Should I get Tivo?

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Balchy

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#60837 4-May-2010 11:14

I have boradband with Telecom, so that is obviously a plus.

I had mysky previously but got rid of it because of the cost. I dont really know a lot about Tivo, can anyone give me idea of what its like and its usefulness? My wife wants one for mothers day.

I read that you can stream content from your PC to it? Not a biggie if you cant as I have a PS3/Xbox 360 also.

Thanks in advance!

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Kiwi1971

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#326362 4-May-2010 11:44

Is she also your Mother? :)

If you are done with Sky [as i was with cable] & you currently have no other means to record freeview in HD or SD then it is a great piece of kit. I am more than happy with mine. Once they have sorted out the EPG data for Prime I will be a lot happier. [That has to happen one day surely!]

For a similar specced machine [twin tuners, capacity, HD etc] you will pay about the same or maginally less but it won't record suggested shows, it won't learn what you like and won't offer unmetered downloadable content.

Also they have just dropped the price by about $200 someone was saying.

DLS

Balchy

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#326368 4-May-2010 11:47

Kiwi1971: Is she also your Mother? :)

If you are done with Sky [as i was with cable] & you currently have no other means to record freeview in HD or SD then it is a great piece of kit. I am more than happy with mine. Once they have sorted out the EPG data for Prime I will be a lot happier. [That has to happen one day surely!]

For a similar specced machine [twin tuners, capacity, HD etc] you will pay about the same or maginally less but it won't record suggested shows, it won't learn what you like and won't offer unmetered downloadable content.

Also they have just dropped the price by about $200 someone was saying.

DLS

Hah! I'm getting in on behalf of the kids :P

Yeah the recording is what we are really after, I was thinking of waiting for the PlayTV to come out for the PS3 but not sure whether that will give us HD.

Although it doesnt have prime EPG can you still record if you choose the time etc?

bazzer

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#326391 4-May-2010 12:05

PlayTV will give you HD, but in my experience it's still a bit flaky. Also, only Now/Next EPG essentially. Plus it's twin tuner but only record one, watch one. I have it, but I bought a new HD PVR (JCMatthew) because of the issues I'm having with PlayTV, if that's any help.

PlayTV is OK, and I would have stuck with it until at least the next update (which is maybe when you're thinking of getting it) but the JCMatthew was only $400 on 1-day so couldn't turn it down.

I would've thought about TiVo or MagicTV but they're too pricey given PlayTV works to the extent that it does.

Kiwi1971

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#326392 4-May-2010 12:05

Your kids are getting too much pocket money

Re: Prime yes, you can set manual start and finish times for that channel including a recurring timer.
The EPG for prime is also broken up in blocks of time so you can select a time period to record from there.
The HD is very nice.
DLS

ycatskarl

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#328454 10-May-2010 12:15

I recently ditched skytv as well, cost was ridiculous, and got a TIVO when they recently dropped the price. We've really enjoyed it so far; it's like a clever video recorder with on demand downloads as a bonus.

I've downloaded a couple of things off CASPA (free TV episodes and a free NZ doco) and the quality is pretty good SD (strangely, the Seinfeld episode was widescreen, i.e. zoomed-in). But I wont bother downloading movies unless they bring the price 'way' down. Currently, using vouchers, at the vid shop I can rent 10 movies (7 day movies) for 7 bucks. I also have vouchers to rent 3 new realeases for $10. And I rent blu-ray where possible (like you, I have a PS3) so CASPA's SD-quality movies for 7 and 5 bucks each is not appealing.

CASPA's bandit fm music video selection is very limited, vid zone on PS3 is way better. However if Tivo were to get Vevo (unmetered) that would be a huge draw card, I think. Cause there's nothing quite like being your own 'vj,' ha, ha.

I like Tivo 'cause it tapes things that aren't on the tvnz Ondemand (which is glitchy on PS3), TV3 internet offerings, like some shows, movies, not to mention all the other channels.

Actually, having rid myself of sky, I'm enjoying television again. Tivo's been great... hopefully it gets better.

cafeg

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#328658 10-May-2010 18:40

We also got rid of MySky late last year, there was no way I was going to keep on paying $98 a month :-(
Have had Tivo since then and the picture is great on a plasma TV, its better than skytv.
I also didn't realise there was so much good TV on free to air and some of the movies on freeview are even better than on SkyTv, as we spent a lot of time watching Sky Movies and sports complaining how bad they were or being repeated.
We do miss sports though as I like rugby and tennis, my wife likes soccer and rugby so it is a bit of a loss there.. Tivo is sadly missing sport, even some sort of delayed Telecasts instead of Live I would quite happily pay Tivo for extra monthly, perhaps they might consider this one day ??

But, another option here for sports - I went out and bought a HDMI satellite receiver last week so we could get SBS from OZ via satellite to watch soccer and other sports.
A DishTv S7050 PVR for $190 off Trademe, which then I plugged a 500 Gig external hard drive into it and it becomes a PVR - pause, timeshift and record TV but only the channel you are watching though. Whatever you record though you can take the external drive and burn to DVD or playback anywhere.

I plugged in the satellite connection to the sky dish which they left behind when we cancelled SkyTv and everything worked instantly.
It receives all the freeview channels and SBS from Australia and upscales everything to 1080i through its HDMI connection, The picture is as good as from Tivo.
I even managed to get some other OZ programs like 7 news and sunrise and random sports telecasts over the weekend while playing with it.
So now we have Tivo for general viewing recording and Satellite for sports and other recording.

My entertainment centre is getting quite full now though, in it right now is:
42 inch Philips Plasma TV
TiVo PVR
DishTV HDMI Satellite PVR
Philips HDMI dvd player
PS3 for movie playback and games
10/100 Network Switch
HDMI 5 port Hub
WD 500 Gig external Hard drive (connected to the Satellite PVR)
WD 1 Terrabyte MyBook World NAS ( media server, torrent downloader and storage)
Brother MultiFunction Fax/printer
Aiwa stereo/ Theatre system

What am I going to put in there next, It keeps growing :-)

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cokemaster

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#328662 10-May-2010 19:13

Balchy:
I read that you can stream content from your PC to it? Not a biggie if you cant as I have a PS3/Xbox 360 also.

With the desktop software, you can transfer content to and from the PC (including removal harddrives).

I've got a tivo and have found the experience quite good. There is actually quite a bit of content on freeview and there are even times where I would have found a 3rd tuner helpful.

The ability to set up recording via a website or mobile portal is very good too.

Would defintely recommend it - even if you aren't into the on demand content.

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compost

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#328724 10-May-2010 23:02

cokemaster:
Balchy:
I read that you can stream content from your PC to it? Not a biggie if you cant as I have a PS3/Xbox 360 also.

With the desktop software, you can transfer content to and from the PC (including removal harddrives).

Since the price drop to $718.20, the home networking package is not included which means no transfers to or from PCs. CASPA is currently the only download source for new Tivo buyers.

Good job it's not a biggie for you :)

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