As you’re probably aware, TiVo recently launched an HME application to enable Domino’s ordering from your TV, and Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny created a video of the process. And now there is a promo video for the feature:

Via TiVo Blog.

Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny took the hit and ordered a pizza from Domino’s via the new TiVo HME application. And he kindly captured the experience on video and posted it to YouTube:

I’d still like to see this expanded to cover local places. I checked it out as well, but the two Domino’s locations it offered me were pick-up only, I’m outside their delivery area. There used to be one a block and a half from my house, but I noticed just a week ago as I drove by that it was gone. So I guess I won’t be trying it out myself.

That aside, the application was fairly simple to use, and I can see this being useful. If it supported places I actually ordered from I think I’d use TiVo-based ordering. I host a regular movie night with friends at my place, and we always order dinner. Right now we do it by passing around take-out menus and I write down what people want, then I call in the order, or sometimes order online from my laptop - if the place supports it. But if people could just put in what they want on the TV screen, we could all see the order, and then place it - that’d really be convenient.

It seems Australian TiVo boxes aren’t the only ones to get pizza ordering. After I posted about that I’d had a few tips that it was also coming to US TiVo units as well, so I asked TiVo about it and they confirmed it, but under embargo until now. Actually, ‘now’ is 08:30 Eastern when the embargo lifts and this scheduled post should be visible, but as I type this at 01:00 the application is already live on my TiVo. It is under TiVo Central -> Music, Photos, Products, & More -> Order Domino’s® Pizza Now.

Customers can login to their existing Dominos.com account, or register right from the application to place an order. You build your pizza(s), place the order, and pay cash when it is delivered. It would be nice to be able to pay via credit card while ordering - maybe in the future. Unfortunately, my local Domino’s is closed at this hour on a Sunday night, so I can’t put the app through it’s paces to see what the process is like. It is apparently aware of your local franchise’s status and doesn’t allow you to build an order if they’re closed. I’ll have to try it out soon, I’m interested to see if you can order more than just pizzas. Some Domino’s have salads, subs, etc, plus beverages of course. I’d expect that you can, but I want to see the process.

I’m glad to see TiVo introducing something like this, it is something I’ve suggested they do for a while now. And I’m not surprised to see them hook up with a national chain for their first foray into this territory. However, what I’d love to see them to is setup a kind of framework site where small, local places could be listed. I suppose a third party could do it, but it would be like Apps.tv - getting word out to TiVo users would be the hard part.

The concept I see is a website where vendors could register and enter their menus in a standardized way, along with order areas by zip code. They’d have to accept orders online, or perhaps via fax. (Net-to-fax systems are relatively simple.) TiVo users would only see options that deliver (or offer pickup) in their area. I think this would be an excellent way for TiVo to really support local vendors. And if someone wants to run with this idea as a 3rd party, ala Apps.tv, go for it.

I could see a few ways to make money from such a system, such as charging vendors to participate or simply skimming a percentage from orders placed via the system, which is probably the best option. Of course, an existing site like Delivery.com or GrubHub.com could also just add an HME interface. (Know of any other aggregation websites like that? Let me know in a comment, I’m curious. And if you use any of them yourself, why not suggest HME to them as a new feature?)

Press release below:

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The good news is it sounds like TiVo is finally embracing HME and encouraging developers, the bad news is this is TiVo Australia. As regular readers are likely aware, I’ve repeatedly expressed frustration with the way TiVo has handled HME in the US. I’m happy to see TiVo Australia encouraging HME developers, and I wonder if that signals any change for the US as well, though I’m not getting my hopes up. I also wonder if this means there’ll be an update to the HME SDK, which has long languished.

The currently available SDK was last updated over a year ago, on 10/2/2007, and that’s an experimental release. The last official release was over three years ago, on 10/31/2005. The SDK is woefully out of date, even the experimental release has iffy HD support and there is no support for recently added features, like streaming video, which are possible as the hacker community has reverse engineered how to do it. I do hope the Australian developers will get an updated SDK so they can create some great applications, and they won’t be hobbled by the same lack of support as US developers. The good news is any application developed for Australia will probably work on US TiVos as well, so hopefully we’ll see some cool new applications.

Picked up from Gizmodo Australia.

Press release:
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Coming just two months after the release of 2.5.3, Galleon 2.5.4 was released Tuesday. According to the release notes:

This version includes the following:

Version 2.5.4:
———————-
* Fix ToGo looping bug on null recording date (1811137)
* Added user-selectable range for local radar image (100, 300, 600 miles) in Weather
* auto-subdirectory publishing for GoBack, avoids the need to do it yourself and also avoids bugs in TiVo folder navigation in older TiVo service releases (Series 3 and HD should be OK without this).
(Probably needs some work to handle DOS shortcuts; should be OK on UNIX and OS X.)

* XML parsing of recording meta-data for non-Galleon-created video files in GoBack areas. e.g. if you post-process .TiVo files into .mpg, just put the XML output containing the show details, in the same format as it comes from the TiVo, into a .xml file with the same prefix. If you use tivodecode to unwrap .TiVo files, the metadata are in the -02-0002.xml file generated with the -D (dump-metadata) option.

* Enabled store-by-show handling in GoBack server (available on GoBack preferences pane).
* Fix for linux Makefile (1815568) and init script for distro independence

Known problems:
* not all galleon skins in HD cover the screen–use tivo skins
* still some layout glitches in HD
* still some HD menu highlights are too big for text

Versions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux can be downloaded from SourceForge.

Galleon is one of the, if not the, longest running TiVo HME applications, actually stemming from pre-HME days as JavaHMO. It packs a lot of features into one application and really enhances the TiVo experience.

Since the TiVo 9.4 update enabled YouTube support a few weeks ago, I’ve been hoping that the ability to stream video would be extended to HME. Since the entire YouTube interface on TiVo is implemented with HME, using the HME toolkit internal to TiVo (probably with features first implemented for the OCAP development work), it makes sense that it would be possible to support video generically through HME.

And the developer community did not disappoint, they’ve figured out how to support video playback in HME applications. It is early days and people are still sorting it out, but it is possible to stream MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 video to a TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD with the 9.4 software. That means it is possible to implement a generic video playback application via HME to stream any MPEG-2 or H.264 video to the S3/HD - or any video as long as the application can transcode them. That’s fantastic news!

And the fact that MPEG-2 works for streaming implies that it may be possible for TiVo to add the streaming support to the Series2 for just MPEG-2, since the hardware can’t decode H.264. That hasn’t been any indication that TiVo will do so, but it would certainly be nice if they did as it would then be possible to produce a generic player application that transcoded to MPEG-2 for the S2 and MPEG-2 or H.264 for the S3/HD.

Of course, this is all reverse engineered by the developer community and it is possible TiVo could change something to disable this, but I would certainly hope that they don’t. In fact, I still feel quite strongly that TiVo should embrace HME and support 3rd party developers, and I would love to see TiVo issue an update to the public HME SDK which included official video support (and official HD support, as it is only in the beta SDK today - still).

But even without official support this has great potential. The ability to stream video from an HME application means that 3rd parties could bring video to the S3/HD directly. Sites like Revision3, Veoh, Break.com, Heavy,com, etc could host their own HME front end to allow streaming of any of their videos directly to TiVo. Of course, the elephant in the room is adult content, which TiVo seems loathe to officially acknowledge. But with the ability to stream right to the TiVo via HME, and bypass TiVo (the corporation), it is certainly possible. In general the ability to stream video is something that has been requested since the first days of HME, so now that it is here it may generate some new interest from developers who had moved away from HME. It would be especially useful if TiVo would bring the streaming support to Series2 units as it would create a much larger potential market, but even just the Series3 and TiVo HD are significant as it is a growing market with the HD being TiVo’s primary platform now.

I’m looking forward to seeing what people come up with, and when and if any video streaming sites embrace this.

Thanks to reader Kevin Moye for the tip.

I received a tip from Harmonium’s creator, Charles Perry, including a press release (below). Harmonium looks like a fairly nice music player, and it is nice to see some new HME working being done these days, despite the dearth of support from TiVo. It supports HD display on the TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD with an HD UI on those systems, as well as displaying album art from ID3 tags in HD, and the screenshots look quite nice. It uses the information in the ID3 tags to automatically sort your collection. It also supports M3U playlists and, nicely, it supports the creation of playlists from within the player itself. It is free and open source, released under the GNU AGPL license, and it is cross platform, running on pretty much any platform with a Java VM. There are also builds designed to run as a service under Windows or Linux.

Unfortunately, I can’t use it. I have over 14,500 tracks in my digital music collection, and all but a handful are AAC (unprotected). Harmonium currently only plays MP3 files via TiVo, so it won’t handle my music. If Charles ever adds AAC support to Harmonium, I’d definitely give it a try. I’m hopeful, since it is only up to release 0.3.1 at this point, still early days. If you have an MP3 collection and a TiVo, you might want to check out Harmonium for your TiVo music streaming. If you do, leave a comment letting me, and other readers, know what you think.

The press release:
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The most creative active developer for TiVo’s Home Media Engine (HME), PlayTeeVee, looks like they’ll be shutting down their service soon, according to a post in their blog. That’s a damn shame, and somewhat upsetting.

PlayTeeVee has faced an uphill struggle since they launched, like all HME developers, because TiVo has utterly neglected 3rd party HME development for years. They don’t provide any 3rd party developer support, the last official release of the public HME SDK came on October 31, 2005! There has been one release since then, an experimental build released on October 2, 2007. On top of that, TiVo provides no way for HME developers to promote their products to the user base. Unlike TiVoCast, or even TiVo Web Video, TiVo doesn’t even provide a simple directory service for developers to list their wares. So the only way for developers like PlayTeeVee to reach users is via forums, like TiVoCommunity, and blogs like this one. And, to be realistic, the total readership of all such forums and blogs combined is but a drop in the bucket compared to the TiVo installed base.

That’s what has done PlayTeeVee in. They’d hope to build enough of a user base to sustain the site through ad sales. But reaching users has been harder then they expected, even knowing the problems, and they just haven’t been able to so it. Their server contract is coming up for renewal in a couple of weeks, and given the current number of users they can’t justify continuing to pour money into PlayTeeVee without any sustainable business prospects.

I’ve said repeatedly that TiVo could use HME as a major differentiator. No one else has anything like it. And when HME first launched their were many fantastic applications developed for it, and a lot of developer excitement. Applications like Galleon and AudioFaucet added great new capabilities to TiVo. (TiVoBlog has a list of some of the HME apps still available.) But then TiVo stopped supporting the public SDK and never delivered promised feature updates, and after the SDK stagnated, and TiVo failed to offer any way for developers to promote their wares, developer interest waned.

And it isn’t that TiVo abandoned HME, they just abandoned 3rd party developers. HME is still thriving within TiVo, an internal version of the SDK, with many more features than the public version, is used to implement many of the features added to TiVo in recent years. Music, Photos, Products & More applications like Rhapsody, Photos & Slideshows, Home Movies by One True Media, Yahoo! Traffic & Weather, Music Videos from Music Choice, Product Watch, Browse and Buy Movie Tickers, Live365, SameGame, Wordsmith, Skull & Bones, and more - all implemented using the internal HME SDK. Under Find Programs & Downloads the Universal Swivel Search, Download TV, Movies & Web Video, and KidZone Recommendations & Guru Guides are also implemented using HME. And, biggest of all, the OCAP software for Comcast and Cox cable DVRs is written using an SDK derived from the internal HME SDK.

But, for some reason, TiVo seems set on a ‘walled garden’ approach. They pulled back from the public SDK and support for 3rd party developers which featured in their HME effort early on. And instead they’ve focused on internal development for business partners and TiVo’s own features. I really don’t think it would take that much in the way of resources for TiVo to release the new HME features from the internal SDK as updates for the public SDK, and to provide a simple index where HME developers could list their wares to make it easy for TiVo users to find them. They don’t even have to offer developer support, the community has proven quite capable of supporting itself despite TiVo’s neglect for the past few years.

Tom Rogers claims that TiVo is a DVR - no longer a Digital Video Recorder, but a Digital Video Retriever. I think they should go farther. TiVo called the S3 a DMR - a Digital Media Recorder, more than just video. I say call it a Digital Media Retriever and really embrace the community. If TiVo wants to truly be a portal to all forms of content, and really differentiate themselves from the growing competitive market, they need to establish a TiVo ecosystem. make TiVo the center of a thriving developer community which can truly set them apart. A developer community can produce features and options many times greater than any one company could ever produce in house, with a smaller resource investment.

Look at Palm and Palm OS. For the past four or five years you’d almost think Palm was trying to kill themselves. It has reminded me of The Producers, they keep trying to bomb but just can’t seem to completely fail for some reason. Despite all of Palms fumbling with their failed Palm OS 6 Cobalt release, and then the repeatedly delayed Linux-based Palm OS II (aka Nova), and the Foleo fiasco, they still have a strong user base. The Palm Centro, which is running basically the same Palm OS 5.4 Garnet released over four years ago with only a few changes, is selling very well. The key to the continued success, despite the stagnation of the OS development, is the huge number of 3rd party applications available from the Palm OS developer community. The ‘Palm ecosystem’ is still fairly strong, despite the lackluster performance by Palm themselves. TiVo could’ve had the same kind of developer support, and possibly still could, if only they’d made a minimal effort to nurture the developer community. Look at the iPhone TiVo remote, that’s an example of something developers pulled of without any support from TiVo. Imagine if TiVo offered even minimal support for developers with an updated HME SDK, some basic APIs for TiVo functionality, and a basic index for developers to use to reach the user base.

Anyway, I could really go on about this in depth, and I may well put together a post on what steps I think TiVo could take to get the ball rolling. But right now a good first step would be for TiVo to step in and support PlayTeeVee. Either sponsor them to keep the site up, buy them out and bring the games ‘in house’ as a standard offering on TiVo, or find some other business arrangement - maybe just putting the games on every TiVo, as with TiVo’s own ‘SameGame’, etc, would be enough to allow PlayTeeVee to be self-supporting. It would be a damn shame for TiVo to allow the most active and most creative HME offerings to wither and die when they could be a real showcase for users if given the chance, IMHO. I really hope TiVo steps in to keep PlayTeeVee alive and gives them the exposure they deserve for all of their creativity and hard work.

In the past one of the differences between TiVo units in the US and the TGC (TiVo Greater China) units sold in Taiwan is that the latter did not support HME (Home Media Engine). But this series of photos just uploaded to Flickr indicates HME support has been added. I don’t know if this is brand new, or if it has been there for a while and this user just uploaded the photos, but it is new to me. (If anyone knows when it was enabled, chime in with a comment.) The user seems to have tried it out by adding PlayTeeVee to his TiVo.

TGC HME Step 1, TGC HME Step 2, TGC HME Step 3, TGC HME Step 4, TGC HME Step 5, TGC HME Step 6, TGC HME Step 7, TGC HME Game 1, TGC HME Game 2, TGC HME Game 3, TGC HME Game 4, TGC HME Game 5, TGC HME Game 6, TGC HME Game 7, TGC HME Game 8

If anyone can translate the text on the TGC screens that’d be really cool.

Thanks to Davis Freeberg for the tip!

EDIT: The PlayTeeVee Blog found a blog post (in Chinese) which appears to be related to the photos.

The leaders in TiVo gaming, PlayTeeVee, have just added a new channel to their TiVo HME application. It is ‘Under Construction’, but according to their blog it will soon be home to their first multi-player game for TiVo. First they’ll be running a beta, so keep an eye on their blog if you want to be first to try it out. What kind of game do you think it will be?