For reasons I don't entirely understand, my solution for this stopped working. I was happily running ViMu on my GoogleTV, and pulling files from my Mac via SMB. This totally stopped working on OS X Mavericks, even when I switched to a WebDAV server. (Symptoms: stream one minute of video then wedge.)

Okay, fine, I've got this TiVo. It should be able to do streaming, right? One cool feature of the new TiVo Roamio is that it supports YouTube casting. That's nice, but not helpful.

What I'm pursuing now: pytivo, hme-for-python, and VidMGR. Years ago, I tried StreamBaby, and it would run for 15 minutes then wedge, and it doesn't look like it's being actively maintained any more.

Anyway, VidMGR is a plugin for the HME thing. When it starts it up, Python complains about "No module named Image", which says I'm supposed to install the Python Image Library. Okay fine, so I did. "Pillow" is supposed to be the preferred way of doing this. The install finished and the relevant files are now in /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages, but yet I still get the same error message.

Very frustrating.

EDIT 1: it seems that if I only configure pyTivo correctly, putting my tivo.com username/password into the pytivo.ini file, then I get some "push" options from the web interface, letting me copy files (not stream them) from my Mac to the TiVo. We won't even start grumbling about how much I don't want to leave passwords sitting around in .ini files on my machine. Maybe I don't actually need VidMGR.

EDIT 2: I spoke too soon. Pushing files to the TiVo is a total fail. The TiVo is clearly receiving the files, but it seems like it's promptly deleting them once they arrive. This seems to be a pyTivo bug, since the logs have every file name listed twice, and the second time it says 0 bytes, 0 Mb/s.

EDIT 3: I tried downloading the newest StreamBaby, which in turn required downloading Java 7 from Oracle. It boots up and runs, but my TiVo can't see it. It's like it's not there at all. Arrgh. I'm now pondering throwing money at this solution and getting a Chromecast, installing Plex, etc.

EDIT 4: Well this is interesting. Apparently pushing from my computer to the TiVo is a loss, but pulling from the TiVo works without issue. The difference? When you push a file, it goes over unmolested but when you pull a file, ffmpeg is running in the background, slamming your CPU, and generating whatever exceptionally restricted flavor of MPEG the TiVo is willing to digest. Also interesting, StreamBaby now appears in the app menu. Launch it and it lists the directories I'm willing to share. Click one of those and it wedges. Sigh.

Roku + Plex?

Both Tivo and Roku only support limited formats, so if you video is not in one of their native formats it will need to be re-encoded, as you are finding. There are devices out there with better format support, but they suck at other tasks...

The Tivo forums do have a section for this, though it is poorly named "TiVo Home Media Features & TiVoToGo".

I've recently set up a HTPC running XBMC and it's pretty great. Support for Netflix is finally pretty seamless, even on Linux running Pipelight. There's also a lot of other plugins scraping various web sites, and even support for live streaming from the file sharing networks.

And of course XBMC supports streaming over a network with a nice library browser.

Here's my HTPC:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=176709

You don't need a Roku to use Plex. There's a Plex app for Google TV.

Dan, it's really the best way to go. I've dealt with all the stuff you're using, but Plex is SO much easier to use, looks great, and does all the show description stuff for you.

It's kinda unclear whether I need the pay version of Plex or whether the free stuff does the job. Thoughts?

I don't pay for it, but perhaps I got grandfathered in as an early adopter?

As far as I'm aware, you just need to download the Plex Media Server software for your computer and point it to where your files are. Then you install the app on your Google TV. I think the paid account is for early access to new features and/or remote media playback on mobile devices, but I could be wrong... Either way I don't think you actually need an account to get the thing working. You can still point the app to where the server is on your network and it'll take care of everything.

Seriously, it's fantastic software. The Google TV app is probably the furthest behind, but it's still very good and has actually seen updates and significant improvements unlike every other Google TV app I've used...

Wow, nice home made DSP and amplifier! Looks like a lovely setup, thanks for sharing.

I have a comparatively low end setup at home, but one which works so well I really don't see any need to upgrade. It is an old Acer Revo R3700 'Net Top' computer with an Atom D525 1.8GHz and nVidia ION 2 chipset/graphics. Cheap, quiet, and with VDPAU hardware decoder acceleration enabled for the ION 2 in Linux and XBMC, it really does play everything up to 1080p H.264 over the network without dropping a single frame (and minimal CPU usage to boot). The box itself has HDMI and SPDIF audio out too.

Would definitely recommend it. Although I have a little Logitech DiNovo Mini Keyboard/Mouse, I also have this USB HDMI-CEC Adapter so I can pretty much control everything with my TV remote, which is very convenient.

Looks like I only have to pay $0.99 for the GoogleTV app and the server is indeed free. I guess I've got my project for next weekend to set everything up.

What TV are you using that has Google TV functionality built in?

Well, he technically didn't say it was built into his TV. It could be any of a number of set top boxes that have been made so far, but Sony and LG have both made sets with the UI built in.

Dan, I think you'll find that it's less of a "weekend project" and more of a "10-20 minute" project Hope you like it!

I've got the Sony NSZ-GT1 Bluray player / GoogleTV all-in-one-box. I bought it a year after it came out, when there was a big price drop, because I liked how it integrates with my system. The only other video source is my TiVo, which is routed through the GT1, and thus I never need to use my receiver to switch channels. It's a minor thing, but it keeps things simple.

The downside of the GT1, aside from its being discontinued and all, is that it's an older Intel platform running a no-longer-supported Android 3.x variant, while newer GoogleTV boxes run Android 4.x. "Upgrading" to a current GoogleTV box would in many respects be a downgrade, because I'd then have to use the crappy UI of my receiver to switch between GoogleTV, Bluray, and TiVo.

What one of the big Japanese AV receiver manufacturers really needs to do is port GoogleTV to run inside the receiver. Then you could have a nice interface for all the obscure features of the receiver rather than a giant remote control full of teeny little buttons. But no!

Also, it's pretty clear where the wind is blowing. Chromecast is the future, and it does almost everything I care about. The trick is whether I want to go with Plex, Avia, or something else. So far as I can tell, the Avia client works with the Plex server, so there's some ability to mix and match here.

EDIT: detailed technical discussion on xda-developers about Plex vs. Avia.
==============

Pondering, pondering: our circa-2008 bedroom TV only has two HDMI inputs, and three devices fighting for space there: another Bluray player, a TiVo mini, and an Xbox 360. I could swap the two Bluray players, moving the GTV box into our bedroom and using it to pass through the TiVo mini. I could then buy a Chromecast stick for downstairs. And, in theory, I could drive everything with Plex. Tempting.

Good catch Matt, I missed the Google TV on my read through.

No worries!


I bought mine (same exact device) for the same reason and I've been amazed by how much I appreciate that feature. Everyone laughed at the HDMI pass-through idea (and they did again for the XBox One), but it really is nice. I even have a remote that makes it dead simple to change inputs, but I still like not having to do it.


That is annoying, but I've found that mine performs perfectly fine. I've also been amazed that, as I mentioned earlier, apparently the Plex developers aren't leaving our GoogleTV variant behind! I've seen regular updates over the past couple years I've been using it.

For a while, the only thing I wished was available on GoogleTV was a vudu app, but I've found that other streaming video rental services have caught up on the video quality side.


Actually, the rumors are that Google is going to move to some sort of "Android TV" platform. I think Chromecast is nice, but I still think a set top box like GoogleTV has it's place. I also prefer to have a self-contained device in the home theater so guests can control it themselves.


I'll have to check that Avia out. Thanks!


I say go with that!

Damn, I want Avia for my iPhone.

Updates!

The Plex Media Server just works. It's absolutely amazing. I installed it, told it I really didn't want to have a username/password at Plex and it was okay with that. It scanned my stuff, found and cataloged my files, and generated a nice menu structure (e.g., Top Gear -> Series 17 -> Episode 3) that isn't there in the original file names.

Since Plex Media Server is a DLNA server, I thought I'd try the easily available DLNA client I've got in my house: my old Oppo BDP-83 (moved upstairs to make room for the GoogleTV in the home theater). Lo and behold, it just worked. Almost. All the files show up in the web UI on my Mac, but not all show up in the Oppo menus. It's unclear why, but for the ones that do, you select them, and you wait well over a minute for buffering, and then it starts playing and does it thereafter without missing a beat. Given that I'd written off that Oppo for anything other than playing Bluray discs, this is a big step up in the world.

Apparently my Xbox 360 can also be a DLNA client, if you enable the PlayTo feature, but at that point it has no UI of its own. You'd need to use something else, like Avia or Allcast (running on your phone) to tell your server to fling the content to the Xbox. I haven't tried this yet to see how well it works.

For my GTV box, the answer is clearly the Plex app, which costs only $0.99, so that was a no-brainer, relative to the much steeper price for the Plex Chromecast support. (They claim that the PlexPass subscription requirement will eventually be relaxed and the feature will be rolled out into the regular Plex Android app, which is presently $4.99.) I can't yet try it as my family are watching TV and have no actual interest in my playing around with video streaming technology (yeah, shocking), but this combo should presumably work without issue.

EDIT: Wow, the Plex GTV app works great. When you bring up a show and are scrolling around to find a particular episode, they helpfully fill the background with an image from the show (e.g., for Top Gear, it's the three hosts standing and looking at you) and they also have a sample of the theme music playing quietly in the background. Much spit and polish went into this thing. Also, I tried the built-in "Media Player" as well as "ViMu", which I'd used previously. All discovered the DLNA service being offered from the Plex Media Center and there were none of the latency issues nor missing shows. Everything just worked.


Medium term:

I'm back to being happy with my current hardware situation. I'm not feeling a need to rush out and buy a Chromecast any more. Plex Media Server is free and brilliant and the Plex GTV app is well worth $0.99.

At some point, the Sony Bluray will die. It's inevitable. Were that to happen tomorrow, I'd go the Plex Media Server / Mystery Android Client (Plex? Avia?) / Chromecast route. While it's cute that I can use my Bluray player as a DLNA client, it's slow to get rolling and it doesn't have what you'd call a well-sorted user interface. This is acceptable for the one-off wanting to watch a video on the bedroom TV, but only just. The Oppo supposedly has really, really good video decoding hardware, but a typical compressed-for-the-Internet download is so crufty that it's not exactly going to make diamonds out of coal.

Longer term, we'll see. Like I said, the winds are clearly blowing in the Chromecast direction. It's so much more pleasant to browse your collection on your phone and hit the "cast" button.

Fantastic! I'm happy to see you had that experience. That's been my experience as well: everything just works, and I didn't have to do anything. Normally I'm the type that wants as much control over this kind of system as possible, but in this case I guess I just like how it functions and I let it do its thing.

Isn't that extra touch of the background and theme music neat? That's something that was added recently, actually. Up until a few months ago I think it was still a black background. That's what I'm talking about when I say that they've actually kept up support for us lowly 1st-gen GTV box users.

I love that I can just throw files into the folder that the Plex Media Server watches, and it handles all of it. It sorts it out in the UI, finds the episode title and description, and I don't have to do a thing. I also like that it keeps track of episode progress. If I start a show on one device and stop it, I can pick it up from the same spot on another device.

I have a Plex Pass, but I don't pay for it. I'm still not sure what exactly I have, but it seems to work for me. I've played files remotely before, and the experience was pretty good once I had the correct playback quality selected for my connection speed.

I agree that for a single dollar, this setup is really hard to beat for its simplicity and results. I think the more you use it the less difficult it'll be to lay down $5 for the Android app.

I agree that I'm not sure what I'll do if/when my GTV dies. I'm hoping we see whatever Google has planned next before that happens. I really like the pass-through setup, and want to keep that.

BTW, Dan, I'm wondering if your GTV does the same thing mine does. Every once and a while (like 6-12 weeks) I'll turn my home theater on and there'll be no video or audio. The GTV will still work for every single feature except TV. Apparently my "TV app" crashes occasionally, and the only way to fix it is to restart the GTV. This isn't a big deal since I can do it from the remote (I love that the combo is Ctrl+Alt+Backspace), but it is an occasional annoyance and one that throws my wife for a loop every once and a while, though she's figured it out too at this point...

BTW, Dan, I'm happy to see another Tivo Mini owner! I just got mine for Christmas, and have it connected to my secondary monitor so when I'm running long scans on customers' computers I can watch stuff. It works really well!

Yes, indeed: once a month or so, the GTV needs to be rebooted. Sigh.

Dragging up an old thread:

The Google Music app, on my Google TV box, is just total crap. Like, multi-second latency for any button press, sometimes longer. I finally decided I'd had enough and spent $35 on a Google Chromecast. Problem solved! Now I've got to use my amp to switch back and forth between that and the TiVo, versus the old auto-switching stuff, but otherwise it's smooth and functional.

I also ponied up $4.99 for the Plex for Android app, and it seems to do all the right things, streaming from the Plex server on my Mac to the Chromecast on my TV. Despite their entreaties to the contrary, everything seems to work perfectly without requiring you to create a "My Plex" account.

My only real gripes are with the Plex Server, which seemed to miss big chunks of my library. It seems very good at auto-recognizing some of my stuff, but not other things. The solution is to create a "Home Videos" folder, where the files are presented without any attempted recognition.

Sigh.

I was hoping to wait for a potential "Chromecast 2", but the Google Music fail was enough to push me to spend the $35 and be done with it. I figure that, should there be an even better Chromecast, I can always move the current Chromecast to a secondary TV set or otherwise find a use for it. $35 isn't too much of a bother, one way or another.

Also, while I haven't disconnected my GTV box, it's now only going to be serving as a Bluray player. Once it dies, I'll get a generic Bluray player, going these days for under $100. Seems a shame to kill off GoogleTV from the home theater, and there still aren't good Chromecast equivalents for some things, like viewing images from your library, but this will presumably shake itself quickly enough.

If you sign up for a My Plex account, the app on the phone should continue to see your server when you are outside the home network.

What he said. On the same network, the account has never been necessary.

The Chromecast is a pretty great little device, considering the cost, but even though I have it hooked up to my home theater I never use it. I must be old school, but I HATE using my phone as a remote control. I simply can't stand it. Even just as a mechanism to start a movie and pause it a couple times during playback, I still don't like it. I need a physical remote.

I think you're OK with your purchase, Dan. First of all, I don't think there have been any rumors of a Chromecast 2 (there are far more rumors about Android TV), and second it's $35 freaking dollars! Whatever I feel about the Chromecast, there isn't a single better way to bring this kind of content to your home theater for $35.

Does the Chromecast not also use the TV's remote control (HDMI CEC)? Big miss if not.

CEC is one of those technologies that's so close to being awesome, but often falls on its face for me.

Chromecast indeed will say "over here!" and my receiver will dutifully switch to it when I "cast" something. Sadly, my TiVo isn't smart enough to do the same thing, so I have to fumble for the receiver remote to change the input back to the TiVo.

Similarly, my TV's volume buttons will make my receiver's volume go up and down (good!) but the onscreen display just says "Volume +/-" without giving you the numeric feedback "-40 dB" that you'd really want. (Newer receivers will apparently do their own graphics overlays, but mine is too old/stupid for that.)

And CEC isn't the most prevalent technology (my receiver is only a couple years old and it doesn't have it). I also find it annoying and prefer to have control over the inputs.

Example du jour: I tried "casting" something to my Chromecast while everything was powered off. Sure enough, the TV and amp turned themselves on (win!) but the amp didn't bother to switch to the Chromecast (fail!). When I disconnected and reconnected to the Chromecast, *then* the amp switched to it.

I imagine this might just be "your amp is old; get a new one", but it seems silly to replace an otherwise perfectly functional amp. Now, if one of the Japanese amp builders decided to integrate GoogleTV into their amp, getting rid of all their awful internal UI craziness, *then* I'd switch in an instant.

I don't think that will fix it. I think that the problem is that the signal to switch is sent at the beginning of the process, but the TV hasn't fully booted up yet, at least not enough to pass the correct signal on to the amp.

I don't know how you're wired up, but that seems like a logical explanation.


I had an interesting thing with this, where it was undesired:

I got a second Chromecast for the TV in the recording studio, and the Chromecast connects to the TV through an HDMI switcher with an audio-out, which then connects to the TV's DVI input plug and its corresponding audio-in. (The TV is pre-HDMI).

Sometimes I would come into the studio to find that the TV had switched itself on during the night, though the screen was black.

After much experimentation, I discovered that if I left the HDMI switch on a non-chromecast input, it wouldn't happen.

It appears as though that Chromecast sometimes sends "wake up" signals to the TV in the middle of the night, even if you're not casting anything. Or perhaps someone's YouTube app on their phone was connecting or disconnecting from the Chromecast in the middle of the night. Or something like that.

It's never happened on our Living Room TV because the Chromecast gets its power from the TV's USB port in that case, and the USB port doesn't provide power unless I turn on the TV.

My Chromecast is connected to one of the many HDMI inputs on my receiver. There's exactly one HDMI cable going from the receiver to the TV. So... the Chromecast woke up the receiver which then woke up the TV (good!) but the receiver was too dumb to switch to the device which woke it up.

The receiver, a Pioneer Elite SC-25, was pretty cool stuff when it was introduced in July 2009, having a then-huge number of HDMI inputs as well as cool-running class-D amps. Today, even the cheapest receivers have lots of HDMI inputs, and have been getting rid of everything else. The latest Pioneer SC-7x series seems to be pretty much the same, in terms of the audio section, with better video processing, and an Android/iOS app to let you configure and control the thing. And the prices are lower. That says that if my receiver blew up, I'd replace it with the current model, but I'm not spending that extra coin just in the hopes that they fixed HDMI-CEC.

Interesting. Wired the opposite of what I thought. Gotcha.

For what it's worth, Wikipedia says that HDMI-CEC was introduced in 2006 as part of HDMI 1.3a, and the compliance specs weren't released until 2007 as part of HDMI 1.3b. That says that my TV and amp, which I bought shortly thereafter, are first-generation implementations of these specs. I'll bet that if I got a newer TV and a newer amp, that everything would work much more soundly together.

Still, the TV still works great and the receiver still works great, and this sort of improved integration isn't worth dropping thousands of dollars. Nope, this is one of those "once it blows up, I'll replace it" sorts of things.

Then there's the issue where, if you did get a new TV/Amp for that reason, it would be paying thousands of dollars to better support a $35.00 item.

Not that I haven't done that sort of thing myself, you see...

Perhaps a more charitable view: I'd be paying thousands of dollars to correct a series of minor usability annoyances. The workaround is that I've had to train my family to fidget with the input knob on the amp when things aren't right. This workaround wasn't necessary when I had everything routed through the GoogleTV, but instead the instability of the GTV platform forced us to occasionally reboot it. Okay, we've traded one annoying workaround for another one.

And thus, technology marches onward.