Overview
--------

This is an application I created to make it easier for me to get shows off the Tivo.  I
first got the bug in me to create this when there was a marathon on the satellite, and
it was just painful to keep up with the Tivo.

Although other tools exist to get shows off the Tivo, it is difficult
to get more than one show out of the Tivo at a time.  I wrote this as
the next step towards writing a Windows Media driver that would
get shows off the Tivo.


What is This?
-------------

This application is a combination of ConvertStream, netmplex, and a Windows based UI
in front of telnet to get shows off the Tivo.  If consists of a TCL script that
creates the Now Showing list as XML, and an MFC application that talks to the Tivo
via telnet to run the script.  Once the list of shows are downloaded from the Tivo,
it is presented in a Windows list view, where who can select one or more shows, and
then from a menu, choose to extract the shows.  It is that easy.  You can get details
about the shows simply by clicking on them, which uses the TivoWeb server to get the
details about the show.

When you extract the shows from the Tivo, you have your choice of either extracting the
raw tyStreams, or you can create an MPEG file as the show is being downloaded.  In
addition, this application has a ConvertStream mode, where it can take one of more
raw tyStream files and create an MPEG file.  This is essentially a file based version
of netmplex.

I exposed the ability to save to the raw tyStream data for two reasons: first, that
not many people outside of Tivo knows the precise format of the tyStream, so
if we learn more about the format, it is possible at some later point to come back
and re-encode the stream into an MPEG or some other format.  The second reason for
exposing the raw tyStreams is that I have not yet purchased a DVD recorder, and
the complete tyStream is too big to fit onto a single CD.  Thus, I can burn the
components of the tyStream onto a CD and later create the MPEG show if I want.

Extracting tyStreams gives you two modes of operation:  you can either create a
single file, which is a the entire raw stream off the Tivo, or you can create
multiple files, each representing an individual FSID from the Tivo.

Extracting to MPEG is the one stop shopping.  In this mode, you merely select the
shows you want to extract, and in a little more time that is takes to extract the
show from the Tivo, you have a finished MPEG file.


What you Should be Aware of
---------------------------

This application has several limitations.  First, there is the option to extract to
best quality for MPEG.  However, turning this option off seems to result in poor quality.

This relies on netcat to send the data from the Tivo to your PC.  I've posted a copy of
it up my Web page.

To extract the details of the show, this relies on the TivoWeb server.  It may work with
the httpd.tcl that was supplied with ExtractStream, but I have not tried that.

This includes a modified version of ExtractStream, based on the 0.3 version from
CVS.  I found a bug in ExtractStream where it was taking one too many chunks off of the
Tivo, resulting in some of the bogus sequence errors.

Finally, I am putting this out now for two reasons: because I opened my mouth and people
are getting interested in it, and second, because I am likely about to start on a .NET
exploration project that will likely take up what free time I had.  It is not quite as
polished as I would like, but I don;t know if I'll have the time to really finish this.
It does the job I need.


Bugs
----

A few bugs I have not yet fixed:  If you close the MPEG extract status window, then
subsequently quit the application, you will get a fault.  The MPEG extraction window
really should tell the Now Showing window that it is going away.

There seems to be a huge memory leak when you exit the application.  For whatever reason,
I could not get the OnClose to go to my view for the Now Showing window.  I haven't been
doing a lot of MFC UI work for the last few years, so it is probably something stupid.


Acknowledgements
----------------

Much of the central part of handling the streams from the Tivo was not done by me.
For this you can thank Nick Hull and his masked cohorts, who brought us ExtractStream.
Related to that is the ConvertStream code, for which Gary Steele.  That work of course was
pioneered by Andrew Tridgell and then D18C7DB.

The tcl script was based on code from the TivoWeb project, and for that we can
thank Stephen Rothwell (sfr@canb.auug.au), Jon Squire (jsquire@justice.loyola.edu),
Josha Foust (tivoweb@lightn.org), Mike Baker (mbm@linux.com) Mike Byrne (Turbo)
and John Paglierani (John@Paglierani.net).

If I missed anybody, it is purely unintentional.