# tivo web browser app



## toups

I ran across this the other day.

https://tivo-www.dev.java.net/

Interesting concept. Anyone ever look at this?

Thanks


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## davidblackledge

yeah... I started looking into it... basically the idea is run the Java built-in web parsing and send a picture to the TiVo DVR. That's all it does right now (plus handling page up/down).
I started looking into focusing on links and selecting them and such, but I kept hitting a wall with the web page update... it won't do the picture processing correctly when you load a new web page... haven't had time to look further in to it. I still think it's worth persuing... but I am the fanatic for lost causes, so don't take my word for it.
;]


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## davidblackledge

FYI, this morning I took a quick look at what I had tried with this...

I had gotten it to focus on links with the arrow buttons and activate a link with select, but it was hit-or-miss whether the link worked (I think it's failing on forwarded requests or something) and it seems to stop responding after a successful 2nd page load.

Again, no time to mess with it lately, but probably the next things I'll try are 
a) pre-process links to make sure the result will be good, and 
b) rebuild the whole environment with each page load so it doesn't stop responding.


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## Allanon

I tried making a webpage viewer a while back using wmcbrine's HME for Python plus a hacked together Visual Basic back end that retrieved the images of the webpages. To achieve greater resolution than the Tivo's limit for one image, I split the webpage image in to multiple images and then laced them together after they were transfered to the Tivo. 

The concept worked good but I never had the desire to finish it because I found that I really didn't have a need to view webpages on my TV. I had a working prototype but I found myself going to the computer to view those pages even thou they were accessible from my TV.


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## davidblackledge

I'd like to get such a thing working (or, dare I say, a "simple" HTML renderer written through HME itself) to allow for viewing of some simple content... mobile versions of websites ("My TiVo is my Cell Phone"), RSS feed content that is in HTML, etc... HTML is just so ubiquitous and web-centric that it would definitely have uses... but it has to be done as a module that can be used from another app, not an application unto itself. 

What'd be better is a new HME Stream type for text/html... but I don't think they'll add that for us ;]

But you could sort of simulate it through Application-as-stream... a carefullly designed "web browser" application could be displayed by any other application and if it's designed for that kind of use, there could be a variety of "escape" keys/sequences to return control to the original application without getting rid of the "browser."


*ramble ramble*


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## Allanon

I've thought about using a web browser SDK such as WebKit to interpret the webpage then through HME render the page on the Tivo. But was never interested enough to pursue it.


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## toups

Allanon said:


> I've thought about using a web browser SDK such as WebKit to interpret the webpage then through HME render the page on the Tivo. But was never interested enough to pursue it.


I don't know if you noticed http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=436607 but I have taken a slightly different tack. I am using Xvfb and an X window manager and a tivo app that transfers the image of the screen to the tivo. The "mouse" is controlled by the TiVo remote. For a browser, one can launch firefox or konqueror (or any app for that matter.)

One goal is to run MythWeb and access it via a browser from the TiVo. Still playing around, but I have a rudimentary version running.


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## Allanon

A while back I played around with sending desktop screen capture images to the Tivo and controlling the cursor with the remote but using the Tivo remote to control the cursor really turned me off. But last night I had an idea to have the Tivo cursor mimic the computer's cursor and to use my RF keyboard which has a mouse pad to control the cursor. This worked out pretty well, the cursor moved in real time and was easy to use even thou there was a pause every 7 seconds due to the Tivo updating the screen. I was using a resolution of 720p because my computer's resolution couldn't be set lower than 800x600 and I didn't feel like messing with the coordinate conversions for the cursor. But if I did lower the screen resolution then the screen could probably be updated every 3 seconds but that would also probably interfere with the control of the cursor. 

Overall it worked but I still don't think I would use it instead of the computer. Below is the HME Python code that I used. It is Windows specific because of the mouse functions. I'm not including the cursor image or any of the HME Python SDK.


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## Allanon

tweety562 said:


> What is that?


If you are referring to my attachment, it is Python source code for a program that displays the computer desktop on a Tivo and allows you to use the Tivo remote or a mouse to control the computer cursor. This source code requires the use of wmcbrine's HME for Python plus a bitmap of a cursor.


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## windracer

Looks like that's just a spammer account trying to up his post count.


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## slusly

Meh, TiVo still relies on cable companies getting cablecard right - which they will never ever do. I tried - I gave up after 6 months of bad cards, techs that didnt know anything, and channel authorizations that would last about an hour.

Boxee = freedom


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## Krepta3000

Anyone remember WebTV? I used one, a friend of mine had it and I helped set it up and such. I found it slow and clunky, but, it was easier for a computer illiterate person to deal with than a PC, IMHO. A TiVo with this capability and ease of use would be awesome. I'm using Galleon, and trying to get pyTivo to work. Pytivo is giving me a massive headache, but at least I got Galleon working, mostly.


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