I have written a TivoWeb module called DisplayText that will allow you to send a message to display on your Tivo.

You may send the message interactively from your browser connected to the TivoWeb site (see the attached screen shot).

Also, in Web Service mode, you can have a program send a non-interactive HTTP request to display the message.

I originally wrote this module to display a CallerID message from a PC Client but discontinued that project when the YAC program showed up.

The module and readme are available at my web site:

http://www.webguild.com/tivo/

Thanks,
Gary

Great plug in, thanks for that, I find it usefull...surely I cant be the only one??

gardavis:

Nice work! And I LOVE that TiVoWeb theme you're using in the screen shot. Man, I bet the guy who wrote that theme must have been a stud

I've got more feedback for you

It would be cool if the colors that correspond to the FG and BG numbers could be displayed as part of the module, kind of like a key, underneath the "Display Text" button. And if not the actual colors in a table, then at least a text key like 1 = grey, 153 = yellow, etc.

Also, calling the parameter "delay" makes me think it is going to delay that many seconds BEFORE displaying. How about "show" or "disp" or "display" or "time" or "length" or "secs" instead?

And speaking of delay, it might be cool to actually HAVE a delay option, because my PC is in a different room from my TiVo. I could put a delay of 20 seconds on the commmand, submit it, then run in and watch it pop up 20 secs later!

And there is a typo in your readme file in your "Installation" paragraph. You misspelled the first mention of "newtext2osd."

Great program. I really like it.

Only negative feedback is that you can read letters that dip down like "g". Box needs to be bigger around text.

-Jym-

This is newtext2osd, not the module. The author did this to get more lines onto the screen. I think it bought another 5 or 6 lines.

I have modified newtext2osd to get rid of the whitespace between lines, which has the side effect of making the problem a wee bit better. I PM-ed the author about it some time ago, but it looks like he has vanished into the ether. I guess I should go ahead and post my modification. I like it much better than the version all those little lines...

Gary,

After running your display program (nice work!), I have zombie processes leftover, which I sometimes cannot kill except by reboot; i.e., when I do a:

ps aux

I get one or more lines like:

root 189 0.6 0.0 0 0 ? Z 17:08 0:00 (newtext2osd <zombie>

Any ideas?

Thanks.
John

P.S. Zirak, I like your new newtext2osd. Decending characters should be fixed too, however.

I don't like the bottom of characters getting chopped either. Q-s look like O-s. But, I find it acceptable in order to gain several additional lines on the display.

The zombies must be caused by the module terminating before the child (newtext2osd) process. I will have to do some investigation on this. Unless you have lots of messages, the zombies won't hurt - they don't take up processor time, they just count towards the maximum number of processes (whatever that is).

Thanks for letting me know, I was unaware this was happening.

Any TCL experts out there that know the answer?

I was just being tounge-in-cheek in my example of a laundry machine sending a DisplayText to the Tivo, but I read this today:

After some investigation of zombies, I was not able to find a resolution I liked. For example, I want the web page to return immediatly and not wait for the text message to go away first. That way, multiple messages may be sent in a row to display several lines on the screen.

However, the zombie problem is not really a problem after all. Every time displaytext runs, it cleans up all current zombies so there is no problem with zombies filling up the process table.

Gary,

Thanks for resolving this!

John

For those of us linux challenged in the group, could you provide more elaborate steps for install? I know I need to untar the files, but I don't know where to start. In addition, I assume I need to chmod them as well.

Thanks in advance.

To install the DisplayText TivoWeb module, you first should install the TivoWeb application which will allow the Tivo to act as a Web Server.

You also need to install the "newtext2osd" program into the /var/hack/bin directory. It needs to be executable (chmod 755 /var/hack/bin/newtext2osd)

Next, install the displaytext.itcl file - just copy it to the tivoweb-tcl/modules directory. It does not need to be executable.

If you put newtext2osd in some other directory then /var/hack/bin, you will have to exit the displaytext.itcl file (line 50) to the correct location on your Tivo.

If TivoWeb is running you will need to restart it so that it can pick up the new displaytext module. Use your browser to bring up the TivoWeb home page and select the Restart option to close it down.

See the readme file for where to get the TivoWeb and newtext2osd software.

Thanks...I am almost there, but I am missing key steps. Like how to untar this thing, and move it to where I need to. (told you I was new!)

To un-tar the file, enter this command:

cpio -H tar -i < displaytext.tar

in the same directory that contains the tar file. It will extract into the current directory.

Ok. Did that and I get DISPLAY TEXT as an option in Tivoweb, but when I try to send text to the screen in that module...nothing shows up.

Here is what I have done:

Displaytext.itcl located in /var/hack/tivoweb-tcl/modules

newtext2osd located in my var/hack/bin

I did a chmod 755 on newtext2osd

restarted tivoweb via it's restart menu.

....and nothing happens.

Thoughts?

On a side note: Can and one suggest a good site/book on linux commands that would be useful for a linux newbie?

P.S.: Why can't I browse into /var/bin/hack with my windows FTP client? It says access denied

I am not sure why the text is not showing up. Try using newtext2osd from the Linux command line and see if that works as a first step.

Check the modes of the bin directory:

ls -l /var/hack

It should be something like -rwxr-xr-x which is chmod 755

That is read/write/execute for the owner, read/execute for group and read/execute for world.

My bin directory is coming back as

drwx------

How do I change that?

chmod 755 bin

I went into /var/hack and issued chmod 755 bin.

Restarted Tivoweb.
Tried again...nothing showing up on TIVO's screen.

The issue is clearly in my /var/hack/bin directory. I am missing a key step someplace, and I can't see where that would be.

/frustrated

Maybe because it should b /var/hack/bin instead of /var/bin/hack. All directories should be chmod 755.

Also, as I mentioned, try using newtest2osd from the command line (I forget the exact syntax).

Got it working. Thanks for your help. It was the chmod to the directory

I would like to imbed variable data in the text area from a home automation system. How can I send the contents of a string to the text area? Thanks in advance for your help.

Rondo327

It depends on how the HAS provides you with the information you want to display. You could probably use the Windows Scripting Host (WSH) to capture the information and send it to the TivoWeb. WSH can be programmed in either JScript or VBScript.

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/

The home automation program that I use is HomeSeer and I can send out a constant message text using the following script line:

&hs.GetURL "http://tivo/","displaytext?text=Who+is+Calling?", False, 80

In the place of the constant text in this message: "Who+is+Calling" I would like to send out variable data from the variables "CIDName(1)" and "CIDNumber(1)". Any help would be great.

Rondo327

I checked the HomeSeer doc and it appears to support the Windows Scripting languages like VBScript. That means you should be able to build the strings you need using the & concatenation operator as in

&hs.GetURL "http://tivo/","displaytext?text=Call+from+" & CIDName(1), False, 80

You may have to replace spaces with pluses in CIDName(1).