Comments on: How To Install pyTiVo On A Mac

By: PyTivo « (Mostly) Free Stuff Steve K Likes

PyTivo « (Mostly) Free Stuff Steve K Likes — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:14:38 +0000

[...] The steps I followed to install the original PyTivo: http://www.tivoblog.com/archives/2008/12/01/how-to-install-pytivo-on-a-mac/ [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:13:28 +0000

I’m glad this was helpful. If you haven’t already found it, you might want to checkout pyTiVoX…..

By: J Snow

J Snow — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:26:09 +0000

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!

By: pyTiVoX Version 1.0 (Mac pyTiVo) | TiVo Blog

pyTiVoX Version 1.0 (Mac pyTiVo) | TiVo Blog — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:21:03 +0000

[...] 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; [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:48:00 +0000

@Rich,
Are you using Leopard? If yes, you can follow the instructions located here:

http://pytivo.armooo.net/wiki/OSXInstall

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:26:43 +0000

This worked great — now, how do I set it up so that it automatically runs when I reboot the computer?

By: pyTiVoX (pyTiVo On The Mac With Ease) | TiVo Blog

pyTiVoX (pyTiVo On The Mac With Ease) | TiVo Blog — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:32:13 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:47:59 +0000

@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!

By: Dale

Dale — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:25:37 +0000

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

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:22:44 +0000

@Brian
I’ll updated the path in my post. I’m glad I could help. Enjoy pyTiVO!

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 09:41:27 +0000

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!

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 02:53:50 +0000

@Brian,
you might want to enable debug mode so that you can see whats going on. let us know what you figure out.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:26:30 +0000

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

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:00:29 +0000

@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….

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:54:10 +0000

@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….

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:49:50 +0000

@Brian,
Yes, I believe those where the options I selected. Basically I just went with the defaults.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:38:14 +0000

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!!

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:29:56 +0000

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

By: Dale

Dale — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:16:44 +0000

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.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:58:21 +0000

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….

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:35:01 +0000

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!

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:03:13 +0000

@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.

By: MacGuruTX

MacGuruTX — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:17:18 +0000

What’s the advantage of pyTiVo over Tivo Desktop on a Mac?

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:58:40 +0000

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…