# Difference between tivoserver/pytivo/galleon...



## mskuse (Dec 13, 2002)

New to this whole thing and trying to get my head wrapped around the different applications available. So starting with different types of servers... Seems like there are 3 major players.

TivoServer- Appears to be no longer supported?

pyTivo - Basically allows files to be copied from a tivo or transcoded and played on a tivo? Seems like there are two branches under development but one has not been updated in a while (assume to use the newest one)?

Galleon - Provides similar functionality to pyTivo plus a whole lot more (email, news, etc.)

So is that about right? If so, then is there any reason to use any app other than Galleon?

thanx


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

mskuse said:


> TivoServer- Appears to be no longer supported?


I believe you also need to hack your TiVo to use it.



mskuse said:


> pyTivo - Basically allows files to be copied from a tivo or transcoded and played on a tivo?


Actively being worked on and improved.



mskuse said:


> Galleon - Provides similar functionality to pyTivo plus a whole lot more (email, news, etc.)


Yes, it has TiVoToGo, but Galleon is not that great at sending transcoded video _back_ to your TiVo like pyTiVo. It has the videocasting app but personally I run Galleon for the TTG, Weather, and Music applications and then pyTiVo and streambaby for playing back video content on my TiVos.

Also, Galleon is not really in active development any more either. There are a few people working on it occasionally, but it's definitely not seeing active releases like pyTiVo.

streambaby actually does streaming whereas pyTiVo is copying the file to your box. With both, you can watch while the file is being streamed/copied.

Just try them all out and pick the ones you like the best (see my sig for links).


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## bp888 (Sep 28, 2004)

PyTiVoX on my Mac: :up:


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## Gavroche (May 27, 2007)

Yup, I use the Galleon and PyTivo combination. They seem to co-exist peacefully on the same windows vista machine.

It took me a while to get PyTivo to run, due to some restritive behaviour on Windows Vista Home Basic. My advice if you have that operating system is to not install Galleon or PyTivo under "Program Files" like the installers want you to. (Other versions of Windows Vista don't have the issue... for example, I could install them under Program Files on my Windows Vista Ultimate machine and they worked fine on the first try.)

I completely agree with other statements here that Galleon is not as good as sending video back to the Tivo as PyTivo.

Conversely, PyTivo is not as good at playing music as Galleon. When I say "not as good," I just mean: they both play music just fine, but Galleon has some great features in that regard that PyTivo does not have, and that's why I use both (they are very different animals). Also, Galleon has a great podcasting app that out-does the Tivo app in functionality and usability. (I find the Tivo podcasting app to be useless, actually.)

I haven't tried StreamBaby, but personally, for my set-up (all wireless), I'm going to steer clear of video streaming. With PyTivo, you can watch while the file is downloading to the Tivo, so no real need for streaming.

I'm also a registered (paid) Tivo Desktop Plus user, which also works fine, but doesn't support as many formats as Pytivo. I also like the way I can access the PyTivo interface for Tivo2Go and push functionality from any computer or connected-device (my phone, even) on my network.

The combination of PyTivo and Galleon make the Tivo one of the best home media players on the market today, in my opinion.


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## larry99 (Jan 31, 2009)

I had been using TIVO Desktop for about 6 months and can tell you it has a lot of serious and frustrating bugs. Unless a new version comes out, I would stay away from that one. Confused like you about what to try next, I finally settled on StreamBaby because I mostly want to transfer/ watch video files from my PC on my TV. For this purpose, Streambaby works great as was suggested on this forum. And I was very impressed how simple installation was. It worked immediately with no tweaking....BTW, I am using it with a wireless connection and it still loads considerably faster than real-time.

Added:
I have not had too much trouble using TIVO Desktop to transfer files from DVR to PC. (I suspect this is the oldest part of the program.) So I actually still do use it for that purpose. You can watch shows transferred to the PC as ".TIVO" files with Streambaby. So in effect, you have a way to increase your storage capacity without making any changes to the TIVO DVR.


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## mskuse (Dec 13, 2002)

Thanx for the info folks... Installed pytivo (linux) last nite and was completely painless and works flawlessly! Next up.. Galleon... let's she what it'll do...


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## noseph (Oct 13, 2003)

Do not forget HME/VLC. My current TiVo support system is running pyTiVo, Streambaby and HME/VLC.


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