Neil Smalley

Anyone using Tivio? Is it worth the money, or will a video recorder do?

Ian Cook

You mean TIVO Neil ?

Neil Smalley

Whatever.

All I want to know is, is it any cop or not?

Muppets! they get everywhere!

Ian Cook

got one at home it works a treat ! my only prob with it is you have to plug it into a phone line for the program guide, and the program guide is erm not very accurate !

gregh

Powerhouse and Martin Dawes had them for £199 recently, people seem to like 'em. I'm waiting for a drop in Sky+

greg

Neil Smalley

Does it NEED the program guide and phone line? Why can't it use the feed from the digibox?

ChrisB

Sky+ also has the gubbins enabled to output Dolby 5.1 for films which Sky are now broadcasting.

GEJL

Didn't think Sky+ allowed you to record two things at once. Watch one while recording another, yes.. Or at least that's how it works on my one

But I think it's great.

And to keep within the terms of your contract with Sky, you are meant to keep it connected to a phone line (though it does use the satellite for the program information)

DavidBrown

Ah, but you can record one side, and "live pause" another

NeilT

I bought a Tivo PVR for my wife for her bday last july and can honestly say that its by far the best £300 I have ever spent (apart from the Scoob ).

It has completely changed the way we watch TV, what we watch and what we dont have to watch. Its not 'quite' perfect, but new software being released any time soon (2.5) should sort out the very minor problems.

My advice is to bin the VCR and buy a Tivo, it does 1000x what a VCR ever did.

Brilliant product - poor marketing IMHO

Mail me if you want more info, I'll gladly provide it

Neil

www.scoobyworld.co.uk

NeilT

forgot to add that with the wealth of new features of the 2.5 software Tivo will be a far more advanced product than Sky+ currently is.

So what if you cant record 1 channel whilst watching another - most programmes on Sky Digital are repeated 10x anyway so it just records a repeat if theres a clash.

btw not involved in anyway with Tivo etc - just an impressed customer

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

TiVo is a great product, I'm very happy with mine. To answer your questions:

- yes, it does need a subscription (£10/month forever or £200 one-off), and does need to connect to a phone line. It makes a daily call to the TiVo server to download programme guide data. It can't get this data from anywhere else, but the call is free and it won't ever interrupt any other phone calls.

- with the current software, it treats the programme start/finish times literally, so it will stop recording at exactly the time the programme is scheduled to end. This does mean that you often lose the last minute or two of a programme. The new software release, due out soon (currently in beta test), should fix this. You might like to wait until it's available.

- You can always set it up to record a particular channel for a particular time, like a VCR, but that rather defeats the point of having the guide data at all. You won't want to do this often, if at all.

- There's a forum at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...fb4&forumid=14

- It'll change your life. No, really. The only product I've ever bought that's better than a Tivo is*BOING*
>>Delete this message now
>Don't delete

(Tivo joke!)

Andy.

DazV

Its the extra £10 per month you pay that puts me off. Whats that about ?

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

The £10/month or £200 upfront for the lifetime of the box, pays for access to the electronic programme guide data. TiVo can't get this data any other way.

The data includes information about the programmes as well as just the titles and start/finish times. For example, programmes are classified as documentaries, films, game shows and so on, and there's also data about presenters, actors and such. You can tell TiVo which programmes you like and dislike, and it uses this information together with the programme guide data to work out what sorts of programmes you like. It then records these without being explicitly asked to, just in case you're interested in them. It works reasonably well.

Personally I think that the total cost of £400 for the box plus subscription is money well spent, especially given that the new software should be out soon.

Andy.

BigGT3Fan

Andy,

What about those of us on Telewest rather than Sky, anyone know anything about the problems of the TIVO sending IR to the PACE box that TW use. this is what put me off the TIVO in the first place but it might have been solved by now?

Also, anyone know if TW/NTL are going to do a SKY+ equivalent i.e. 2 tuners in one box?



Alex

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Sorry, no idea about controlling satellite or cable boxes - I only receive the 4 1/2 terrestrial channels. I seem to remember reading that many programmable remote controls have trouble with Pace cable receivers, so it wouldn't surprise me if TiVo does too. It's a hardware issue.

Andy.

BigGT3Fan

Andy - thanks.

Yeah, that's the problem I have now. I have a sexy programmable remote and it copes with everything except the satellite box (something about the frequency of the IR being too high).

I was hoping that this would be fixed 'cos it basically means Tivo can't switch the channel on the Satellite so makes it a lot less use If that was solved I'd get one, the 2 tuner thingy is a nice to have...



Alex

Ian Cook

Tivo can turn our Pace Sky Digital Box over fine, no issues !

michael_clarkson

Extract from www.letsautomate.com regarding programmable remote controls e.g Philips Pronto etc.

Which means I very much doubt that Tivo will be able to switch channels on TW/NTL Pace Digital Cable boxes.

Michael

IMPORTANT NOTE only for UK Digital Cable viewers: There are three types of Digital Cable viewing box that we know of. There are two models made by Pace - D1000T and D1010T. These use NON industry standard infra-red (they use infra-red known as IRDA standard which is used by computer peripherals to communicate). Pronto can NOT learn these codes (and no other learning remote can either).

However the model DI4001N can be learnt without problem.

Sky-Digital, On-Digital, and analogue viewers are NOT affected by this problem, and Pronto will learn these products (and just about any other product) 100% okay

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

With respect to cable IR control, my technologically challenged Panasonic VCR manages to control the NTL Digital/Pace box OK so this need not be a problem.

BigGT3Fan

Chaps,

So far this confirms what I already knew/suspected. Sky users are laughing as their Set Top Boxes use the frequencies that the programmable remotes (and Tivo) can transmit. Unfortunately, TW, in their infinite wisdom, decided to use iRDA, as a previous poster mentioned, which Tivo and numerous other devices, including the programmable remotes, cannot cope with. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Until the Tivo can send iRDA, or Telewest launch an equivalent to Sky+, or TW launch a STB that doesn't use iRDA, I'm stuffed and have to stick with what I've got



Alex

dsmith

The whole Pace cable box only doing IRDA was covered on remotecentral beacuse of its affect on the programmable remotes. It was the specific two models mentioned earlier, which were built with IRDA remotes at the request of the cable company. It was intended to allow the use of PC style IRDA keyboards etc later on but would appear to have been shelved on newer boxes because of the furore (sp?) generated by people with programable remotes/Tivo etc.

Standard IR learning/universal devices simply dont talk IRDA so any Sat/VCR/PVR/Remote wont control them. (There was a suggestion that a particular 1 for all remote might at some point).

Deano (Being tempted by Sky+ )

BigGT3Fan

Deano, Yeah, that was what I understood too. I was a regular scanner of remotecentral when I was exploring this...

Unfortunately I live in a conservation area and therefore can't have a dish, and, apart from this problem, I'm completely happy with TW. Also if I switched from TW to SKY+ my broadband would go up from £25 to £33 as the cheap deal is only with the telly.

Unfortunately Sky haven't managed a broadband offering yet

The solution appears to be a non-iRDA STB, or a Tivo/Sky+ that will send irDA, or some kind of remote cable hookup between the devices, but I suspect none of those will ever happen

Stuck without Tivo for the moment then [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]



Alex

DavidBrown

"Tivo can turn our Pace Sky Digital Box over fine, no issues !"

Right, but can it record 2 Sky channels simultaneously ?

what if the previous show overruns ? Sky already knows that a show is running late

gregh

Go here for some basics: Click link for 'NEW' and 'Comparison of TiVo and
Sky+'

http://www.tivoportal.co.uk/

Best community for Q&A: head for the UK areas down the middle of the page...

http://www.tivocommunity.com

Other web sites with great info - THERE IS A LOT OF COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR
TiVo USERS

http://www.uk.tivo.com
http://www.tivobugs.co.uk
http://www.tivoportal.co.uk
http://www.tivosuggestions.co.uk

DavidBrown

Forget Tivo, get Sky+ .. it's awesome, especially now that Sky carries ITV signals.

Sky+ downloads the programme listings via satellite so no need for permanent phone connection.. and as it's run by Sky themselves, it's wise to delays in programming etc.. and you can record up to 2 programs at the same.


[Edited by DavidBrown - 1/4/2002 9:00:57 AM]