TiVo Community Forums Archives - New TiVo for the UK population?

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New TiVo for the UK population?
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Posted by: gcclinux

Are they ever going to produce a new TiVo version for the UK population? Why is it that the US has 3 different versions but we only have the old and original version? :confused:

Posted by: pr1uk

No we will never get another version of TiVo in the UK, and in the USA they proved more popular hence they keep improving their TiVo

Posted by: davisa

quote:
Originally posted by pr1uk
No we will never get another version of TiVo in the UK, and in the USA they proved more popular hence they keep improving their TiVo

Glass half empty sort of person? ;)

Posted by: britcub

I would have to agree... I e-mailed every manufacturer I could think of a few months ago, and every one (except Humax... and look where that got us!) said no, they wouldn't be producing a TiVo for the UK market :(

Séamus

Posted by: Karnak

What happened with humax?

I haven't been paying much attention to this forum for the last few months but I remember all of the optimism and hope.

Has it just failed to materialise (yet) or have I missed something?

Posted by: iankb

They announced that they definitely were not going to develop a TiVo. I think that people got carried away with the idea, rather than any real consideration on their part.

Posted by: DeadKenny

I think events here may have some impact on new TiVos in general (anywhere)...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3790141.stm

i.e. Murdoch has by far the majority market for PVRs in the UK and in the US it would appear he's trying to kill off TiVo by buying up one of the major TiVo based PVRs and then possibly ditching TiVo and replacing it with his own product.

:(

I'm fairly certain though that new UK TiVo is out of the question.

Posted by: GoodSpike

quote:
Originally posted by DeadKenny
i.e. Murdoch has by far the majority market for PVRs in the UK and in the US it would appear he's trying to kill off TiVo by buying up one of the major TiVo based PVRs and then possibly ditching TiVo and replacing it with his own product.

:(

It's far from certain, or even likely, he'd kill off Tivo on DirecTV. Unless, of course, his plan is to piss off his best customers and get them to leave DirecTV.

I wouldn't be too upset about not having a new version. I'm perfectly happy with my Series 1 DTivo. I could care less about HMO, and although folders would be nice, it's not critical.

I don't know how your Tivos compare to ours, but my point is they really haven't improved them much over the years.

Posted by: fieldeffect

The main reason I want to see a new TiVo product in the UK is that I want one with a built in DVD recorder.

Recording at single speed via "Save to VCR" really sucks.

Nick.

Posted by: GoodSpike

quote:
Originally posted by fieldeffect
The main reason I want to see a new TiVo product in the UK is that I want one with a built in DVD recorder.

Recording at single speed via "Save to VCR" really sucks.

Nick.

Oh, okay. I'm not really sure how popular those have been over here. I've only transferred about three items to tape so it's not something that interests me at all, which is why I didn't mention it as a change (it didn't occur to me).

Posted by: Toothy

quote:
Originally posted by fieldeffect
The main reason I want to see a new TiVo product in the UK is that I want one with a built in DVD recorder.

Recording at single speed via "Save to VCR" really sucks.

Nick.

I concur...I'd buy a UK DVD-R TiVo machine in a second.....that's probably the killer app TiVo needs, to go mainstream in the UK. :up:

'Save to VCR' and VCR's in general are soooo 1980`s......it's time to make the leap into the 21st Century. :p

Posted by: Andy Davies

quote:
Originally posted by fieldeffect
The main reason I want to see a new TiVo product in the UK is that I want one with a built in DVD recorder.

Recording at single speed via "Save to VCR" really sucks.

Like the Pioneer DVR-810 or DVR-57, pity you can't get them for the UK...

Posted by: DeadKenny

I'm not too fussed about recording to DVD. As the quality of TiVo in the UK is far from perfect being that it records off analogue SCART, then recording to DVD would have to be a digital transfer and not yet another digital->analogue->digital conversion (there are enough of those already especially for those of us with 100Hz TVs!!), and I don't think the quality is even then good enough for achive use to an extent that it's worth ditching VHS. Besides, I never archive to VHS anyway as almost everything I want to keep I buy on DVD and then I could always upgrade the hard disc on the TiVo instead.

For the movie industry the key requirement will be licencing the content so they won't be keen on combined PVR/DVD-Rs. With the likes of Sky+ the content is licenced/encrypted (optionally) so they are more likely to go for that kind of system. There are things developing on the internet too with on-demand licenced TV downloads (i.e. free to download TV shows, but licenced so you can't copy them and have a limited time to watch them).

Posted by: Furball

Something I find interesting is all this chat about quality of TiVo and the need to copy to DVD in a digital format which TiVo cannot do ( well not normally ;) ) but I do think people forget that 99% time TiVo records TV programs which from my point of view are 99% disposable.
So why would any one want to save it to DVD :confused:
Yes there are films on tv but these are generally available on DVD which contain a far better sound track and piles of other goodies.
We use our TiVo for just this disposable TV but which is now under our control :D
We have currently something like 100hrs worth sat on the drive and I reckon we watch less than 20% of it, where do you guys find the time !! The plus side we never seem to miss any of our fav progs as TiVo just seems to know everything we like. Its taken about a year but the suggestions are spot on now and if we miss something ie forget to SP or wish list it the darn thing still picks it up in a suggestion. Its scary, its the work of the devil I tell you!!!!!

Not sure why I have rambled on but its late and I have a nice glass of whiskey in my hand and a keyboard in the other ( always dodgy ) and just wanted to get it off my chest :D :D

Fur

Posted by: BigDave

The solution is the other way around. Instead of producing a TiVo with a built=in DVD recorder, there are quite a few DVD recorders available that also "just happen" to have an 80gb hard drive inside them.

But without TiVo's EPG data they're kinda second best, aren't they? I've seen the programme data on Sky + and it sucks .....

Posted by: DeadKenny

I do indeed find my TiVo usage is much more "disposable" telly these days. Before DVD, I used to keep loads of things on VHS, but now with DVD quality being so much superior to VHS, TiVo, and even Sky+ (low bitrates on Sky, adverts, DOGs, etc), I'd rather buy what I want to keep on DVD and TiVo is just used to maintain stuff I'm not so fussed about buying.

TiVo for me gives me a nice stock of "filler" material to watch generally without me having to put much effort into it.

The problem with other recorders though is none of them are a patch on TiVo's EPG.

Posted by: donnellyr3003

there is a thompson on the market at the mo that has a combined hard drive and DVD (Writer???) goes fo rabout 200 quid on ebay 400 in the shops, Obviously its not quite Tivo (& probably only records freeview tv)

Does any one know if any of the knew UK twin tuner recorders could be hacked to use tivo software etc??

Posted by: DeadKenny

quote:
Originally posted by donnellyr3003
there is a thompson on the market at the mo that has a combined hard drive and DVD (Writer???) goes fo rabout 200 quid on ebay 400 in the shops, Obviously its not quite Tivo (& probably only records freeview tv)

Does any one know if any of the knew UK twin tuner recorders could be hacked to use tivo software etc??

I would doubt they're anywhere near the same hardware internally so support it.

Posted by: iankb

Probably wrong CPU. MPEG encoder, motherboard architecture, and operating system. Definitely no TiVo identification chip, and no ability to subscribe to the service. Other than that ...

Posted by: BigDave

Re donnellyr3003's post: just had a quick look at the Thomson DVD HD combo, and the spec says:

quote:
The player boasts a 16-event one-year timer which can be programmed either manually or through the teletext-based NaviClick EPG system.

Re my last post, it's the EPG that sets TiVo way apart from the competition - anyone ever heard of this NaviClick system? Be interested in any comments.....

Posted by: simon1

quote:

Re my last post, it's the EPG that sets TiVo way apart from the competition - anyone ever heard of this NaviClick system? Be interested in any comments..... [/B]

The Thomson downloads teletext data each night for the program listings. You then scroll along to the programme you wish to record and press enter. I think you are limited to just today and tomorrows progs.

Mitsubishi, Philips and Thomson made conventional vcr's that operated this way in the 90's. The feature was known as 'Startext'.

Posted by: simon1

quote:

Re my last post, it's the EPG that sets TiVo way apart from the competition - anyone ever heard of this NaviClick system? Be interested in any comments..... [/B]