# Couldn't someone develop an HME app to stream Hulu from a PC?



## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

Possible?


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Sure.


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## SGR215 (Jan 20, 2004)

When?


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Essentially that's what PlayOn does, except that it presents itself as a UPnP media server which can be accessed by the clients built into the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and other things (except TiVo).


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## anom (Apr 18, 2005)

I'm kind of amazed no one has, then.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

anom said:


> I'm kind of amazed no one has, then.


I would find monetary value in such an app


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=403224


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

It's interesting that Digeo's new retail Moxi box can act as a UPnP client for use with PlayOn (see this). In addition to Hulu, it gets them Netflix (though probably not the HD streams).


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> It's interesting that Digeo's new retail Moxi box can act as a UPnP client for use with PlayOn (see this). In addition to Hulu, it gets them Netflix (though probably not the HD streams).


yep - that is Digeo's version of streaming to date and yes, it means only SD and you have to have a PC running playOn as aprt of the setup versus direct to the DVR, Moxi does come with a free PlayOn license so you do not have to pay the 30$ for PlayOn


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Adam1115 said:


> Possible?


The problem is streaming to a HME app isn't through a publicly available api, afaik. Some developers have accomplished this but I'm not sure that even this would be useful given I don't think Hulu content can be downloaded from the HME app in a format the TiVo can play.


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## Turtleboy (Mar 24, 2001)

ZeoTiVo said:


> I would find monetary value in such an app


You say that, but no one has ever paid anything for any app.


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## MirclMax (Jul 12, 2000)

Turtleboy said:


> You say that, but no one has ever paid anything for any app.


Okay, I'll pony up $1 if you make this one. (60 day time limit on offer)

And back to reality... just consider this me saying "me too". I'd love to see this functionality .. be it an app or built in.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Turtleboy said:


> You say that, but no one has ever paid anything for any app.


No one has ever asked in any serious way that I have seen.
So how is that proof that I would _not_ find monetary value in a HuLu on TiVo app?


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

rainwater said:


> The problem is streaming to a HME app isn't through a publicly available api, afaik. Some developers have accomplished this but I'm not sure that even this would be useful given I don't think Hulu content can be downloaded from the HME app in a format the TiVo can play.


the issue is exactly getting Hulu content in a way that they would not block. PlayOn seems to have some agreement with Hulu


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> the issue is exactly getting Hulu content in a way that they would not block. PlayOn seems to have some agreement with Hulu


Even if they didn't block it, it would be difficult because the S3/Tivo HD boxes are very specific about the encoding types they accept for each format for HME streaming. It isn't clear whether Hulu provides it in a Tivo compatible format, but I would venture a guess and say it is unlikely.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

rainwater said:


> Even if they didn't block it, it would be difficult because the S3/Tivo HD boxes are very specific about the encoding types they accept for each format for HME streaming. It isn't clear whether Hulu provides it in a Tivo compatible format, but I would venture a guess and say it is unlikely.


the app that supplied Hulu would be assumed to do the conversion in this conversation much like pyTiVo or steambaby will provide formats not accepted directly by TiVo such as AVI


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> the app that supplied Hulu would be assumed to do the conversion in this conversation much like pyTiVo or steambaby will provide formats not accepted directly by TiVo such as AVI


Sure, it may be possible with a local HME app running on a PC. However, real-time conversion would be an issue. Plus, this needs to be a HME app that is accessed from a remote server. TiVo should be all over this. If they worked out a deal with Hulu, they could provide a excellent interface to access the growing Hulu library.


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

Turtleboy said:


> You say that, but no one has ever paid anything for any app.


Really? Guess you missed all of the bounties 'back in the day' that resulted in things like RID DirecTiVo's being hacked, etc...


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

Turtleboy said:


> You say that, but no one has ever paid anything for any app.


Netflix, Amazon, Real(Rhapsody), Jaman, and CinemaNow all provide apps that require the users to be paying customers. Sure, in these cases, the TiVo user hasn't 'paid for the app', but they are paying for the content the app makes accessible. TiVo users _have_ paid for the upgrade to Desktop Plus, which enables several useful features, so there is precedent that people would be willing to purchase an add-on if it represents enough value to them.


rainwater said:


> Sure, it may be possible with a local HME app running on a PC. However, real-time conversion would be an issue. Plus, this needs to be a HME app that is accessed from a remote server. TiVo should be all over this. If they worked out a deal with Hulu, they could provide a excellent interface to access the growing Hulu library.


Agreed, it's TiVo (if anyone) who'll bring Hulu to TiVo. I think it would be a tough sell for a 3rd party developer to convince Hulu (and the content owners Hulu represents) to let them have access to the content in order to send it via an unsupported, reverse-engineered api (which is how streambaby & hme/vlc can 'stream' to the TiVo and is how the 'push' functionality of pytivo and streambaby works) that could be (intentionally or not) broken by TiVo at any given moment.


Adam1115 said:


> Really? Guess you missed all of the bounties 'back in the day' that resulted in things like RID DirecTiVo's being hacked, etc...


Bounties are motivational, but unlikely to change the content owners' position WRT how they want their content handled. Without a license, it's only a matter of time before the developer is forced to remove the software or hulu blocks access if the developer is unwilling to cooperate.


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## fyodor (Sep 19, 2006)

Would something like this be usable to bridge an HME application to Playon?

http://www.cidero.com/rendererBridge.html


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

gonzotek said:


> Bounties are motivational, but unlikely to change the content owners' position WRT how they want their content handled. Without a license, it's only a matter of time before the developer is forced to remove the software or hulu blocks access if the developer is unwilling to cooperate.


No the bounties are to pay a programmer for their time to develop something.


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## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

Adam1115 said:


> No the bounties are to pay a programmer for their time to develop something.


And...? The developer doesn't own the content, so how does paying them for development get the content onto the TiVo (legally)?


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## Adam1115 (Dec 15, 2003)

gonzotek said:


> And...? The developer doesn't own the content, so how does paying them for development get the content onto the TiVo (legally)?


an HME app like PlayOn that gives your TiVo access to the HuLu website on your computer..... for example.

A web browser with Flash for the TiVo... another example.

A TiVo 'plug in' for playon... another example.

I don't know how it could be programed, that's he point of the thread.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Turtleboy said:


> You say that, but no one has ever paid anything for any app.


that's a little blanket statement there...

I think a more accurate statement would be- no one has ever got rich by selling any tivo apps.

http://store.homeseer.com/store/PI-TIVO---TiVo-Plug-In-GRHS-Technologies-P290C93.aspx
is one example i'm aware of.

I guess it could be the ONLY one though!


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

rainwater said:


> Sure, it may be possible with a local HME app running on a PC. However, real-time conversion would be an issue. Plus, this needs to be a HME app that is accessed from a remote server. TiVo should be all over this. If they worked out a deal with Hulu, they could provide a excellent interface to access the growing Hulu library.


ummm, yeah - the context here was for some 3rd party to develop an app that could show HulU via a TiVo DVR. SO a local HME app on a local PC is the context we all are talking about.
How TiVo inc. would do it is entirely different and I agree that TiVo should be in earnest talks with HulU and showing them what could be done.


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## AZ_Tivo (Jan 17, 2005)

So is anyone writing an app for hulu on Tivo? If people can pay $40 for playon they will pay for this app!


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## lelele (Apr 26, 2007)

If anyone knows perl, get_flash_videos has a Hulu plugin that allows you to download video from Hulu. (see source)

It uses the RTMP protocol, some encrypted SMIL (XML), and some 64 byte authentication keys.

I guess, if you can't implement all that in Java you could just bundle get_flash_videos and the Hulu plugin, and execute it at download time.

With the java.lang.Runtime.exec() function.

get_flash_videos http://www.hulu.com/watch/149646/saturday-night-live-digital-short-great-day -f /tmp/huludownload

And send the file /tmp/huludownload to the TiVo.


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