Tivo without internet - exactly what happens?

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MrCat

15 posts

Geek

#101849 10-May-2012 10:37

Hi. My elderly parents don't have the internet and Tivo looks to be by far the cheapest way of recording Freeview (with dual tuner).
There is a ton of info saying "needs internet connection" because the EPG recording comes online - but what exactly happens if you don't have the internet?
If I activate it from my house, and then disconnect it for any length of time does it simply "lock up" and refuse to work? Can I not program it manually like a VCR?

BlueShift

1692 posts

Uber Geek

#622749 10-May-2012 10:50

It uses the internet connection to download the EPG about a fortnite or so ahead. If it loses connection, then after the EPG data it has runs out, it shows "information not available" or similar instead of the programme listings. Recording is back to the dark ages of setting it by day and time from the TV guide. Same as what Tivo users had to do for Prime before the finally got added to the EPG.

Short story, it will work, but will be crippled.

MrCat

15 posts

Geek

#622754 10-May-2012 10:56

Thanks for that. That's how they program their old VCR at the moment so I don't see that as a big problem.
Would you say it's relavively easy to program that way (I mean thinking in old school terms of entering time date etc)?

josephhinvest

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#622759 10-May-2012 11:04

No EPG would make it vastly less useful IMHO.
However, it's not particularly hard to make manual recording;

Find Programs > Record by Time or Channel > Setup manual recording.

You can schedule repeating recordings too, but everything in your Now Playing list would have the same title, if you recorded say two programs on TV1 on Monday, you would have to click on one or both to see which was which.

Cheers
Joseph

jaidevp

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#632329 29-May-2012 23:35

Essentially this is boat anchor mode. You should be able to setup manual recordings. Pressing the record button while watching live tv will limit recording time to 30mins.
There may also be a nag screen to dismiss each time you navigate to the menus. I am unsure about a auto nag screen popping up while watching live tv, will have to confirm this.

MrCat

15 posts

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#632458 30-May-2012 10:11

Thanks for the info. Will be most interested to hear from you if you find out any more :)

tdgeek

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#632469 30-May-2012 10:26

What about a cheap prepay mobile broadband connection? The data used will be minimal so if the prepay data has a reasonable life before expiry that may be worth a look. Small extra to gain a lot of convenience.

MrCat

15 posts

Geek

#632511 30-May-2012 11:22

Do you know how much data and how often it downloads?

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edge

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#632534 30-May-2012 11:56

MrCat: Do you know how much data and how often it downloads?

http://support.mytivo.co.nz/index.php?action=artikel&cat=15&id=10&artlang=en gives you the info on that.

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
— most commonly attributed to Jonathan Swift, author/theologian

rugrat

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#632968 30-May-2012 22:34

MrCat: Do you know how much data and how often it downloads?

It downloads once every 24 hours. But if you use a mobile phone as wifi access point, only need to update once about every week and a half, when channel data starts to run out.

Some channels don't quite get full two weeks data, so better to do more often then 2 weekly. Can force tivio to update right away, once connected to internet access.