TiVo Blog brought to my attention a new application for the iPhone. It adds a TiVo photo server application to the iPhone that allows you to view photos stored on your iPhone on your TiVo over the network without first moving them to a PC or Mac. The app’s creator, Chris Lundie, is also posting in TiVoCommunity. The app is just $0.99 in the iPhone App Store. And TiVo Blog has posted a number of screen shots.

Long suffering UK TiVo users have taken another blow, their units have stopped offering TiVo Suggestions. The UK users have operated for years without the availability of new hardware or even any software updates. Their Series1 units still run software release 2.5, behind even the US Series1 units. And now TiVo Suggestions has stopped working as well.

This appears to be linked to a changed in the format of the guide data, according to a post by TiVoPony over at TiVoCommunity. Apparently the data format ran out of room for new program IDs and TMS had to expand the format. The suggestions feature in the old 2.5 software is tied to the native TMS data format, and the change in the DB format has broken the feature. It would take a software update to fix, and according to TiVoPony “an update for those boxes is not in the cards.” So it sounds like this is a permanent loss.

Hopefully the rumors of TiVo re-launching in the UL with DVB-T hardware are true and the TiVo faithful will have another option soon. (It would be nice of TiVo to offer some kind of upgrade incentive discount for those who’ve stuck with the Series1 unit all this time.) And with Nero LiquidTV | TiVo PC launching in Europe in 2009, that may be another option for the TiVo faithful in the UK.

Picked up from BLORGE.

Lifehacker has an article today about a TiVo tool called KMTTG. KMTTG, which apparently stands for Kevin Moye (the author) TiVoToGo, is a Perl/Tk program that… well, I’ll let Kevin explain it:

kmttg is a Perl/Tk program I wrote to facilitate TivoToGo (TTG) transfers that can download, create metadata, decrypt, run comskip & comcut (commercial detection and removal) and re-encode multiple shows you select from your Tivos all in 1 step. The program also has the capability to transfer and process shows automatically from your Tivos based on titles and keywords you setup.

In slightly less geeky speak that means kmttg can download content from your TiVo via TiVoToGo. Parse out the program information and description, the metadata, and save it. Decrypt the TiVoToGo .tivo file into a standard MPEG-2 file. Run an application called ‘comskip’ which analyzes the video and marks where it believes the commercial breaks are. Then call ‘comcut’ which takes the information comskip provided and removes the commercial breaks from the video. And finally it can then take that video and transcode it into other formats, such as H.264 for your portable device.

Now, it doesn’t do all of this itself. In fact kmttg is really a wrapper of scripts written in Perl with a user interface written in Tk which automates and abstracts several other applications such as curl, TiVoDecode, mencoder, ffmpeg, comskip, etc. So you could do all of these steps manually and individually, but kmttg makes it much simpler and easier.

Installing and using kmttg is probably not for the technophobe. You need to have Perl and Tk installed on your system, and neither is standard on Windows. You’ll need to install a Perl distribution, such as ActiveState ActivePerl, and possible manually install Tk as well. kmttg is available for Windows and Linux, though since it is Perl and the prerequisites, or their equivalents, exist for Mac I bet a technically savvy Mac user could produce a working Mac version as well. Going by the kmttg discussion thread at TiVoCommunity, it looks like it has been tried.

kmttg looks like a nice tool for those who want to extract video from their TiVo and use it elsewhere. It is a free alternative to TiVo Desktop Plus on Windows, and it has features like commercial removal which TDP lacks.

If you have, or know of, a TiVo-related application I’ve missed, let me know.

TiVo users, including myself, were surprised to find a recording in their Now Playing List called ‘Teleworld Paid Program’, with four color icon that hasn’t been seen before. See the screen capture above, and click on it for a larger version. (Yes, that’s my TiVo captured via SlingPlayer.) Some people were upset by this, wondering why their TiVo was recording paid programming. Others were just baffled by it.

So, first of all, what is the Teleworld Paid Program? You know the videos used in Showcases, promotions, interactive ads, etc, on the TiVo? Teleworld Paid Program is how TiVo gets those video clips on the box. TiVo buys several broadcast slots a week on various cable channels and broadcasts this special program. If you watch one of these you’ll see it is made up of short segments one after another. The broadcast contains flags to mark the segments, and the TiVo slices and dices the signal recording into the multiple bits and links them to the proper item on the TiVo.

As for the name, TiVo was originally named Teleworld when the company was founded. They changed the name to TiVo later. I guess using it for this is a little nod to the early days. Teleworld Paid Program has been around for many years, but most users never become aware of it.

So why is it showing up in the Now Playing List now? Well, clearly something went wrong. The broadcast was recorded as it normally is, but it wasn’t hidden from the user as it is supposed to be. The new icon must be something TiVo had in the system for their special broadcasts, probably to help engineers recognize them. (There used to be a back door whereby you could make the hidden recordings show up in the NPL, I bet it is still in there for developers.)

So, in short, this looks like a glitch. I’m sure TiVo will work to correct this. It isn’t some bizarre new way to push advertising on the users, and users shouldn’t waste their time trying to figure out why it recorded or try to prevent it. Just delete them and give TiVo a little time to fix the issue.

UPDATE: TiVoPony has confirmed that it was a glitch:

Hey guys, we’re very much aware of this and it was just a one time glitch. Very sorry about it, you may delete that recording!

The team is off now to tweak the processes in place so that this doesn’t happen again.

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.

There has certainly been a lot of coverage today for TiVo and Amazon’s new Product Purchase partnership. Here’s some of the highlights - Shelly Palmer covered it in today’s MediaBytes (also available via TiVoCast).

Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny posted a few screen shots of the interface, which confirm what I suspected - there is a PIN to control access to purchase power. It uses the same PIN required for Amazon Unbox purchases, which certainly makes sense. The product screen looks much like a program description screen, and there is Swivel Search-like functionality with ‘View related products’. Shipping and taxes are calculated (I’m presuming it takes into account things like Amazon Prime) and you have the ability to confirm the order with the total to be charged. Or you can change your shipping options, or even save the item to your Amazon web-based shopping cart.

EDIT: I’d requested images of the interface as well, and TiVo got back to me with them today:

Wired’s Epicenter blog’s coverage helps clarify a few things about the implementation. The current implementation will display the product purchase option on the delete screen at the end of a program, similar to the ads that can display there today. While programs can be flagged for specific products, TiVo can also use a Suggestions-style system where it presents products it feels are related, based on the program’s guide data. So the name of a talk show guest may cause books by that person to be offered, etc.

Product Purchase will also be available through Universal Swivel Search, where products related to the search results may be presented for purchase. So if you’re searching for David Hasselhoff you may be offered DVDs of Knight Rider, for example. And there’s more:

It’s not an exclusive arrangement, though, and it’s fair to expect both Amazon.com and TiVo will hop in bed with other players. “We’re always looking at ways to expand shopping options for customers,” says Heather Huntoon, a spokeswoman from Amazon.com.

TiVo’s [Evan Young, Director of Broadband Services] says the company may introduce other commerce partners, but at the moment the focus is on Amazon. “We’re looking to create some initial success with Amazon. They’re already a partner of ours, and they have excellent customer service.”

And although TiVo hasn’t tested the shopping service yet, Young is already hopeful that the initiative can be expanded to include in-program product placements and other ad arrangements.

“We’re interested in talking to programmers as well as advertisers to enable more impulse buys when it make sense,” says Young.

So TiVo could partner with QVC to offer remote-based ordering without the need to call in. Or perhaps partner with a national pizza chain to allow ordering from the TiVo, with prompts to do so in their ads. (Actually, thinking about it, there are websites out there that offer menus for local delivery joints, and sometimes online ordering. TiVo should link up with one (or more) of them and get an HME based ordering system up. It would make compiling an order for all your friends so much easier.) Channels that sell DVDs of their own programs, like Discovery and History, could sell them right at the end of the program, direct to viewers via TiVo. MTV could offer CD sales, or perhaps downloads, linked from videos (Well, whenever they deign to show videos these says.) I can think of many possible uses for this feature.

The hard part would be that, with the current system, you need to have a relationship with the vendor so that they have your payment information on file. If TiVo were to act as a payment broker, or partner with the likes of PayPal to be a broker, they could sign up just about any merchant without the user having to establish those payment relationships. That would really reduce the friction in the system.

TiVo’s Stephen Mack also posted some details on the new feature over at TiVoCommunity:

With that out of the way, here’s what you’ll see with the new feature launching today.

* For Burn Notice, Oprah’s Book Club, and a few other shows, at the conclusion of the show you’ll see a message in the delete dialog box allowing you to purchase related products. (These are similar to existing messages in the delete dialog box.) More shows will come in the future.
* In the future, we’ll create a showcase for upcoming talk shows allowing you to purchase related products.
* In the future, we’ll create a showcase about newly released books, DVDs and CDs.

The second and third items you’ll see next week, and if they’re well received we’ll evaluating continuing with them.

I’m very excited about this new feature — it’s long been high on my wishlist of things that I want when I watch TV, and I’m glad we’ve released this new feature for our customers.

Furthermore, he added:

One other point: Think of this an add-on to the existing advertising delivery methods that we’ve had for a while. Product purchase further enhances things like Showcases, program placement (that’s what we call the related menu items in the delete dialog box), and the Thumbs Up tags on advertisements.

This will be no more invasive than the existing advertising products that you’ve seen already. We don’t intend to put this new feature in any new locations.

In case it isn’t clear, that mean no ‘Buy Now’ pop-ups during actual program content. But they may appear over ads, just as the ‘Press Thumbs Up For More Information’ prompts can do so today. So those who have been worried about big pop-ups in the middle of their favorite show needed be concerned. (Though, personally, as I said in my early post, I think some kind of small, unobtrusive indicator to be able to order in-content items would be cool. But I know some would dislike that, so it should probably be something the user can disable.)

And, finally, TiVo did issue an official press release today announcing the feature.

TiVo has released a minor update for TiVo Desktop on PCs, version 2.6.2. TiVo Desktop still requires the user to manually go into Add/Remove Programs and remove the old version before installing the new one. That’s really unbelievable, IMHO. Modern applications shouldn’t require that kind of user spelunking to update. For that matter, a consumer oriented application like TiVo Desktop really should have an ‘Update’ option within the application itself that would download and install the update - just like Firefox and numerous other applications do. Asking the average consumer to go into Add/Remove Programs is just ridiculous, they could at least include an Uninstall link in the program group menu. It just isn’t very easy and user friendly, which are normally TiVo’s hallmarks. I’m a complete geek and can’t remember the last time an application, other than TiVo Desktop, made me manually remove the old version first. I’m sure it has happened, just not often. (I usually run into it with betas and trial software.)

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.

It looks like the long promised software update to the DirecTiVo boxes is finally here. Users are TiVoCommunity are reporting receiving 6.4a on their units. As announced last July, the update includes the Recently Deleted folder in the Now Playing List, Overlap Protection (clipping), and DirecTV’s Remote Booking - aka online scheduling. There are reported to be a number of cosmetic changes to the menus as well, making them resemble the current standalone boxes more closely.

Unfortunately, that seems to be it. While some were hoping the update would activate the USB ports and networking, that doesn’t seem to be the case. So the DirecTiVo units still lack many of the features of standalone TiVos.

Wow, this is a big find. Last September TiVo and Crestron announced a partnership to enable Crestron home automation systems to control TiVo boxes over the home network. At the time I said:

This is pretty cool. But it’d be even better if TiVo would publish the protocol for this IP interface so that other vendors, and 3rd party developers, could also code applications to use it. (I won’t be surprised if the hacking community reverse engineers it if they don’t.)

Well, neither TiVo nor Crestron published the protocol, and of course I’m not surprised that the community has now reverse engineered it. And it works on all TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD units running software 9.1 or higher (sorry Series2 folks).

Open a terminal or command window and telnet to the IP of your TiVo on port 31339. Then you can start issuing commands. The timeout is very short, so you might use cut & paste if you’re not a fast typist.

It is a little scary actually - there is no authentication. So anything that can talk to your TiVo on your LAN can control it. Hey TiVo, how about the tivo/MAK authentication like on the web interface? (Cue the Black Hats to write a PC worm that issues random TiVo commands over the LAN.) Still, I’m really happy to see this, and I’m sure this will spur development of a number of clever applications. Dave Zatz has already tried it by controlling his TiVo from his iPhone, and he shot a demo video of it:

I did some quick tests using telnet from a command window on my PC and it works great on my Series3. I also tried it to my Series2 just to confirm it doesn’t work - and, alas, it is confirmed.

I foresee this functionality finding it’s way into a number of TiVo apps and widgets to control your TiVo(s) from your PC, Mac, or other device. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it would be nice if TiVo would officially publish the specifications - and add some authentication. I am kind of shocked that it is wide open like that. And I’m serious, I expect someone to write some kind of TiVo-attack worm now that this news is out. There are plenty of jerks out there who get their jollies that way.

I hope TiVo keeps expanding this interface, a nice additional would be the addition of more feedback as to the current screen on the TiVo. That would make it usable remotely with positive feedback to the application that the command worked and went to the right place in the menus. This could be a more reliable (than IR blasters) way for 3rd party devices (like a Slingbox) to control a TiVo.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media, but my Slingbox comment is strictly speculation on my part on what I think would be cool and not meant to imply anything about what may or may not happen.

The recent TiVo software update to 9.3 had a bug for those TiVo users still using antenna. If you had your Series2 TiVo set for just Antenna or Satellite & Antenna and you did a ‘Repeat Guided Setup’ after receiving the new software, you’d be stuck. There is a procedure to unstick the unit if this happens.

TiVo is now pushing 9.3c out to Series2 users, with a priority for those who have antenna as one of their sources, with a bug fix for this problem.

Thanks to Dave Zatz for the tip via email.