# TiVo plugin for Plex



## tombonneau (Mar 26, 2009)

Anyone tried the Tivo plugin for media player Plex for the Mac? On the surface, it works & looks great. Finds my TiVo and shows no problem. But whenever I tried to stream in HD, it's way choppy. (SD plays ok when I can get it to work.) Anyone else have this issue?

My guess is it's the Plex player, which while nice & slick, doesn't seem ready for prime time. Still seems pretty glitchy & buggy ...


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

tombonneau said:


> Anyone tried the Tivo plugin for media player Plex for the Mac? On the surface, it works & looks great. Finds my TiVo and shows no problem. But whenever I tried to stream in HD, it's way choppy. (SD plays ok when I can get it to work.) Anyone else have this issue?
> 
> My guess is it's the Plex player, which while nice & slick, doesn't seem ready for prime time. Still seems pretty glitchy & buggy ...


No it's not Plex's fault. It's the tivo.
(I hacked up the plex plugin). Basically, tivos are unable to feed HD content in real-time via the network, so plex burps like crazy as it's trying to play content faster than it's arriving.

You *can* get it to mostly work by making sure your tivo isn't tuned to any channel. Isn't recording anything, and isn't playing anything. You also need to be on a good connection.

But yeah, the plugin is mostly for SD content, or fast tivos that aren't doing anything else.

If/When plex allows for unlimited buffering of shows (the api is still being developed) you will have the option of waiting 30 minutes before it starts playing the show, and THEN it will be smooth.

Or you can just download the HD show with iTiVo and play it off your hard drive in plex.


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## tombonneau (Mar 26, 2009)

Yoav said:


> No it's not Plex's fault. It's the tivo.
> (I hacked up the plex plugin). Basically, tivos are unable to feed HD content in real-time via the network, so plex burps like crazy as it's trying to play content faster than it's arriving.
> 
> You *can* get it to mostly work by making sure your tivo isn't tuned to any channel. Isn't recording anything, and isn't playing anything. You also need to be on a good connection.
> ...


Thanks, yoav! Should have known you'd have the answer. 

Yeah, I just dl'd iTiVo last night and will likely just use that if I ever get the urge to watching anything from TiVo in my bedroom. I ran a trial DL and it worked like a charm. Now if need be I can catch up on shows on my iPhone during my lunch break.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

First a BIG thank you YOAV! I use iTiVo, PyTiVoX as well as the TiVo app in Plex and they are terrific! I really love Plex's GUI as well.

All of our TiVo's are hard-wired (CAT5/6) and both HD and SD recordings on our Series3 stream to Plex flawlessly. The PQ is outstanding on my iMac 24". However I've never had any luck with the TiVo HD streaming SD or HD recordings without serious choppy A/V. I've tried setting both tuners to channels it doesn't receive and made sure it wasn't downloading anything...still no love. I think it has something to do with the processors being somewhat better in the S3 even though it's older.

My biggest gripe is not being able to watch copy protected material (HBO, etc.) in Plex. :down: That has nothing to do with the app though. Curse you neocon program owners!!

Thanks again YOAV...well done!


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## Yoav (Jan 13, 2007)

richsadams said:


> First a BIG thank you YOAV!


Glad to hear people are using it productively. Thanks 

It's also nice to know that it's a TivoHD vs S3 issue. I only have an S3 so it's hard to guess sometimes . I'll add that to the docs for the plex plugin.

Hopefully the API framework docs will be out soon and I can fix some of the obvious issues (like FF/Rew buttons that shouldn't be there).


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## tombonneau (Mar 26, 2009)

richsadams said:


> First a BIG thank you YOAV! I use iTiVo, PyTiVoX as well as the TiVo app in Plex and they are terrific! I really love Plex's GUI as well.
> 
> All of our TiVo's are hard-wired (CAT5/6) and both HD and SD recordings on our Series3 stream to Plex flawlessly. The PQ is outstanding on my iMac 24". However I've never had any luck with the TiVo HD streaming SD or HD recordings without serious choppy A/V. I've tried setting both tuners to channels it doesn't receive and made sure it wasn't downloading anything...still no love. I think it has something to do with the processors being somewhat better in the S3 even though it's older.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your input, Rich. I have a TiVo HD, so I guess that is the issue. It's weird, sometimes I can stream SD in Plex, other times I click on an SD program and it times out.

Not the end of the world, but would have been cool to have that setup 100% flawless in my bedroom. 

And yeah, big ups to Yoav, all your apps are great, much thanks for all your hard work and quick responses.


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