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has anyone seen any info on if and when TiVo will allow outside user programs access to these features. I am hoping that it won't take too long till Galleon can do this sort of thing.

my network-enabled Tivo (that only played nice w/ Windows machines)

For OS X or Linux (unless you need IPv6), try Galleon. I use it on an Ubuntu box and it works like a charm. I use it to backup recordings and listen to music on my TV. The only downside is you can't watch your recordings on the computer or burn them to DVD. I believe mplayer has some kind of tivo function, but I've never played with it as I have little desire to watch TV on my computer.

Tivo can do stuff sortof like you describe.

Plug in a USB/Ethernet adapter, and put it on your network.

Tivo has a software package (windows only, I think... bummer) that will let you watch stuff on the Tivo on your computer. (Or burn to DVD, etc.) Not that useful to me... I don't use windows, and would rather watch TV on an actual TV anyway.

But if you have another Tivo (say, in another room), they can share their playlists over the network. (Watch stuff from one on the other. I Got a refurbished Tivo for about $40 just for that purpose.)

The other cool thing about network connectivity on the Tivo is you can run Galleon (http://galleon.tv/). It's an open source server (for linux or windows) that talks to your Tivo and lets you do a bunch of cool stuff. A list of the most useful stuff for me:

-Control Tivo ToGo feature (copy shows) directly from the TiVo interface (instead of from the software on a computer)
--browse MP3 files on the server using file system folders.
--organize MP3 files (from directories on the server) by reading tags and categorizing by them
--mp3 Jukebox that allows you to create and play a dynamic playlist (very cool)
--play iTunes playlists
--play .m3u and .pls playlists
--browse image files on the server using file system folders.
--view local movie theater listings.

And some other internet type stuff (that I don't really use myself):
--display current weather, 5 day forecast, local radar image, national radar image, weather alerts
--listen to shoutcase streams
--subscribe to and listen to podcasts
--view RSS feeds.
--read your email
--view images on the internet
--subscribe and view videocasts and videoblogs
--view local traffic conditions
--chat on the Jabber messenging service (don't ask me how, but it says you can)

The only improvements (for me) I can think of would be:

1. Linux support for two things you can do in Windows -->
        a. Playing .tivo files. (Shows. You can download them in linux, but not play them back.)
        b. Burning .tivo files to DVD.
2. Ogg support. My MP3 player handles them fine, so I'd just as soon use them. But it's not really a big deal.

Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but pretty cool anyway.

Of TivoToGo for Mac, one reader said: "We've been getting nothing but nebulous promises out of TiVo for months."

And reader Aaron Ouellette said: "Tap, tap, tap, we're still waiting."

Stop waiting for TiVoToGo for the Mac. Get Galleon. It brings TiVoToGo functionality to the Mac, Linux, Unix, and Windows, as well as the GoBack ability TiVo doesn't offer and many other features.

If TiVo Series 3 manages to robustly support external filesystems (I have *no* problems with some sort of encryption scheme here) *and* let me view my preexisting videos through the elegant TiVo interface, I'm there.

Tivo2 allows you to view your external videos and movies files and browse the directories on tivo today.

You can also use galleon to backup your movies and other shows automatically over wireless or wired network.

Given these two and the fact that you can attach a fat external SATA hard disk should be enough to get you out of your mythbox now.

If TiVo Series 3 manages to robustly support external filesystems (I have *no* problems with some sort of encryption scheme here) *and* let me view my preexisting videos through the elegant TiVo interface, I'm there.

Tivo2 allows you to view your external videos and movies files and browse the directories on tivo today.

You can also use galleon to backup your movies and other shows automatically over wireless or wired network.

Given these two and the fact that you can attach a fat external SATA hard disk should be enough to get you out of your mythbox now.

My personal favorite for HME is Galleon. It crates all the normal apps with more usefull ones like controlling ToGo from the TIVO. No more must I sit at my computer to start a show copy I just tell the Tivo ToGo App and contacts the box to pull it off. Plus it runs on anything that will run java. It's a sourceforge project or was when it started! http://galleon.tv/

t's nice that it has Ethernet, but can you do anything useful with it or will it be heavily DRM'ed?

With current S2 TiVos you can do quite a bit with the ethernet -- play MP3s, slideshows, get weather/traffic/movie times and tickets/etc (the interface is open and extensible), transfer recordings to a PC and back (PC includes Windows, Mac, and Linux; although for the latter two you probably need to run Galleon), transfer MPEG2 video to the TiVo (and maybe MPEG4/H.264 w/ the Series3? It's not clear yet), and various other stuff.

As far as the video that's exported goes -- it's in a ".tivo" format which is a loosely containered MPEG2 video. It's completely trivial to strip off the outer layer and get to the real data beneath it. And it looks like the new TiVo Desktop software will even offer transcoding to a number of alternate (DRM'd) formats as well. But really, it's a joke to take off the TiVo DRM, or to just play it from a standard MPEG2 capable video player (it's designed to allow you to do that). Yes, you can play it in mplayer.

What about the data on the USB disk--is it encrypted or is it readable and usable MPEG files?

It's SATA, not USB, but that's a minor nit. The data is not in straight MPEG files -- it's on TiVo's proprietary FS. That was figured out long ago. But if you can simply download the stream to your PC, there's little reason to futz around with the drive -- especially since you cannot be assured that the entire video is stored on the external drive (it may be, but it may also cross drives; the article states this).

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.

I thought Tivo2Go was cool until I found this source forge project Galleon. It can do everything the Tivo2Go program can do and more. Which means it can transfer video to your PC, play mp3s, view photos from your PC!

One of the key features it has is the ability to put shows BACK on your Tivo. But that feature doesn't impress my friends as much as the email viewer, the movie listings, and the weather forecasts. I realize that MythTV has some of these features, but this improves the fun you can have with Tivo.

I am sure the slashdot crew could find even more interesting uses for this application (RSS feeds). And since the application supports plugins you can write you own Tivo apps.

I also appreciate that Tivo ALLOWS this kind of things on their box. They could be all "closed source" and shut programs like this down. They hold Tivo Developer Challenges to find more useful ways to use the Tivo. They know when people have hacked their Tivo and added a larger hard drive but choose not to shut them down.

I can't stress it enough. If you have Tivo, and you have a computer take a look at Galleon.