Here’s a funny comic that I found over at TiVoLovers.

Along with the Galleon email, Leon also sent me an email letting me know that JavaHMO 2.3 has been released. Here it is:

The JavaHMO media server for TiVo has released version 2.3. JavaHMO now supports the ToGo functionality similar to that of the TiVo Desktop 2.0. In addition, JavaHMO adds a feature to automatically download recordings from your TiVo based on a list of configurable criteria.

Before you can use the ToGo functionality, you have to configure the download path and media access key using the JavaHMO configuration GUI File/Properties menu.

The ToGo functionality is available in the configuration GUI on the File/ToGo menu. If you are using the TiVo Beacon then currently JavaHMO is not able to automatically determine the TiVo’s on you network; you have to manually configure JavaHMO with those details. If you do not use the TiVo Beacon service then JavaHMO should automatically locate your TiVo’s.

Your TiVo needs have the 7.1 version software for the ToGo functionality to work.

This release has been developed for JRE 1.4.2_06.

The Windows installation wizard, Mac OS X disk image, Linux RPM and complete source code is currently available from the project web site on Sourceforge:
http://javahmo.sourceforge.net

There are compatability problems with the TiVo Desktop 1.9 for the Mac and you might have to disable the Desktop software for JavaHMO to work.

This is the last version of JavaHMO. All future development will be done on the next-generation version called Galleon: http://galleon.sourceforge.net
All JavaHMO feature requests and bugs will be handled as part of Galleon.

In case you haven’t noticed, this site has been somewhat dead as of late. Well, I’ve got a good excuse. My wife and I just had a baby boy! Needless to say, blogging about TiVo has been put on the back burner for the time being. That being said, I wanted to let everybody know that Leon has released beta 1 of Galleon. Here’s an email that I received from him.

I’ve just released the first beta of the Galleon media server for TiVo:
http://galleon.sourceforge.net

Galleon is the next-generation version of JavaHMO and is based on TiVo’s HME
technology.

This beta includes a HME application to control your ToGo downloads directly
from your TiVo.

None of the JavaHMO plugins have been ported yet; they will become part of
Galleon over the next betas.

This version does not have an installation wizard and only Windows scripts
are currently included. Read the release notes for instructions on how to
run Galleon:
http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=126291&release_id=307039
This version is being released to get feedback on the significant design
improvements and future planned features. Galleon has been redesigned from
the ground up to overcome the scaling and performance issues of JavaHMO.

As you can imagine, I probably wont’ have a chane to try it out in the near future. Let me know if you get a chance to try it and what you think.

TiVo now has 3 million subscribers! Keep up the great work TiVo.

ALVISO, Calif., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO - News), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced that as of January 31, 2005, its subscription base exceeded 3 million. TiVo added approximately 698,000 total net subscriptions during its fourth quarter ended January 31, 2005, including approximately 251,000 TiVo-Owned subscriptions and 447,000 DIRECTV with TiVo subscriptions.

According to this article on CNET, some TiVo subscribers are annoyed with a couple of bugs that were apparently brought on by the TiVoToGo upgrade. Several subscribers are complaining about slow channel changing and a problem with picture distortion upon changing channels. As the article points out, these bugs are completely subjective.

I myself have experienced the slow channel changing bug however; it doesn’t annoy me that much. In my opinion, every software update brings a set of new bugs. As long as TiVo works out the issues and comes up with a fix I will be happy. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how long it takes TiVo to release a new version that fixes some of these bugs.

TiVo has released some interesting statistics that detail how TiVo users watched the Super Bowl. The stats break down minute-by-minute the number of viewers as well as the most replayed moments. According to the findings, the most replayed moment was when Fox gave instructions on how to vote for the MVP. I guess that’s a little different then last year’s most replayed moment :o.

I know I am a little slow to react to this one however; even a big TiVo geek like myself has a life outside of TiVo :).

The other day Leon let me know that he has released beta 4 of JavaHMO 2.3. This beta fixes the following issues/bugs:

1. Handle special characters in recording path
2. Fixed weather location bug
3. Time added to ToGo downloaded file names
4. Added delete option to downloaded list

According to Leon this will be the last beta before the 2.3 public release! Also, based on Leon’s interview with me, 2.3 will be the last release of JavaHMO because Leon is going to start working on Galleon!

I finally got a chance to play around with HME. Here are some pics of HME being used by my TiVo. More to come when I have a couple of minutes…

If you are a geek like me, you’re probably wondering what the future of JavaHMO is considering the fact that HME has been released. Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I noticed that JavaHMO was one of the screenshots shown in the sample apps section of the HME website. Instead of speculating about these different things, I decided to send Leon (the creator of JavaHMO) a set of questions that he was kind enough to answer. What follows are the questions that I asked him. If you remember, I did this once before. If you’re interested in the previous interview, check it out here.

Have you had a chance to look over HME? If yes, what do you think about it?

Yes. HME is a significant improvement over HMO. It provides developers much more freedom and gives them much more control over the kinds of applications they can develop for TiVo. TiVo should be applauded for developing this protocol and making it available to developers for free. The HME SDK also does a very nice job of hiding the technical details of the HME protocol and makes it very easy to get applications up and running. Since the SDK is implemented in Java, it opens up opportunities for developing apps running on many different platforms. HME also makes it possible to develop applications to satisfy many of the frequently requested features made by TiVo users. For example, it would be possible to implement a slideshow viewer that could play music at the same time. TiVo has also indicated that they will be supporting DVR capabilities in the SDK in the future which up
to now could only be done by hacking your TiVo.

Read more…