I have loved Tivo for oh so long. That cute little character has wheedled a small fortune out of my pocket. I was so pleased I purchased a lifetime subscription. Maybe it is the fault of the FCC, maybe of Tivo, and definitely of the cable companies, but with my Tivo HD came the dreaded red dot of “you can’t watch this on your computer.” DRM encryption has been added to our cable broadcasts and most shows can no longer be transferred to you computer using Tivo Desktop. One must now pony up a hideous amount of money for a bigger hard drive on one’s Tivo, buy an external hard drive from the one company Tivo allows, or hack one’s Tivo to archive one’s shows until they can be watched (after having paid both Tivo and the cable company to watch the show!). Click on the picture for details on this issue from Dave Zatz.

Not being a lawyer, I can’t speak to the legality of transferring these shows to your computer by an alternate means. However, for demonstration purposes only, I will illustrate how a citizen consumer, driven to desparation, might proceed.

The first step is to find the shows on the internet as they become available. There are numerous web applications one can use to watch streaming TV, many of them provided by the networks themselves. But, to my knowledge, Hulu is the only one that allows for subscriptions with notifications. Sadly, not every network has seen the Hulu light. (Since my computer is connected to my TV, I don’t waste Tivo space with Hulu-available programming.) There are other services like FindInternetTV that let us locate shows online, but there is no notification of new episodes as there is with Hulu. Those who are deeply geeky have manually scoured cyberspace in search of their favorite episodes. The elite among those may even have somewhat automated the process for themselves by setting up feed filters on uTorrent. These are pioneers whose hard work and exhausting tedium generated the demand for online video sources. But if things were still that complicated chances are I would not be writing about them here.

The reason I am writing this is because of TED, the Torrent Episode Downloader. Once configured, TED will find and download just enough information to allow you to get TV onto your computer. Simply pick a show, choose with which episode you wish to start viewing, and TED will hunt them down and notify your torrent client. (While not 100% reliable in locating shows, it is simple. We may do an advanced tutorial on how to use Miro and ezrss for 100% finds in a future post.)

Oh, I know that for some of you the word ‘torrent’ makes your eyes glaze over. (Wuss. I got over that a week ago.) I’m not going to explain how torrents work. (Who do you think I am, Wikipedia?) I am just going to illustrate how they could be made to work for you. To use this method, you must first get a torrent file on your computer. Oh, that’s right, TED did that for us. Second, you must configure a torrent client to be the default torrent client and to download the video to which the torrent file points. For that I recommend uTorrent. Third, you need to name the downloaded video in such a way that XBMC can scrape meta data for the file. For that I recommend theRenamer. Lastly, you need to know when you have something new to watch. For that I recommend, mytvrss. Once configured, it sends notifications to your feed reader whenever a new episode is available. (Would it be possible to add this feed to the streamer that goes across the bottom of the screen on the home menu in XBMC?)

Unfortunately, torrents are the wild west of the internet. Make sure to scan files for viruses before opening them.

uTORRENT

In our scheme, we want uTorrent to be ready to process TED’s torrents as soon as TED gets them, so let’s set up uTorrent first. For our purposes, uTorrent will only need to be setup once. uTorrent can be configured to automatically load torrents from the folder to which TED output them, but that is redundant if you set Ted to open the torrents with uTorrent. uTorrent must be configured to use one folder for incomplete downloads and another folder for complete downloads. These three folders can be anywhere except in the directory used for XBMC media. We wouldn’t want anything in the XBMC directory that wasn’t properly formatted, named, and organized, right? uTorrent can really be a drag on your computer system so schedule it (http://www.solidblogger.com/utorrent-seed-download-time-schedule/) to only run while we’re sleeping (midnight for me) until shortly before you get out of bed in the morning (5AM for me). This way, when I am awake and want my computer’s CPU and memory it is (almost) all mine. Take a good look at uTorrent now. If everything goes well, you won’t manually open this program again.

Here’s a quick recap of what I cover in the uTorrent video:

Options – Preferences – General >
Set to associate torrent files with uTorrent
Options – Preferences – UI >
Check ‘Close to tray’ and ‘Minimize to tray’ and ‘Single click on tray icon to open’
Options – Preferences – Directories >
Set ‘Put New Downloads in’ to a folder named ‘Downloading’ or ‘Incomplete’
Set ‘Move Completed Downloads:’ to a folder named ‘Complete’

Options – Preferences – BitTorrent >
‘Protocol Encryption Outgoing:’ should be enabled
Check ‘Allow incoming legacy connections’

TED

Here’s a quick recap of what I cover in the TED video:

Edit-Preferences-General>
Checking for torrents every 10 minutes seems kind of excessive. My TED only looks every four hours (240 minutes).
Browse to the folder where you will save the torrent files. This will be the same directory from which you elected to automatically load torrents when you configured uTorrent.
Edit-Preferences-Look and Feel>
Leave ‘Show alerts when TED encounters an error’ unchecked. Everything else should be checked.
Edit-Preferences-Advanced>
Make sure ‘Do not download compressed files’ is checked.
Add shows, select starting episode
“TED is designed to run in the system-tray and check once in a while if new episodes are released. To make sure TED runs every time you start windows you can add a shortcut to TED to your Startup folder. Go to the start menu and find Torrent Episode Downloader. Click and drag TED (while pressing CTRL) to the Startup folder of your start menu. Now TED starts everytime you boot windows!”

theRenamer

theRenamer fetchs the completed downloads from uTorrent and names them for XBMC. It can and should be configured to move the renamed file to the TV Shows folder monitored by XBMC. (An alternative is tvrename, but it depends on other software to work.  It is more full featured but the approach we’re presenting here will pretty well cover all those bases.)

To duplicate the setup in the picture above, just make sure to follow each of the steps below:

For XBMC we want the renamed file’s format to be S1e01, so check the circle under that. Check the circle under “Add “0″ for Season”. Leave the separators as periods. This works with XBMC, Boxee, or PS3. In the pane beside this one, check Showname, Season, Episode Titles, Use AniDB, and Confirmation. Browse to the Fetch Folder into which you have uTorrent place completed downloads and check “Include Sub Folders” For the “TV Shows Archive” folder, browse to the TV Shows folder used by XBMC and then check “Auto Move after Renaming”. Under Moving Files Structure check “To TV Show folder” and, optionally, “To Season Folder” if you want to have season folders in your show folders (XBMC doesn’t care). If you use season folders, check “Add “0″ for Season. This will place a 0 before 1-9 and make the season folders appear in order when viewed from MS Explorer or Folder View in XBMC. The theRneame Preview pane should show the XBMC-style folder structure.

Make a shortcut with this target “C:\theRenamer.exe” -fetch
It will fetch everything from uTorrent’s completed downloads folder, rename them, and move them to the XBMC TV Shows folder.

theRENAMER ISSUES:
For me, theRenamer always renames and moves correctly the first time after booting the computer, but may or may not appear to work after that – even though it says that it has!  If theRenamer tries to name and move a file that uTorrent is seeding nothing happens, however, it will fetch, rename, and move that file when uTorrent is done with it.
It has 100% success identifying episodes if the season and episode number are in the title.   It cannot identify Tivo downloads by show name and episode title.  Also, fall premiers may not all be in the database.  A test of “The Middle” returned “Malcolm in the Middle”!

MAESTRO

You, my friend, must now conduct this symphony. Go to the Control Panel on your computer and select “Performance and Maintenance”. Next open “Scheduled Tasks.” Now open the scheduling wizard, “Add Scheduled Task.” Schedule theRenamer shortcut (the one that targets “C:\theRenamer.exe -fetch”) to run after uTorrent and before you get home from work. I have this set to run at 5AM.   “It launches theRenamer in hidden mode, and goes through the fetch process.   Confirmation is ignored.   After that session, it quits itself.”    Once this is setup, you will likely never need to manually open theRenamer again. From now on, just go to TED and tell him that there is another show you want him to get for you and that is the only thing you need to do outside of XBMC.

For safety’s sake, I schedule a virus scan of my TV Shows folder for an hour before I get home from work.

XBMC

Just update the library for your TV Shows source directory and watch TV.  You’ll love the thumbnails and fanart.

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

But how do you know when you have a new episode? You can scroll through the folders in XBMC and it will display how many episodes are unwatched of that show.   But I like the service provided by mytvrss.    It generates a feed with the shows you watch notifying you of when they are available to TED.  Build a feed by checking off the shows you watch.   Click “Create Feed” at the bottom of the page.   It will generate an RSS feed with a unique identifier. (You can go back to this page to edit the feed using that identifier.)   Read the feed where ever you want.

Of course, this blog is not offering any legal advice.   Only use this technique to download torrents you believe to be legal (but still scan before opening).

ADVANCED

Want to add those new fall shows, but TED doesn’t include them in its list of shows? According to TED’s website: “Adding custom shows is now as easy as clicking “Add Custom Show,” entering the name, and choosing from a slew of torrent sites on the “feeds” tab. Ted will instantly create the feed for you based on the show name you entered, then it’s as easy as popping back to the main tab and selecting the episode(s) you want to capture next. Slick, like. TED, now v.09, seems much updated from the version reviewed here. It might be worth another look.”
Add the size filter to shows in TED

Useful links:
TED, the Torrent Episode Downloader
uTorrent
theRenamer
mytvrss

Configure the uTorrent scheduler
Tutorial on configuring uTorrent
How to configure TED
Overview of theRnamer configuration
uTorrent review at PCMag.com

Part 3: Setup Your Movie Library

You have XBMC installed. You have your folders and files properly arranged and named. If you don’t, please do yourself a favor and go back to the second part of the tutorial to learn how to do this and then do it before trying these steps. It really will save you a lot of grief.

Now, it is time to introduce all that lovely media to their new partner. When I was trying to figure out how to make XBMC work, I spent hours figuring out what I hope to show you in the next few minutes. One basic skill you will need is the ability to navigate around XBMC and it won’t be easy at first. (Using it will be a lot easier than setting it up.) You will need a means of interfacing with XBMC. Controlling XBMC is possible with a remote, mouse, or keyboard.

If you’re stuck with only a keyboard, then allow me to recommend that you print out their guide to keyboard and mouse commands. Before long you’ll throw the sheet away, but it will save you great frustration if you have this on hand during the configuration process.

keyboard
mouse

Open XBMC. You will be in the root menu of the default skin, PM.HD. Whichever option from this menu one chooses, another menu will open up and so on through the menu tree. At any point in navigating through the main menu, one can also pull up the ‘context menu’ by pressing the letter ‘C’ on the keyboard. This menu provides us with choices about how to manage the task associated with where you are in the regular menu tree.

XBMC needs to know where to look for your movies. Navigate to the Videos tab on the home screen. Press ‘Enter’ then select ‘Add Sources’ and press ‘Enter.’ Now browse to your Movies folder and select it.

In order to have access to data beyond the filename, like thumbnails, fanart, synopses, album covers, etc., the new source must (a) have the folder structure and filename syntax in a manner compatible with XBMC, (b) the source must have its content type (Movies, TV shows, Music Videos, or None) and (c) scraper source selected from within XBMC, and (d) select ‘Run Automated Scan’ and ‘Use Folder Names for Lookups’. A scraper is the source of the additional data displayed when ‘Library’ is enabled in XBMC. It all sounds more complicated that it really is, but with power often comes complexity in the world of software.

So now that you’ve selected your source folder for movies, set the content type to ‘Movies’ using the first line in the dialog box. Now scroll through the scrapers until you come to IMDb and press ‘Enter’ to choose it. You will want to enable the ‘Run Automated Scan’ and ‘Use Folder Names for Lookups’ options at this point. To gain the full benefit of the IMDb scraper feature, enable all of its settings, also. It will take a little longer to download all the extra info, but if you don’t want that stuff then why use a media center at all? This is done by pressing the right arrow to select the settings button at the bottom left of the dialog box. Press enter to open it. Scroll to each option that does not indicate it is enabled and press ‘Enter’ to enable all of the options. Now, enter the ‘OK’ button. This should return you to the previous dialog box. Again, enter the ‘OK’ button. XBMC should say that it is scanning for new content. If it does, then you have now completed one of the two most difficult steps in using XBMC.

Just to expand a bit on content types, when I refer to movies, I mean from the cinema or made-for-TV movies. When setting the content types, the movie folders should be ‘Movies’, the TV Shows folder set to ‘TV’, and the music videos folder set to ‘Music Videos’. I set my internet videos folder to ‘None’ which leaves it out of the library (no wasted time attempting to scrape data). Those videos can still be viewed in File View (see below).

Go back (escape key) to Movies on the main menu and select your local or network source, open the context menu and select “Scan for new content”. You’ll want to repeat this anytime you have added a new movie to your movies folder as well. I do not recommend configuring XBMC to scan for new content at startup. This generally goes into an endless loop of searching. While scanning for new information, the use of ‘Movie Information’ in the context menu is disabled.

XBMC has a Library Mode with options for viewing this extra data and a File View which will show you folders even if they were not properly picked up by the scraper. In File View, we’re not able to enjoy any of that great database info. However, if you put a picture in your movie folder named ‘folder.jpg’ it will appear in File View as a thumbnail for that movie. File View works basically like browsing through movies with Explorer except you can play a movie file in XBMC when you open it.

Open the task panel by pressing the left arrow if the folders are displayed vertically and select Library Mode. You will now have access to all of the data with your movies. And you can browse your video content by things like Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors. Be sure to set the library options to your taste before using the right area to enter your library of movies. As you scroll through the folders, information about each movie will be displayed. Use the left arrow to return to the task panel. Change the view (the first menu item) to whichever one you enjoy the most. Scroll through your library and behold the wealth of knowledge.

Now, that XBMC works, don’t stop. XBMC is quite capable of hard work in nice clothes. Let’s dress her up a bit. I hope that your first time was as exciting to you as mine was to me. However, you may have been disappointed by some of the thumbnails or fanart the scraper found. It may even have pulled up incorrect movie data from some similar flick. Not to worry. If you like to personalize and tweak things till they look exactly the way you want them, you can. Put thumbnails (up to 182x256px jpg’s or png’s) in folders to be displayed when navigating in library mode toward your movie. First delete the default thumbnail from UserData\Thumbnails\ . Then add a picture named ‘moviename.tbn’ where moviename is the same as the movie’s filename. You can also add your own fan art (1920×1080 or 1280×720 pixels, and no text). Be aware that it shouldn’t interfere with shading or text overlaid on the image since that is how fanart backgrounds are used in XBMC. If for some reason you update your library (necessary after any external changes) and the art is not recognized, you can force the issue through the graphical user interface (GUI). Select your movie. Press ‘C’ to get the context menu and from there to the ‘Movie Information’ screen. From there you will have the option to browse to any thumbnail or fanart on your network and override the art or lack of it found by the scraper. Press ‘C’ again or ‘escape’ to make the context menu go away. If the scraper doesn’t find them, you can even add movie trailers for your movies. Just download them where you find them and save them in the movie folder with the name ‘movie-trailer.flv.’

Now your tricked-out folder structure will look like (click to enlarge):

You’re not the only one who likes to dress things up. There is a community of XBMC users who have generated skins to give XBMC the overall appearance and user interface they found most appealing. While the developers’ Project Mayhem 3 is quite functional, check out some of the other skins available. I use MediaStream_Redux, not to be confused with another attractive skin, MediaStream. I like the Redux menu hints and display options so that is my skin. MediaStream may be a little prettier so I may change to that later. The Focus skin is optimal if you have fanart for all your movies.

For those who can’t leave well enough alone:
List of working XBMC skins
XBMC skin screenshots
XBMC skins forums
Lifehacker XBMC skin reviews
Absolute control for those in the nfo

XBMC Tutorial Video

Part 1: Installation

iTunes models a lot of what I want from my PC-on-the-TV experience. It can be tasked to hunt down compatible media and add that to its library. In media-center speak ‘library’ does not refer to the “books” but to the “card catalog.” The library is the database that associates the actual media file with additional data like cover art, genre, artist, etc. If asked, iTunes will then copy all of the media files and arrange them in folders according to “the iTunes way.” It is sort of like hiring a librarian to go into your attic, make copies of all your books, and then shelve them in your den according to the Dewey decimal system. But it gets better. Imagine that some of your books are missing covers or title sheets. The librarian researches the original cover and publisher info and then adds copies of those before shelving the books in the den. Pretty sweet, right? Oh, but there’s more. Let’s say this librarian can answer questions (filter) like, Which of my books were published in New York? What books do I have with the word ‘MacDonald’ in the publication info? The librarian answers you – instantly. Which are romance? Instant answer. Plus, the librarian presents the books that meet your criteria to you in a sexy way. (Insert your own image of what that means here.) Oh, that’s the book you want? Let me read it to you.

That’s the good. The bad is that some of the books in your attic are written in French, German, Spanish, Latin, Greek, etc. As good as this librarian is, if the book is not in one of the librarian’s languages, it gets ignored. It is left in the attic and not shelved. It isn’t even cataloged. If you want one of those, you can very well hunt through the pile for yourself.

Clearly, the more languages the librarian understands, the better this system works. In my next post, we’ll look at how all of this relates to making your media, your PC, and your TV get along.

I don’t just want books, but everything in my electronic attic to be given the old librarian-attic cleaner treatment. Now iTunes works pretty well here for music, audiobooks and anything purchased from the iTunes store. Unfortunately, it is a librarian whose languages are quite limited. What it does, it does well.

But I have DVDs, old Tivo recordings, internet videos, pictures, and home movies to think about also. The bad news is that no software will do for these media what iTunes does for the rest of my stuff for free. iTunes Genius only plays songs I already own. What if I want to hear new music suited to my taste? What if I want to see the photos on my facebook wall displayed on the TV? or watch movie trailers? I’ve never been too thrilled with the iTunes internet radio interface either.

Sadly, even the best software just lists what is on my computer without arranging the media in a manner optimal for the service. I used to work with two guys. One of them had every surface in his office covered with papers and books. Chairs, desktop, bookshelves, filing cabinets, everything was buried under seeming chaos. But if you ask him about the article he referenced in his presentation last fall, he will walk to one of the piles, reach two thirds of the way down and pull that article out for you. As long as you don’t change colleagues, the article is handy. The other guy thought it was funny to go in to the first guy’s office and rearrange a couple of piles. The first guy’s discomfiture was hilarious to the second guy. Most media software work on the messy office principle. The software can find your stuff. It just isn’t going to straighten it out for you. And if a file gets moved, you have to tell the software where to find it. Programs like Movienizer, My Movies 2, MediaMan, DVD Profiler, etc. fit into this category. They can find your stuff for you, but if you change programs, everything has to be laboriously re-indexed.

Worse still, if I want my media center software to know the difference between a TV show and a movie, I’m the one who has to make sure that the folder structure and filename comply with standards. You might justifiably ask why I would clean out and organize my own attic. The payoff is that I can sit beside my wife in front of the TV and scroll through easy-to-see thumbnails and media descriptions that allow us to deside what we want to listen to or watch next. I could do that with MediaMan (or Movienizer), but I would still be limited to media I own and an interface designed for a PC screen not a TV screen. If you thought iTunes coverflow was sexy, wait until you see XBMC sporting its little black MediaStream skin. Oh, baby.

So, if I want to bring that sexy thing into my home. I’m going to have to straighten up first. In my next post, I’ll talk about the grunt work of preparing the file folder structure and filenames in such a way that your media center software will be all a twitter.

For now, follow my video and install XBMC on your Windows computer.   Just don’t run it until we have our media organized properly or it will take forever to untangle XBMC and make it the great tool it has the potential to be.