Aussies with TiVo's, thoughts?

[knight76]

With Tivo going on sale officially yesterday I am sure there are many people who have bought a TiVo and are in the early days of its use.

I want to know what you think of the Tivo service and anything else you want to say about Aussie Tivo really.

From my own perspective, I bought my Tivo on launch day along with a 46" plasma TV. The setup process was quite easy for me and there was really no pain involved.

After a brief play around with it a little I think this will really be a great device and will free up our options with TV viewing. There was only one strange moment when I turned my Television on, and there was this, Tivo page that stated Tivo would be ready to go in a few moments or something, about 2 minutes later it was back to television. Was that performing an update?

Anyhow, I look forward to reading your thoughts.

[BlackBetty]

how do you think TiVo has been accepted so far in Australia? I know its extremely early, but are folks talking about it? Is there a buzz? Did you notice other folks buying TiVo's when you went into the store yesterday?

[knight76]

how do you think TiVo has been accepted so far in Australia? I know its extremely early, but are folks talking about it? Is there a buzz? Did you notice other folks buying TiVo's when you went into the store yesterday?

Actually, I wasnt in the store long. I walked in, grabbed one and paid and left. Probably there a total of 10 minutes.

I think there is some negative talk as well as positive talk at the moment while Tivo fights for recognition. I hear a lot of talk about it being crippled or that it isnt anything new etc. Most of this I put down to not understanding Tivo very well.

I think, once the early adopters get it, and start the good word of mouth sales will get going. Plus, once the three months are up and other retailers begin to stock TiVo, this should really help as well.

[TokenCelt]

Hi, I got my TiVo two days ago now, and its great!

I'm a IT professional and am pretty disapointed as to how tech lives up to its hype.

The most dificult part of the setup was remembering my WPA passphrase for my WLAN!.

I plugged the unit in before I looked at the poster, including the Wireless adapter, switched it on, and in ten minutes was recording on one tuner and pausing live TV on the other (my Baby needed attention).

Season passes are all set up, no fuss.

The tuners are much better than my old set top box.

The only disappointment is the online scheduling isn't working. Shame on you 7 network.

But all in all :):):) bring on the next bunch of services!

[RonDawg]

There was only one strange moment when I turned my Television on, and there was this, Tivo page that stated Tivo would be ready to go in a few moments or something, about 2 minutes later it was back to television. Was that performing an update?

That is perfectly normal for any TiVo that is booting up after initial power on, or after being rebooted manually. That is why they lack on/off switches; the few models that did have a "Power" switch like the Sony SVR-2000 and SVR-3000 models really put them into Standby, shutting off video output, but the hard drive continued to churn away.

Your TiVo's performance should continue to improve for the next few days as it downloads all the data that it needs, updates it if necessary, and indexes it.

[gastrof]

...I plugged the unit in before I looked at the poster, including the Wireless adapter, switched it on, and in ten minutes was recording on one tuner and pausing live TV on the other...

What type of TiVo are you Ozzies getting?

Obviously a dual tuner, but from the sounds of things not one that requires an external cable box.

From what you know, would you say your machine is along the lines of the Series 3s here in the States?

[knight76]

It is the Tivo HD box, the series 3 budget version.
160gb hard drive etc. The one that comes in the attractive orange box.

[RonDawg]

The TiVo Australia (http://www.tivo.com.au/) website shows their boxes to be identical (at least in appearance) to the TiVoHD sold in the US.

However, one thing I did notice browsing their site is that it only works with terrestrial (OTA) programming. No satellite like here in the US, but no cable either.

The Aussie TiVo's also require broadband and a home network to download guide data, whereas US models can still use dialup.

The specs (http://www.tivo.com.au/whatistivo/specifications.php) appear to be otherwise the same as US TiVoHD's. It even has the eSATA port, but apparently it's "not available" yet Down Under. I don't know if it means they haven't made the My DVR Expander available yet, or if the software they are running is not yet enabled for eSATA storage.

[knight76]

From what I have read. The software isnt supporting the Esata here yet.

We really dont have much cable television here except in capital cities, we do have foxtel which is via satellite but this is not supported with this TiVo.

Our Tivo is brought to us by a free to air television network so they would not want it recording a competitor like pay television.

[gastrof]

The TiVo Australia (http://www.tivo.com.au/) website shows their boxes to be identical (at least in appearance) to the TiVoHD sold in the US.

However, one thing I did notice browsing their site is that it only works with terrestrial (OTA) programming. No satellite like here in the US, but no cable either...

The U.S. version of the TiVo HD doesn't work with satellite.

Cable and OTA only.

[gastrof]

...We really dont have much cable television here except in capital cities...

I find that sort of amusing. I have to assume that it would be in your cities where the TV signals are the strongest. Further away they'd be weaker and there would be a greater need for cable.


...we do have foxtel which is via satellite but this is not supported with this TiVo...

At least not by the TiVos currently being officially sold, eh?

We know about the Ozzies who got TiVos from other countries and were able to do all sorts of fancy hacks to them to make them work in Oz...

Including TiVos with A/V inputs that might be able to take a feed from a satellite box. ;)

[knight76]

I find that sort of amusing. I have to assume that it would be in your cities where the TV signals are the strongest. Further away they'd be weaker and there would be a greater need for cable.

The Cable is in the cities as the telcos don't want to spend the money to roll out the physical cabling required to enable cable services past these cities. Also, only select areas of these lucky cities get cable service.

Past this, we have practically Australia Wide coverage of Foxtel via satellite. You have to remember Australia is very spread out and only 20 million people total. The financial vaibility to spend billions of dollars rolling out cable everywhere would not be there.

At least not by the TiVos currently being officially sold, eh?

We know about the Ozzies who got TiVos from other countries and were able to do all sorts of fancy hacks to them to make them work in Oz...

Including TiVos with A/V inputs that might be able to take a feed from a satellite box. ;)

Yes there are always hacks etc happening, but at the moment, we only have one official Tivo sold in Aus, as far as I know anyway.

[RonDawg]

The U.S. version of the TiVo HD doesn't work with satellite. Cable and OTA only.

As the owner of a TiVoHD myself, I am quite aware of what it can and cannot do.

I just wanted to point out that while our TiVoHD is compatible with cable and OTA, the Aussie version is strictly OTA, which I found interesting.