# Which solution? Desktop/pyTivo/Streambaby?



## P42 (Jan 7, 2003)

I've been comparing and reading up on TiVo Desktop, pyTivo and Streambaby, and I'm still not sure which will do what I need in the way that I'd like.

I'd like to be able to playback rips of the few, mainly kids, DVDs that we own - this is the easy part, the free version of TiVo Desktop and DVD Shrink had this problem licked in an evening. 

However, I'd like to group DVDs together in folders, to make it easier to find them, and I don't see any way of doing this with TiVo Desktop. Will pyTivo give me this option? It isn't clear to me from reading up on it. 
Using metadata files and misusing the seriesId seems to be a workable solution from one thread i read, are there other better solutions?

Thanks


----------



## Lazlo123 (Nov 7, 2006)

I have my movies in a "movies" folder within My Tivo Recordings. On the Tivo, my pc shows in the now playing list, i go into that, the "movies" folder shows up, i go into it, and it lists the movies. this is with the latest version of tivo desktop; 2.8.something.

edit: people who use pytivo seem to swear by it. i'm not what i would consider a novice on computers, but setting up pytivo just doesn't seem to click for me. There are a few threads around here titled something to the effect of "tell me how to do it as if i was in kindergarten". I read those.. and 5 year olds these days must be pretty advanced... so i personally decided to skip pytivo. Tivo desktop does what i need and it does it painlessly.


----------



## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

There are two issues with grouping: grouping on the TiVo -- this is where the metadata comes in -- and grouping on the server as you browse the list. pyTivo will handle both of those, including multiple levels of folders on the server side, which AFAIK TiVo Desktop still won't do. (I think TD will do one level on the server side, and has no way to group on the TiVo side except with auto-transfer folders and .TiVo files. But it's been a while since I used it.)

TiVo Desktop causes me immense pain, whereas I had pyTivo set up within five minutes of downloading it, with zero effort. Granted that was on Linux.


----------



## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

Desktop 2.8 solved the single level folder limitation on the server side.


----------



## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Lazlo123 said:


> people who use pytivo seem to swear by it. i'm not what i would consider a novice on computers, but setting up pytivo just doesn't seem to click for me. There are a few threads around here titled something to the effect of "tell me how to do it as if i was in kindergarten". I read those.. and 5 year olds these days must be pretty advanced... so i personally decided to skip pytivo. Tivo desktop does what i need and it does it painlessly.


Please feel free to go to that thread and ask questions. The intent was to build a set of installation instructions a new user could follow, step by step. Please let us know what is missing along the way, we will get you up and running and fix the instructions so that future users have an easier go.

Several complete nubies have gotten it up and running in the last several days and have been quite amazed at pytivo and its add-ons abilities to complete the Tivo media integration. So much more than tivo desktop can accomplish. Give it a try, there is help.


----------



## noseph (Oct 13, 2003)

There is nothing to prevent you from using all three. I use to have TiVo Desktop, PyTiVo and Streambaby all running on my media system. When I built a new Windows 7 Home Theater PC I chose to only install Streambaby, since it was what I used the most (I stream a lot of movies). The point is you can use them all.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> TiVo Desktop causes me immense pain, whereas I had pyTivo set up within five minutes of downloading it, with zero effort. Granted that was on Linux.


Probably also doesn't hurt that you are one of the major contributors to the project.


----------



## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

I also found pytivo to be painful to setup. I tried on and off for a couple of years and kept giving up after spending more time than I wanted to on it.

I finally for it running a few weeks ago and it works MUCH better than TiVo Desktop. I won't ever use TiVo Desktop ever again.


----------



## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

I'll also lend my vote in favor of pyTivo. It's quite flexible and works quite well. I've been using it (wmcbrine branch) for about two years now. Best thing is it's very easy to install in Linux and you can throw together a cheap lightweight linux video server without much effort.


----------



## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I have used pyTiVo for a while, and have no real idea how I ever set it up. I found it much easier to put in larger hard disks than to install pytivo.

Right now, I only use it to pull movies to my TiVo, and it works great. Reading around lately, it seems this is the time for me to finally add in some of the other coolness it can offer, and put this on my WHS at the same time. (i tried the tivo add-in, and it was unreliable)

I found some good instructions for this, but I'm still crossing my fingers. If you don't know what the techie means, it is truly a leap of faith.


----------



## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

If you have a Mac, you can use pyTivoX, which is pretty much pyTivo for Dummies.


----------



## WestTx (Dec 5, 2005)

Even after reading through many threads and having a relativley pain-free experience of installing both pytivo and Streambaby I find it hard to explain how best to use them.

mcbrine's flavor of pytivo has worked very well for me and I consider it a great replacement for TivoDesktop. I wanted to move recordings from my Tivos to save disk space on them, and I wanted to cut commercials from recordings. Beyond that I'm really not sure what are the other uses of pytivo. There are lots and lots of threads on installation and development but none that I found explaining ways to use pytivo.

Pretty much the same thing with Streambaby. I streamed a couple of movies with it, and it worked great, but don't understand why streaming is advantageous to transferring unless I just wanted to watch the second half (for example) of a recording.

If there was discussion on the actual use of these applications, others might see the advantages of using these apps. I really appreciate all the fine work done on these apps but other than the ain't-that-neat-appeal I'm not sure how to use them to improve my viewing. But, I've had these installed only since last week so I'm still learning.

(The pytivo discussion forum has been neglected/abandoned by the forum owners. It appears new membership and access to the wiki are no longer available.) Edit 5-24-2011: This seems to have been corrected. Maybe the moderators were just otherwise occupied for a few days when I first tried to register.

Edit: I just now learned that if the videos being streamed are mpg files (rather than .TiVo files) I can select a lower quality which really speeds up the stream. This makes Streambaby _much _more attractive to me (for several reasons) and this is the kind of stuff I've hoped to learn about these things. windracer's blog post led me to this revelation.


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

It's a bit old now, but I wrote up some descriptions of pyTivo and streambaby on my blog ... see the "get the most" link in my signature. Maybe I should update that and add vidmgr.


----------



## WestTx (Dec 5, 2005)

windracer said:


> see the "get the most" link in my signature.


Links in signatures are not visible to members with fewer than 10 posts. I'm almost there, but I've only been a member here for six years.

Thanks


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Heh, sorry about that! Here it is for everyone to see. 

http://bit.ly/wr_tivo


----------



## WestTx (Dec 5, 2005)

I still have plenty of questions but the post on your blog was a big help to me.

Thanks,
Les


----------



## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

Glad to help ... and there are plenty of people here willing to help as well so just keep posting your questions and we'll keep answering them. One more post and you can see sig links!


----------



## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

Sounds like you want kmttg. http://code.google.com/p/kmttg/


----------



## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

windracer said:


> Probably also doesn't hurt that you are one of the major contributors to the project.


I am now, but I started as a user, and what I said above was true that very first time I ever used it.

I didn't even speak Python at the time. I learned it to work on pyTivo. (Not the _only_ reason, but the proximate one.)


----------



## P42 (Jan 7, 2003)

So I got pyTivo installed and running following Scott'Soapbox instructions, I ran into some minor problems. The output log was attempting to write to a location that no longer existed. Running in console mode rather then as a service did provide an indicator of this.

I've successfully pushed DVD rips to the TiVo into group.
In the "share" folder on my PC, accompanying each rip.mpg is a rip.mpg.txt which contains the following:

```
title : My First Signs
seriesTitle : Baby Einstein
episodeTitle : My First Signs
description: A playful introduction to words and sign language -- my street to main street!
seriesId : SH298935
```
After transferring two or more rips with accompanying txt files this results in a group/folder on the TiVo labeled "Baby Einstein" with a recording labeled "My First Signs".

This is based on info from:
http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/forum/folders-or-groups-after-transfer-possible-t82.html
http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Metadata
It is likely that is more correct metadata that should be used, and I'm not sure how this will work with a second seriesTitle sharing the same seriesId. Something I'll try another evening, as for now I've achieved me goal.


----------



## tomm1079 (May 10, 2005)

i been using streambaby for years. I personally do not like moving files to my tivo. I would rather keep that space free and just stream it. I have used streambaby over wireless G/N and both worked great (was getting a little interference with G so i went to N. In the last few months i have switched to powerline adapters and i do not have any issues at all with streaming.

I been wanting to try vdmgr for a while now. I finally setup pyTivo over the weekend. To me it was a pain in the ass. I had alot of issues with it and i am pretty technical person. i did finally get it and once i had it vdmgr was pretty easy. 

For me streambaby is the way to go but that is because i stream everything. I would rather not transfer it. Just depends on the person. 

I would like to see streambaby get HD menus and the same features as vdmgr for metadata and artwork but i dont think that is going to happen.


----------



## dobbie1 (Apr 15, 2002)

I have been following various threads on pyTivo and have been intending to try doing the installation for several months now. I will give it a try this weekend and see how it goes. I did get steambaby up and running last weekend and it was an easy install.


----------



## WestTx (Dec 5, 2005)

For those considering any of these apps, I would recommend a read of an old thread titled TivoHD FAQ by bkdtv in the Tivo Series 3 HDTV DVR forum here at TCF. It's a little bit old but still offers a lot of good information.

Les


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

dobbie1 said:


> I have been following various threads on pyTivo and have been intending to try doing the installation for several months now. I will give it a try this weekend and see how it goes. I did get steambaby up and running last weekend and it was an easy install.


Be sure to check out the "kindergarten" instructions in **this thread**. The important stuff starts at post #32.


----------



## larrs (May 2, 2005)

I have all of my Videos in my Tivo Recordings Folder in different Folders by Genre:

I chose to use categories that are used by IMDB




Works great.


That being said, I am installing pyTivo as well. The advanced features are too much to pass up.


----------



## dobbie1 (Apr 15, 2002)

Thanks for the reading recommendations.


----------



## dobbie1 (Apr 15, 2002)

I was able to get pyTivo successfully installed and running. The instructions were very good. I did run into a couple of issues that might help someone in the future.

1. extracting ffmpeg into the "bin" folder in pyTivo. The "bin" folder did not exist in the folder pyTivo and I needed to create.

2. Initially could not get pyTivo.py to run. I could see that an error was being output but it was going by so fast could not read it. Solved by changing to the command prompt, changing to the pyTivo directory and executing from there. Could see the error was it was not finding the pyTivo.conf file. This also prevented me from running locahhost:9032. As soon as I renamed the pyTivo.conf.dist file to py.tivo.conf everything was good to go.

The issues were probably my on doing and something I missed in the instructions.

Again, thanks everyone for the excellent work on the program and instructions.

Regards
Dale


----------



## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Thanks for the detailed feedback on the instructions!:up: I will go edit accordingly.


----------

