Could Series 3 HDTV models be made to work here?

Even if you could sort out all the other problems, you could not get a US Tivo registered over here. No reg = No EPG = Doorstop

 

I think the american HD has a different f/s than us, theirs is 29 and ours 25 or something.

 

I think if you has a US Series 3 loaded with FTA shows recorded in the US and shipped it here, you'd be able to watch the shows on a UK TV. But you couldn't record anything in the the UK with it.

 

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Wouldn't have been difficult bringing out a dual standard one, but I can't see any pvr being successful here without a couple of freeview tuners in...

 

Why?

I live in the heart of the south of England - and there is NO freeview signal available here.

I can understand those who can get Freeview being enthusiastic about it - but to say that anything without it would be unsuccessful is a bit narrow thinking.

 

Add to that the fact we might not get Freeview HD for quite some time.

The future lies in integration with SkyHD and Virgin HD.

I would probably buy a new UK TiVo almost regardless of which platform it had though

 

Also isn't it the case that USA HD uses MPEG2 and we are using MPEG4?!

 

Yes, that's definitely true. A US HD TiVo doest have a hope of being able to play UK HD as MPEG4 is substantially different from MPEG2 (needs a lot more processing power for example not to mention being a completely different standard)

 

In just a few years time, Freeview will completely take over from analogue (even for you lot down on the South coast), so I don't think you can dismiss it as 'narrow thinking'.

Freeview is an easy way to have an integrated box - you won't see a Sky integrated Tivo box HD or otherwise - and a standalone box wouldn't be viable (less so than last time)

And who's to say we won't have an HD channel (eventually) on freeview??

 

I'm not sure that's accurate...

People have been told that they'll get digital TV, but I don't think there are any guarantees that it's going to be terrestial Freeview.

I suspect many people are going to have to rely on satellite or cable services of one form or another.

 

A few will, but overall DTT coverage will be equal to current analogue coverage in % terms, even if it is not thea exact same set of households.

 

Actually, US HD is in MPEG4. So, there is no difference in US or UK HD.

Also, nearly all US broadcasting is Digital. Analog went out awhile back.

Where you will run into problems is in the Cablecard. US Series 3's will not recognise UK Cablecards, that is if you even have cablecards?

 

Its a shame Tivo embeded cable card in the Series 3 and didn't just put multiple inputs for different sources. They could have just shipped them over as a bare bones unit and UK disks could have been added over here.

I suppose its nothing different here, if Tivo did release another system for the UK market, they would surely embed Freeview, but I'd like to think they'd provide provision for extra sources too

 

The phrase isn't quite what I meant - No offense intended.

There is no workable analogue signal here either - Sky & Cable installers say it's the airfield nearby - there's too much interference.

DAB doesn't work much either.

 

Yeah, i think there is a small runway in farnborough

 

Just a little one

 

Well, the plan is to switch over all analogue relays to digital on switchover. Practically, this is about to happen (Border TV region I think). Initially, BBC Two analogue is switched off overnight and replaced with the main BBC multiplex. A few weeks later the other three channels are switched off and replaced with digital multiplexes.

This will be repeated in other regions over the next few years.

What this means is that if you currently get you pictures via a relay, you'll still only get 4 out of the 6 multiplexes, but I believe there's also a plan to shuffle some of the channels around to ensure that the main Freeview channels are in these four.

This means that theoretically, anyone who gets an analogue signal via terrestrial now will be able to get digital signals when switchover takes place. Practically however, people often put up with relatively badly degraded analogue pictures while it's much harder to live with a poor digital signal so there are some people who now get analogue who will bel left without terrestrial when switchover takes place.

Interestingly, driving up the narrow valley that leads to Glyncorwg (of mountain biking fame) in South Wales recently, it was evident that something like 80% of households had Sky dishes on their homes - far more than the national average. This valley relies on a relay for analogue reception and the mere thought of cable is taken as a joke. I'm sure this is being repeated in other areas too where the only practical way of getting digital at the moment is satellite.