1st June 2011

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someones already on that

http://www.tivoland.com/forum/

 

I was never a big user of wishlists, but i can tell you W7 media centre does season passes just as well as Tivo.

I would imagine freeview is pretty easy to setup, i however, have sky coming through on three different tuners. Fantastic quality, not as maintenance free as tivo of course, but very few things are.

 

2 quick questions:

- Will I be able to use a Tivo other than a Series 1 (presumably by buying one in the USA) with the revived service?

- Will I be able to plug a Freeview HD box into the Tivo, as I can with standard Freeview?

Thanks!

Ben

 

The alt service will only support UK Series 1 TiVos.

The S1 TiVo only records in SD.

.

 

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Actually the AltEPG will support more than the S1 UK Tivo, but initially thats all we will be supporting.

 

Hehe, its Dave of tivoland.com , not Mike

In fact I don't know what happened to Mike, haven't heard sight nor sound from him apart from one email back in March.

 

That does sound rather disturbing as I am struck by just how little activity is being reported in the Work In Progress section of your Tivoland forum for something that allegedly will go live in just another 24 days from now.

Personally I fully expect that there may well be a gap in service after June 1st but that once we are cut off for real that this will concentrate minds and that a replacement will be in place before the start of September. The summer is on the whole a time to be doing things other than watching tv and I also have enough stuff recorded on my Tivo to tide me over in the interim.

Of course I do sincerly hope that you guys will have something running on June 1st but I can think of a whole bunch of reasons why not including the fact that no widespread testing of the new service seems to be going on at the present time.

 

Many thanks for your reply.

 

He isn't necessarily right though.

The dual tuner S2 may well be supported in due course and given the incentives to do so some method of getting a Tivo working that can support HD recording may one day be found. However all of those things will take quite a long time to happen and may not happen at all and only the provision of a replacement EPG service for SD S1 Tivo boxes is being targeted for June 1st.

 

You know, I've been on these forums a lot of years and seen a lot of bad feeling aimed toward you Pete. I've always tried to refrain or separate myself from these type of discussions and whilst I will still hold back on the language, lets put it this way, I can see why!!

Have you never took a moment to wonder why you get a lot of flack and every thought about trying to improve yourself?
Rubbing people up the wrong way throughout life is a waste of their time and yours!

Now I'll speak a little on your comments before I take the rest of the evening off:

The WIP forum was created at the beginning of the project. Once the Oz team came on board and we got a few initial tasks done, certain people involved with the project took on certain roles and responsibilities. So putting out project requests and documenting WIP is a luxury we could not afford. After advise from the Oz guy's, who have been through this after-all, there is actually a quiet forum where serious discussions and points about the project could be made (without the chatter). No doubt much of what you were hoping to find is in there but of-course by not knowing that you immediately assumed a lack of effort. A few people contributed early on, but have not been prolific throughout the project due to work commitments etc. and other people joined at a apt time and grabbed tasks by the scruff of the neck and got on with them for which I am truly grateful and I have congratulated them previously on the forum. For the record, Mike did not help us or start on the project at any point, we have no idea whether he is busy with other stuff or is doing his own thing to be honest, but his absence is again irrelevant to the idea that nothing has been going on!!

We are behind on the DUN solution, that I admit, but unless things take a drastic change for the worse, I am happy enough to not be worried about June 1st. In fact I am moving my Lounge Tivo over to AltEPG tomorrow.

We already started Alpha Testing Phase 1 and are on Alpha Testing Phase 2. The technicalities of alpha and beta for a beast like this are somewhat blurred, but considering we are under no obligation to provide any service after June 1st, I do expect everyone using AltEPG going forwards to be "widespread testers" because this is a work in progress and by that I mean we will seek to continue working on improve the system for as long as its worthwhile running!

Perhaps if you have any interest in using AltEPG at all, you'd be better off spending some time in the AltEPG forum, rather than here which is technically an "S1 forum for the official TiVo service" and in that respect and in your words, has 24 days left to live!
Most UK users seemed to have moved on to the "Official UK VM" forum or the "AltEPG" forum, which given our circumstances, makes sense, no?

 

Yes I am.

He didn't ask about future ideas; he asked what the alternative epg will support - that is a UK S1 with version 2.5.5 software.


I didn't realise you were that closely involved in defining the direction of the AltEPG project!...

For the avoidance of doubt:
- There are no plans to support S2/S3/etc TiVos
- There are no plans to support HD
- There are no plans to support multiple tuners

If anyone needs any of those things then the alternative epg TiVo is not for you.


p.s. oh and the replacement service WILL be available on 1st June!


.

 

Please don't speak for the project, as far as I'm concerned, no decisions like this have been made!!!
I, for one am interested in looking into these area's. As far as I'm concerned project etiquette means we will never offer a service involving a competing HD Cable product in the UK!
I see some of these the boxes suggested as no different to the other countries that imported and hacked Tivo models to work in the absence of an official offering!

 

Are you saying there are "plans" to introduce these? I'm not aware of any PLANS - there may be TALK but that's not "plans" is it.

Dave, you're not doing yourself or the project any favours by failing to manage people's expectations of exactly what is going to be available for at least the first 3 (6?) months of AltEPG service.



p.s. I never said "never" - I said there are no current "plans". Which there aren't. There is obvious confusion in people's minds as to exactly what will be available on 1st June. A definitive statement is needed so people know what they are getting (and thereby avoid disappointment).

 

Hi Guys,

Can I just say that I & I'm sure many others truly appreciate the work that is going on on the other forum for the AltEPG service.

May I humbly suggest though that the last place that any dissent between people who are affiliated with the new project should be aired is here. Any references on here surely should be to inform people that it exists, that the service will continue & to encourage people to move over to your forum to read about it.

Any negatives here could dissuade people from even looking & that would be a tremendous shame after all the work you have done. I for one am amazed that we will still have a TiVo service after June 1st. SWMBO still refuses to believe it's true, especially the fact that it is going to be free, although this probably says more about her slightly jaundiced view of the world than anything else

Martin

 

This is not the place for these discussions, in fact if anyone wants to know anything related to the AltEPG project, out of respect for the Tivo Community forum rules, they should be discussing it on the Alternative EPG forum.

The main objective currently for AltEPG is to get Guide Data to users after June 1st.

The statement,

is a pretty strong statement and no-one should be making that unless they are referring to the AltEPG offering a "VM HD Cable TiVo"!

 

Absolutely agree 100%!

 

Quite, and putting it back in it's original context (and in the context of this thread):

If you are looking for (any of)
- functionality of the S2/S3/etc TiVos
- support for HD
- support for multiple tuners
then what the AltEPG project will deliver on 1st June is not for you.


I'm certain that some people (and not just Pete) think some of the above is what is they are getting - it is important they are not misled.

 

I don't think that is the case at all. The AltEpg project aim is quite clear: to provide a mechanism whereby the existing UK S1 TiVo userbase can continue to use their bought and paid for TiVos. To that extent, the core priority of the service is to ensure that support for UK S1 TiVos will be there on 1st June.

Moving on, I can see support for S2 and later boxes being made available - indeed, they may already work, if anybody has one, as the server software supports S2 at least. However, at present, nobody I know has one to test it, and it's not a priority.

I certainly don't see any need for such definitively negative statements being made at this time, particularly as you are not privy to the decisions being made about implementation - just because there are "no plans" being published for a particular enhancement does not mean they are not being considered. By wording things as you are, you are suggesting that decisions have been made not to support these things, when this is not the case.

[At one point the dominant UK Cable-TV provider had "no plans" to provide cable-internet, actually deciding to cancel the trial cable-modem service set up by one of the franchises they took over. (Nynex->C&W, Manchester, c1996. I was on that trial.) Now look where they are.]

 

I would have been surprised to hear the news that HD, Series 2+ etc. was going to be supported with AltEPG. I asked because I am happy to carry on receiving standard def. after June 1, and also happy to avoid the considerable cost of investing a HD PVR, such as a Humax, at this time.

I reiterate my appreciation of what the team are doing

 

@irrelevant
Oh for pity sake. What is negative about simply stating what people WILL get on 1st June?

You yourself say that "no plans" does not mean never and should, of course, not be interpreted as such. Exactly!

The fact that post #483 exists quite clearly shows that the absence of a definitive statement from the alternative project is not doing anyone any favours.

No I am not "privy to the decisions being made about implementation" - and why is that?

There are now 22 days left - isn't it time the alternative project started telling people what they WILL get on 1st June? By NOT saying, you suggest that you don't actually know!


*sigh* [flames expected as per usual]