# Tivo can see PyTivo, Pytivo (usually) can't see Tivo?



## basscadet (Mar 21, 2003)

I hope this hasn't been answered, but I searched around and didn't see an answer for this particular problem.

First, I have a TiVo Premiere connected via wired connection to my router, and my Windows 7 PC is connected to the same network wirelessly.

I installed Pytivo as per the instructions, carefully going step by step and setting up the config through the web interface. I haven't installed it as a service, I'm just running it by clicking on pytivo.py. (I also created exceptions in my Windows Firewall for the ports specified in the instructions.) It seems to start up fine except that it rarely sees my Tivo when it scans... although sometimes it does. Otherwise it gives me no errors. But I cannot push anything to the Tivo, nor can I browse Tivo recordings to transfer. (I don't know if this matters just for the scanning, but I've verified that I've entered my mak and tivo.com username and password correctly).

Sometimes (not always) my Tivo can see my PyTivo shares even if PyTivo can't see my Tivo. I've transferred a bunch of stuff by pulling it from my share, but tonight for some unknown reason that also seems to have stopped working. I haven't changed anything.

The weird thing is last night thought I had gotten it working 100% just by switching off my anti-virus. As soon as I did that, Pytivo saw my Tivo and vice versa, and I transferred about 10 recordings (3GB or so) by pushing. But I can't replicate that behavior now - turning off anti-virus isn't doing anything for me. It seems to be more or less random, although I'm sure it's not.

I did just go in and add 192.168.1.255 to the beacon setting and that seems to have allowed my Tivo to find my PyTivo shares again, but PyTivo still can't see the Tivo.

My config file seems pretty simple and looks like this:

[Server]
port = 9032
ffmpeg = C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\pyTiVo\bin\ffmpeg.exe
tivo_mak = (obfuscated)
tivo_password = (obfuscated)
tivo_username = (obfuscated)
tivodecode = C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\pyTiVo\bin\tivodecode.exe
beacon = 192.168.1.255

[MyMovies]
type = video
path = C:\Users\Jeff\Videos

[_tivo_SD]

[_tivo_HD]

Thanks for any help...


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

basscadet said:


> It seems to be more or less random, although I'm sure it's not.


What makes you sure of that? It sounds pretty random to me.


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## basscadet (Mar 21, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> What makes you sure of that? It sounds pretty random to me.


Well, in my experience with these kinds of things, there's usually some weird cause that you would never think of initially (like the anti-virus, although that turned out not to be it)... or even an odd combination of causes. But I don't think I'm running anything all that different from anyone else, and I've checked everything I can think to check. Is there anything else that might be interfering with PyTivo's ability to see the Tivo? I also have Tivo Desktop (which I've tried having both on and off, including manually killing the processes, to no effect) and that can see my Tivo fine.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Do you have your TiVo set to a static IP address? If not, I recommend doing so.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

WiFi sucks for pyTivo, if I can judge by user reports. I actually haven't run into this much myself, but it seems to be routine for TiVos to lose sight of pyTivo if the connection is less than steady. I don't know why TD would be any different, but then, I don't know why momentary dropouts would cause this problem anyway.

You can create entries for each TiVo in pyTivo.conf so you don't have to rely on autodetection. They look like this:

[_tivo_YOURTSNHERE]
name = Your TiVo's Name Here
address = your.ip.here

"address" is optional; you don't need it for a push.


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## basscadet (Mar 21, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> You can create entries for each TiVo in pyTivo.conf so you don't have to rely on autodetection. They look like this:
> 
> [_tivo_YOURTSNHERE]
> name = Your TiVo's Name Here
> address = your.ip.here


I had high hopes for this but it unfortunately didn't work - pyTivo still ignores my Tivo. At this point, it seems to have lost it completely - it used to work about 25% of the time, and now it seems to be 0% of the time. Adding that entry to the conf file didn't seem to help.

Oh well, I'm kind of resigned to thinking I will just have to keep using Tivo Desktop to pull stuff from the Tivo to my PC, and will use pyTivo to transcode videos from my PC to the Tivo (since the Tivo can still pull from the pyTivo share). I just can't use pyTivo to go both ways, so I have to use two different apps to have everything.

Thanks for trying to help...


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Did you get your TSN right in the section name (replacing YOURTSNHERE in wmcbrine's example)?


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## basscadet (Mar 21, 2003)

windracer said:


> Did you get your TSN right in the section name (replacing YOURTSNHERE in wmcbrine's example)?


Yes, I put the 15 digit number off the box.


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## minidanas (Jul 23, 2008)

I seem to have the exact same problem. I have both Tivo Desktop and Pytivo, and have used both successfully for a long time. My Tivo can see the Pytivo shares (and pull videos) fine, but neither Pytivo and Tivo desktop can see the Tivo NPL. I haven't used Pytivo or Tivo desktop in a long time. In the past, I would get the "there was an error while attempting to retrieve data from the selected dvr" error, but corrected the problem by restarting the Tivo desktop, or Tivo itself, or the computer. Not this time.

One significant event that has occured recently was that I changed my router (and the cable modem, too, but that shouldn't matter, right?). Did you make changes to your network, Jeff?


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## minidanas (Jul 23, 2008)

Well, what do you know? Right after posting, I tried again, and this time both Pytivo and Tiuvo desktop started working. Maybe I didn't give it enough time after restarting the Tivo. Try that. If it doesn't work, try renewing network settings on your Tivo, and hard restart (pull the power).


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

Not to cast asparagus (or aspersions) on pyTivo, but there's a different product you can try.

I use kmttg, and a few years ago it also had a lot of problems reliably finding my TiVos and displaying their NPL. And that was hard-wired, not wireless. But lately I believe the algorithms it uses have been improved (perhaps more robust algorithms, perhaps waiting longer, perhaps more retries, perhaps some pixie dust).

At any rate, the newest versions of kmttg have no problem displaying the NPL on all my TiVos, even though it may take 30 seconds or more to complete (I've got expanded hard disks). It does scan them in parallel, so that's not a bad delay.

I use kmttg to get stuff from the TiVos to the computer and use pytivox (includes pytivo) to get stuff from the computer to the TiVos.


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## Soapm (May 9, 2007)

When I had a similar problem I fixed it by resetting my router back to factory default then used a different IP range. I don't know which of those steps fixed my problem but I've been rock solid since.


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## yaretiree (Jun 30, 2007)

I recently changed from a G to an N router (TiVo still has a G adapter) and now pyTivo couldn't find my TiVo. I added the [_tivo_MYTSN] to the config file. This allowed me to Push to the TiVo, but the "Pull from TiVos" list still wasn't populated. _(This seems a bit strange, that pyTivo could find the TiVo to push, but couldn't to pull)_

I then added the "name =" and "address =" parameters under the [_tivo_MYTSN] and everything works fine.

During the trying to fix things stage, prior to discovering this thread, I installed the latest lucasnz fork to see if that helped, so that is what I'm using now. I'm fairly certain that I was using an older wmcbrine version when I first encountered the problem.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

yaretiree said:


> (This seems a bit strange, that pyTivo could find the TiVo to push, but couldn't to pull)


Push just sends a message to mind.tivo.com, and waits for the TiVo to make the connection. It never _has_ to find the TiVo.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

this probably isnt your answer but are you putting the machine into suspend at all vs shutting down? i used to always just close my lid and it had all kinds of weird things happen

just a shot in the dark


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

wmcbrine said:


> Push just sends a message to mind.tivo.com, and waits for the TiVo to make the connection. It never _has_ to find the TiVo.


Doesn't it have to find them to add them to the list of available TiVos to which you can Push?

Edit: Unless of course you have them explicitly defined in your config file.


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