Maxcat: I am though concerned at the growing use of 'end-of-life' being used describe lack of commercial interest.

A big +1 from me on this!

Well I did find this on the Tivo support site:

Troubleshooting Port Issues

Troubleshooting port issues may require contacting your Internet Service Provider and/or manufacturers of your networking equipment or software.

If your TiVo box is having issues connecting to your home network, use one of the following procedures to check if required ports or IP addresses are blocked.

 

1. Make sure that ports 80 and 8080 (for outbound traffic) are not being blocked by your router, firewall, or Internet Service Provider (ISP).
2. Verify that the following IP addresses are not being blocked by your router, firewall or Internet Service Provider:

    

   • 208.73.180.0 through 208.73.183.255
   • 204.176.49.0 through 204.176.49.127
   • 206.112.115.0 through 206.112.115.255
3. If the ports and IP addresses are configured properly on the router and firewall, but your TiVo box is unable to communicate with the TiVo service or another TiVo box, some ports or addresses may be blocked by your Internet Service Provider. Contact your Internet Service Provider for assistance.

So we know the IP addresses that Tivo requires.    A reverse IP lookup on 208.73.180.% reveals tivoservice.com which I though was interesting, although pretty much useless until we know if that is where the EPG comes from....

I have started thread at Fair Go Facebook.

Please join it. https://www.facebook.com/FairGoNZ/

Below is my post:

Max Christoffersen Today at 10:44am   The end of TIVO in NZ (and Australia) is a story that needs following up. It will end not because it is 'end-of-life' but because it is end of licence. Tens of thousands of fully functioning TIVos will become unnecessary landfill, simply because the Freeview programme guide can no longer be loaded. Please investigate and help us keep TIVOs out of landfill and functioning. This is not a technical issue. It is a licence issue which could be resolved if there is the will to do so.

Good luck.  I think you'll find it's being wound up because it's not economically viable (and never was, due to a number of strategic errors).  Any PR wash they give it is just that.

If it's not economically viable, then it's not economically a threat either.

All we want is to recycle an old box that no one supports, no-one will sell again and no-one is threatened by. 

As I say, who loses here?

TIVO give us the information and the means to keep TIVOs above ground.

Interesting discussions on the throwaway society. 

Fair Go itself even is going to suffer from this.  Without viewers watching their show, they lose the clout that it comes with. 

Our house watches very little live TV, apart from sometimes the news on prime or TV1/3 depending on the time.

After that we watch very little recorded TV, and that which we do record most is now available ondemand.  It really is twilight years for this PVR tech.

The freeview EPG data is freely available.  The MHEG5 extraction project for windows media centre was successfully achieved years ago.

The problem now is therefore shaping that data in such a way as it matches the format TiVo is expecting, so there's some integration work to be done there.

And then you have to get this into your TiVo, which at a local level is probably best achieved via home router redirection.

If not done locally, then you either have to mod the TiVo to make it look at a new address somewhere, or aquire the rights to the address it is phoning home to.

If this address is used for other TiVo devices around the planet, then there's no way that's going to be offered up via TiVo.

The other big issue is that TiVo won't stop working on that date.  It simply will stop being smart.  It will be stuffed if it ever needs to reset itself also, but fundamentally it just becomes a dumb recorder without the EPG.  It's been 5 years since it was last sold to most people.  If you purchased new after that, then you may have a legitimate CGA claim.

Although I am highly sympathetic to TiVo users who have been dumped, it is an inevitable result of buying a closed system.

DVB-T is an open standard, adopted by software and and hardware all over the world. It has a standardised EPG, which is available here (hasn't always, but MHEG is also open enough to get it there). When TiVo offers a device that goes outside the standard and uses it's own proprietary system, you have to be cautious.

That is because the rug can be pulled at anytime, as happened here. Users who buy into closed systems eventually get screwed. Not something your average punter knows, but TiVo users now do.

Personally I will continue to have uninterrupted service after 31 October, because MythTV sticks to open standards.

Maxcat:

 

If it's not economically viable, then it's not economically a threat either.

 

All we want is to recycle an old box that no one supports, no-one will sell again and no-one is threatened by. 

 

As I say, who loses here?

 

TIVO give us the information and the means to keep TIVOs above ground.

 

What information and means?  Continue to run a server to provide the required feed?  Give away details of their proprietary TVG implementation (which I assume is still in play in other regions)?  What does Tivo get out of this?

Jaxson:

 

... 

 

The other big issue is that TiVo won't stop working on that date.  It simply will stop being smart.  It will be stuffed if it ever needs to reset itself also, but fundamentally it just becomes a dumb recorder without the EPG.  It's been 5 years since it was last sold to most people.  If you purchased new after that, then you may have a legitimate CGA claim.

 

So in other words, it will become no better than your old VHS recorder from back in the day, except with a better quality picture....

Recording will have to be set up manually (time start + time finish) and there will be no label visible on the TiVo interface to tell you what you have recorded...

johcar:

 

Jaxson:

 

... 

 

The other big issue is that TiVo won't stop working on that date.  It simply will stop being smart.  It will be stuffed if it ever needs to reset itself also, but fundamentally it just becomes a dumb recorder without the EPG.  It's been 5 years since it was last sold to most people.  If you purchased new after that, then you may have a legitimate CGA claim.

 

 

So in other words, it will become no better than your old VHS recorder from back in the day, except with a better quality picture....

 

Recording will have to be set up manually (time start + time finish) and there will be no label visible on the TiVo interface to tell you what you have recorded...

 

ubergeeknz:

 

Maxcat:

 

If it's not economically viable, then it's not economically a threat either.

 

All we want is to recycle an old box that no one supports, no-one will sell again and no-one is threatened by. 

 

As I say, who loses here?

 

TIVO give us the information and the means to keep TIVOs above ground.

 

 

What information and means?  Continue to run a server to provide the required feed?  Give away details of their proprietary TVG implementation (which I assume is still in play in other regions)?  What does Tivo get out of this?

 

Information is the means. We just need to know if they are open to another party, what are the costs, what is possible? All of us are shooting in the dark right now.

But one thing is for sure, the TIVO brand is crap  here and Oz.

If you look at the TIVO  announcement, they are the bad guys in the story. There is no reference anywhere to Hybrid (or Telecom).

Right now, the TIVO name across Australia and NZ is damaged. Yet they have little to do with the failure of the brand here.

So what does TIVO get out of it? Some brand management.

I hope Australia gets real loud about it.They will have more market value to TIVO than us.

It is amazing to watch as the major players in TIVO's demise walk away scot-free. 

 I mean, just look at it - it's a TIVO announcement - NOT Hybrid.

As an aside, one thing I thought would be a cool solution is for NETFLIX to take TIVO over Downunder.

It then becomes the conduit for NETFLIX (where CASPA used to be) and every TIVO becomes a NETFLIX box here and in Australia.

In time it would become the most watched channel on TIVO.

johcar:

Jaxson:

... 

The other big issue is that TiVo won't stop working on that date.  It simply will stop being smart.  It will be stuffed if it ever needs to reset itself also, but fundamentally it just becomes a dumb recorder without the EPG.  It's been 5 years since it was last sold to most people.  If you purchased new after that, then you may have a legitimate CGA claim.

So in other words, it will become no better than your old VHS recorder from back in the day, except with a better quality picture....

Recording will have to be set up manually (time start + time finish) and there will be no label visible on the TiVo interface to tell you what you have recorded...

nickrout:

 

 

 

Users who buy into closed systems eventually get screwed.

 

Not just Tivo users, this applies to many aspects of life. (including myself haha if only I could rewind 20 years). 

Maxcat:

 

As an aside, one thing I thought would be a cool solution is for NETFLIX to take TIVO over Downunder.

 

It then becomes the conduit for NETFLIX (where CASPA used to be) and every TIVO becomes a NETFLIX box here and in Australia.

 

In time it would become the most watched channel on TIVO.

 

Maybe.

Most modern Smart TVs have the Netflix app installed anyway. But it could be a way for someone to make some money (and keep TiVo going) until things change again and people stop watching FTA TV altogether.

This is not too far off, in my case.

Unless TiVo can be given a new lease of life, come 1 November, my choice is MySKY + at $20 a month (not keen), or just Netflix (which I already subscribe to), Lightbox (which I already get from my ISP) and YouTube (which is free, but with relatively cheap subscription options for an ad-free experience) - plus whatever other online content I can find...

On the other hand I would pay a small monthly amount for my TiVo to keep working as it does today - or even enhanced, like FetchTV or US TiVo...