Kiwi calling

[UKRadioHam]

Hi Forum

I've recently relocated from the UK to New Zealand with my Tivo unit and family... and I've done a silly thing... while still jetlagged and exhausted I hooked Tivo up and took it into guided setup to find kiwi channels... stupid man... and now I'm stuck as it's trying to call a UK number but without the international prefix (I'm guessing).

I know I won't be able to get channel program listings/data, so I just want tivo to act as a dumb DVR - what's the easiest way to get the box working again from here in sunny Auckland please?

Thanks all you Tivo gurus out there.

[cwaring]

I know that some folk have got Tivo working in Oz. Don't know of this will help you though as geography was never my strong point :)
http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view

[Pete77]

Another formerly UK based Tivo user called OrangeDrink has also recently relocated to NZ and is in Wellington. He has made quite a few posts in the UK section of the forum lately and is I believe keen to join the NZ Tivo hacking community. He has left his old lifetime subbed Thomson Tivo with his parents in Wales but has bought another US Tivo without subscription that he hopes to use in NZ.

You can find the OzTivo forums, which include two NZ specific sections at:-

http://forums.oztivo.net/indexf.php

You can find OrangeDrink's recent posts at:-

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/search.php?searchid=2011741

So you may yet be able to get your Tivo working in NZ although he tells me that an NZ version of Sky+ is available in KiwiLand.

[OrangeDrink]

Another formerly UK based Tivo user called OrangeDrink has also recently relocated to NZ and is in Wellington. He has made quite a few posts in the UK section of the forum lately and is I believe keen to join the NZ Tivo hacking community. He has left his old lifetime subbed Thomson Tivo with his parents in Wales but has bought another US Tivo without subscription that he hopes to use in NZ.

You can find the OzTivo forums, which include two NZ specific sections at:-

http://forums.oztivo.net/indexf.php

You can find OrangeDrink's recent posts at:-

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/search.php?searchid=2011741

So you may yet be able to get your Tivo working in NZ although he tells me that an NZ version of Sky+ is available in KiwiLand.

but the NZ version of Sky+ is appallingly bad ;)

There are people over here running Thomson PVR10's, if you join the oztivo group you should find some instructions on the best way to set it up. I'm still yet to set up my US Tivo (it's a Sony Series 1) so can't yet be of too much help...

whereabouts in New Zealand have to relocated to? I'm based in Wellington.

Probably not allowed to advertise specific companies on here but from reading the groups in OzTivo it seems it's quicker and cheaper to get things like Cachecards/TurboNet/etc from the US than it is from the UK...

[Pete77]

but the NZ version of Sky+ is appallingly bad ;)

Surely it can't be any more appallingly bad than its UK counterpart though? :eek:

whereabouts in New Zealand have to relocated to? I'm based in Wellington.

Comments made in the OP's message seem to suggest he is in sunny Auckland all the way at the other end of North Island to Wellington. How far away is that from Wellington? Is it 300 miles or something and what are the roads like?

[UKRadioHam]

As it's said in these parts ... Sweet as Bro.. or thanks for the replies. I'm downloading from the NZ section of Oztivo as I reply, and I'll let you know how the Kiwi tivo project goes. Thanks again.

[OrangeDrink]

Comments made in the OP's message seem to suggest he is in sunny Auckland all the way at the other end of North Island to Wellington. How far away is that from Wellington? Is it 300 miles or something and what are the roads like?

MySky's one benefit over Sky+? You can get Component Video out down here thanks to a software upgrade... was shocked to see you can't get Component on Sky+ in the UK, it's definitely possible, MySky is the same hardware as Sky+.

Having said that the quality of the broadcasts varies between just about watchable to downright appalling (ESPN Spanish Football live you can't even make out which players are on which team!), add to that MySky continually fails to record Series Links or even record things I've manually scheduled. I hear Sky+ has the same problems... The weather here though causes a fair few dropouts in service when the rain gets up. Weak ass Satellite signal apparently, even after they've thrown up a new one (which they manage to get the polarities the wrong way round on...)

On the plus side we are blessed with The Rugby Channel, which as a Welshman is equivalent to the God Channel to your Christian types...

Wellington to Auckland's somewhere between a 6 and 9 hour drive depending on what you're driving and how often you get stopped for speeding ;)

The roads are lethal but that's more down to Kiwi drivers than anything else heheh ;)

[Pete77]

Wellington to Auckland's somewhere between a 6 and 9 hour drive depending on what you're driving and how often you get stopped for speeding ;)

The roads are lethal but that's more down to Kiwi drivers than anything else heheh ;)

Sounds like flying makes more sense then unless you are going for a trip of a week or two.

Big country to get around then due to being so long and thin, despite not being nearly so many millions of square miles as Australia.

[afrokiwi]

Let us know how you get on … always thought about dragging my parents into the 21st century …

[OrangeDrink]

Sounds like flying makes more sense then unless you are going for a trip of a week or two.

Big country to get around then due to being so long and thin, despite not being nearly so many millions of square miles as Australia.

yeah flying can be pretty cheap too... can be... Taking the train from Auckland to Wellington might be a better way of seeing a bit more of the North Island without having to concentrate on why that person in front of you is indicating right but appears to be turning left

[Pete77]

yeah flying can be pretty cheap too... can be... Taking the train from Auckland to Wellington might be a better way of seeing a bit more of the North Island without having to concentrate on why that person in front of you is indicating right but appears to be turning left

Why is driving so bad there. Is the driving test incredibly easy to pass or something?

[TCM2007]

Thay're not allowed to go more than about 24mph to get any practice. I got pulled over within 5 mins of picking up a hire car at the airport!

[OrangeDrink]

Why is driving so bad there. Is the driving test incredibly easy to pass or something?

Who knows... I think the not indicating thing may be due to this weird rule by where if you want to turn left into a sidestreet and there's someone else wanting to turn into the same street but from the other direction, you have to give way to them and let them turn ahead of you. That's obviously not applicable on dual carriageway though.

My theory is that if you don't signal the other guy won't try and turn in front of you so they all get out of the habit of indicating... I dunno really. It's not like Brits are great at driving so I feel bad criticising but at least in Britain you usually have a good idea about the crazy move the car in front of you is about to pull off, in New Zealand it's always a surprise ;)

[tonywalk]

Having said that the quality of the broadcasts varies between just about watchable to downright appalling (ESPN Spanish Football live you can't even make out which players are on which team!)Don't worry, even in Europe the bitrate the Spanish broadcasters use makes it difficult to watch.

If I had to stick my neck out on a technical point I would suggest they are even using 4:2:0 colour as the crowd looks like it's been painted on!

Pah! They're still 10 years behind the rest of Europe with their TV tech. The footie isn't even in widescreen.

Anyone else remember the very strange way audio sounded on Spanish TV in the 70's and 80's?

Now I feel old.
Tony (40).