eyeTV + Twoky working together well...

everything about MacOS
Post Reply
nowalmart
Posts:7
Joined:Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:15 am
Contact:
eyeTV + Twoky working together well...

Post by nowalmart » Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:53 am

I bought TwonkyVision for my iMac last week after finding eyeConnect was using up 300-600MB of real RAM on my machine. As someone with a large eyeTV library, getting Twonky to work with my library was most important.

Out of the box I was able to point Twonky at my eyeTV Archive folder, but eyeTV has a system where each recording is a package named "Show Title - Episode Title", which the package containing a fairly random;y named .mpg file inside (along with some other informational files about the recording).

This was annoying since TwonkyVision would pull out the .mpg file, but would keep it named something like 00009f33456.mpg

Not very helpful. I played around a little bit with the navigation setup for Twonky, but nothing really managed my library the way I wanted it to.

Finally tonight I sat down and churned out a script that goes through the Archive folder and creates a NEW folder with symlinks (aliases) to the actual .mpg files, but named after the parent package. Point Twonky at the new folder full of aliases and everything is good.

Also went ahead and created a launchd file to run the script and then automatically tell Twonky to rescan its folders anytime the "EyeTV Archive.xml" file is updated (anytime something new is recorded). Saves me from having Twonky trash my huge eyeTV drive every 29 minutes like I used to have it.

Next up will be to just start adding playlists and items directly into Twonky from eyeTV. That is a project for when I have another couple of hours free.

Feel free to respond if anyone has any questions.
Buffalo LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD
eyeTV 2.5.1
MacOS 10.5.1

nowalmart
Posts:7
Joined:Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:15 am
Contact:

An update...

Post by nowalmart » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:34 pm

A few weeks later and one issue I have run into: For whatever reason, on occasion Twonky will stop seeing new content, at least in the eyeTV folder I have created. A "Rebuild Database" command clears this up, but it is still highly annoying.

Not sure if it is a result of my script or not.

Also, launchd has issues with the "launch when this file is modified", so I had to go back to running the script based around time instead.
Buffalo LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD
eyeTV 2.5.1
MacOS 10.5.1

nowalmart
Posts:7
Joined:Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:15 am
Contact:

Update #2

Post by nowalmart » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:01 am

Today I finally fixed my Twonky + iTunes playlist issue. Rather than relying on Twonky's plug-in to convert the playlists, I finally rolled my own solution.

Some parts that went into this: A little bit of http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/11/03/itunes.html?page=2 XSLT and http://saxon.sourceforge.net/ Saxon to process the XML using the XSLT.

This left me with a folder full of .m3u files. I had thought I was going to have to migrate these over to Twonky's .playlist files, but it turned out that pointing Twonky at the folder with .m3u files was enough.

I also tweaked my eyeTV script so that it creates folder with the same television shows in them. So now all episode of "Boston Legal" end up in their own folder (or, rather, the symlinks end up in their own folder).

How I enjoy talking to myself on this forum...
Buffalo LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD
eyeTV 2.5.1
MacOS 10.5.1

boringo1994pr
Posts:3
Joined:Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:44 am

You're not alone here really...hehehe

Post by boringo1994pr » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:49 am

Just got a D-Link DSM-320RD and have been checking things out here trying to get all to work nicely with my Macs...your information and work here is much appreciated!! Have a great holiday 'mano!! :P

nowalmart
Posts:7
Joined:Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:15 am
Contact:

Post by nowalmart » Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:46 pm

Note the eyeTV - symlink solution no longer works under TM 4.4.3
Buffalo LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD
eyeTV 2.5.1
MacOS 10.5.1

Post Reply