pyTivo Discussion Forum

[HoustonG]

I get a generic error message on the TiVo when I try to play from a
Windows Media playlist which resides in a music share on my computer.
For this debug session, I ran pyTiVo as a service logged onto an
administrative usercode from which I can successfully play the playlist on
my computer desktop. Attached is the pyTiVo debug.log as well as a
slightly redacted (tivo username, password, & mak removed) copy of the
pytivo.conf file used for the debug session. It looks as if pyTiVo is
garbling the music track’s file id by doubling all the backward slashes.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
Gary



Configuration Info:

Computer O/S: Windows XP (fully updated)
TiVo: Series 4, software version 20.2.1.1-01-2-746
pyTiVo version: wmcbrine-pytivo-9256868.zip (03/04/2012)
pyTiVo download: http://github.com/wmcbrine on 03/05/2012

[wmcbrine]

[HoustonG]

Attached is the requested playlist with a dummy .txt extension added.
It was created in Windows Media Player 9.00.00.4510. Would it work if
I upgraded to a more recent version, such as Windows Media Player 10?
I don't really want to use the even newer Windows Media Players, because
the meaning of some tag fields have switched and I fear they would be
incompatible with the way I edited my large music library.

Thanks much for your help, as well as this great piece of software.
Gary

[HoustonG]

I copied my music files to a computer running Windows 7 using an
identical directory structure, built a new library using Windows
Media Player 12, and created the same Mozart playlist. I successfully
played the playlist on my Windows XP desktop. On the TiVo, however, I
received the same error when trying to play the first track; playing
other tracks was successful. No surprise when you see the playlist
includes the tid stuff on only the first track. Attached is the
Windows 7 Mozart playlist as well as another Windows 7 playlist which
shows that cid stuff can also appear in the first entry.

Thanks,
Gary

[wmcbrine]

OK, I have a fix for this is my repo now.

Meanwhile, I found another issue with your sample data... I'll have to think about it...

[HoustonG]

After your last post I went back to look at the sample data again. I'm guessing you were referring to the use of relative rather than absolute paths in the Windows 7 playlists. I missed that before. It was just serendipitous that I happened to load the Mozart playlist in a folder that worked (a subfolder of D:\Media\Music). Move it to any other location and the music files can't be found by pyTiVo or Windows Media Player 9 from the Windows XP desktop.

I noticed the Mozart playlist back on the Windows 7 computer is different from the one I copied to Windows XP and played. Strange as it sounds, my guess is that Windows Media Player 9 modified it when I first played it. I will try to verify this. In the meantime, I've attached what I call an unmodified version of the Windows 7 Mozart playlist.

[HoustonG]

I had it backwards in my last post. The very first Windows 7 Mozart playlist I posted was the original unmodified version. The second one I posted (as UNMODIFIED) was, in fact, a version which was modified by Media Player 12 on the Windows 7 computer. The timestamp on the playlist file makes that definitive. Once I noticed the whole relative path thing, I played the first track on the Windows 7 computer as a test. It had been moved from it's original location to D:\Temp (in preparation for its transfer to the Windows XP computer). To my surprise it played the track fine. It must have changed the first entry's relative path in the playlist to do so. I've since tried to play the other tracks on the Windows 7 computer, but it does not find them. I have yet to reproduce the behavior and catch Windows 7 Media Player 12 in the act of a playlist modification. I will build a new playlist and try to retrace my steps.

[wmcbrine]

[HoustonG]

Well, in that case THANKS much for the fix, and I'm done with this thread. I don't really care what Windows 7 and Media Player 12 do, I just thought I was being helpful.

Relative rather than absolute paths in playlists! Yet another reason for me to stay with Windows XP.