Slideshow For TiVo V1.1

This is a re-implementation of Jake Bordens' slideshow V1.0a in TCL. Implementing it in TCL should increase the probability that it works with other Tivo software releases and allows me to add new features. This release is intended to do everything that Jake's version did -- if you find any missing features (or other bugs) please let me know.

NOTE: this is not a standalone program -- it relies on jpegwriter. It should work with either Jake's original version or my version, although I have only tested with my version.

This is a utility to display a directory of images to the TiVo display, one at a time. Remote control keys can be used to move through the images and to increase or decrease the speed of the show. Once all the images have been shown, the show restarts at the beginning. The program should handle files being added or removed from the directory. Note: any errors from jpegwriter (e.g. an image which cannot be scaled to fit on the screen, or a mistyped option) are ignored.

Copyright (c) 2003 Graham R. Cobb. The package is distributed under the GPL (see the copyright notices and the license.txt file).

Slideshow For TiVo is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Slideshow For TiVo is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

IMPORTANT NOTES: TiVo is a registered trademark of Tivo, Inc. This software is not created, endorsed, reviewed, approved or in any other way associated with Tivo, Inc.

Installation

The package should be unzipped and the slideshow.tcl file copied somewhere in your path. jpegwriter should also be somewhere in your path.

Usage

The program is invoked as:
slideshow.tcl [<options>] <directory>...

To see the available options, invoke the program as:
slideshow.tcl --help

Note: UK users should include the --pal option to tell jpegwriter to use PAL screen geometry. Also, UK users should see the Bugs section below.

The remote control keys currently supported are:

Button Effect
Play/Down-arrow Resume/Next Image
Replay/Up-arrow Previous Image
Thumbs-down/Left-arrow Exit slideshow
Pause Pause
Fast-forward Faster
Rewind Slower
Catchup Next directory

Changes

In version 1.1

Bugs

At least on UK Tivo's, it is necessary to press a key (e.g. an arrow key) after entering standby in order to turn on the SCART output to see the images. The program automatically issues the MPEG_OUTPUT_ENABLE and MPEG_OSD_ON ioctls but I can't find an ioctl which will turn on the SCART output (MPEG_RF_PASSTHRU doesn't do it). If anyone has any ideas on this, please let me know.

This (and my jpegwriter) have only been tested on my UK Tivo running 2.5.5. I would welcome feedback from people who have tried this on other configurations.

Credits

Thanks to embeem (mbm) for his insights into event handling and ioctls

Thanks to Jake B for his original slideshow program and his encouragement to re-implement it in TCL


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Graham Cobb