Hyperandy's Blog

Tivo HME (Home Media Engine) is a feature for Series 2 and above Tivo units to pass video, music, and other information to and from the internet and Computer. I recently found a fairly comprehensive list of HME apps at http://dvrpedia.com/HME unfortunately it appears that development on most HME programs has slowed down since 2007.  As you can see by the list some of the more popular apps, such as Amazon Unbox and Blockbuster online have been given the Tivo blessing and moved to the default Tivo configuration.

But pyTivo and Galleon appear to be the heaviest used and most updated, currently. I love pyTivo due to its ability to use the most current ffmpeg converter and I believe my internet video encodings look much clearer (especially when used with http://code.google.com/p/pytivo-auto-push/).  It is depressing that apps.tv seems to not be updating anymore and has lost it’s last.fm app but maybe someone will pick it up in the future. I have seen so many very good Tivo additions come and go (i.e. moodlogic – now rovi owned but no longer offering the same service). It would be great if Pandora would release a Tivo app or Tivo step up and revamp the music/picture viewers, I don’t believe they have changed in the last 10 years, many of the HME apps display album art and play slide shows from your pictures WITH music, novel idea, I know! They have added web videos and a few other services, but it’s a shame a free program such as pyTivo can out do Tivo so well ans so easily.

A few Tivo add-ons and HME applications not listed @ : http://dvrpedia.com/HME that you may find useful:

http://code.google.com/p/pytivo-metadata-manager/

http://code.google.com/p/pytivo-auto-push/

http://code.google.com/p/streambaby/

http://javahmo.sourceforge.net/index.html

http://code.google.com/p/kmttg/

Now I just need a dedicated Tivo Server to run all of this :). If you find anything to add to this list PLEASE let me know, not only am I dying to try it, I would love to share them with others. The Tivo Desktop Software from Tivo is way underpowered and not even close to being utilized the way it should be. Tivo appears to be a slowly sinking ship right now and it would be in their best interest to do something innovative or build heavily on their already amazing platform. If they are careful they will soon be buried by many of the other great video devices currently out in the market that are starting to flex their muscles.