Automatic downloader and converter
bin Source
So what is the idea?. I own a tivo and I have always dreamed of taking my favorite shows, recorded by tivo, with me on my portable device (in my case a useless PSP). The problem is that some institutions for some reason don't want that to be easy, why? Lot's of reasons but that is not the topic here. There is a
way of converting your files, but it takes a long time and it is a real pain. The piece of code I have here automates the process and, as you can see in the code, Direct Show Dump still does de heavy lifting. Notice this is a crude hack, not a polished app, understanding is required (isn't it always?).
How does it work? Well a few steps.
You need to download Direct Show Dump (I used version 0.1.618 not sure if other versions will work).
Download and expand my C# binary code.
Edit the configuration file to reflect your media key and tivo IP.
Copy etivointeop.dll from the Direct Show Dump folder to wherever my binary .exe file is.
Because it is a C# you might need to download a .NET runtime from someplace.
From a Console go to the directory co ConsoleApplication1.exe and run it.
After downloading the first file it will ask for your media password ... this is the only time it wil ask for it untill you restart the application. The application runst for me for weeks before crashing (usually on some network problem ... like me kicking the routers power source).
Some observations:
You need a tivo series 2 with TivoToGo ... didn't I mention this?.
You will need a couple of Gigs of free space.
If the application is running after downloading will leave an emty .tivo in the directory you executed from. Don't delete this files, they will stop the application from downloading files more times.
In the target directory (check conf file) will generate a .mpg file and a .lock. The .lock wii be deleted when the app stops converting the file. The idea of that is to use a second script to further process the files. In my case the output dir is a network drive shared from my linux machine and the linux machine does the conversion to psp/mp3/avi with this script which is invoqued by crontab ... kind of.
This code works for me but I'm not sure it sill work for you so if you have any problem with it it is your fault.
Hope it works and let me know if you make any improvements or have questions. I know the isntructions are terrible and hard to follow so my only advice is ... Luke, use the source.
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