Tivo Hacks. 100 Industrial-strength Tips Tools 2003

Hack 73 Emulating TiVo's Screens

TiVoWeb's web browser emulation of the current TiVo screen allows you to control TiVo through the traditional interface without being anywhere near your TV .

The Web Remote [Hack #72] allows you to move about through TiVo's menus , but you have to be sitting in front of your television to see what's happening. Not so if you use the Screen emulator.

Select Screen from the TiVoWeb main page or toolbar, and you'll find yourself on a page showing all the menu options that are currently being displayed by the TiVo. For example, if your box is displaying the TiVo Central screen, then the Screen page in your browser will show a menu with the same choices available through the TiVo Central screen. Clicking an option will both cause your TiVo to display that menu on the television screen and also show a representation of that menu in your browser. Figure 5-22 shows the Screen emulator in action.

If you click on any link in the Screen emulator, not only will the web page change, but the television screen will also reflect the changes. Those links on the bottom of Figure 5-22 are persistent throughout the entire emulator. You can always hit the button, hit the Back button, or refresh the screen in case the TiVo has changed out from under the web page.

There are a few limitations to keep in the back of your mind when using this hack:

• TiVo models that can actually be turned off will be unresponsive to the Screen emulation until the TiVo box itself is powered up.

• Search screens (e.g., Search by Title ) and the Season Pass Manager have not yet been implemented, at least not at the time of this writing. So, while you can surf to these screens via this hack, you will not be able to interact with them. This really shouldn't be much of a problem, though, as you can use some of the other hacks to get at the same functionality.