to find out if it will work with 4.x. It seems that the sendkey should not be an issue anymore, but have yet to verify this. I have a couple hard drives coming to me, so I plan on installing 4.x along with merge.itcl to see if it will work. I still have a looooong way to go, but I'm enjoying the learning aspect of it.

[Montaño]

I finally got the nerve to install merge.itcl onto one of my DTivo's running 4.x
(Thanks to a little prodding from JJ)

It works perfectly, and has everything I wanted. It lets you check a box to add shows to the merge list. It also lets you play the shows back in the order that you choose. It is one of the better Tivowebplus modules (for my needs) that I have come across. I have since installed it on 4 of my DTivos, and my 3 year old son is thrilled!!

HERE (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2292907)
is a link.