new tivo on ebay

[vol_taire]

Hi,

I am thinking of buying a tivo.
I have read that the only place to buy a tivo is really ebay, and that only series 1 tivos are available in the UK. I have two questions:

- where are the new tivos coming from that are sold on ebay - are they all shipped over from the US? If so, does anyone know how much they cost, or how much it would cost to have one sent over?

- If the new tivos from ebay are coming from the US, and if i did get a tivo from the US myself and bring it back, must I get a series 1? Would the newer models fail to work?

Thanks

[sanderton]

"New" TiVos on eBay if they are sold in the UK will be ones still in their boxed from the "old days"

[vol_taire]

still in their boxed from the "old days"

Aha, thanks.
When were the "old days" end?

[Pete77]

- where are the new tivos coming from that are sold on ebay - are they all shipped over from the US? If so, does anyone know how much they cost, or how much it would cost to have one sent over?

- If the new tivos from ebay are coming from the US, and if i did get a tivo from the US myself and bring it back, must I get a series 1? Would the newer models fail to work?

Nearly all Tivos on www.ebay.co.uk are second hand Tivos that have already been in customer use. Many of those are a better bet than a never used Tivo because a never used (aka New which it is not) tivo will not have been upgraded in any way and will not have a Lifetime Subscription and be 5 years old. All of these Tivos are pre-owned by UK customers in some way. Some may have been pre-owned and never used but they are few and far between. There is no advantage in having a never used unit. It is like a car that has been standing in a garage slowly becoming immobile.

The only Tivo that works in the UK is the Thomson Tivo PVR10UK Series 1 model sold in the UK. Tivo will not accept any Series 1, 2 or 3 Tivo from the USA for our UK program guide data service and they have other issues like different terminals on the back from those used in the UK and an NTSC instead of a PAL tuner.

If you want to have a Tivo you are mistaken to think a New Tivo is a good idea. What you want is a heavily upgraded second hand Tivo with a Lifetime Subscription that someone is selling because they are moving to Sky+. For a Tivo to work it needs a subscription - the subscription is £10 per month unless the unit has a Lifetime subscription costing £199 bought several years ago. Upgraded units have bigger hard drives and can record more programs in better quality. They may also have a Cachcecard and RAM which provides access to the recordings on the Tivo over the internet at work or a webcafe or from your local PC. The Cachecard also lets the unit handle more recordings with larger hard drives without slowing down in menu speeds.

See the following for more information on upgrading:-

www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo

http://tivo.lightn.org/

www.ljay.org.uk/tivoweb/

www.garysargent.co.uk/tivo/hacking.htm

www.beaconhill.plus.com/TiVo/tivohacks.htm

http://www.arielbusiness.pwp.blueyo.../TiVo/HowTo.htm

http://alt.org/wiki/index.php/TiVoWeb%20Modules

http://thomson.tivo.googlepages.com

http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/network_cd.html

http://thomson.tivo.googlepages.com/tivowebplus

http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/?search=oztivo&x=0&y=0

www.tivohackman.com

www.weethet.nl/english/tivo_extract_videos.php

[Pete77]

Aha, thanks.
When were the "old days" end?

Tivos were only sold new in shops in the UK between mid 2000 and end 2002. All the ones currently in use are second hand units still in use because Tivo still supports the service but does not sell new machines in the UK.

Sky+ were able to elbow out Tivo with their better marketed but vastly technically inferior PVR product.

I think you are being a little bit idle because if you used Google and read around the forum using Search you could have found most of this out for yourself.

[blindlemon]

There's nothing wrong with a bit of idle idolatry from time to time :p:D

[Pete77]

There's nothing wrong with a bit of idle idolatry from time to time :p:D

Spelling mistake corrected. I do know the difference but sometimes my typing fingers don't seem to be aware of these subtle meaning differences in similarly sounding words.

[DanBates]

If it's not too cheeky to do so, I would point out that I put my TiVO on Ebay today, and it's in great condition. Sadly, I've moved over to MCE for the music and pictures, but it's been a long and fruitful love affair with my TiVO :)

MOD EDIT: Auction links are not allowed!

[johala_reewi]

is a pre-owned Tivo a new one :confused:

[CarlWalters]

I'm pretty sure that pre-owned = second-hand.

[AMc]

There are some 'new' old Tivos on the bay today which come from a well regarded forum member. Search on the auction owner id here and it will become clear.
I would imagine they're a safe bet if you aren't keen on the usual pig in a poke buying 2nd hand electronics on there.

[Pete77]

There are some 'new' old Tivos on the bay today which come from a well regarded forum member. Search on the auction owner id here and it will become clear.

Yes but those Tivos don't have a Lifetime sub with them which will cost £200 on top.

In my view they are rather a poor buy compared to some Tivos with Lifetime Sub, upgraded hard drive around 200Gb and Cachecard and 512MB RAM that have sold on Ebay for around £300 in recent weeks.

The Tivos you mention would need a £200 Lifetime Sub and a Cachecard and RAM at at total cost of about another £305 taking the total to £500 for the same spec. If you read between the lines in Ebay ads and who is selling them and how they describe them you can usually get a good deal on a high spec second hand Tivo.