gtivo 0.70 beta review

This application is a GUI tool written with the Gnome/GTK libraries

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Jeremy Dinsel

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This application is a GUI tool written with the Gnome/GTK libraries. It can be used to view Television Show details and extract tyStreams (TiVo proprietary media streams) from a network enabled TiVo device. This application will run in Linux (and possibly other Unix varients).

gtivo has many user configurable preferences. Each option is grouped into a category based on any options which may be related to it.

TiVo Device - Options

TiVo Hostname (no default)
Specify the hostname or IP of the TiVo device.
Telnet Port (depricated as is not used)
This field is depricated and is no longer used. It will be removed in the future.
Web Server Port (defaults to 80 - http access)
Specify which port on the TiVo can be used for http requests (gtivo expects that Tivoweb is installed). This feature is used with the "Copy Show Information from Web Server" feature described below.
Extraction Port (defaults to 7900 - the gserver port)
Specify which port gserver is running on.
Transaction Log (no default)
A transaction log will be created (at the time of the writing, this feature was not implemented -- see sourceforge for more information). This feature may be useful for debugging gtivo.

Storage - Options

Save As (defaults to "%p/%e%f")
For more information on this, please see the section Save As below.
Location (no default)
Specify the base directory that extracted information will be saved in.

Extraction - Options

TiVo Command (defaults to "ExtractStream -s")
What command should gtivo run on the TiVo? NOTE: the TiVo side server (gserver) must be able to run the specified command.
MPEG (default is OFF)
Convert the extracted show to MPEG? If MPEG is selected, the tyStream option will be deselected.
tyStream (Raw) (default is ON)
Save the file in the format that the TiVo provides -- tyStream; the TiVo proprietary format. If tyStream is select, the MPEG option will be deselected.
Store Chunks Seperately (default is OFF)
TiVo stores shows in chunks. This option will save the shows in chunks. See the information in the Save As section for information on the naming convention which will be used.
Copy Show Information from Web Server (default is OFF)
Use the TiVo web server (tivoweb) to obtain detailed show information?

Save As Options
If the user is familiar with xmms (music file playing software for Linux) or grip (music file creation software for Linux) the following formats may be familiar. When specified in the "Save As" field, the individual options will be expanded to values found within the selected show's data type. The following table will detail the options and their meanings.

The Save As field is used in conjunction with the Location setting. Location sets the base directory for saving shows and typically looks like: "/path" The Save As field is joined to the Location field with a "/" (forward slash) character tying the two together.

Save As Options
%e Episode - The title of the specific showing.
%f File Extension - used to allow gtivo to save the file as a .ty (tyStream), .mpeg (MPEGv2) or .html file.
%p Program - The name of the Show (for example: Enterprise, CHiPs, A-Team)
%s Station - The station that the show was recorded on.
%F Internal TiVo data (seems silly to use)
%P Internal TiVo data (seems silly to use)
%d Date (seems silly to use)
%D Day (seems even sillier to use)

After selecting a show (or shows) from the [Now] Show[ing] list, gtivo will attempt to extract the show for the user. A seperate dialog will pop up showing progress. An "Estimated Time to Arrival" (ETA) field will be displayed and updated with the progress bar. The expanded information (from the Save As preference will be displayed).