I finally got around to installing pyTiVo on my MacBook Pro (running Leopard 10.5.5). Unlike the Windows install, installing pyTiVo on a Mac isn’t all that easy. The instructions on pyTiVo’s website were very helpful however, I thought I would publish the following instructions since I think they’re a more complete. If I ever get to it, I’ll go ahead and update the pyTiVo wiki with these instructions.
The entire install took a couple of hours. Most of this time was spent waiting for Xcode to download (996 MB) and compiling/buidling FFmpeg via MacPorts. Let me know if these instructions are incomplete or if you encounter a problem with them.
Now that I have pyTiVo running on my MacBook Pro, I plan on putting together a complete review sometime in the near future. Thus far I am extremely happy with the product. It truly is great to be able to watch all of my home movies from the comfort of my couch. Great job pyTiVo developers, I really do appreciate this product!
- Download and install XCode 3.1.2 from here (996MB).
- Download and install MacPorts 1.6.0 from here.
- Edit the .profile file located in your home directory and set the PATH variable to the following:
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH - Open the terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and update MacPorts using the following command (additional info on the port command can be found here):
sudo port -v selfupdate - Install lame using the following command:
sudo port install lame - Build and install FFmpeg using the following command:
sudo port install ffmpeg +lame +libogg +vorbis +theora +faac +faad +xvid +x264 +a52 +dts - Download and extract the current release of pyTiVo from this url. Note that pyTiVo has been forked into a number of different versions. I’m using the wmcbrine version on my MacBook Pro. You can extract pyTiVo anywhere on you HD however, I choose to place it in my Applications folder since this seems to make the most sense.
- Once extracted, copy pyTivo.conf.dist to pyTivo.conf
- cd to the directory where you extracted pyTiVo to and issue the following command:
python pyTivo.py - If all is successful, you should see the following in your terminal window:
INFO:pyTivo:pyTivo is ready. - Open your web browser and access the following url:
http://localhost:9032 - Click on the “pyTivo Web Configuration” link.
- Next, click on the “MyMovies” configuration item in the upper left hand corner.
- Enter the path to your video files in the “path” textbox. Note that pyTiVo will search subfolders for video files.
- Edit your server settings via the “Global Server Section”
- Enter the full path to FFmpeg:
/opt/local/bin/ffmpeg
- In order to save your changes, click on the “Save Changes” button and than the “Soft Reset pyTivo” button.
- Now, pickup your TiVo remote and access your Now Playing List. From there you should see a new item at the bottom of the screen called “MyMovies” (you can change this value in step 13 above). Select the “MyMovies” item and you should see all of your videos/subfolders listed. In my case, I have pyTiVo configured to access the “originals” folder in my iPhoto library. I store all of my home videos in my iPhoto library so, this works out great for me.
I just realized that I forgot to include a step where you configure the path to FFmpeg. I’ll update the instructions later today when I get home from work…
What’s the advantage of pyTiVo over Tivo Desktop on a Mac?
@MacGuruTX,
Good question! pyTiVo will transcode your video for you so that you can watch almost any video file on your TiVo. For example, I have pyTiVo point at my home videos which are in a number of different formats. pyTiVo is able to take these videos and convert them into a TiVo friendly format (MPEG2) on the fly.
Hi. I’m trying to follow your directions and think i need help with #3. I’m not sure which one is the PATH variable. Can you output your .profile so that I can see what has been edited? Thanks!
Brian,
Here’s my .profile file. I’ll update the instructions later today.
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
Let me know if you need anymore help….
I’m curious why each of us has to compile our own version of ffmpeg…shouldn’t a pre-compiled version be posted? Seems it would make the install much easier. Anyway, thank you Alex for the instructions, I am going to give them a try this weekend or next.
@Dale,
The developer of FFmpeg does not post precompiled versions. I’ll bet you that there is a precompiled version of FFmpeg out there that would work however, I’m not sure where to get it from. Please let us know if you find a precompiled version that works….
Thanks Alex. Is that the only thing in your .profile??
Here’s what I have:
##
# DELUXE-USR-LOCAL-BIN-INSERT
# (do not remove this comment)
##
echo $PATH | grep -q -s “/usr/local/bin”
if [ $? -eq 1 ] ; then
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
export PATH
fi
@Brian,
My .profile file only has what I posted in the previous comment. Based on what you posted, it looks as though you could replace your .profile file with the following:
##
# DELUXE-USR-LOCAL-BIN-INSERT
# (do not remove this comment)
##
PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
echo $PATH | grep -q -s “/usr/local/bin”
if [ $? -eq 1 ] ; then
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
fi
export PATH
Try this out and let me know if it works for you. Also, you might want to make a backup of this file before you start changing it….
Also,
When installing Xcode, there were options on what to install. Here are the defaults:
checked: Developer Tools Essentials
checked: System Tools
checked: UNIX Development Support
unchecked: Mac OS X 10.3.9
unchecked: WebObjects
Is this correct? Thanks for writing out these instructions and making this process easier Alex!!
@Brian,
Yes, I believe those where the options I selected. Basically I just went with the defaults.
OK. So I’ve gotten to the point where I can see the folder and files on the Tivo, but when I select the video files to play, I get a blank Tivo screen with the title PC: Movies on top with the Tivo logo on the upper left..almost as if I had selected an empty folder. Still trying to troubleshoot
@Brian,
you might want to enable debug mode so that you can see whats going on. let us know what you figure out.
Thanks Alex. I figured out the problem after pulling out some hair. The path to ffmpeg was incorrect. I actually copy and pasted the path from your post, which didn’t actually include the file.
So the correct path would be: /opt/local/bin/ffmpeg
I originally entered: /opt/local/bin/
Thanks again so much for you help!
@Brian
I’ll updated the path in my post. I’m glad I could help. Enjoy pyTiVO!
Thank you Alex for putting these instructions together! I have pyTivo running and have been able to watch video on my TivoHD. One step I had to add between steps 8 and 9 above, was to copy the pyTivo.conf.dist to pyTivo.conf. Otherwise, when I execute the command I received an error message about pyTivo.conf not found.
Thanks again! Now I am off to play with settings to get 1080i transcoding to work.
Dale
@Dale,
Thanks for pointing this out. I’ll go ahead and update the instructions. I’m glad you were able to get it working. Enjoy pyTiVo!
[...] today, I stumbled upon a new program for my Mac which pretty much makes my pyTiVo install guide obsolete. The program is called pyTiVoX and it allows you to run pyTiVo on a Mac without having [...]
This worked great — now, how do I set it up so that it automatically runs when I reboot the computer?
@Rich,
Are you using Leopard? If yes, you can follow the instructions located here:
http://pytivo.armooo.net/wiki/OSXInstall
[...] and configuring pyTiVo rather trivial. In fact, this application essentially renders my Mac pyTiVo install guide obsolete…. .gallery { margin: auto; } .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; [...]
Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve been using PY tivo on a windows machine but all my video files are on my Mac so this is great.
I’ve dusted off my old Unix skills and managed to get thru this pain free. Just a couple of comments; There have been several new releases to the WMCBRINE version of PY Tivo since the 08/08 releases. I tried some of the 12/08 releases and they failed. When I went back to the last Aug ‘08 release everything worked fine.
Also-when I went to run PY Tivo I was given a message that I should be using the latest version of Cheetah with compiled C Version of NameMapper. I didn’t upgrade Cheetah but everything is working fine.
Thanks again!
I’m glad this was helpful. If you haven’t already found it, you might want to checkout pyTiVoX…..