# A way to instruct tivo to record a show



## nirmelamoud (Jan 18, 2005)

Is there a way to instruct tivo (programatically) to record a show ?


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Not directly. You can do it in a convoluted way, by remote scheduling via tivo.com. Or you could try to use the remote control interface on S3/HD. (No feedback for that, and there may be unexpected prompts, so I don't recommend it.)


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## nirmelamoud (Jan 18, 2005)

wmcbrine said:


> Not directly. You can do it in a convoluted way, by remote scheduling via tivo.com. Or you could try to use the remote control interface on S3/HD. (No feedback for that, and there may be unexpected prompts, so I don't recommend it.)


thanks, do you know how to use tivo.com interface, I'm sure they have some kind of an API and you do not need to browse like a user and schedule shows, cause yahoo do that (and others) do you know of such interface ?


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Nope.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I'm not sure if it's public or not, but I think a better way would be to figure out how to use the "tunneling" mechanism used by Swivel Search. It displays all the program info in the HME app, but when the user selects a program to record it drops them back to the main TiVo UI with that program's info screen selected. (i.e. the one where you can record, setup a season pass, etc...) That way the HME app can do all the fancy information stuff but the actual recording is done by the TiVo software so the HME app doesn't have to deal with conflict messages and what not.

Dan


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## nirmelamoud (Jan 18, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> I'm not sure if it's public or not, but I think a better way would be to figure out how to use the "tunneling" mechanism used by Swivel Search. It displays all the program info in the HME app, but when the user selects a program to record it drops them back to the main TiVo UI with that program's info screen selected. (i.e. the one where you can record, setup a season pass, etc...) That way the HME app can do all the fancy information stuff but the actual recording is done by the TiVo software so the HME app doesn't have to deal with conflict messages and what not.
> 
> Dan


but then user need to do something manually - right ?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Yes. There is no way TiVo will ever allow you to record a show via HME without some sort of user interaction. It would pose a security and usability risk. I guess you could do it by hacking the TiVo website interface but that would still require the user user name and password, and wouldn't work for last minute scheduling. Plus the website does not have automatic notification if a program conflicts. It simply send out an email notifying the user if the program was successfully scheduled or not.

What are you trying to work on? So sort of cooperative scheduling app where you put all your Season Passes into a single queue and it figures out which TiVo can record the show without conflict? (I looked into doing something similar at one point)

Dan


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## nirmelamoud (Jan 18, 2005)

Thansk, for the info, I'm still wondering how yahoo did it.
anyway I'm trying to give my users (tvnavigator yahoo widget) a way to say tell tivo to record my favorites shows.


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

nirmelamoud said:


> Thansk, for the info, I'm still wondering how yahoo did it.
> anyway I'm trying to give my users (tvnavigator yahoo widget) a way to say tell tivo to record my favorites shows.


Yahoo (and the other guides that offer TiVo scheduling) have some kind of service agreement with TiVo, where TiVo gives them some hook into their systems. You could maybe send your users from the widget to Yahoo or Zap2It's guide, where they can schedule TiVo recordings. So if they click on show on your widget, the relevent page comes up in their browser where they can choose the recording attributes and make the request. They would have to already have linked their tivo accounts with whichever guide provider they will be using. The list of providers with TiVo partnerships is here(near the bottom of the page): http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/howto/gettivoanywhere/howto_schedule_show_from_web.html .


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