Help please deciding between Tivo and MySky

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Lilly

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#55336 30-Dec-2009 16:48

I am moving house shortly and am looking at getting either MySky or Tivo. My current feelings lean heavily to MySky but I am still not sure.

MySky is fab but I would have thought that Tivo's connection to the internet would make it a more likely option for the future. However after reading messages on here I am even more unsure. I am also not clear about how the downloading works for TV shows. I understand how the ondemand shows work through using CASPA but I see that most of these must be paid for. Is it still possible to use Tivo to download TV shows for free such as through TVNZ ondemand? This is where I start to get lost.

Many thanks for all help

Cheers Lilly

Kiwi1971

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#286114 30-Dec-2009 17:46

Hi Lily, sadly TiVo doesn't have the TVNZ shows on demand as they have on the TVNZ or TV3 websites.
The CASPA on demand is basically a shop for new & old films and a lot of very random TV shows. You get some episodes of some shows free, the rest you have to pay for.

Once you start downloading a TV show, you can start playing it almost straight away but this can lead to pausing while the DL catches up with the played prog.

I have never been tempted by anything on CASPA. I too would prefer catch up episodes on current TV shows. But I guess with TiVo, I wasn't supposed to miss them in the first place.

Damon

Lilly

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#286121 30-Dec-2009 18:01

Thanks Damon. I am still unsure what I am best to do. With so many shows now available to download and watch live, I would have thought that Tivo would be the right way to go. But the TV shows available are so limited and I don't see the need to pay $2.95 per episode. So is it possible to watch shows for free using Tivo or are the shows available through CASPA the only options?

Cheers Lilly

Lilly

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#286124 30-Dec-2009 18:05

Is it possible to download TV shows onto a computer and then transfer to Tivo?

chiefie

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#286125 30-Dec-2009 18:08

PS3 will have TVNZ On Demand service soon be added in very early 2010. And with PlayTV you can get FreeviewHD as well (if you can source the PlayTV module)... seek the right forum topic to know more about that.

Depends on where you are, if you're in TCL's InHome, you can get cable TV, and in Feb 2010 is launching HDPVR.

I'd say Sky's MySkyHDi is all round good, if you get broadband with Vodafone, you get free MySkyHDi upgrade I think.

If you're with Telecom, TiVo be ideal for you.

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Lilly

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#286137 30-Dec-2009 18:34

I am not so much worried about watching TVNZ On Demand, I just want to be able to watch more than what is available through CASPA. After a bit of reading it seems that I would be able to download shows onto my laptop and then transfer these to the Tivo.

I am not with either Telecom or Vodafone at the moment as I am currently homeless. That will be my other issue to solve too - which one to go with. I don't really think either is a winner.

Jughead

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#286219 31-Dec-2009 09:20

Hi Lilly

Yes you can transfer your own video from your PC to the Tivo to watch on your TV. It does all the normal formats like avi. It does not do mkv (a format that is becoming popular for movies)

Now mysky or tivo its a tough decision. You haven't menitond that you are big sports fan so I'll assume you are not. (sky has the rights to sport so if you were you would go with them)

With sky you pay an on going monthly fee for a set of channels and then some more for movies, a little more for arty movies, some more for sports, more for mysky and then a little more for mysky HD. All up you are looking at around 100 dollars a month. The good news here is that if you don't like you can just return the whole thing by getting through their customer service 'save' conversation.

with tivo if you go on defered payment (you need to be with Telecom to do this) you pay 30 dollars per month for 24 months and the box is yours. you are not paying for channels you don't watch (no cnbc finance channel) and its alot cheeper than sky so you have some money to spend on CASPA movies and tv shows. Because you don't have all those channels there is less content on tivo to watch and CASPA is getting more movies on it all the time but at the moment doesnt have a huge libarary. Also once you make the decision to buy tivo the box is yours, there is no returning it. you can of course on sell it if you wish but you can't return it to Telecom.

In terms of functionallity the Tivo wins. it has a bigger hard drive and some really good smarts that alow you to search for programmes by actor, director, genre etc. You can set it up to automatically record certain shows and movies. Tivo will also automatically record stuff for you it thinks you might like based on what you have already recorded and store it in a suggestions folder. Oh and like you mentioned you can take shows off the tivo to play on your pc or ipod and you can put stuff on it. Currently Tivo does not have access to programme information for Prime or Maori TV (long story check the other threads for details) but you can watch those channels and set up manual recording of these channels quite easilly.

In terms of future proofing having access to the internet with the box is important. There are plans to offer more services to CASPA in future like ordering pizza etc but there are not dates for this yet.

I think thats the basic differances between the two. Some questions you might ask of your self...

Do I want a higher monthy cost and lots of channels or a lower montly cost with pay on demand instead?

Do I want to rent the box and return it or do I want to own it?

Do I want a box that I can transfer media to and from or am I ok with what a record only?

Do I watch alot of sport or can I go some where to watch the big games?

Anyway I hope this helps...

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

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Lilly

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#286228 31-Dec-2009 09:49

Hey Jughead

This is my second attempt at replying - my other one seems to get lost. You are correct about my feelings about sport viewing. I am not interested in it at all so don't need to factor that in. I am more interested in being able to watch (or download if necessary) things that I want to watch. Last night I had thought that I had made a decision and was going to go with Tivo. The one big thing that goes against it for me is that Telecom broadband and home phone packages have a 10GB limit which I don't think is enough. Which leaves me wondering if I would be better to flag that idea and just get a beastie broadband package and then make phone calls through Skype or a similar programme.

Any thoughts?

Cheers Lil

chiefie

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#286241 31-Dec-2009 10:24

Look at Vodafone for whole home/broadband/sky package. They signed deal recently.

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Jughead

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#286249 31-Dec-2009 11:04

Hi Lilly

Take a look at the broadband plans page here

https://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/select/1,10627,205728-204466,00.html

The consumer plans go up to 40GB and if you still need more you can get a business plan at home and go up to 60GB (https://www.telecombusinesshub.co.nz/Internet/Broadband/Pages/Pricing.aspx)

I like the business plans because the overage charge goes down to $2 per gig.

Oh and one thing I forgot to mention anything you download to your TiVo using CASPA is unmetered. This means it will not go against your broadband plan

AH! Having re read your post I can see you are talking about Total Home. You can tack on a larger broadband plan on to total home... This is from the FAQ at the Telecom website

What if Total Home 10GB is not enough?
You can upgrade your Broadband plan to Adventure (20GB) for an additional $10 a month or Pro (40GB) for an additional $30 a month.

Putting my Telecom salesman hat on for a moment I would say go for

Total Home with 20/40GB broadband for 24th months and get a free wireless modem

Tivo on defered payment for 24 months

Then I would talk to you about your mobile

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

Lilly

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#286258 31-Dec-2009 11:53

Don't start me on the mobile! I have an iPhone which I love but again not so sure about my provider. Thanks for the info about Broadband upgrades. I think that is probably what I am looking for. Although MySky seems fab, I just think Tivo has more options for the future. Thanks heaps for your help

nzbnw

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#286265 31-Dec-2009 13:10

Lilly - a number of Telecom Stores and some Dealers have TiVo available for demonstration.

Check them out if you are unsure? They will also help you with you're mobile plan (or Jughead can

)

nzbnw

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Jughead

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#286297 31-Dec-2009 17:48

No problem Lilly glad to help.

As for your iphone I got to try one out for a few weeks earlier this month and try as i might i could not help falling for it to. I havent tried it on the voda network but from my understanding you will get better 3G coverage and speed using it on XT. You will need to install a carrier bundle which is quite easy to do by going here a private iphone fan site for NZ.

I belive the data performance is XT for the iphone is much better but don't take my word for it, by a pre paid sim card for XT and see for your self. It will cost you 30 bucks to find out. If you like it then you can port your number across.

getting a little (alot) off topic now so will save this coversation for else where.

P.S NZBNW is quite right, you can buy over the phone and get the unit delivered to you which is quite nice or you can go in store and get one. If you go to a Telecom owned store (these are the ones mostly located in shopping malls) they will have a live demo unit to play with.

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

Kiwi1971

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#286303 31-Dec-2009 19:15

I have an "unlimited" Telecom package which is managed, meaning that it is slowed during peak hours because of higher numbers of users and certain download types are slowed deliberately to give all users a similar experience P2P for example. Is that traffic shaping?. It is the same price as the unmanaged fullspeed 20GB service which I tried for the first month before changing to the managed one as I quickly used up 20g. I have been very happy with it as far as downloading TV shows etc goes. It isn't that slow and I still hit 1.5MB occasionally [12Mb] Funny enough it seems the more I download at once, the faster each individual download is. Weekday evenings I can still download at a few hundred Kb so it is not useless.
The only main annoyance I have is that streaming video sites like youtube download too slowly to stream without pausing all the time so I need to pause the vid while it buffers. I don't know if Telecom deliberately slow this type of traffic. Normal web browsing ect is not noticeably slower for me.

Odd though I got a letter saying my service was limited to dial up in error during November as the system that measures usage was borked and it reported that I had used my allowance too soon, and that they were refunding me and doubling my cap until Jan 15. I say odd as I was not on a capped service during November.

Damon

catdog

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#286514 2-Jan-2010 14:21

Jughead: Hi Lilly

Yes you can transfer your own video from your PC to the Tivo to watch on your TV. It does all the normal formats like avi. It does not do mkv (a format that is becoming popular for movies)

The TivoDesktop software can transfer mkv files to the Tivo without any problem. You must have appropriate codecs installed on the PC for this to work correctly.

Lilly

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#286817 4-Jan-2010 11:04

Hi everyone. Thanks to you all for your help with my Tivo issue. One new year's eve I randomly managed to find a fab place to live and decided to go with MySky. I think in time Tivo will be fab but for me MySky is the best option. Jughead I have decided on one of the Telecom Total Home packages though and was really impressed with how easy it was to set up and organise.

So thanks to you all.

Cheers Lil