Is there an equivalent to the Tivo?

Forums › TiVo › Is there an equivalent to the Tivo?

stone2

120 posts

Master Geek

#290171 25-Oct-2021 14:00

I have two modded Tivo's but issues are starting to appear such as rebooting etc. It looks like the PSU are at fault. So I'm wondering is there a good alternative? A new pvr thats worth while?

1 | 2

1005 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2800869 25-Oct-2021 14:14

As someone who's modified over 400x Tivos, I'd have to admit I am biased, but I haven't found any direct competitor to a modified Tivo, in the NZ market anyway. Tivos are well loved by their owners for ease of use and reliability, as long as they don't have a failing one. BTW, it's extremely unlikely your Tivos have failing power supplies. These are extremely reliable and very rarely fail. If you have the original 2009 320GB hard disks, they could be failing, or there could be RAM problems which would be the most common cause of random reboots. I use 1TB and 2TB WD purple HDDs as replacements and they have been excellent.

The Panasonic Freeview recorders are not well liked in general for their ease of use, and the Vodafone TV 2 isn't a bad device, but with frustrating issues about what you can and can't "record" in the cloud, and various glitches that haven't been resolved. I use both these and 3x Tivos, and would pick the Tivos everytime. I'm not sure what Dish has these days, but their earlier efforts weren't great.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2800870 25-Oct-2021 14:15

I’m not sure about equivalent models, but I’ve got two unused TiVos I’d be happy to give to someone if they wanted them for modding and using them. Would have to dig around to find both remotes but I’m sure they’re somewhere. In PN, or happy to ship at cost.

fe31nz

1232 posts

Uber Geek

#2801109 26-Oct-2021 01:57

If you want something as good as a Tivo (or even better), then you could build your own MythTV box (needs a PC, tuner cards, a good video card such as Nvidia GT1030, IR remote, sufficient hard drives, and a lot of patience getting it up and running). But in terms of off the shelf boxes, there is nothing here that is as good.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2801121 26-Oct-2021 07:31

You could just opt for a mini PC and something like NextPVR software. For ~$150 - $250 depending on specs you could easy pick up a NUC style mini PC and remote. For those happy with the quality of the Freeview IPTV streams there isn't even a need to buy a TV tuner as you can have a full setup with most AU + NZ FTA channels and full 7 day EPG up and running in 15 mins.

allan

2044 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2801173 26-Oct-2021 10:09

The Panasonic Freeview recorders are probably the closest thing to it, but honestly don't buy one!

Back when the Tivo demise in AU/NZ was announced, but before modding them was a thing, we purchased a Panasonic DMR-BWT760. It works, but the user interface is not as logical as a Tivo, it randomly decides to record some shows on +1 channels and the slightest change in series details by the broadcaster stops the series from being recorded - ask my wife about missing her Coro Street episodes. She does like the "watch recording at 1.2x the speed" option though. The Tivo is her fallback option...

I also have an HDHomeRun sitting in the mix, from which I've recorded the odd interesting documentary via Plex that I want to retain and that works just fine, but honestly if I was starting with a clean slate, I would definitely explore the approach suggested by @sbiddle.

stone2

120 posts

Master Geek

#2801285 26-Oct-2021 12:15

Thank you all very much for your help. I had them both modded and HDD replaced a couple of years ago. Maybe it is the ram? Will persevere for now. Thanks again for your insights on replacements. 🙏

scuwp

3886 posts

Uber Geek

#2801354 26-Oct-2021 13:35

Tried a Panasonic recorded when my TiVo died, but honestly...don't. Had a Vodafone TV for a while which was sort of similar but mostly based on streaming content. Given the range of streaming content now, the need for a device like the TiVo is getting less and less. We soon learnt to live without one.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2801398 26-Oct-2021 14:51

scuwp:
Given the range of streaming content now, the need for a device like the TiVo is getting less and less. We soon learnt to live without one.

This.

That’s why we’ve got two working TiVos that have been sitting doing nothing for about two years. I am more than happy with accessing all content via VOD; If I really need to record something I do have hard drives plugged into both TVs, but those are rare occasions.

I was far from impressed with the DishTV recorder from a few years back; I see they have a new Android TV-based unit - has anyone had a go with one of these?

https://freeviewnz.tv/new-freeview-recorder/

TinMan55

50 posts

Geek

#3068919 28-Apr-2023 15:19

sbiddle:

You could just opt for a mini PC and something like NextPVR software. For ~$150 - $250 depending on specs you could easy pick up a NUC style mini PC and remote. For those happy with the quality of the Freeview IPTV streams there isn't even a need to buy a TV tuner as you can have a full setup with most AU + NZ FTA channels and full 7 day EPG up and running in 15 mins.

I'm looking at setting up a standby backup for my flaky-becoming Tivo, and thought this sounds like it would do the job. I have been playing around with NextPVR on my laptop and so far cannot see why it wouldn't. As I understand it, I would need to source the following -

A Mini PC with Windows OS and a reasonable amount of storage
A regular USB QWERTY keyboard for setup/config
HDMI cable to connect to my Samsung smart (though now somewhat obsolete) TV

Assuming I'm on the right track so far, I guess the only other thing would be a means of remote control - presumably working via an IR receiver plugged into a USB socket on the PC(?) I'm not clear regarding what kind of remote would meet the requirement, or how this would function with what is shown on the NextPVR screen. Would be nice to think that my existing Samsung remote could do the job, but I'm probably dreaming 😁.

I'd be grateful for any advice from anybody - thanks in advance.

Reanalyse

381 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3068921 28-Apr-2023 15:27

Would suggest a mini PC (I use a repurposed HP T630 thin client) and install OpenmediaVault.

Install OMV Extras which gives you Docker and Portainer, then use a Docker NextPVR image.

Plenty of "How to" videos on Youtube for this.

ZollyMonsta

3009 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#3068925 28-Apr-2023 15:33

I have three modded working TiVos here if you want them. You can have them free if you can have them picked up this weekend.

[Edit:] I am in Lower Hutt.

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz - Now on iHeart Radio, TuneIn and Radio Garden

As per the usual std disclaimer.. "All thoughts typed here are my own."

Wombat1

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3069064 28-Apr-2023 23:06

Big Tivo supporter here, even brought mine over from NZ when we moved here. It seems though that the "epg guys" have abandoned the maintenance of the EPG here in Aus so I was forced to look at other options.

The closest thing I have found is fetch tv (with fetch mighty box), though I dont think this is available in NZ yet. I was seriously thinking of buying one but have been holding off. I have been using the recording functionality in JellyFin and it works really well. I have a PC setup in the garage with 4TB of hardrive space. You dont need a TV tuner and you can just record straight off the streaming channels. I am using Matt Huisman's iptv list. (Index of / (mjh.nz) Jellyfin works really well on nearly any device through its app, I have it on iphone, Roku, and an Amazon stick.

Only hassle with recording the IPTV streams is that the live sport is never on there, You need a freeview antenna. So currently I am still tossing up between a HDHomerun tuner (which also works with Jellyfin), or the FetchTV.

fe31nz

1232 posts

Uber Geek

#3069073 29-Apr-2023 01:33

TinMan55:

I'm looking at setting up a standby backup for my flaky-becoming Tivo, and thought this sounds like it would do the job. I have been playing around with NextPVR on my laptop and so far cannot see why it wouldn't. As I understand it, I would need to source the following -

A Mini PC with Windows OS and a reasonable amount of storage
A regular USB QWERTY keyboard for setup/config
HDMI cable to connect to my Samsung smart (though now somewhat obsolete) TV
Assuming I'm on the right track so far, I guess the only other thing would be a means of remote control - presumably working via an IR receiver plugged into a USB socket on the PC(?) I'm not clear regarding what kind of remote would meet the requirement, or how this would function with what is shown on the NextPVR screen. Would be nice to think that my existing Samsung remote could do the job, but I'm probably dreaming 😁.

I'd be grateful for any advice from anybody - thanks in advance.

If you understand Linux, then using the MythTV software I use instead of NextPVR will give you an even better experience, but MythTV does need someone with Linux experience to install and maintain.

Regardless of the software used, you need to make sure that the video card or builtin video on the PC will do what is needed. In particular, the DVB-T HD broadcasts are H.264 1080i (interlaced), and excellent deinterlacing support in the GPU is important for a good picture with those channels. Any recent Nvidia GPU will work, and the very bottom end GT1030 cards are all that is needed to get the VDPAU/NVDEC support that does this. I am sure there are Intel and AMD GPUs that will also work, but since I only use Nvidia for my MythTV boxes, I do not know exactly what to look for in their specifications. If the CPU is good enough, you can also do the necessary video processing on it, but you need good single thread performance for that to work well - it is much better to have a GPU to offload that job onto. You also want H.265 video codec support on the GPU, which is usually there these days. And for future proofing, it would be nice to have support for the new AV1 codec, which only comes with the newest GPUs. Then you also need to consider whether you will also be using the PC for playing 4K video, such as can now be found on many subscription services. If so, then you may want an even better GPU to do that well also. Look at what the specifications are for the 4K files you might want to play.

If you want to record from broadcast sources, then you will need DVB-T tuners. You can not actually buy DVB-T only tuners any more (except maybe second hand) as they are normally DVB-T2 now, but anything that does DVB-T2 will also do DVB-T. A mini PC may not have slots to put them in so you may not be able to use PCIe tuners, which are the most reliable. There are USB and network tuners available, but not many choices off the shelf in NZ - you may want to look at importing from Amazon, Ebay or Aliexpress or the like, or direct from the manufacturer's shop. Personally, in my MythTV box, I went high end and bought myself a TBS 6209 8-tuner DVB-T2 PCIe x1 card, so I can use 5 tuners at once to record from all the NZ multiplexes simultaneously, a sixth tuner to collect EPG data, and hstill have two spares. And to record from Sky, I bought a card reader to read my Sky card and a TBS 6909 8-tuner DVB-S2 PCIe x1 card. You need to have an older Sky box to have a Sky card - the new box launched recently uses a different security system and does not have a card.

You also want one or more decent hard drives - if you record lots to SSDs, they wear out fairly fast as recording files are rather big - a typical HD recording from DVB-T takes 2-4 Gibytes.

There are various options for remote controls, some of which are Bluetooth these days. But the standard ones are infrared (IR) and use a USB receiver. Some tuners have builtin IR receivers and may even come with a remote control, but many of the remotes that you get that way are very basic and not really good enough. The best remotes have lots of buttons and fit in the hand in a way that allows single handed use. MCE and Hauppauge remotes are very good. IR remotes usually use the RC5 or RC6 generic protocols, or a proprietary protocol. The RC5 and RC6 ones are preferred as most IR receivers can be configured to work with them. I do not know of any IR receivers and remotes available off the shelf in NZ - you would most likely need to import them. There may be a TradeMe seller from time to time, or a USB tuner that comes with an IR receiver.

I have no idea how your Samsung remote works, but if it uses RC5 or RC6 protocol and it has extra buttons for playing DVDs/videos that are not used by the TV, then it should be possible to use it. But a better remote with lots of buttons for NextPVR (or MythTV) functions would be better. You usually want separate buttons for EPG, TV recordings and Videos, for example, and especially a Delete button to delete watched recordings. And Info and Menu buttons, and one to select subtitles if you use them, and channel change and volume control. When using software like NextPVR or MythTV with a "10 foot" interface (the distance you sit in front of your TV), you want almost all functions to be available on the remote as the interface is set up for remote use, rather than mouse or keyboard. The TV remote is normally only used to turn the TV on and off, and if the TV does CEC and your mini-PC supports CEC over its HDMI port, then even the TV on and off can be on the PVR remote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-foot_user_interface

https://www.nextpvr.com

https://www.mythtv.org

Tuner manufacturer sites:

https://www.tbsdtv.com

https://www.hauppauge.com.sg

https://www.silicondust.com/dvr-service/nz

A couple of random MCE remotes that seem to have an IR receiver in the package (there are lots to choose from):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325555692249

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394549744236

Wombat1

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3069148 29-Apr-2023 09:45

I think if the items needs to be near “equivalent to TiVo”, it needs to pass the wife test.

Problem I have with complex setups is that something is bound to go wrong when I am not there. Even the Jellyfin setup is bordering with too much ongoing tinkering required. And that’s me trying to keep it simple.

If only the TiVo developers would open up and let others in. I would be happy to assist

TinMan55

50 posts

Geek

#3069177 29-Apr-2023 11:28

Wombat1: I think if the items needs to be near “equivalent to TiVo”, it needs to pass the wife test.

Problem I have with complex setups is that something is bound to go wrong when I am not there. Even the Jellyfin setup is bordering with too much ongoing tinkering required. And that’s me trying to keep it simple.

If only the TiVo developers would open up and let others in. I would be happy to assist

Yea.... I hear you.

Thanks for all of the feedback - some valuable info here, though what I'm after is something quite basic. Watching & recording on NextPVR on my laptop would seem to have the ability to pass the wife test, and what I'd like to do is replicate that on my TV with a user-friendly means of control. Hence - have NextPVR installed on a box hidden behind the TV, with the ability to manage viewing and recording via a hand-held remote.

Regarding the offer of the Tivo boxes - thanks, though my brother has two which he no longer uses which I can grab if I need them. I was just interested in setting up something based on a more open platform.

1 | 2