TiVo now $299 at appliance retailers

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#548562 22-Nov-2011 17:32

mattwnz

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#548570 22-Nov-2011 17:50

openmedia: The sign in the Bond & Bond on Queen St advertises it as a Telecom Tivo.

So that will likely just add to the confusion by associating it with telecom.

Just one of he possible confusing questions mum and dad customers may ask

Mum and dad customer: Do I need to be with telecom to use this?
Customer Service: No, but you need a broadband connection with wireless.
Mum and dad customer: So do I need a mobile wireless account? It is going to use up a lot of data if programs come through the internet
Customer service: No....you can use it with any ISP. Only the program listings are downloaded, the reception uses your normal UHF TV aerial
Mum and dad customer: So is this freeview and does it have the EPG?
Customer service: No its not, but will pick up the freeviewchannels. It will have the EPG for 'most' channels

It's going to be a tough sell.

tardtasticx

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#548572 22-Nov-2011 17:52

mattwnz:
openmedia: The sign in the Bond & Bond on Queen St advertises it as a Telecom Tivo.

So that will likely just add to the confusion by associating it with telecom.

Just one of he possible confusing questions mum and dad customers may ask

Mum and dad customer: Do I need to be with telecom to use this?
Customer Service: No, but you need a broadband connection with wireless.
Mum and dad customer: So do I need a mobile wireless account?
Customer service: No....you can use it with any ISP.
Mum and dad customer: Is this freeview and does it have the EPG?
Customer service: No its not, but will pick up the channels. It will have the EPG for 'most' channels

It's going to be a tough sell.

I can see that happening. I remember buying my TiVo and when I asked the sales person he just looked all over the box for an answer. Quite a laugh when I knew what it was. I imagine quite a few people will be returning units when they dont understand how they work / were given non-correct info during sale.

mattwnz

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#548576 22-Nov-2011 18:01

tardtasticx:
mattwnz:
openmedia: The sign in the Bond & Bond on Queen St advertises it as a Telecom Tivo.

So that will likely just add to the confusion by associating it with telecom.

Just one of he possible confusing questions mum and dad customers may ask

Mum and dad customer: Do I need to be with telecom to use this?
Customer Service: No, but you need a broadband connection with wireless.
Mum and dad customer: So do I need a mobile wireless account?
Customer service: No....you can use it with any ISP.
Mum and dad customer: Is this freeview and does it have the EPG?
Customer service: No its not, but will pick up the channels. It will have the EPG for 'most' channels

It's going to be a tough sell.

I can see that happening. I remember buying my TiVo and when I asked the sales person he just looked all over the box for an answer. Quite a laugh when I knew what it was. I imagine quite a few people will be returning units when they dont understand how they work / were given non-correct info during sale.?

I have just seen Noel Leemings advertising, and it appears they have made at least one mistake.

It is advertised as allowing you to record two channels while watching a third. As it only has two tuners in it, that isn't possible.

It also advertises a 14 day EPG, but doesn't mention anything about prime and maori being excluded.

tardtasticx

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#548582 22-Nov-2011 18:09

mattwnz:
tardtasticx:
mattwnz:
openmedia: The sign in the Bond & Bond on Queen St advertises it as a Telecom Tivo.

So that will likely just add to the confusion by associating it with telecom.

Just one of he possible confusing questions mum and dad customers may ask

Mum and dad customer: Do I need to be with telecom to use this?
Customer Service: No, but you need a broadband connection with wireless.
Mum and dad customer: So do I need a mobile wireless account?
Customer service: No....you can use it with any ISP.
Mum and dad customer: Is this freeview and does it have the EPG?
Customer service: No its not, but will pick up the channels. It will have the EPG for 'most' channels

It's going to be a tough sell.

I can see that happening. I remember buying my TiVo and when I asked the sales person he just looked all over the box for an answer. Quite a laugh when I knew what it was. I imagine quite a few people will be returning units when they dont understand how they work / were given non-correct info during sale.?

I have just seen Noel Leemings advertising, and it appears they have made at least one mistake.

It is advertised as allowing you to record two channels while watching a third. As it only has two tuners in it, that isn't possible.

It also advertises a 14 day EPG, but doesn't mention anything about prime and maori being excluded.

It is possible technically, but that would only be possible if they recorded 2 live channels, while watching a 3rd pre-recorded show/movie whatever. Its sneaky marketing. People wont be aware of these mistakes, especially the older, more non-tech informed generations. If they want to sell more they need to get rid of any confusing wording, and make it even more simple to understand. Is this NL advert available online? or could you scan it in and post image here? THat'd be great it if you could.

mattwnz

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#548594 22-Nov-2011 18:27

I can see what you mean, but I think it implies that you can watch a third live channel, as it does say a 'third' which implies channel At least that is the way I read it.

MySky advertises their device as doing the following, which is similar wording

Recording two channels at once while watching another channel

And there one actually does allow you to record two live channels while watching a third live channel.

I am hoping it is just a mistake by Noel Leemings.

Jaxson

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#548614 22-Nov-2011 19:12

mattwnz: It is advertised as allowing you to record two channels while watching a third. As it only has two tuners in it, that isn't possible.

That should be totally possible. You use one tuner per mux, so you could record two channels, like TV1 and TV2 and watch Prime at the same time because those channels are present on just two muxes. Hopefully that makes sense? It really comes down to the software, and how it chooses to use the hardware.

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JimmyH

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#548616 22-Nov-2011 19:19

Might even tempt me. Mind you, when figuring out whether to buy, the *real* price is still more like $411.

This is made up of $299 for the box plus the Home Networking Package ($A90 =approx $112 NZ), without which much of the logic for having one vanishes. Don't want the Tivo desktop software, feel no need to pay an extra $112 to get it, just want to be able to access the drive as a network share - and am irritated that they expect me to pay through the nose and jump through hoops to do it.

mattwnz

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#548638 22-Nov-2011 20:12

Jaxson:
mattwnz: It is advertised as allowing you to record two channels while watching a third. As it only has two tuners in it, that isn't possible.

That should be totally possible.??You use one tuner per mux, so you could record two channels, like TV1 and TV2 and watch Prime at the?same time because those channels are present on just two muxes.? Hopefully that makes sense?? It really comes down to the software, and how it chooses to use the hardware.

Although I have a tivo, and it only allows you to watch the 2 channels that are being recorded, and you can't switch to a third live channel. You can only watch recorded programs, if you don't want to watch the two recorded programs.

Jaxson

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#548695 23-Nov-2011 00:36

Bummer then.

Skolink

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#548712 23-Nov-2011 06:53

Jaxson: Bummer then.

Not really, once you've had a TiVo for a while the time of day things are broadcast becomes irrelevant, you get out of the habit of watching live TV.
It would however be useful to record a third show, esp when some programs overlap by only a few minutes. A second TiVo solves that problem though ;)

old3eyes

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#548743 23-Nov-2011 08:52

JimmyH: Might even tempt me. Mind you, when figuring out whether to buy, the *real* price is still more like $411.

This is made up of $299 for the box plus the Home Networking Package ($A90 =approx $112 NZ), without which much of the logic for having one vanishes. Don't want the Tivo desktop software, feel no need to pay an extra $112 to get it, just want to be able to access the drive as a network share - and am irritated that they expect me to pay through the nose and jump through hoops to do it.

If the TiVo had been Freeview certified you wouldn't have the option of a TiVo desktop software..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#548746 23-Nov-2011 09:04

Noel Leeming have put it right on http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/tvs-dvds/freeview-decoders/telecom-tivo/prod114394.html

"Record 2 programs while watching a third, previously recorded program".

Shame about the american spelling.

Jaxson

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#548749 23-Nov-2011 09:06

Skolink:
Jaxson: Bummer then.

Not really, once you've had a TiVo for a while the time of day things are broadcast becomes irrelevant, you get out of the habit of watching live TV.

Totally agree. I have a freeview PVR and we use it exactly like that. Bummer comment was simply around the fact that software could allow for more flexibility, unless the hardware can't keep up processor wise.

Original comment though was just that it's not the twin tuners that limit the recording etc, more how the system uses the tuners. Freeview satellite is on 2 muxes only, so a twin tuner PVR there covers pretty much everything. Freeview HD is on 3 muxes, so a twin tuner system is never going to get you everything, so there are lots of levels to all of this.

PimpMyMagic

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#548808 23-Nov-2011 10:50

Never mind what you CAN do with 2 tuners, the fact of the matter is that TiVo's electronics make it very limited in operational capabilities.

For example if you wanted to record two consecutive programmes on TV 1, then tried to add a recording of TV2 within the same crossover of your other recordings (default is a 10min overlap) then you will receive warnings of clipped recordings. This despite the fact that your requirements only require reception of a single frequency with a multiplexed feed.
It seems that it can only de-multiplex data for two sources and each demux is hard wired to a tuner.

Even more amazing it cannot use the output data stream to record to two files at once (for the overlap period).
Therefore it demands both tuners to record the (in this case) TV1 overlap.

This seems to me to be a pretty limiting design compared with a number of other PVRs.

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