TiVo Desktop stores the TiVo Web Video subscriptions in files under C:\Documents and Settings\[account name]\Local Settings\Application Data\TiVo Desktop, at least on WinXP. The files concerned are RssFeeds.xml and wspc.xml – with DownloadQueue.xml of lesser concern. What seems to happen to me is every so often TiVo Desktop up and wipes out wspc.xml, which is the main file. I’ll find the file back to its default 1KB state without any subscriptions. Having done my share of development and support I suspect what happens is that when the server is updating the file something goes awry and instead of the updated copy being written it is wiped out. Then the default file is recreated when the server sees it is missing.

This is infuriating and frustrating. And it is a rookie bug. There are ways around this – a simple one is A/B files. Write a ‘B’ file then, only when you confirm the file is correct, remove the ‘A’ file. Then reverse that the next time. Or keep the file in memory until you do a checksum and confirm the file was written to disk successfully, and if not, try again until it is. And considering the subscriptions can only be managed from the cloud, and my TiVo still thinks I’m subscribed to these channels, in the worst case the subscriptions should be reloaded from TiVo’s servers.

I’m a geek, and when it stops working I know where to go looking for answers. But if this happens to an average user I’d expect them to be baffled – their TiVo would still show them subscribed but they wouldn’t be getting any new content. And the resolution isn’t clear – you basically have to delete and re-add the subscriptions so the server recreates them. Or, if you’re a geek and kept a backup copy, recreate the file manually. Of course this means it goes and re-downloads lots of old content.

And that’s not the only serious bug, it also fails to clean up after itself. After downloading content and transferring it to the TiVo, it is supposed to delete the downloaded file – and it does, most of the time. But it misses some and over time they build up. I’ve found multi-gigabytes of orphaned download files left using up space on my drive. If you subscribe to HD versions of content the ‘leaking’ burns space faster. Before Revision3 was added to TiVoCast I used to subscribe to many of their shows via TiVo Web Video, and they were HD versions. Just a few of those left behind can add up to a GB. You can check to see if TiVo Desktop is leaving files behind in C:\Documents and Settings\[account name]\Local Settings\Application Data\TiVo Desktop\Downloads I just removed 746MB of orphaned files from the past couple of months, and that’s after I’d dropped all the Rev3 HD shows.

Bugs happen, I know that, but these have gone unpatched for a while now.

These are hardly the only issues, just the two that really get under my skin. But there are other changes that really need to be made. And why is it that the TiVo Web Video interface on the TiVo itself seems to be stuck in the past, rarely reflecting the current episodes on the feeds? That makes the ‘Download Past Episodes’ feature useless. These are RSS feeds, would it really be so hard to make the server pull in the updated list automatically? And now that HD TiVo models can decode H.264 and VC-1 it would be nice if we could skip the transcoding entirely for compatible downloads.

I love the concept of TiVo Web Video, but it feels more and more like abandonware. All the attention goes to TiVoCast where TiVo can make business deals, and TiVo Web Video just rots on the vine. I know there are third party solutions to replace TiVo Desktop, but the point is this is what most TiVo owners will be aware of and use. TiVo needs to fix this issues if they’re serious about this as a product feature.

However, TiVoCommunity user Dennis Wilkinson spotted a new version. 1.9.4, up for download a couple of weeks ago. It was pulled and the download reverted to 1.9.3, but he did find some interesting additions to the files included in 1.9.4.

/Library/Application Support/TiVo/BindTiVoFileToQTPlayer
/Library/Frameworks/mcac3dec.framework
/Library/Frameworks/mcmpegin.framework
/Library/Frameworks/mcmpgdec.framework
/Library/QuickTime/TiVo File Support.component
/Library/StartupItems/TiVoDesktop/TiVoHDPhotoServer

And the output of “strings /Library/Application\ Support/TiVoDesktop/TiVoDesktop” shows some interesting new strings:

StartHDPhotoServerAtBoot
VideoLibraryName
VideoDirectory

While the features don’t appear to be enabled in 1.9.4, it isn’t uncommon for future additions still in development to find their way, disabled, into releases. These additions seem to indicate the HD Photo Server, which has been part of the Windows TiVo Desktop for a while, will finally find its way into the Mac TiVo Desktop. And the ‘BindTiVoFileToQTPlayer’, QuickTime ‘TiVo File Support.component’ and MPEG encode and decode frameworks certainly seem to point toward native TiVoToGo file playback, and possibly transcoding to support TiVo Web Video and other file transfers to TiVo.

1.9.4 does fix TiVoToComeBack transfers, which was broken in 1.9.3.

On Friday user Lannister80 talked to a TiVo support person who said 1.9.4 was pulled due to a problem and that a new build would be available for download in “1 to 2 weeks”.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.

Anyway, nothing major in this release, it is basically a bug fix and performance release. I’ll have to see if it helps with the issues I’ve been having with 2.6.1. According to a post at TiVoCommunity:

This version has the following improvements in TiVo Desktop:

*Improved Reliability of transfers of large recordings to the DVR.
*Reduced memory usage when transferring recordings from the DVR.

For Plus:
*Improved communications with TiVo when linking to TiVo account and handling web video content.
*Improved handling of web video content when pausing or shutting down TiVo server.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.

Jim did misspeak at one point. He said “delivering content right to your PC via the home network” when he meant “delivering content right to your TiVo via the home network”.

And if you want a really circular experience, and you have TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6, go to Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browser Other Videos -> All -> Attack of the Show’s Daily Video Podcast and sign up for an SP, because this interview is the latest download on that channel. So you can watch Jim Denney talk about TiVo Web Video using TiVo Web Video.

It has improved recovery from interrupted transfers between the PC and DVR, but it also provides an updated Windows Certificate for TiVo Desktop. The certificate used in prior versions of TiVo Desktop is about to expire, so you’ll want to get 2.6.1. Without this certificate update it will not be possible to manually transfer programs from your PC to your TiVo DVR (all other Desktop functionality should continue to work fine however).

I’m glad to hear about the improved recovery, because this has been a major issue for me with TiVo Desktop 2.6 and it was one of the major issues I had with 2.6 while writing my review (which I will finish and post soon, I promise!). Hopefully 2.6.1 will eliminate at least this one issue.

You can download TiVo Desktop 2.6.1 here.

Now, if you’re running an older version of TiVo Desktop and you can’t, or won’t, upgrade to 2.6.1, you still need to update the certificate. There is a certificate updater under the first step on this page.

With the native feeds you can select one of the video feeds pre-selected by TiVo from the new interface on your TiVo. These feeds use the RSS client built into TiVo Desktop to download the videos. Unfortunately, only videos listed by TiVo can use the built-in RSS engine. There is no interface to add your own feeds. For unlisted feeds you need to use another client, such as iTunes. You then have TiVo Desktop monitor the download folder used by that external client. When a new video is downloaded into that folder TiVo Desktop will automatically transcode and transfer it. That does mean you can have TiVo Desktop monitor any folder to transcode and transfer – which could include a BitTorrent folder, etc.

Since this news just broke this morning, I’m working on a more detailed look at the software and hope to have my review up in the next day or two. Note that this functionality does require the purchase of TiVo Desktop Plus for $24.95, since that licenses the codecs needed for transcoding. And this is limited to Windows, while TiVo says:“TiVo continues to work with Roxio on delivering equivalent functionality on the Mac platform.”

There are other improvements in TiVo Desktop 2.6, such as the ability to publish multiple video folders for access from the TiVo. Unfortunately, and very disappointingly, the content of these folders is all lumped into the single group in the TiVo’s Now Playing List, so we’re still lacking folder support for PC content. Very frustrating. If you have a TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD, 2.6 will also provide higher quality transfers. HD content will be transcoded as 720p video. AC3 audio will be preserved. And it has better handling of different aspect ratios. And even SD video gets a higher bit rate.

Certainly welcome additional functionality overall. Still, transcoding through the PC is a stop-gap for the Series3 & TiVo HD until native H.264 and WMV/VC-1 decoding is supported. That will allow those units to download the majority of web videos directly. I’ll have more to say once I’ve had time to do my full write up.

In the mean time, here’s TiVo’s press release for Desktop 2.6:

TiVo Gives Consumers an Easy Way to Download Internet Video Automatically to Their Television Sets

First announced at CES, Season Pass™ functionality applied to web video now available

ALVISO, Calif. – March 18, 2008 — TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced TiVo® subscribers can now watch video content from the Web directly on their television sets. Through an updated version of TiVo’s Desktop Plus PC software, users can now discover and enjoy a broad range of Web entertainment available directly from their TV. The simple application, which uses the popular Season Pass™ functionality, continues to deliver on TiVo’s pledge to offer consumers an easy way to search, discover and enjoy the broad range of entertainment no matter what the source.

Starting today, TiVo users can subscribe to and watch a broad range of video content available through Real Simple Syndication (“RSS”) feeds, including everything from network nightly newscasts and The Sesame Street Podcast to Daily Headlines from MTV News and College Humor from CHTV. The application also gives consumers access to niche interest and hobbyist videos covering areas far more specialized than cable and satellite channels.

The availability of the Web video comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that TiVo subscribers will be able to access YouTube™ videos directly on the TV via a TiVo DVR later this year. Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch these videos directly on their television sets.

“TiVo users will have the best video from the Web easily available on their television sets from user generated as well as brand named sites,” said Tara Maitra, Vice President and General Manager of Content Services at TiVo.

The new Web video capability requires TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6, an update to the Windows application which also converts TV shows recorded on a TiVo DVR for viewing on portable devices including iPod and Sony PlayStation™ Portable. TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 is available for a one-time fee of $24.95, and is a free upgrade to earlier versions. “TiVo continues to work with Roxio on delivering equivalent functionality on the Mac platform.”

With this new feature, users can choose web videos downloaded on the home PC using web browsers, RSS video clients such as iTunes podcasts, or other video download software to automatically copy to their TiVo DVR’s Now Playing List alongside recorded broadcast and cable TV shows. TiVo is also providing an on-screen guide of select Web video sources for users to browse and select as individual episodes or get a Season Pass™. Subscribers can even use the TiVo service’s Season Pass functionality to get their own personal video folders on their PC, where they save their home movies and other video downloads. High Definition television enthusiasts will appreciate that TiVo preserves the original quality of high-resolution web videos, up to 720p, when delivered to TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD DVRs.

Maitra added, “Through the addition of new applications such as web video, we continue to build towards our goal of making TiVo the one stop shop for content, through one box and one integrated user interface. With our combination of premium content available through Amazon Unbox, millions of songs via Rhapsody and music videos, and soon YouTube videos, we feel like we’re connecting consumers to entertainment in a way no one else can.”

For more information on TiVo or to download TiVo Desktop Plus visit www.tivo.com/desktop.

###

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Sold through leading consumer electronic retailers, TiVo has developed a brand that resonates boldly with consumers as providing a superior television experience. Through agreements with leading satellite and cable providers, TiVo also integrates its full set of DVR service features into the set-top boxes of mass distributors. TiVo’s DVR functionality and ease of use, with such features as Season Pass™ recordings and WishList® searches and TiVo KidZone has elevated its popularity among consumers and has created a whole new way for viewers to watch television. With a continued investment in its patented technologies, TiVo is revolutionizing the way consumers watch and access home entertainment. Rapidly becoming the focal point of the digital living room, TiVo’s DVR is at the center of experiencing new forms of content on the TV, such as broadband delivered video, music and photos. With innovative features, such as TiVoToGo™ transfers and online scheduling, TiVo is expanding the notion of consumers experiencing “TiVo, TV your way.®” The TiVo® service is also at the forefront of providing innovative marketing solutions for the television industry, including a unique platform for advertisers and audience measurement research. The company is based in Alviso, Calif.

TiVo, Season Pass, WishList, ‘TiVo, TV your way.’ and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. © 2008 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, the availability later this year of the YouTube service to TiVo subscribers with broadband-connected TiVo Series3™ DVRs. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2007, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the three months ended April 30, 2007, July 31, 2007, and October 31, 2007, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

First, to step back and cover a few things I didn’t go over in my previous posts from the show. TiVo didn’t really have a lot new this year. Their only big announcement was TiVo Desktop 2.6 with web video support. And while that’s not a minor thing, it isn’t really major news like the Series3 at CES 2006 or showing off the cable software at CES 2007.

For me the web video announcement is exciting because of the infrastructure changes it is bringing more than the web video feature itself. While the web video support will be useful, the changes under the covers should have even further reaching impact on the TiVo service offering. The utilization of XMPP will likely have far reaching effects on many aspects of the system, for the better. More on that below.

They were also showing off the international DVB units for Australia and New Zealand, and almost certainly beyond, but that was more low-key, in the same way they’ve shown the Mexican S2DT and the TGC box for Taiwan and China for the past couple of years. Being low-key certainly doesn’t mean unimportant though. The DVB platform, combined with the internationalized software, may be the most important development for TiVo in years. It will give them a platform to launch TiVo in territories around the world as DVB is the dominant digital broadcast platform for most of the globe.

One thing about the DVB platform. I’d noticed recently that some of the press articles on the Australian TiVo have started referring to ‘Australia and New Zealand’. Since all of the official announcements have only mentioned Australia, I was curious about that. Well, the launch will be in Australia. But Seven Network also operates in New Zealand and they’re looking to expand, so it is expected that they will deploy TiVo in New Zealand following the Australian deployment. The the Kiwis should be getting their taste of TiVo as well.

Also, to point out the obvious, TiVo still has a service infrastructure in the UK to support the Series1 units that were sold there. Everything is in place to support new TiVo units in the UK market. The UK is one of the territories that uses DVB. TiVo is developing an international DVB platform. Put two and two together. TiVo would not confirm any plans to re-enter the UK market with the new platform when I asked, but they did say it certainly seems to make sense given the facts. I think we will probably see new DVB TiVo’s available in the UK once the Australian deployment is launched and the platform is ready.

Aside from these new items, TiVo was mainly exhibiting their existing product offerings. The OCAP software was on display, both the Comcast and the Cox systems. The Comcast software has starting rolling out in New England, of course. There have been rumors that the Cox deal is stalled, which is not the case. Cox has always planned to deploy the software approximately six months after Comcast, to give Comcast and TiVo time to work out any issues. Since Comcast delayed the launch that has also delayed the Cox launch. They may move it up a bit instead of waiting as long as originally planned, due to the delay, but there weren’t any dates set yet. And Comcast is still focused on the deployment in New England and doesn’t have any dates for deployments to other territories at this time. The OCAP software is currently running on the Motorola 34xx and 64xx platforms, but TiVo is working on getting it running on Cisco (formerly Scientific Atlanta) hardware. We can also expect it to be running on additional Motorola platforms beyond the 34xx/64xx.

There were stations demonstrating the basic features – TiVoCast, HME features like Rhapsody, etc. The advertising demo station was showing off some ‘new’ things which weren’t actually new, like the ‘billboard’ ads that put up the a static image ad when you fast forward through tagged commercials. That’s actually be around for quite a while, though I guess they’re starting to use it more these days. The only new advertising feature I can think of from 2007 is the new look for the TiVo Central Promotions, aka the Gold Star Promotions, with the embossed button look. That’s just a minor visual tweak, not really a new feature.

I did have one advertising related question for TiVo. Lately I’ve noticed that pretty much everything I watch now has a ‘Program Placement’ ad. Those are the banner-style ads that show up on the Delete now / Keep this recording screen. I noticed most of them seem to be promoting TiVoCast content, mainly shows from Next New Networks. So I was curious if NNN had purchased the spots or if it was something TiVo was doing. Turns out it is TiVo’s doing. When they don’t have a buyer for the ad slots they will run ‘internal’ ads to promote lesser used features or new additions. I think that’s a pretty smart move. I’ve run into too many TiVo owners who don’t even known TiVoCast is there, or other features like Amazon Unbox. So using the available advertising platform to self-promote is a bright idea. You’ve got the ad slots, might as well use them if someone isn’t paying for it.

I also asked a few more questions about the new web video implementation with XMPP. After my first visit something didn’t make sense to me. On the TiVo itself there will be a new TiVo Cast interface which allows you to subscribe to the ‘traditional’ TiVoCast content as well as the other web videos. The list has been compiled by TiVo basically scouring the new for video podcast feeds. When you select one of the feeds it creates a subscription which uses TiVo Desktop to transcode the program.

But when I’d looked at TiVo desktop the interface seemed to require pointing the feeds at a folder on the PC and using an external RSS client, such as iTunes. So how could selecting a feed on the TiVo schedule it in your external RSS reader, like iTunes? I couldn’t reconcile those two pieces, so I knew I must be missing something, and indeed I was. It turns out that TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 has its own built-in RSS scheduler. So when you select one of these feeds on the TiVo it messages the server via XMPP, and the server then messages TiVo Desktop via XMPP to add the feed to its scheduler. It downloads the videos and transcodes them. When they’re ready TiVo Desktop messages the server, which messages the TiVo to tell it to grab the video using TiVoCast.

The desktop interface that I posted is only needed for video blogs not in the list. And this does require an external RSS scheduler. I suggested to TiVo that they simply add an RSS UI to TiVo Desktop. Since it has a scheduler built-in, the only thing missing is a box in the UI to enter the RSS feed instead of a folder to monitor on the machine. You could simply add the feed URL instead of the folder, a minor change to the UI. I’d like to see it since I would use it rather than another RSS scheduler, and it makes sense since all the heavy lifting is already done.

I’ve seen some people wondering about how the servers can send messages ‘in’ to the TiVo or TiVo Desktop. It works just like any IM network. TiVo Desktop and the TiVo sign into the network, so the initialization is outbound. It really is an IM network just like Jabber or Google Talk – just a secure, private version.

I was asked if the use of XMPP eliminates the use of Bonjour, which is how the TiVo and TiVo Desktop find each other today. Well, yes and no. Bonjour is still being used for the existing features such as Music & Photos, as well as TiVoToGo/TiVoToComeBack. But it is not being used for the web video feature. Instead, when TiVo Desktop has a video ready the message it sends to the server includes the PCs local IP information and everything the TiVo needs to make the connection and download the video. One change due to this is that the PC doing the transcoding needn’t be on the same subnet as the TiVo. As long as the IP it provides is reachable from the TiVo it should work.

Over time XMPP will probably be used for more and more functions. It will first be deployed with the new web video functionality. But the intention is to completely phase out the polling system currently in place and to use XMPP for all the TiVo to server messaging. XMPP will be used for standard TiVoCast and Amazon Unbox, as well as online scheduling requests.

The move to XMPP will allow TiVo to improve some of the current features. For example, online scheduling currently has a delay waiting for the TiVo to poll the server and pull down the request. So there is no ability to handle real-time conflict resolution. XMPP can change that. When you make a request the server can IM the TiVo, which can respond immediately with “OK” or “I have a conflict with X, what should I do?” So the user could decide immediately what they want to record. TiVo wouldn’t state that any of the ideas I mentioned would happen, but did admit that they certainly would make sense giving the architectural changes to the system. I got the impression that some of these changes are already in the works for future updates, or are at least being planned.

TiVo mentioned other possibilities, such as the server monitoring your recording schedule and guide data updates. If there is a change in the guide data that would impact your recordings, the server could message the TiVo to tell it to grab the new data now instead of when it is next scheduled to do so. I’m sure you can think of other situations where instant communication would be helpful.

I did have a suggestion for TiVo now that communication between the TiVo and TiVo Desktop is available via XMPP. Many of the promos that I see on the TiVo have URLs – visit this site for more info, visit this site to sign up, etc. Right now you have to remember that URL and remember to check it when you’re back to your PC. I suggested that the TiVo IM that URL to the server, which IMs it to TiVo Desktop and other opens your default browser with the page loaded, or saves the URL in a ‘TiVo Bookmarks’ tab within TiVo Desktop that collects the URLs in one neat location for checking later. Or just do both and make it used configurable if the browser should be automatically launched. I know I’d use it and check the URLs a lot more often than I do today if it were this easy.

As far as the web videos go, I asked how a site gets on the pre-populated list on the TiVo. As I said above, the current list was compiled by TiVo. Right now there isn’t a mechanism for sites to get themselves added, but TiVo expects to offer something like a URL submission page where video blogs can submit their feed for review to be added to the pre-populated list. There will certainly be some way for new feeds to be added to the defaults, it just isn’t settled on the precise form that will take.

I was also curious about the TiVoCast protocol being used for this. Would be be open to 3rd parties? Say I run a video blog and I’m willing to host the TiVo formatted video myself, can I have my server listed and run TiVoCast so TiVos can suck the video down from my server directly? Right now the answer is no. At this time TiVo isn’t planning to make the infrastructure available for sites to ‘self-publish’ TiVoCast content. Sites that want to do that should contact TiVo about joining the ‘traditional’ TiVoCast sites and being listed like they are today. This may change at some point in the future, but not at this time.

What if you’re an entrepreneur and you want to offer a ‘Transcode in the Sky’ service? You’d aggregate the RSS feeds of the video blogs, trancode them, and serve them to the TiVos so people wouldn’t have to keep their PCs on, as well as for less tech savvy users who are just too confused to deal with it. Same deal. TiVo suggested that someone looking to do that could work with them to become part of the standard TiVoCast service and be listed as an aggregated channel with the other feeds as sub channels. Similar to how PodCastTV or The NY Times work today on TiVoCast. (If you turn that idea into a business, remember me when you’re rich and famous.)

If these policies change, I got the impression it would be after H.264/MPEG-4 is enabled on the Series3 and TiVo HD. As the TiVo person I was speaking with said to me, “Do you want to be serving the MPEG-2?” Since, today, MPEG-2 is the only supported format, downloads will be fairly large and require more bandwidth. Once sites have the option of serving MPEG-4 to the newer units the costs won’t be as high for self-hosting TiVoCast content. My impression is that we’ll probably see the advanced codec support enabled later this year. The web video update already implies HD downloads will be enabled as web video supports HD video transfer to the S3 and TiVo HD. Since it uses TiVoCast, the same system used for Amazon Unbox and traditional TiVoCast, those sources should be able to support HD content as well.

I also had some interesting discussions about HME. Coincidentally, in the weeks immediately before CES, the HME Developers mailing list suddenly came to life with a number of discussions. More traffic than it had seen in months. So that got the pump primed for HME going into CES. TiVo HME development has been very limited, especially since the last stable public SDK from TiVo was 1.4 released on 10/31/2005. There was nothing else released until an experimental SDK, 1.4.1, was released on 10/3/2007. However, that’s just the public SDK. Internally HME has clearly been evolving dramatically, as evidenced by the newer HME-based applications, such as Universal Swivel Search and Rhapsody.

But the biggest example of this is the OCAP software for the cable DVRs. HME is Java-based, OCAP is Java-based. TiVo used the SDK toolkit as the basis for their HME software. TiVo told me that everything you see in the OCAP software is HME. The OCAP UI is built using their newest tool kit. That implies that a lot of work has been done, including adding video support within HME (as Comcast has video in the upper-right on the menu screens) which is one of the long standing major requests.

TiVo says some of the updates that were made internally will be released in updates to the public SDK. However, they cannot say just when that might happen or which features will be available in the public SDK. But with TiVo’s renewed focus on network content, and from what I heard at the show – much of which I can’t repeat – I think 2008 could see a re-launch of HME with an updated SDK that has more features.

As part of the discussion on the mailing list before CES I wrote a couple of long posts about how I think TiVo could improve and re-invigorate HME, and I’m planning to turn those into a post for the blog. But I’ll highlight my number one suggestion here: Publicity.

I don’t mean publicizing HME to developers, or even letting users know it is there. I mean making it easy for developers to let users know about their applications! Too many TiVo owners don’t even know about sites like Apps.tv or PlayTeeVee.com. Or major HME applications like Galleon or AudioFaucet. Let alone a lot of the smaller applications that are available.

Blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and newsgroups are not sufficient. They only reach a small percentage of TiVo owners, and usually the most geeky. There needs to be a way for John and Jane Q. Public to find out about these applications. Most HME developers complained about being unable to reach the users, which is very discouraging as a developer. No one wants to pour their energy into a project that will never reach its intended audience. Developers got disheartened and HME development fell off. Sure, it wasn’t the only reason, the stagnation of the SDK was a big part as well, but even the best SDK in the world is worthless if the resulting products can’t reach their audience.

My suggestion to TiVo is to put an Application Showcase on every broadband connected TiVo. One of the ‘permanent’ applications under Music, Photos, Programs & More, and perhaps also linked from with Showcases. Setup some basic criteria for applications to be listed, and put up a submission form on the web. I’d expect TiVo to have some requirements for applications to be listed – no adult content, some UI conventions that must be followed (such as a prominent ‘Help/Support’ link which directs the user to the application’s site and not to TiVo), etc.

When I suggested this, both on the list and at CES, the primary objection was that TiVo doesn’t want to be held responsible for the content of the applications or their support. That if the applications are listed on the TiVo for easy access that users will deluge TiVo with support requests. I say hogwash. Sure, there are always those people beyond help who will call TiVo for anything, but I believe the majority of the issue can be mitigated. The local HME functionality already has an interstitial screen the first time you activate it requiring your to acknowledge the risks and responsibility before you can use it. For the Application Showcase I would give each application some number of static screens to pitch their application to the user, not immediate access to run the application blind. After reviewing the pitch the user is presented with some kind of ‘Add this application to MPP&M’ option. If they select this option, then they get the scary interstitial screen warning them about running 3rd party apps, not giving out their passwords, etc. And that support for the application is the responsibility of the application author and not TiVo. See the aforementioned prominent support link requirement.

TiVo could further reinforce this by adding a sub-category to MPP&M and moving all 3rd party HME applications in there. Call it ‘Non-TiVo Applications’ or whatever you want, to help reinforce that when you go in there and run something the applications in there are not supported by TiVo. You could even design the screen such that that message is always visible in the menu.

To take it a paranoid step further, instead of allowing instant access to the application at the end of the pitch, it could refer the user to the URL of the website to sign up for the application. So they’d have to enter the IP manually just like today. See my above suggestion of using XMPP to pop open a browser, or at least send the URL to the desktop, which would be useful here. But I think that’s making things a little too user-unfriendly and TiVo doesn’t need to go that far. Though the URL trick would be nice for non-hosted applications the user needs to download for themselves anyway – like Galleon.

I’m not suggesting that TiVo hosts all of these applications themselves, endorses them, or anything of the sort. Just that they provide a mechanism whereby HME application creators and hawk their wares to the TiVo user base directly. That would go a long way towards providing incentive for developers to create HME applications. And with the web video addition TiVo sets some precedent. They’re listing scores of video podcasts but that doesn’t mean TiVo endorses them all or provides support if something goes flaky with the feed.

I’ll have more to say on HME once I find time to pull together a post focused on it. But I think HME still has potential to be a big deal for TiVo, especially with their new focus on network content. But TiVo needs to do something to encourage the community to work with them. Giving developers that publicity within the user base is the first, and most important, step they need to take, IMHO.

Well, I think that’s it. At least all that I can remember at the moment. I still have more materials from CES to go through that might jar something else loose regarding TiVo. I do have a couple more posts to make over the next couple of days about other things as well.

I want to point out that I updated the last post to remove the details relating to the Mac software. Specifics of the Mac solution had been reported which were not authorized to be published. But there is a Mac solution coming, the details are just not releasable at the moment. No, I’m not telling, don’t bug me about it. Just remain calm.

With the new TiVo Desktop, you link it with your TiVo account online. That’s not something you do today:

Why? I’ll get into that below.

You can subscribe to a list of videocasts from an HME interface on the TiVo, and it is quite an extensive list. I didn’t get good shots of that interface, I’ll try tomorrow, but ZatzNotFunny, Engadget, and EngadgetHD all have coverage with some photos if you can’t wait.

If the videocast you want isn’t in the list, then you can go to TiVo Desktop and add it there.

The settings are fairly simple. You point the desktop at the folder where the videocast is saved on your PC. Note that the TiVo Desktop software doesn’t include the RSS feed reader to download itself, which could be a nice feature for 2.7. Instead, you use your favorite podcast software, such as iTunes, and simply point the desktop to the folder your software downloads to. You then select if you want the video automatically transferred to a TiVo or not. If so, then you set how many episodes you want transferred to the TiVo at a time and which TiVo(s) to transfer to. Finally, you can select whether or not to include subfolders.

All video is transcoded to MPEG-2 before transfer to the TiVo. The Series2/2DT units only support MPEG-2, and while the Series3 and TiVo HD have the hardware for advanced codecs, the software support isn’t there yet. In the future, once those codecs are enabled, such as H.264, it is likely that the desktop will transfer video already in those codecs ‘as is’. If the source video is high definition, and it is being transferred to a Series3 or TiVo HD, then it is kept HD through the transcode. If it is transferred to a Series2 then it is encoded as SD to enable playback. And yes, this does mean that your PC needs to be one for this to work. You don’t necessarily need to leave it on all the time, but you’ll need to have it on long enough for the PC to grab your downloads, transcode them, and transfer them to the TiVo(s).

OK, so why is the desktop linked to your account online? Because the TiVo back-end plays a role in the new system. Today each TiVo polls TiVo’s severs roughly every 15 minutes to check for new scheduled recordings, TiVoCast downloads, Unbox downloads, etc. That’s highly inefficient – nearly all of those polling calls are for nothing. There is nothing waiting to be done. And it introduces a lag when you want to start a download – up to 15 minutes. And it doesn’t scale well as TiVo’s user base keeps growing.

So what’s changed? The polling system is gone. TiVo is using XMPP now instead. What is XMPP? The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol – better known as the instant messaging protocol that powers Jabber, Google Talk, and other IM systems. Yep, TiVo is basically using instant messaging for real-time communication. Now when the TiVo server has a new recording to schedule, it will IM the TiVo to tell it. Or if there is a download to pull, it will IM the TiVo to tell it to do so. This is a much more efficient system and it eliminates latency. It is really a clever idea.

Now, the way this works with web video is that when the desktop finds a new video and has it ready to transfer to the TiVo, it sends an IM to TiVo’s servers. TiVo’s servers then send an IM to the TiVo to tell it to grab the video. Which brings up another new twist.

This does not use the TiVoToGo/TiVoToComeBack protocol, it uses TiVoCast. Yep. your PC becomes a TiVoCast server, and the TiVo grabs the video from the PC just like it does today from the TiVoCast servers online.

While I think the 2.6 web video features are great, I think the work done to implement the infrastructure could be the bigger story. Replacing polling with XMPP opens the door to all kinds of improvements. Instant starts to downloads of TiVoCast or Unbox video, or any other video source, such as Music Choice music videos. If there is a schedule change that impacts your TiVo, TiVo could tell your box to grab it right now instead of waiting a day. It even opens the door to possibly handling last minute changes such as sporting events running long, Presidential addresses, and other events that bump the schedule at the last minute. TiVo’s servers could instantly IM units to warn them of the changes. Though there would have to be a lot of additional work to provide a full service.

And being able to trigger a TiVoCast download from basically any server on the net would really open the door to 3rd party content providers to setup their own content servers – if TiVo opens this up. Right now it doesn’t sound like this functionality will be open to 3rd parties, but the foundation is there. I’d love to see TiVo update the HME SDK with the ability to trigger TiVoCast, that would be a major jump.

I have some more, but I want to get some clarifications, and make sure that it is OK to share everything before I do. But I’m excited by some of the things I heard today about the work being done. I hope to have more to share tomorrow. But right now I need some sleep.

The downside is that the software won’t be available until March, and it will keep the same $24.95 price as today’s Plus upgrade. Note that Plus upgrades are transferable, so if you already have it you’ll be able to use it in 2.6 when it is released. Mac users aren’t being left out either – Roxio Toast 9 will offer similar features for them, also in March. No word on if the next version of Roxio Popcorn will see similar updates.

EDIT: It seems PCMag was talking out of school. There is a Mac solution in the works, but at this time there is no official word on what form it will take or when it will be available.

The press release will probably hit the wire in the morning, and I’ll see what they have on display at the show when it opens.

EDIT: Here’s the official press release.

He’s also posted a video of the process: