# TiVo adds custom RSS support



## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

TiVo just updated their Videos web page to state:


> Custom RSS Feeds
> 
> If you are looking for an Internet video podcast or channel that is not listed in one of the categories under the "Browse web videos" menu on your TiVo DVR*, you may be able to watch it using the new Custom RSS Feeds feature. On your TiVo DVR, go to TiVo Central > Video on Demand > Browse web videos > Custom RSS Feeds. The Custom RSS Feeds feature allows you to enter addresses of video podcasts published via RSS (Really Simple Syndication).
> 
> ...


I've got some screengrabs and additional details, but haven't been cleared to share them yet. However, I assume this will go live in the near future and we'll all see/experience for ourselves.


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## Dajad (Oct 7, 1999)

I presume this only applies to S3 and TiVo HD units. It's about time! But still a rather clunky method. Alas, I've long since given up on TiVo for this kind of functionality and am happy with my AppleTV and iPhone for my insatiable podcast habit!


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

This is actually pretty cool. Even without the custom RSS feeds, the list of "popular providers" (link on web site) for the S3 is gigantic. Being able to get them without requiring TiVo Desktop will be a major plus.

Also looking at the web site, they have page that describes how to encode video specifically for the TiVo and what format the RSS needs to be in. So anyone can set up their own feed that will work with the TiVo.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

I wonder if it will work with the HD versions of the Revision3.com feeds. If so, it will be nice to get the higher quality versions instead of the standard ones TiVo provides.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

rainwater said:


> I wonder if it will work with the HD versions of the Revision3.com feeds.


It should do... they work with HME/VLC (with no reencoding).


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## Turtleboy (Mar 24, 2001)

Do you have to type it on the Tivo or can you do it on the website?

I hate having to do it on the tivo, especially for a long URL. I just do without.


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## johnny99 (Nov 10, 2008)

Turtleboy said:


> Do you have to type it on the Tivo or can you do it on the website?
> 
> I hate having to do it on the tivo, especially for a long URL. I just do without.


I agree. I would really like to be able to do this with a real keyboard.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

Turtleboy said:


> Do you have to type it on the Tivo or can you do it on the website?


It's unclear to me - I asked that question and was told tivo.com/rssvideo would let me type it in. But I'm redirected to that video page I linked above... which allows you to type in suggestions. So there's some confusion here. I'm with you though - being able to add (or manage!) this from the web would be preferable until we get some sort of wireless TiVo keyboard.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

Still don't have it on my units, but here's a pic to hold us over:


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## susandennis (Dec 10, 2001)

Oh sweet. I'm so weary of my kludge. Just phoned home on both my units and it's not there yet.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Hmm, it looks like based on the how to page, that there is no way to make a season pass out of a custom RSS feed. That's disappointing if it's true, since it would require manually downloading any new videos.

On the positive side, it looks like you have the option to stream the video (watch now) instead of downloading it. That's cool.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

morac said:


> Hmm, it looks like based on the how to page, that there is no way to make a season pass out of a custom RSS feed. That's disappointing if it's true, since it would require manually downloading any new videos.


I really don't see the point if you can't subscribe to it. That is the whole point of the feeds.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

morac said:


> Hmm, it looks like based on the how to page, that there is no way to make a season pass out of a custom RSS feed. That's disappointing if it's true, since it would require manually downloading any new videos.
> 
> On the positive side, it looks like you have the option to stream the video (watch now) instead of downloading it. That's cool.


I can live with on-demand access if it streams like that. Although, it'd be nice to queue up a folder of pre-downloaded episodes to watch in sequence.



rainwater said:


> I really don't see the point if you can't subscribe to it. That is the whole point of the feeds.


Well it does remember the feed itself, but I guess you manually manage it until (if) TiVo adds it to their directory. That updated video page allows for suggestions now.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

morac said:


> Hmm, it looks like based on the how to page, that there is no way to make a season pass out of a custom RSS feed. That's disappointing if it's true, since it would require manually downloading any new videos.


That's unfortunate.

If people have to download them manually, the functionality will have very little appeal, imo. That's like giving us a VCR for RSS instead of a TiVo for RSS. Streaming is good for the rare case when you want to manually view a RSS feed, but there needs to be a season pass download option too. The user should be able to automate every type of download with a season pass.


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

Maybe in time they will add that functionality? Maybe this is almost a Beta release to see if the appeal is there.


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## Dajad (Oct 7, 1999)

I'm not sure if I'm getting this. Do you type in the URL for a one-time use!?

I have to assume you can type it in and it will continually download new podcasts as they arrive?

But, heck, I don't know the RSS feeds for my podcasts. iTunes takes care of that. I'm not even sure where to look. Once again, too little too late from TiVo

And when you look at the moxi demo Dave just posted,

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2009-08/digeo-launches-retail-moxi-mate-and-os-update/

It makes TiVo look ever so last-decade!


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Dajad said:


> I'm not sure if I'm getting this. Do you type in the URL for a one-time use!?
> 
> I have to assume you can type it in and it will continually download new podcasts as they arrive?
> 
> But, heck, I don't know the RSS feeds for my podcasts. iTunes takes care of that. I'm not even sure where to look. Once again, too little too late from TiVo


TiVo already allows you to pick RSS feeds from a list (and create a season pass). This feature is for RSS feeds that TiVo doesn't already list.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

Dajad said:


> I'm not sure if I'm getting this. Do you type in the URL for a one-time use!?


No, the feed is retained once you enter it. But it doesn't look like TiVo _automatically_ downloads new episodes, you'd manually initiate streaming or downloading on-demand. We should know more later today if it rolls on schedule.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

davezatz said:


> No, the feed is retained once you enter it. But it doesn't look like TiVo _automatically_ downloads new episodes, you'd manually initiate streaming or downloading on-demand. We should know more later today if it rolls on schedule.


I see it as active right now ..

Tested it with the Highdef feed of Tekzilla. 
http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/quicktime-high-definition/

Seems to work.. I see 2 options.
Watch Now (which seems to stream it)
Download This program (which seems to download the most recent one)

Nothing about it seems to indicate that it will continue to download new content by itself.

Hopefully a SeasonPass feature will be forthcoming .. I don't like the idea of having to navigate back to check on all the feeds.

But, if you excuse that one aspect of it .. it seems to work.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

MirclMax said:


> Nothing about it seems to indicate that it will continue to download new content by itself.
> 
> Hopefully a SeasonPass feature will be forthcoming .. I don't like the idea of having to navigate back to check on all the feeds.


+ infinity

I am sure most agree that without this the whole thing is a novelty. Hopefully TiVo is doing this in phases and will tie this into season passes soon enough.


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

Does anyone have any RSS feeds to share that we could use? Or any advice on where to find URL's?


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

grantsa4 said:


> Does anyone have any RSS feeds to share that we could use? Or any advice on where to find URL's?


I advise using a url shortener to make keying them in easier:
instead of :
http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/MP4-hd30
You only need to key in(using the bit.ly shortener, for example):
http://bit.ly/vZKQN

Either link gets you the same podcast. This can save A LOT of remote keystrokes, depending on the length of the feed's url.


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

Thanks, but is there any easy way to find the URL's? Any directory or websites that list RSS Video feeds?


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

grantsa4 said:


> Thanks, but is there any easy way to find the URL's? Any directory or websites that list RSS Video feeds?


Well, it depends on who publishes the content. Most major videocasts will publish the feed urls on their website.


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

OK, thanks, so it's just having to hunt on your favorite websites for the rss links?


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

grantsa4 said:


> Thanks, but is there any easy way to find the URL's? Any directory or websites that list RSS Video feeds?


If you want to test things out, you can use this site which allows you to create YouTube RSS feeds that use MP4 and should be playable on TiVo.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

grantsa4 said:


> OK, thanks, so it's just having to hunt on your favorite websites for the rss links?


Pretty much. You can look for iTunes video podcast feeds since the TiVo page says that the custom RSS feed works with iTunes feeds.


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

Cool - thanks - I see that on the Tivo website it also has a HUGE list of podcasts available.


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## yunlin12 (Mar 15, 2003)

MirclMax said:


> I see it as active right now ..
> 
> Tested it with the Highdef feed of Tekzilla.
> http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/quicktime-high-definition/
> ...


There is also a Past Program at the bottom of that list of menu you mentioned, which lets you see what other shows are available to stream/download in the podcasts. But yes, no season pass capability.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

ZeoTiVo said:


> I am sure most agree that without this the whole thing is a novelty. Hopefully TiVo is doing this in phases and will tie this into season passes soon enough.


From the tweet response I got, it sounds like they don't have plans to add the ability to SP custom feeds, at least not any time soon.

The upside I see to this, is that it should require very little effort on TiVo's end to officially add a video podCast to their list. I would assume they aren't managing the feeds by hand and they have some kind of feed reader which they use to update their data base of "channels" and available "episodes" and incorporates the data into TiVo Search. If so adding a new official feed should be as simple as copy and pasting the requested feed into their reader. It should take all of a few minutes to do, assuming TiVo either doesn't need or can easily get permission from the publisher of the submitted feed.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

gonzotek said:


> http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/MP4-hd30
> You only need to key in(using the bit.ly shortener, for example):
> http://bit.ly/vZKQN


Making a note about the shortening .. obviously it won't be that big of a deal if tivo.com offers an interface ... but my question is ..

Is there any particular (noticeable) difference in the MP4-hd30 feed versus the quicktime-high-definition one that I linked to earlier ?? I've just been using the quicktimes for rev3 for HME/VLC so that's why I tried it here. Just curious if I should switch.

-MirclMax


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

Hi folks,

I just wanted to clarify that there are four new features here under the Video on Demand menu for Series3/HD customers who are broadband-connected:

1. Over 400 new video podcasts listed in the different categories (on top of the 100+ that were there previously for all broadband customers including Series2 users).

2. Now you can enter a URL for a video podcast. You can then download or stream. It will remember your entries so you can always quickly come back to stream the latest episode. For entering URLs, after the fifth character is entered, we'll automatically look up to match entries from other customers. We'll be reviewing regularly the most popular video podcasts and work to add them to video podcast listings.

3. The ability to support HD playback (h.264 video) for those video podcasts that offer it.

4. The ability to stream in addition to download.

If you have questions, please ask here.

Best,
Stephen


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

MirclMax said:


> Is there any particular (noticeable) difference in the MP4-hd30 feed versus the quicktime-high-definition one that I linked to earlier ??


Very much so. IMHO it's the difference between watchable and un-.



> _I've just been using the quicktimes for rev3 for HME/VLC so that's why I tried it here._


The next release of HME/VLC will use the 30 fps feeds in the sample config. (Of course they didn't exist at the time of the last release.)


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## susandennis (Dec 10, 2001)

TiVoStephen said:


> Over 400 new video podcasts listed in the different categories


Thank you for this!! I just yesterday checked the roster (answering a twitter poll) and did not even think to check it today - doh! You very nearly added my entire list!

Thanks for the detail. Happily, I had only done a couple of the manual URLs saving the rest for later 

Whew.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

wmcbrine said:


> Very much so. IMHO it's the difference between watchable and un-.
> 
> The next release of HME/VLC will use the 30 fps feeds in the sample config. (Of course they didn't exist at the time of the last release.)


You know I adore HME/VLC .. but isn't the RSS Feed part of it becoming a bit superfluous now? At least for those shows like the Rev3's that can be entered in through TiVo now?

I was going to switch my feed to this one.. but as I scanned the new .. very extended list of things I can set a Season Pass for .. I saw Tekzilla HD listed.

So, even though I'm very fond of HME/VLC .. and its still great for Live Streams .. (man I wish someone would create a thread where people would just list live streams that work with it) .. I have to say I think I'll be transitioning off of it a bit. Speaking of Live Streams .. A nice future modification would be to have just a "Watch Now" for Live streams .. and maybe have your live streams show up in a folder in Now Playing!?!  *wink* @ TiVo.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

TiVoStephen said:


> 2. ... For entering URLs, after the fifth character is entered, we'll automatically look up to match entries from other customers. We'll be reviewing regularly the most popular video podcasts and work to add them to video podcast listings.


Stephen,

As always, wonderful to see you posting on this stuff .. I have a concern about the look up stuff. As suggested in an earlier post, it makes sense to use something like bit.ly to shorten the URL .. 'cuz frankly its a pain to "type" stuff in through the UI .. Won't doing that hinder your efforts?

And why *not* something on tivo.com under your account to add in RSS feeds? I'm sure it would be easier for most to cut/paste.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

Okay, and I don't mean to drift off topic .. but I just find it rather amusing that there is a feed for HD Nation .. but not the HD feed.
http://www.revision3.com/hdnation/feed/MP4-hd30

Perhaps others will find that amusing to. I submitted it through the web form.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

I'm confused. This screenshot seems to show an option on the "Download" screen to get a season pass...


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

nrc, you can get Season Passes for any of the 500+ feeds that are in the categories, which that one is.


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

MirclMax said:


> Okay, and I don't mean to drift off topic .. but I just find it rather amusing that there is a feed for HD Nation .. but not the HD feed.
> http://www.revision3.com/hdnation/feed/MP4-hd30
> 
> Perhaps others will find that amusing to. I submitted it through the web form.


Hi Max (and good to see you here!),

I'm told by John T. (who you may remember from the "Best of" lists I used to post here) that this was a new feed from them, so it didn't make our launch list for today. However, he's gone ahead and added it, so you should see it appear shortly.

As for bit.ly etc. -- you're welcome to use URL shorteners, but there are so many of them, there's no guarantee they're always available, and as you see, it might fragment the user base.

We'd like to add support for entering the URLs on tivo.com in the future, but there's no ETA for that currently, sorry.

Best,
Stephen


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

TiVoStephen said:


> As for bit.ly etc. -- you're welcome to use URL shorteners, but there are so many of them, there's no guarantee they're always available, and as you see, it might fragment the user base.


I also believe some of the URL shorteners expire links after a period of time.

I finally shot a video (for those of you still at work). Typing via remote and in HME and while it searches for an auto-complete match is BRUTAL. Let me add feeds on the web.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

TiVoStephen said:


> I'm told by John T. (who you may remember from the "Best of" lists I used to post here) that this was a new feed from them, so it didn't make our launch list for today. However, he's gone ahead and added it, so you should see it appear shortly.
> Best,
> Stephen


Thank you for doing this. I actually just noticed it was there. As a quick side note, you might want to have him label it to indicate it is High Def... currently both feeds have identical names. (Might confuse some)...

[Oh, and about the shorteners.. okay, I won't use them other than for testing]

Okay, on to a new conundrum .. I thought "Hey.. perhaps we could get Cranky Geeks back on TiVo now!" .. (It would give them something to talk about.. I really haven't watched the cast since they stopped the TiVoCast of it . ..

But going to their web page .. I find the link to their H.264 stuff .. 
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ziffdavis/cgh264video?format=xml
(Which happens to be the same link from HME/VLC)

[Here is a shortened version for anyone testing: http://bit.ly/3ofPfM ]

So anyhow, I put it in, and it says "The URL you entered contained a valid RSS feed, however, none of the videos inclouded in the feed are formatted for playback on your DVR. Then it sends me to http://www.tivo.com/rssvideo

That page just says that it should be H.264 .. So umm... why doesn't it work??

Thanks John T. ... Thanks TiVoStephen!

P.S. Tons of new content .. very hard to figure out what to watch ..


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

davezatz said:


> I finally shot a video (for those of you still at work). Typing via remote and in HME and while it searches for an auto-complete match is BRUTAL. Let me add feeds on the web.


Does it ever actually auto-complete? That would certainly help matters. Obviously some sites have a lot of feeds that start the same but listing feeds that match down the right side would help a lot.


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

Unfortunately, as you've discovered, the format used by CrankyGeeks and DL.TV is not compatible.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

TiVoStephen said:


> Unfortunately, as you've discovered, the format used by CrankyGeeks and DL.TV is not compatible.


Hmm.. since you brought it up.. I figured I'd mention that DL.TV is actually in your list of available programs (Technology Section). Just added the Season Pass .. (and its transferring right now)

So I guess my question is .. as someone who is not up on all the codecs .
If CrankyGeeks is H.264 .. and you guys can handle H.264 .. why is it "not compatible"?

I'm not trying to push too hard on this, frankly I can live my life just fine without the show (No offense John/Sebastian/et al) .. but it might help others with other feeds wondering why some are compatible and some aren't. What should we be looking for? Or is it as simple as.. "Try it, if it works you're good to go, if it doesn't its not compatible, move on"


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## mitchk (Jul 25, 2007)

grantsa4 said:


> Does anyone have any RSS feeds to share that we could use? Or any advice on where to find URL's?


Here's one that works:

Archive Classic Movies:
http://www.archiveclassicmovies.com/acm.rss


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

MirclMax said:


> You know I adore HME/VLC .. but isn't the RSS Feed part of it becoming a bit superfluous now?


I wondered that too, at first. But having seen this feature in action now, I have to say, no. They're pretty similar, but there are advantages to each. HME/VLC can transcode -- it shouldn't be needed for most podcasts, but it still is for some -- and you can type in new feed URLs on your computer.  The built-in feature doesn't need your computer, shows the descriptions before starting playback (something I've been meaning to do; Allanon did a patch for it), and pushes to the NPL (like Streambaby, but Streambaby only does local files).

I also wondered whether it would make it pointless to work on RSS support in pyTivo. But since you can't SP the feeds you enter the URLs for... also no.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

nrc said:


> Does it ever actually auto-complete? That would certainly help matters. Obviously some sites have a lot of feeds that start the same but listing feeds that match down the right side would help a lot.


I entered the feed for Sessler's Soapbox and it auto-completed that.

Popular feeds are more likely to auto-complete. Obscure ones are less likely to do so.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

MirclMax said:


> Hmm.. since you brought it up.. I figured I'd mention that DL.TV is actually in your list of available programs (Technology Section). Just added the Season Pass .. (and its transferring right now)


DL.TV isn't listed in either list on the web site, but if I'm remember correctly, DL.TV has been available for a while which would mean it would be on the Series 2 list and therefore transcoded to MPEG-2. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.



MirclMax said:


> So I guess my question is .. as someone who is not up on all the codecs .
> If CrankyGeeks is H.264 .. and you guys can handle H.264 .. why is it "not compatible"?


The feed you linked to lists all the extensions for the videos as .mov which would indicate they are in quicktime containers. I don't think the TiVo can handle quicktime containers natively, even if the video inside the container is H.264.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

morac said:


> DL.TV isn't listed in either list on the web site, but if I'm remember correctly, DL.TV has been available for a while which would mean it would be on the Series 2 list and therefore transcoded to MPEG-2. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
> 
> The feed you linked to lists all the extensions for the videos as .mov which would indicate they are in quicktime containers. I don't think the TiVo can handle quicktime containers natively, even if the video inside the container is H.264.


I'm not sure which list(s) you are talking about on the web site .. but what I was referring to was the actual list of programs to choose from on the TiVo itself.

And if the answer is .. No .mov files, even if they are H.264 .. then so be it  (Another reason to keep HME/VLC around)


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

morac said:


> I entered the feed for Sessler's Soapbox and it auto-completed that.
> 
> Popular feeds are more likely to auto-complete. Obscure ones are less likely to do so.


Just in case you didn't know. That show is actually listed in the "Technology" section. Which means its available to be set as a Season Pass. [Didn't add it, but I did just happen to notice it when I was reviewing the list earlier today]


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

DL.TV has been shut down for a few months now, TTBOMK. The feed is showing reruns. Most of the people who used to work on DL.TV are working at Revision3 now.

A lot of shows in the new "Browse Web" list appear two, three, or more times now, with no indication of which is what. The ones that _don't_ say "Watch Now" seem to be the old MPEG-2 versions, but the only way I see to tell the others apart is to try them, and judge which looks better.

Many (most? all?) of the TiVo-Desktop-will-encode feeds are still way, way out of date.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

MirclMax said:


> Just in case you didn't know. That show is actually listed in the "Technology" section. Which means its available to be set as a Season Pass. [Didn't add it, but I did just happen to notice it when I was reviewing the list earlier today]


Thanks found it, thought I could swear I scrolled through the whole list earlier and didn't see it. :shrug:


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

Would a thread for custom RSS channels added be useful? I saw the AMC Classics and Sesslers Soapbox already listed here.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

grantsa4 said:


> Would a thread for custom RSS channels added be useful? I saw the AMC Classics and Sesslers Soapbox already listed here.


That would be a welcome addition!


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## JWThiers (Apr 13, 2005)

Unless you can subscribe to the RSS feed on the tivo and it downloads whenever the feed updates it seems pretty kludge. What I have been doing is using itunes or an rss reader to download whatever feed you use then use Tivo Desktop to automagically transfer from my PC to tivo. Your PC is most likely where you find the rss link in the first place why not subscribe there as well. I'll give it a try, but.. unless you can subscribe whats the point. that is the whole point of RSS.


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## Rick313 (Mar 29, 2009)

JWThiers said:


> Unless you can subscribe to the RSS feed on the tivo and it downloads whenever the feed updates it seems pretty kludge. What I have been doing is using itunes or an rss reader to download whatever feed you use then use Tivo Desktop to automagically transfer from my PC to tivo. Your PC is most likely where you find the rss link in the first place why not subscribe there as well. I'll give it a try, but.. unless you can subscribe whats the point. that is the whole point of RSS.


Agreed. The fact that many feeds are not in the correct format adds another hurdle. Out of a dozen or so feeds that I tried, only 2 worked.


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## MikeAndrews (Jan 17, 2002)

It worked on my S3. 

Now you all can subscribe to the Pilotcast.


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## Rick313 (Mar 29, 2009)

My TiVo HD seems to be pretty picky about which videos work and which ones don't. I tried the following three NASA podcasts with some weird results. The Mission Update videos seem to work fine, but only some of the Universe videos work, and none of the What's Up videos have worked.

NASA Mission Update Vodcast
http://www.nasa.gov/rss/mission_update_vodcast.rss

NASACast: Universe Video
http://www.nasa.gov/rss/universe_vodcast.rss

NASACast: What's Up? Video Podcasts
http://www.nasa.gov/rss/whatsup_vodcast.rss

To be clear. When I say it doesn't work, what I mean is that I can successfully add the feed to the custom rss list, but I get a message from TiVo when I attempt to watch or download a video. The message says, "*This video has an unknown or incompatible format and cannot be processed by TiVo*". As far as I can tell, they are all in the same format (mp4). Since they are all from the same source, one would expect them to either all work or all not work.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

After manually switching my Tekzilla SP to one of the new feeds yesterday, today I saw that my Rocketboom SP had been switched automatically. I think The Onion was switched as well. I can see the advantages of that; but, in these cases, it's a bad thing. Rocketboom shows up on the S3 as 4:3, with the right side cut off; and the MPEG-2 version of The Onion is padded to ensure that the scroller is readable on sets with overscan (like mine), while the MP4 version is not.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

I'll mention that a good site for finding podcasts is, not surprisingly, podcast.com.

TiVo might want to consider partnering with them so users could manage their podcasts online.


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## mathwhiz (May 28, 2000)

Anyone else having problems if they use a custom RSS feed for Geekbrief.TV

I've noticed something odd when watching your videos on my TiVo (Series 3). If I use the "Custom RSS" entry box and manually put in the XL feed (http://www.podshow.com/feeds/gbtv.xml) the shows appear on TiVo, but they 16×9 content is displayed in a 4:3 window with the right side cut off. Oddly this is only for some shows like 609 and 612, 611 from the feed works fine.

If I use the predefined GeekBrief.TV feed from the list it appears fine on my TV.

Anyone else notice this or can confirm it's broken on other TiVos too - or is it just me?

Thanks!


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Serious problem now: the latest full episode of Tekzilla didn't show up, and isn't in the list of past episodes, either. Instead, I got the last Daily episode twice. So I went to the manual URL I'd entered for the show, and the app claims that the episode is in an incompatible format. I read the RSS source myself, and could find no reason for this. It works fine in HME/VLC.

I also got a dupe of Rocketboom.


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## mathwhiz (May 28, 2000)

Yeah - very frustrating - which is why I don't really use their service - I still use my RSS feeds into pyTiVo. pyTiVo didn't handle pushing the GeekBrief.TV shows either and displaying them correctly. Which is why I tried it through their interface to see if it was a TiVo/video issue or a pyTiVo issue. It's something with how those specific mpeg4 videos are and how the TiVo handles them.


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## mathwhiz (May 28, 2000)

Just an update - I bought a TiVo HD XL today and pushed the "problem" video to it. It plays just fine on the TiVo HD XL - so it must be some issue with Series 3 TiVos only. Glad it works on my new TiVo - too bad there is an issue with the Series 3 and this format of video.


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## Einselen (Apr 25, 2006)

I don't have a S3 but I want to test my HD stream. Can someone maybe do it for me? http://feeds2.feedburner.com/mousemagichd/ and if that doesn't work (as in address format not ending in .xml) here is the direct link http://mousemagichd.com/podcast.xml


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Einselen said:


> here is the direct link http://mousemagichd.com/podcast.xml


Yes, the direct link is what's needed. But it still doesn't work -- I get the "The format of this video cannot be played on your DVR" message. Perhaps because the MIME type for your enclosures is "video/m4v"? Try "video/mp4".


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## Einselen (Apr 25, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> Yes, the direct link is what's needed. But it still doesn't work -- I get the "The format of this video cannot be played on your DVR" message. Perhaps because the MIME type for your enclosures is "video/m4v"? Try "video/mp4".


Thanks for checking that out for me. I will do some more reading on the TiVo site and possibly make those changes and ask for a retest.


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## jagnogg (Aug 19, 2009)

Has anyone attempted to set up an RSS feed on their home network? I have a pogoplug that is running lighttpd web server, but for some reason I can't get the RSS feeds to be recognized by my HD Tivo. I followed the guidelines on the tivo web site (google "tivo rss publisher details" - I haven't been a forum member long enough to post links)

Tivo gives me an error that says "The URL you entered did not contain a valid RSS feed. Please check the URL and try again".

I don't have any problems accessing the feed on an RSS reader on my laptop.

I am using a revision3 co-op h264 encoded mp4 file for this test and I think I have all of the required RSS tags mentioned on the tivo page above. I've tried tweaking the RSS file a million different ways, but I still get the same error.

-J


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## mathwhiz (May 28, 2000)

Is your RSS feed available on the public internet? I would think for the TiVo custom RSS feed to work TiVo's servers need to view the RSS feed, not your local TiVo, so it'll need a public URL. If you have a public URL - you might want to share it here so we can look at it and see if we can help you figure out what is wrong.


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## jagnogg (Aug 19, 2009)

mathwhiz said:


> Is your RSS feed available on the public internet? I would think for the TiVo custom RSS feed to work TiVo's servers need to view the RSS feed, not your local TiVo, so it'll need a public URL. If you have a public URL - you might want to share it here so we can look at it and see if we can help you figure out what is wrong.


My feed is not on the public internet. I'm directing the tivo to a 192.168.x.x address.

Are you sure that the tivo service has to be able to see custom feeds as well?

Is there a secure way for me to expose my local RSS feed to the internet so the tivo servers could see it?

The pogoplug does allow you to create public RSS feeds through their "mypogoplug.com" service, but their RSS feed format doesn't include all of the tags required by tivo. I tried that and it didn't work. That's why I went the route of installing a web server on the pogo plug and attempting to connect locally.

I've contacted pogoplug about it and they said that "making the pogoplug feeds compatable with tivo sounds like a worthwhile endeavor".

-J


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## mathwhiz (May 28, 2000)

I'm not 100&#37; sure that the feed needs to be on the public internet, but 98.3% sure. Since when you request the feed, you are using an app running on a TiVo server. Also, when a show is pushed to your TiVo from a feed, the TiVo server needs to read information about the show to send the command to your TiVo to get the show. 

I'm not too familiar with security and webservers, but I would think if you wanted to secure it, if you knew the IP addresses that TiVo uses to access it, you might be able to lock down your webserver to respond only to outside requests from certain IP addresses/ranges.

Rich


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

I had a msg (ok a 'TiVo service note/ad' on my menu) this evening saying I could watch millions of videos and could find them using TiVo Search. Interesting, I will be certainly be trying this out.


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

I knew about the new feature of inputting RSS feeds for web videos, but I did not know until last night I could use TiVo search to find so very many web videos. Somehow I missed that (I am sure I am not the first to know I can download almost any video I want from the web using TiVo Search). It is great using TiVo Search looking for web videos and finding so many that are not just on Amazon or YouTube...


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## real_goose (Oct 24, 2009)

morac said:


> I'll mention that a good site for finding podcasts is, not surprisingly, podcast.com.


Unfortunately, I could only get one of the video.podcast.com listed feeds to work with Tivo. I'd sure like to see a list of feeds known to work.


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## IDSmoker (Apr 11, 2004)

Does anyone know if TiVo will ever *finally *add the season pass functionality to the custom RSS feeds?

It would also be nice if they would let us know when one of our custom feeds was added to the list of available feeds. Then we would know we could create a SP and stop manually downloading them (and delete the custom feed).

I'm not gonna hold my breath on seeing either of these things happen, but I can still dream.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

IDSmoker said:


> Does anyone know if TiVo will ever *finally *add the season pass functionality to the custom RSS feeds?
> 
> It would also be nice if they would let us know when one of our custom feeds was added to the list of available feeds. Then we would know we could create a SP and stop manually downloading them (and delete the custom feed).
> 
> I'm not gonna hold my breath on seeing either of these things happen, but I can still dream.


Only those that work at TiVo would really know what features and functionality will be released to the public, and I am sure they are bound by NDA to not discuss such developments until such a time that a public announcement was made. Anything else would be merely speculation, and a waste of time. Given that, I have not read announcement along those lines.


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## rrr22777 (Jul 31, 2002)

I dont see this menu option to add Custom RSS feed in the Premiere. How do I add a custom URL?


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