Feeling a bit down that your brand spankin’ new TiVo Premiere ($300) doesn’t ship with the Bluetooth qwerty remote? (Of unknown price and delivery date.) Well, it appears that version 14 of the TiVo OS, as found on the Premiere, has all sorts of juicy keyboard hooks built right in.
First, IR-over-IP keyboard mapping has been discovered by TiVo Community Forum member William McBrine. Building upon earlier forum work that led to iPhone telnet control, and followed by more polished TiVo network remote controls. No need to wait for a dedicated QWERTY remote, when there’s (now) bound to be updated iPhone and Android apps with similar functionality at a lower cost in the near future.
Just as interesting, it appears any ‘ole USB keyboard can be connected to the TiVo Premiere. Making short work of Season Passes and Wish Lists. In fact, I imagine most standard IR or RF HID-compliant wireless keyboards also would do the trick. As I demonstrate above using the compact and svelte Microsoft Arc Keyboard ($70).
Although I’m still tracking down backspace and space bar mappings, here are some of the keyboard shortcuts McBrine has uncovered thus far:
Cursor keys = arrows
Enter = Select
Esc = Clear
F1 = TiVo
F2 = LiveTV
F3 = Guide
F5 = Thumbs Up
F6 = Thumbs Down
F7 = Channel Up
F8 = Channel Down
F9 = Record (?)
F10 = Info