The title says it all. This is s first version of a TiVo Add-On for Orb. Watch your TiVo recorded shows in your office, program your Tivo Series 2.0 from a cellphone! I'm so excited that I created an ugly page about it: http://mywebpage.netscape.com/tivoanywhere I'll add screenshots, a better doc and more soon. In the meantime you can play with it and send me some feedback!

tivoanywhere, this is cool! That Add-On shows the power of our API. I just played with it and it's working great. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions from this board. Keep the good work coming!

This only enables downloading of TiVo content, not streaming, correct?

I can remote into my PC from work (using ultravnc) and download a .tivo file onto my PC.. then add that directory to orb
and play the .tivo file without any conversion..

I have to look at remote and enter the user/key in quickly and then it plays for me.. I did all this without the add-in.
I DID load the ADD-in and I can see the NOWPLAYING remotely on my pc here at work! nice!
I assume when I click transfer it is loading the file to my home pc.
I tried to click play while the file was transferring and it didn't stream thru.. I assume the WHOLE file has to transfer to the PC before it transfers, too bad it can't play directly thru the tivo without sending the file over 1st.
Also it didn't appear that the MB transferred # updated while it was transfer on my orb now playing screen.
I also couldn't get the ability to program my TIVO for later shows.
I went into configuration and setup TV signal, and I get
- no STB
- antenna, composite and SVideo.
I dont have any of this setup, nor an infrared connector from my PC to my TIVO, and never get an option to put in my zip code to GET the tvguide. What am I doing wrong?
thanks
cj

jholcom: This Add-On initiates the transfer from the TiVo box to your PC, once the file is there (even partially) you can actually stream it. This is what the "play" button is about

cejay: Be sure you have the latest version of everything. The latest version of the TiVo desktop should solve your first problem. The latest version of Orb (534+) should make the TiVo record button visible in the Orb TVGuide.

Ok.. I had .0530 , no I upgraded to .0534

I went to configuration, and only option I can choose without getting "NO IR try again" is option for 'no set top box'
then it asks if i have antenna , i have said yes, also tried no.
When should it ask for the zip code etc? that never comes up?
And when I goto Local TV in orb on work computer it says "0" channels. How will it know what to get if I don't give it a zip code?

cj

Just installed this, looks very nice. One issue I am having is everything seems to work fine, I can transfer shows just fine, but when I go to play them windows media player/Orb gives me some error telling me I dont have the proper codecs to watch Mpeg 2 or something, although streaming my Windows Media Center stuff works just fine.

After a restart I tried again, and after buffering for what seemed forever (I did have 250mb of the 1.3gb file downloaded) I just got a black screen even though orb said it was playing my file. Then it kept on reconnecting like it could not find my server. I have verified that the IP address and the MAK key are both correct. I can also stream Orb just fine otherwise. Right now I am looking at WMP and seeing "buffering" for the past 10 minutes while I have written this post.

In regards to the TV guide and your "trick", is there anyway to enable this if we do have a tuner card? If I change the TV provider settings then Orb will not be able to interact with Windows Media Center.

A "stop downloading" TIVO would help also, as I could not figure out how to stop a 1.3GB file from being transferred to my computer. Too bad there is no way to do live streaming without and transfer. I assume this limitation will keep this add on from working on phones or Pocket PC's.

All in all a very very cool idea, and I certainly hope I can get it to run. This is VERY exciting, thanks so much for putting in the hard work. Please consider a solution for Pocket PC's as I stream orb all the time over my Sprint Pocket PC phone (which is scheduled to get 300-500k/1.5m capabilities before the end of the year).

Rick

This is one the coolest and most useful add-ons I've seen in awhile since the Google Maps and Traffic Cam Viewer which are TiVo/Galleon add-ons (nothing to do with Orb). I installed TiVoToGo Anywhere without any problem and it's working great. I'm now transfering a program on TiVo to my Orb PC and am already able to stream it to my remote laptop via Orb while the file is still transferring. Cool, cool, cool!

I'd like to suggest that you announce this add-on in one of the English Forum forums since I think most users (as opposed to developers) just browse those forums. I would not have found this add-on if I hadn't also been monitoring TiVoCommunity.com.

OK here is the specific error message:

"Orb did not find a suitable codec installed on your home PC to stream your MPEG-2 files."

On the orb codecs page, under MPEG-2 it says:
"For MPEG-2 files (DVR-MS, MPG, MPEG, and VOB extensions), use Dscaler5 (note that this codec should already be pre-installed in your system by Orb):"

So I assume Orb has already installed the correct codecs, no? As I stated above, I can stream Windows Media Center just fine on a Hauppauge PVR150.

Now even weirder is after I get the MPEG-2 error message from windows media player, I totally lose my connection to the internet, even to my router. Once I exit completely out of orb everything is fine. A restart of Orb and everything works great until I try to stream a TIVO file again.

Spinedoc -

I had the same problem until I used the Microsoft Codec Checkup Utility to set DScaler as my preferred codec. I then started streaming a standard mpeg file to my remote PC, stopped it and began streaming a .tivo file. After thsee two steps, I was able to view the .tivo file. When I first tried streaming the .tivo file before I ran any other video file through Orb, I still got an error in WMP. I assume that there's some intialization and/or codec-switching issue that the orb development team still needs to look at.

I hope this info helps.

When I tired to set this up I keep getting " A connection with the server could not be established". Any ideas? Do I need to do anything special with my firewall?

If you already have a tuner, you'll just see, within the TVGuide, a TiVo logo next to the regular tuner Record button. It's that way that you can schedule a recording on your TiVo. Remember, because of the limitation of the TiVo scheduling process that you should only try to schedule shows that are at least 30 minutes away.


This Add-On already works on Desktops, PocketPCs and Phones...

I got the tvguide function working.. I had to totally uninstall ORB and and reinstall, (I had lost my tivo2go add-on for some reason)
I clicked in tv signal button in orb config, and i got option for zip code, then looked and I have the TIVO icon to schedule programs.
I have the codec to use for mpg setup in config, and all is streaming fine.
Suggestions for update is the MB downloaded refresh
(doesnt show how much has been dloaded till i refresh the webpage)
Other than that it looks great!
cj

I downloaded the App and installed orb on my laptop. The IP address I use is an internal 192.168.x.x. I have the media access key.

Obviously it won't resolve. Can someone walk me through this.

Thx,
marc

If the TiVo box and the laptop on which Orb is installed are on the same 192.168.x.x network there is no reason it won't resolve... Did you try to install Orb on the PC (laptop) you're trying to access your TiVo from OUTSIDE that network? OK, let me review my config as an example: I have Orb running on a PC at home which is on the same internal network my TiVo box connects to wirelessly. Then I use my laptop from work or anywhere else in the World to access my home PC through my.orb.com and thus my TiVo box. Does that make sense?