TiVo Community Forums Archives - Canada/UsingWithoutGuideDataLegally?

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Canada/UsingWithoutGuideDataLegally?
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Posted by: jkeegan

At work I've become the guy people come to to ask TiVo questions (big surprise: costume, plate, site). But someone came up to me with one I hadn't spent much time on before..

He lives in Canada, and was interested in getting a TiVo. I told him that I was pretty sure there was currently no service in Canada (any info contradicting that is welcome). (He mentioned some satelite service that you could get a TiVo with in Canada, but he didn't want to sign up for that.. basically he wanted a standalone TiVo that could dial in for local listings)

I told him that as far as I know, today, he was out of luck - he can't get local listings. So he started asking about just using the TiVo for manual recordings. I normally don't even think about what it'd be like to not have guide data.. Ugh. No guide, only manual recordings, no suggestions, no schedule change detection, etc. I told him all of this. But he seemed interested enough in just being able to pause live tv, start watching a manual recording when it's only 1/2 way done recording, and do instant replays.

So for the first time I had to think about threads here that I typically ignore. That leads me to this question (and most of the other threads seem polluted enough with illegal discussions that I'm not consulting them):

Is there any "legal" "acceptable" "TiVo(company)-friendly" way to use a TiVo just for manual recording anymore (in, say, 2.0 or 2.5), providing one doesn't try filling it with their own guide data (which I don't care about discussing.. I'm only interested in a lobotomized TiVo here, since that's all he can get in Canada)

I remember people asking about the nag screen etc, but never followed the threads closely enough to see what happened in 2.0 or 2.5.

Is there an option for him of paying for a lifetime subscription, connecting it here once while in the states (to download 2.5 or 3.0 someday etc), then go home to Canada and not really use the subscription? (i.e. just for software updates) Or is there any acceptable option (that TiVo still endorses, for old TiVos) for not paying for (nor receiving) the service?

I hate even asking this because I cringe at what he'd be experiencing with a lobotomized TiVo, but I can't get out of my head the idea that if it was me in Canada and I couldn't have at LEAST those few features a lobotomized TiVo has, I'd go crazy. So, I feel compelled to help. :(

Posted by: Guyy

Where in Canada is he? And does have cable, or just OTA? Reason I'm asking is if he was say in Windsor he could get Detriot's guide data and record OTA with that.

One problem somes in if he buys a Tivo and does not get service, than Tivo just lost money.. Now if he goes ahead and gets a lifetime sub no problem there, and even from Canada he could call some local number in the US to get software updates.

Posted by: LifeIsABeach

This group should be able to answer any questions you have. Good Luck!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tivo_canada/

Posted by: jkeegan

He said he lives in Calgary Alberta, and has cable (regular, not digital) from Shaw.

(I'll tell him about the yahoo group too, but I'd also be interested to hear any answers anyone has here)

Posted by: HTH

I'm currently running my 20hr TiVo without service to see what it is like. My other two have lifetime service, so I can't do this with them.

As long as it shipped with software before 2.0, which apparently includes all Philips models, it can make manual recordings under 2.5.1. The only things you really have access to are:

Record by Time/Date
To Do List
Recording History (but not details)
Now Playing
Live TV
Messages & Setup (except TiVo Suggestions)

Shortcuts from TiVo Central are disabled, so you can't use TiVo+2 to take you to the To Do list. Nag screens occur when entering TiVo Central, but not every time. I don't know the interval or how it decides whether or not to nag, if it's inactivity or just a set frequency.

Season Pass Manager is inaccessible. It's back to the old days of recreating SPs in the desired conflict order, except that you can push them to the top or bottom of the list upon creation. (Yes, one could have conflicting Repeating Manual Records.)

You need TiVoNet or TurboNet to activate backdoors. If you have Season Passes and let your service lapse, the SPs in the remaining guide data remain scheduled but will not record nor make way for Repeat Manual Recordings to record. If you had enabled listing of suggestions in the To Do list, you can still schedule one-shot recordings from those suggestions, but the suggestions themselves won't record, nor will it calculate new ones. You can't even influence thumb ratings, and TiVo logos even disappear from the banner. (I haven't checked the BSONS to see if the logo vanishes there yet.) The TiVo Guy is still in the animated backgrounds; they don't blot him out with foreground graphics.

I haven't yet reached the end of my remaining guide data, so I have no information on how entries in Now Playing look without the guide data providing titles for the "Manual:" recordings under 2.5.1.

I had intended to provide a list from System Information of the boolean values that are set true and false, but that TiVo lost power last weekend and I don't have a network adapter with which to re-enable backdoors to access that information.

Posted by: HTH

Oh, and can I buy a space for the subject line?

Posted by: Andrel

Hi,

I am in Calgary, Alberta.

If your friend wants more infos/help, he can drop me an Email. I should be able to answer his questions.

BTW, I subscribe to Tivo and there is local number available in Calgary.

Andre