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[Trini1]

can someone please tell me what is available in the uk ? in terms of hd for tivo etc ? why does usa have to get all the goodies ? :mad:

[blindlemon]

Hi Trini :)

What do you have at the moment? There are loads of things you can do with a UK TiVo. Not HD though unfortunately...

[Pete77]

blindlemon is too modest to mention his own Tivo upgrade service at www.tivoheaven.co.uk and of course naturally does not mention his main competitor at www.tivoland.com

The following websites also show you all the ways in which a UK Series 1 Tivo can be upgraded:-

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

http://www.planetbuilders.org/tivo/...rade_diary.html

[Trini1]

i just have the standard tivo box, why cant we get series two etc :( i have a hd tv and whats the point in tivo anymore :(

[Pete77]

i just have the standard tivo box, why cant we get series two etc :( i have a hd tv and whats the point in tivo anymore :(

The point of Tivo is that it records reliably and has a 3 week EPG unlike Sky+ (1 week EPG) and doesn't suddenly wipe all the recordings on your hard drive for no apparent reason as Sky+ does. Its your choice that you have a standard Tivo box and have not hugely uprated it in the way that many of us have for a mere fraction of the annual subscription cost of Sky HD.

Personally I care about programs and whether they have interesting content and whether they are in HD quality or not is of very little importance to me. Also most programs that are Free to Air are not in HD and I'm not prepared to pay Rupert Murdoch £864 for Sky HD in Year 1 and £565 per annum thereafter. I have a Freesat Sky box and a Freeview box hooked to my Tivo so currently pay Sky nothing in subscriptions.

[blindlemon]

An SD TiVo recording in Mode 0 from an HD source will look significantly better than a "best" quality recording made from an SD source as a number of posters on this forum will testify.

It's also possible to get your TiVo to control the recording function of your Sky+HD box using irblast - so you get TiVo functionality plus recordings in HD on your Sky+ box :)

However, to use all these extra features you will need to upgrade your standard TiVo with a network card and Mode 0, which is most easily achieved by fitting a pre-configured upgrade - I can say no more;) :D

[Trini1]

yeah i wouldnt pay for a hd subscription, i was just thinking about the future where you might get hd for free :) lol

i love my tivo box i would just love to have the same options as the usa, i just dont understand why tivo didnt take off here as much :(

[blindlemon]

TiVo made a mistake by doing a deal with Sky shortly before Sky decided to launch it's own vastly inferior but massively marketed product, and it didn't help that Thomson decided to pull the plug on the manufacturing contract either, shortly thereafter to start making Sky+ boxes.... :(

However, most of the "features" you read about for US TiVos are available in some form or another for our Series 1 machines if you're prepared to fit a network card and do a bit of fairly simple (and very well supported via this forum) hacking :up:

[Trini1]

sounds good, i'm not massively technical mind....but i get by :)

[Pete77]

yeah i wouldnt pay for a hd subscription, i was just thinking about the future where you might get hd for free :) lol

i love my tivo box i would just love to have the same options as the usa, i just dont understand why tivo didnt take off here as much :(

The reasons Tivo S2 and S3 didn't happen here are twofold:-

(a) Rupert and James Murdoch and Sky stabbed Tivo in the back over the S1 model by bringing out Sky+. Although Sky+ is crap Sky have such marketing muscle in the UK for Pay Tv that Tivo doesn't fancy repeating the experience

and

(b) The success of Freeview which is built on cheap and cheeful and where people would probably not want to pay £x per month for a subscription.

The only ray of hope I can see for Tivo in the UK is with the imminent relaunch of NTL and Telewest as Virgin Media. Now as Richard Branson likes to have world leading products that stand out and as Tivo just happen to have come up with a version of their software that can run on most cable tv boxes there does seem to be a big opportunity there for Virgin Media to do something. And I forecast that even in non cable areas Virgin Media will soon still provide their services via a Freeview and broadband tv box (with broadband providing all the non Freeview channel content) similar to BT Vision in due course, so will have nationwide coverage to compete with Sky.

So Virgin Media is the only organisation I can see possibly doing a deal to distribute the Tivo software platform in the UK on a box that also has three tuners and can do HD television.

We will just have to wait and see.

[Trini1]

well i used to work for ntl............dont count on it :) lol saying that richard branson is a clever guy, he has to recognise tivo!!

[Pete77]

well i used to work for ntl............dont count on it :) lol saying that richard branson is a clever guy, he has to recognise tivo!!

The new Virgin Media marketing guy has just gone on record to say that Telewest and NTL delivered crap customer services.

That is why Virgin Media need something like the Tivo interface to make the clear statement that this is now a completely different product. And as I said I think Virgin Media will try to go nationwide in due course using broadband tv in non cabled areas.

And if Virgin Media did go for Tivo then Sky would have to turn Sky+ into a product that actually worked properly. :eek:

[Pete77]

well i used to work for ntl............dont count on it :) lol saying that richard branson is a clever guy, he has to recognise tivo!!

Perhaps some of us need to email Richard Branson and/or the new management of Virgin Media to put this idea in their minds. cc to senior execs at Tivo Inc might not also be a bad idea.

[Trini1]

i think thats a great idea......gow about we do a petition list for him and see how many people love tivo :)