[jimrush]

Hello,

For quick introductions, my wife is blind and I'm a software developer.

I just switch from local cable with Tivo to DirecTv with the whole house media player. With Tivo, I had managed to cobble together a solution that allowed my wife to play recorded shows. As we switched to Directv, I had hoped to use the Shef interface to do the same, knowing that the key functions were deprecated.

Well, the new system showed up and the getplaylist and play are now password protected. I've scanned the forums and many others have been down this path, but there doesn't seem to be any easy answers. So, I'm looking for options:

* Is there a web interface available for the product ?
* Is there a windows application that performs some of the features that they are putting on mobile devices (I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount).
* Is there a contact point to request and/or pay for access to the controlling interface so I can write my own personal software ?
* Does anybody have any other ideas or worthwhile contact points within Directv for complaints?

While I would like to take personal control of the system, I'll settle for any solution that will work for my wife. I know there have been recent legal pushes to have accessible products, but I'm not aware of any of the vendors offering them at this time.

Thank you,
Jim Rush
me at jimrush dot net
www dot jimrush dot net

 

[Shades228]

There are apps for Android, iOS available.

 

[jimrush]

There are apps for Android, iOS available.

Unfortunately, from what I understand, neither environment is accessible for blind users. There is software to help you use the phone and some other basic features, but not usage of any application.

 

[jamesn00]

Unfortunately, from what I understand, neither environment is accessible for blind users. There is software to help you use the phone and some other basic features, but not usage of any application.

iOS apps can be accessible but I just tried the iPad DirectTV app and it doesn't seem to work very well with voiceover. Some basic functions were usable (for instance with a bit of effort I could manage to play something from the playlist - but only if it was not stored in a folder)

 

[Combat Medic]

Well since the connection is over straight HTTP it shouldn't be too hard to setup a packetsniffer to grab the HTTP packets and extract the cleartext password.

 

[jdspencer]

Maybe the developer of Waltzremote can help.
http://waltzremote.com/

 

[jimrush]

Maybe the developer of Waltzremote can help.

I like the setup, but it is only showing live tv information. I have already created a quick listing of her favorite channels and what's playing. If she starts using it a lot, I'll tune it a bit so she can see what is coming on next as well.

thank you,
Jim