Good idea in practice, but who is going to do that, because if they want it, then they will have to come back. And most customers will not want to come back, which is shown by the number that try to get refunds outside the grace period.
I have TiVo with the worst looking aerial on my street (kids laugh at it when they ride past on their bikes) - its a single rod stuck on the end of the pole and not in the slightest bit UHF.
I get great reception on my TiVo, just buy the box and see how it goes. BTW - I don't live next door to the transmitter.
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I'd be inclined to try the TiVo on your existing aerial, and only call the installer if it doesn't work. No point paying for someone to come out if it's going to work fine anyway. We're in a rather dull spot when it comes to most 'wireless' technologies, including TV and cellular comms! TiVo works great.
technicaljoe: I think we will arrange for a Freeview installer to come and test out the signal. If all good, then go get Tivo. Anyone know a good TV person in West Auckland?
If you live in West Auckland then it's likely that you will use the Waiatarua transmitter - sited on top of the Waitakere Ranges.
If you currently get good (analogue) reception of Prime on channel 59 and / or Maori TV on channel 43 which are the channel numbers that Waiatarua broadcasts those stations on, then it's very likely that you will get good Freeview|HD reception. If Prime and Maori TV are a bit fuzzy on analogue then it's possible that you would have to change your aeriel setup for Freeview|HD.
My reception for Prime is tiny little bit grainy and grainy and flickers a bit for Maori TV. I think I might see if I could find someone to borrow their Freeview|HD box to test it out :-)
Personally I dont like abusing the good will of retailers by buying with no intention of keeping the item. Its a good point though, retailers should offer a way of people taking a demo/shop unit home to double check they can get reception. Is that a concrete tile roof - if so I think you have more chance of it working than an iron roof. I second what someone else said - dont pay for an installer yet - beg/borrow a box, hook it up and see if it works. There are maps on the freeview site I think which might give a good indication what areas are OK. What about asking your neighbours? If you get prime now and its not too bad you should be OK - our prime wasn that good and we dont have a direct line of sight to the transmitter, but we get perfect reception on Freeview Highdef (signal 70 and quality 94). I think unlike analog it is very much on/off -not just varying degrees of clarity.
Good luck! After many discussions with an antenna/aerial installer if you've got line of sight you have the best chance of getting great reception. I do NOT have line of sight but with a booster installed, and the aerial adjusted to point towards a stronger signal I'm getting 99% quality reception on most channels.
Shop Experience: We got TiVo on Christmas eve. The shop staff weren't very experienced, pretty much rattling off a scripted checklist without knowing what they talking about (a common thing among ALL retailers).
Installation Experience: The device installation was painless, but entering details using the remote was a bit tiresome. Setting up wireless connection with one of those new Telecom wireless router took a few tries as the router had difficulty to pick up TiVo. The desktop software was a bit buggy, crashed a few times, and silently installed Apple's Bonjour...... It also requires me to install QuickTime and Java...... I haven't play with the software much, so can't comment on its usefulness.
Viewing Experience: Clear as crystal, everyone in the family commented it's like having an upgrade to the TV! I just programmed in the recording schedules for the next 2 weeks. Will find out how well it works out.
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