Telnet "hack" allows for network remote control of TiVo

It may not be very practical just yet but, as Zatz Not Funny's Dave Zatz points out, this recently discovered telnet "hack" for network remote control of a TiVo certainly offers no shortage of potential. Apparently, this one arose out of TiVo's deal with Creston to allow for integration with their home automation framework which, fortunately for those that like to dabble in such things, simply involved having TiVo HD and Series3 units listen to port 31339 for connections from a Crestron device. As Zatz notes, however, there's nothing to stop any device from telnetting to the TiVo's easily-findable IP address using the aforementioned port and inputting IR codes command line-style. Currently, that's made even less practical by the fact the codes need to be entered quickly to avoid being timed out, but we're sure it's only a matter of time before folks devise some slightly more useful means of exploiting this interesting find. Until then, you can head on past the break for a little taste of the current level of iPhone-to-TiVo interaction.

[Via Zatz Not Funny!]

[w00t @ May 1st 2008 5:31PM]

Can't be too hard to whack a nice GUI on this! :)

[Brendan Sheehan @ May 2nd 2008 1:27PM]

Yeah, without a GUI this is just a waste of time. Otherwise you'd rather just using the TIVO remote itself. At least with a GUI you could see only the buttons you wanted to see at any particular time, see automatically what's recording and what station you're on like he said. And you'd never have to look for your TV remote given that you'd probably have your iPhone on you. Besides, it would be cool. And I think we all know the iPhone would make the most fantastic universal remote evr!

[omf @ May 1st 2008 5:35PM]

Wow. I've been telnetting to my Tivo since 2001.

[Reginald @ May 1st 2008 9:13PM]

...and ReplayTV had this functionality too in 2003. Too bad they're not still around.

[james @ May 1st 2008 5:38PM]

I can't wait for someone to set it up to display "Currently Watching" in their blog and to have it read out "Back door sluts 9"...

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 5:39PM]

8 was better. 9 was so derivative. (plus i think they're running out of budget on those enemas...)

[The Dude @ May 1st 2008 5:42PM]

So true...

[RN @ May 1st 2008 6:01PM]

Great South Park reference!

[Joseph @ May 1st 2008 5:42PM]

That much closer to realtime scheduling without having to buy a Slingbox.

[Stranger @ May 1st 2008 6:10PM]

One thing which should have been mentioned is that this is supported on any device which has J2ME support, i.e. more or less any cellphone from the last few years.

[meist3r @ May 1st 2008 6:12PM]

Two questions:
1) Why does this actually need a hack to work? TiVo is expensive enough as it is so they could give us the functuality.
and
2) Can you set it to port 31337?

[johnmc @ May 1st 2008 7:27PM]

1) because it scares the average consumer to have this sort of thing in the manual and it's more fun to find it after the fact.

2) 31339 is better than 31337. It's like 11.

[Benson @ May 1st 2008 6:35PM]

"we're sure it's only a matter of time before folks devise some slightly more useful means of exploiting this interesting find."

Here ya go!
(Dependencies: UNIX, Bourne shell, netcat, gxmessage)
And seriously, this should work, but having no TiVo, can't confirm. Let me know what happens, if anyone tries it. I recommend a Zaurus or Nokia IT, but with the awesomeness of the SDK, I'm sure someone will have X, GTK+, and gxmessage running on the iPhone any day now...

#!/bin/sh
while true ; do
response=`gxmessage -center -borderless -nofocus -print -buttons "CHANNELUP CHANNELDOWN PLAY PAUSE FORWARD REVERSE"`
echo "IRCODE "$response |nc tivo.example 31339
done

[Fitz @ May 1st 2008 7:27PM]

Well its not Tivo-related, but similar function...

I installed a GoGadgets program on my WinMo6 phone and Vista Media Center computer and I can control channels and even select music and playlists from my WinMo6 phone using SideShow function on Vista over my WiFi network.

It's pretty slick, but buggy as its a beta program.

Another interesting phone/media feature uses the WebGuide plug-in where you can access your Vista computer contents from the web over your phone browser. I have access to pictures and music and TV scheduling from my phone (you can already do some of this with Tivo as well)

I imagine feature like these will be common place in a few years.

[obn4uticus @ May 1st 2008 9:33PM]

How the hell is this a hack again?

[nonamo @ May 1st 2008 9:52PM]

Noooo dont use telnet...
SSH :P

[Benson @ May 2nd 2008 2:19AM]

Ssh can't do this, though; it's not using the telnet protocol, but telnet's ability to send raw data over a barenaked TCP/IP link.

Netcat is the proper way, being more flexible than telnet, but either will work.

[derspiess42 @ May 2nd 2008 2:03AM]

That's pretty cool-- didn't know you could do that. I did it from my main pc for the heck of it & was able to send it some commands. Dunno if this will change my life since I already have a Slingbox hooked to my Tivo & can control it with my Moto Q, but still a neat 'hack'.

[mick @ May 2nd 2008 4:01AM]

tivo series 1 has had an ethernet card running web interface/telnet etc since around 2002, with full browser interface - it was cool then - its still cool now :)

[Roman411 @ May 2nd 2008 8:32AM]

Old news. Moving on!

[Eric Hollenbeck @ May 2nd 2008 11:44AM]

I have it installed in my touch panel since the model came out. I am now living without my tivo remote... Crestron is supposed to come out with a model to get the now playing list and also the guide. This is all rumored though but I am sure when that comes it will help the hacks out there also. Until then hopefully someone finds out what the command set is so I don't have to wait for the tivo module from crestron.

[AskTheAdmin @ May 2nd 2008 12:00PM]

The funny thing is that Zatz works for Sling Media!