Welcome to ExtractStream

[nickhull@y...]

--- In ExtractStream@y..., "Joe Thomas" <jobius@y...> wrote:
> --- In ExtractStream@y..., sharkey@a... wrote:
> > Not entirely dead, no, but there's been very little traffic 
lately 
> from
> > anyone who actually knows anything. The original ES authors seem 
to
> > have submerged out of sight and it's just us users left on this 
> list.
> 
> There's a bit more useful info on the PTVupgrade TiVoNet Forum:
> 
> http://www.ptvupgrade.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=2
> 
> Joe

I've been spending more time looking at the TiVo in the past week. 
The Summer months have been too busy for me to provide any input. I 
am impressed with the recent developments and pleased to see that 
someone has written a PC based decoder (ConvertStream).

If anyone is interested - that was how ExtractStream was partly 
developed. I am not a Linux programmer, purely writing for Windows 
PC's. All the initial work was done in Windows using raw dumps from a 
donor's TiVo for data. Someone else in the team took my code and made 
a TiVo version for testing, then enhanced it with convoluted 
buffering.

I wrote the initial mplex supplied in the first version. This was 
basically a hack of the Linux mplex, but converted to do one pass 
conversions. Previously it required two passes through the mpeg in 
order to multiplex. I stripped away all but the most essential code, 
and then used some calculated constants to fill the gaps. If 
anything, the mplex program was what I took the most pride in. This 
code allowed an mpeg to be played straight from the TiVo onto a PC.

One thing that I am surprised about - nobody has made significant 
changes to the data search algorythms. We knew that they were buggy 
at the time of release, but little has been done with them. Maybe an 
ex-member of #tivo would care to enlighten us.

Also, it was rumored that #tivo had found a way to perform a simple 
multiplex without significantly splitting the streams. Any input 
there?

Nick.