Tivo Gadget for Windows Vista

Posted By: Sarah Perez | Dec 10th, 2007 @ 3:22 PM

Mike Swanson recently blogged about a cool new gadget he wrote for the Windows Vista Sidebar, the TiVo Gadget for Windows Vista. The gadget, available for download here, is the perfect addition to TiVo users' desktops. Even if you have multiple TiVos in your house, you can utilize this gadget to see the "Now Playing" lists from your DVR. You can configure the gadget to group shows from the same series together and when the gadget notices a new recording, it will ding. For homes with multiple TiVos, you can give the units friendly names, like "Downstairs" or "Den" to help identify them. When you click on the name of a TV show in the gadget, you can see the show's description. There is a bit of trickery involved to get the TiVo's name for use in the gadget because TiVos, unlike most networked devices, don't share their name (aka "the service number") on the network. There are several steps involved to get your TiVo's name, but Mike has them well-documented on his blog post, so they're pretty easy to follow. Once you have the service name, you just enter that and your Media Access Key into the gadget's settings and you'll be done - your TiVo's "Now Playing" list will now be on your desktop!