Tivo Like Functionality

[Kirk]

Sorry if this question has been raised before, however I didn't see anything.

I understand that most of what I want to do needs to be handled via Plugins, however I'm not sure it's possible and want to know if it is before I put too much time into learning the interface.

I would like to do the following.

1. Replace the default OSD channel guide with something more closely resembling the Tivo Guide which includes much of the functionality that exists on Tivo.
2. Replace the default OSD program controls with ff and rew style functionality like Tivo. For example the three speed ff and rew ability.

All of this needs to work via the MediaMVP as well. Is this possible?

If there are currently any plugins like this if someone could point the way, I haven't seen anything. Closest would be the XRecord suite in terms of program search, etc.

Thanks in advance...

[sub]

Why dont you just buy a Tivo if you want it to look and feel like Tivo? The author (me) has never seen Tivo, so I've not specifically tried to do anything like Tivo.

1. Replace the default OSD channel guide with something more closely resembling the Tivo Guide which includes much of the functionality that exists on Tivo.

There is no screen or plugin that currently does this.

2. Replace the default OSD program controls with ff and rew style functionality like Tivo. For example the three speed ff and rew ability.

This is not possible, particularly with the MVP. GB-PVR is built around skipping instead of FF/RW.

[Kirk]

Why dont you just buy a Tivo if you want it to look and feel like Tivo? The author (me) has never seen Tivo, so I've not specifically tried to do anything like Tivo.

I do... The reason why I ask is the UI for Tivo is really what sets it apart. If not for the UI all DVRs are prety much the same. The Program Guide is probably the best implementation I've seen, which can be seen here.

http://customersupport.tivo.com/resource...pdf#page=4

So the question is, can the plug-in architecture handle a new plugin capable of new OSD functionality over LiveTV for a channel guide. I can most likely handle the programming.

I can live with the current ff/rew capabilities, that's not a huge deal.

[sub]

So the question is, can the plug-in architecture handle a new plugin capable of new OSD functionality over LiveTV for a channel guide. I can most likely handle the programming.

Yes, you could write your own tv guide plugin which is used over the video.

[Kirk]

Thanks!

[solarbaby]

Hi Kirk, I was waiting around for someone like you with some programing experience who wants to see GBPVR more like Tivo, I do not have much experience with Tivo but I was introduced to the intelligence feature that gets to know what kind of programs you like to watch, and makes a mathmatical guess as to what you may want to record next. I've seen this feature both on Tivo, and SageTV. Im not a fan of Sagetv, or Tivo but I really Love the idea of GBPVR knowing what shows I dont ever want to have put in front of my face again.. Its very time consuming scrolling through a list of Genre's that have 80% shows I'd never even consider watching.
Thats it for me, thanks for listening.

[tweeknockr]

Kirk,

I too would like to see more TiVo-like functionality. I've been using TiVo since pretty much the beginning, until just recently when I built myself an HD GBPVR box (it's more fun to play with, anyway ... )

Your new guide would be awesome... I'm thinking about writing something to improve upon "season passes" and recording scheduling. Xrecord + CDK is close, but I think there are still some improvements to be made.

I'm thinking about tackling something that would use CDK but improve upon the usability of the "season pass manager"...

Josh

[Braklet]

UI for Tivo is really what sets it apart. If not for the UI all DVRs are prety much the same. The Program Guide is probably the best implementation I've seen

I strongly encourage any potential plugin developers to have at it and tweak the GB-PVR UI as they see fit. Just remember that TiVo Inc. is also aware of what sets their product apart:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parse...D2=&d=PTXT

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars...D2=&d=PG01

Attracting negative legal attention to GB-PVR would not be cool.

[tweeknockr]

hmm... good point

[NI2O]

But they surely can only claim patents on a) things they invent and b) specific methods of achieving a given goal?

I too would like to see some more Tivo-like functionality.

I'm currently going through a somewhat painful process with my wife right now in our effort to get off Tivo and onto GBPVR. She keeps complaining that "it won't do this" or "it doesn't do that".

Most of the complaints are about the programming/scheduling. With Tivo when you schedule a recording by title it looks for all occurrences of the show on all channels at all times and then offers you;

1) Season Pass - record all NEW episodes on any channel/time
2) Record all - every episode on every channel/time
3) Record selected episode/show
4) some others I can't remember right now.

When you select your recording option it then checks against the schedule to see what selected episodes it can record without conflict and then shows a list of conflicts and warns the user that it won't record the selected show at these times. It also warns the user that it'll delete the following recordings early to make space for the new recordings (TiVo is aware of it's disk space).

Tivo keeps a show for as long as it can pending disk space. Busy Tivo's will delete shows recorded only yesterday if it needs the space (they have only 80GB HDD's).

As for conflict resolution, if it cannot resolve a conflict it'll ask the user which show/episode they want to cancel. The user doesn't have to be aware of the conflict issues and manually resolve them as a separate task. Tivo will also move scheduled recordings to another time if possible to make way for new recordings that cannot be moved (record the 11PM rerun on channel A to allow the 8PM one-time showing to be recorded on channel B).

I hope Sub, that this has been useful to you. I can allow you remote access to my Tivo via my Slingbox so that you can play with the menu's etc if that would be helpful.

Thanks for your great work and for saving me a significant amount of money over my TiVo!!