# need some advice - pytivo, Tivo Publisher and WHS



## wolverines (Jul 15, 2005)

Well, I've read through a lot of posts and could use a little advice. At the very basic level I'd like to have my home videos and backed up dvds available to watch on my tivos. I currently have an S3 and 1 active S2 (a second is inactive right now) and would also like to use a desktop/server to play some movies (preferably in HD) on my projector. All the movies will be stored on the windows home server (an HP Mediasmart).

I've installed Tivo publisher on the WHS but that doesn't really help me. The dvds are .vob files and the home movies are either in .avi or .mov. I'm also limited to one folder down. So that led me to pytivo.

Given my setup - am I better off installing pytivo directly onto the WHS (some seem to have done that) or onto the desktop/server with pytivo pointed to net share on the WHS? 
How does playing the occasional movie on the desktop/server factor in, if at all?
Any suggestions on organizing the folders once I do get pytivo working? Right now the share on the WHS is videos. Under that are home movies and dvds, then each dvd has a folder below that. I think that is too many layers for tivo to go down to.


Thanks. Looking forward to finally making full use of my entire networked setup.


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## wolverines (Jul 15, 2005)

Doesn't anyone have a suggestion?


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

If the videos are located on the WHS box, install pytivo onto that box as well. It's pointless to schlep the data off the home server box, to a desktop, only for it to go back out over the network to the tivo, that'd just add unnecessary traffic.

As for the shares, what you should be able to do is this:
Set up pytivo.conf (use the pytivo website for configuration help) to have two shares:
[Home Movies]
C:\path\to\home\movies

[DVDs]
C:\path\to\dvds

The tivo will show two new entries at the bottom of the NPL, DVDs and Home Movies, and you should be able to navigate the one folder further down you require without issue.


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## scboyd99 (Oct 10, 2007)

I love this idea and would like to do the same thing. I have used pytivo and Tivotogo. Neither is really easy to use or is fully automatic.

Also I have several questions about the set up. I think pytivo needs to be configured if it is playing on a 4:3 or 16:9 TV. Is there a way to keep menus for the DVDs? Will transfer speed be OK with HD DVDs?

I really wish Tivo would come out with TivoServer (hardware) that would do all of this seamlessly. Other manufactures like VidaBox is charging 7K for these types of features. Can't tell me it would not be profitable.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

I am interested in this too. It's not really efficient for me to leave my 200 watt desktop monster computer on all the time to provide basic media sharing services to the rest of the household.

I am interested in getting the HP MSS EX470 or the next version coming out later this year (code named encore) and want to use WHS to handle most of the network tasks in the home.

This guy makes a pretty robust Tivo add-in for the WHS OS that has HD support, streams different formats, etc, but unfortunately it doesn't yet support Tivo Go Back;

http://durfee.net/software/

I'm hoping that he comes out with a version soon that supports this feature, this would allow me to use the WHS box as a backup point, media streamer (with Twonky) Tivo box, print server, etc, on the home network all with only about 55 watts consumed.


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## bhiga (Oct 20, 2006)

I use both pyTivo and Galleon together:
Galleon for its Rule-based automatic downloading from my TiVos to my video archive
pyTivo for its automatic transcoding of non-TiVo files and transferring TiVo files back for playback.

It works quite nicely and requires little user intervention aside from some occasional Save Error issues with Galleon, or if I add a new show that I want auto-archived.

Will be moving both to WHS once my new box arrives.


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## jeffcamp (Nov 22, 2004)

bhiga said:


> I use both pyTivo and Galleon together:
> Galleon for its Rule-based automatic downloading from my TiVos to my video archive
> pyTivo for its automatic transcoding of non-TiVo files and transferring TiVo files back for playback.
> 
> ...


How did you install galleon to your whs?


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## jeffcamp (Nov 22, 2004)

bhiga said:


> I use both pyTivo and Galleon together:
> Galleon for its Rule-based automatic downloading from my TiVos to my video archive
> pyTivo for its automatic transcoding of non-TiVo files and transferring TiVo files back for playback.
> 
> ...


I am trying to install Galleon on my WHS but i am a computing moron. How do i do it?


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