Replacing TIVO or replacing the aerial?

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kana1980

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#114913 7-Mar-2013 00:40

Hi all,

I was not sure if I should post this to Tivo forum or here. Sorry I am in wrong place.
I have bought Tivo less than 1 year ago (bought for $250) and it was working great with our UHF aerial.
Now we bought a house and the new house only have satellite dish and not UHF.
My husband is saying it would be easier to buy a new freeview receiver with PVR function and sell Tivo so I started looking at Trademe and shops to find what can be replaced for satellite receiver, but hard to find the one I really like...

We don't watch much TV, but we used searching for movies and recording them on Tivo. Also used for recording all blacks and programs for kids. Occasionally we watched live programs like TV1 news or movies. Never used Video on demand etc.

I like the idea of watching recorded files on computers which we couldn't do with Tivo. We probably need only 250GB -500GB external HDD or so for recording.

My questions are...

1) Are the most of freeview receivers EPG user friendly/easy to use like TIVO?
2) Are recording to external HDD as easy as internal HDD?
3) If we want to buy receivers I can see a lot of no-brand receivers with PVR from $50-150 (I understand they are single tuner though). Are they any good? I don't want to waste my money if they are slow/lots of bugs/cause of frustration.
4) Is Tivo still the best option? (Would it be worth getting TV guy to install UHF aerial?)

Thank you for your time.

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#776004 7-Mar-2013 06:26

Keep the Tivo, put up a UHF aerial, you will not find a better PVR than a Tivo.

bfginger

1267 posts

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#776006 7-Mar-2013 07:02

The picture quality from UHF is higher than from Freeview satellite.

You might still want to buy a cheap satellite receiver to watch CUE TV which isn't on UHF.

Jaxson

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#776024 7-Mar-2013 08:08

As above, if you are trying to receive freeview (ie you're not paying for sky) then you really really should be aiming for the terrestrial UHF (freeview HD) version. The money you would get from selling a TIVO second hand would not buy you anything close in the satellite world.

Also, if you're not going to use the satellite dish at your new location, you can unplug the cable from it and connect this to a new UHF aerial. this is a cheap and easy way of not having to run a new cable, which I mention just in case your house is particularly difficult to wire for any reason.

kana1980

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#776232 7-Mar-2013 13:55

Hi gregmcc, bfginger and Jaxson, thank you for your posts!
I will show your comments to my husband and try to convince my husband keep using Tivo.
It is good to know that we can unplug dish and connect to UHF areal, as we thought it would cost a lot to do all the wiring through the wall again!

Jaxson

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#776250 7-Mar-2013 14:23

kana1980:
It is good to know that we can unplug dish and connect to UHF areal, as we thought it would cost a lot to do all the wiring through the wall again!

Yeah thought I'd mention that as often that sort of thing scares people. You'll need a different plug on the inside end to fit a TV aerial socket input, but the actual cable is the same. It may not be that easy, as in the aerial may need to be located somewhere else on the building, but you may get lucky. Hope it can help.

If you do end up wanting to sell the TIVO, drop me a message!

, but honestly, you really are probably best to try and get that going at the new location.

bfginger

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#776421 7-Mar-2013 19:26

kana1980: Hi gregmcc, bfginger and Jaxson, thank you for your posts!
I will show your comments to my husband and try to convince my husband keep using Tivo.
It is good to know that we can unplug dish and connect to UHF areal, as we thought it would cost a lot to do all the wiring through the wall again!

It's unlikely there's any need to unplug the dish when both signals can run through the same coax as they're on different frequencies.

Jaxson

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#776496 7-Mar-2013 21:54

bfginger:
kana1980:
It is good to know that we can unplug dish and connect to UHF areal, as we thought it would cost a lot to do all the wiring through the wall again!

It's unlikely there's any need to unplug the dish when both signals can run through the same coax as they're on different frequencies.

bfginger, I was meaning disconnect the satellite dish at the lnb, so you've now got a length of coax with a f connector on it. Take that and plug it into a modern f connector socket equipped UHF aerial and hope you have enough slack to mount the aerial, in the correct orientation for their local transmitter. Quick and easy (or nasty) way of using the existing cable, with no cutting/splitters required etc.

But yes, you can feed both down the same cable, but I wasn't going to get into that. Technically you'd really want to use a filter though mate, eg: http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/satellite-terrestrial-diplexer-p-57.html
But in the OP's case, I believe they no longer require the satellite dish at all?

Kana1980, where in NZ are you? Have you moved to an area that is able to receive freeview HD still?

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mattwnz

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#776509 7-Mar-2013 22:02

The other thing is that all new tvs will work with a UHF aerial with the built in freeview decoder, while almost none will work with the satelite dish unless you buy a satellite box. The freeview satellite signal is pretty poor quality, in SD and is very compressed, producing a poor quaility picture, and in my opinion it can be a worse quality picture than analogue, with the compression on fast moving complex images.
You will also be lucky to find a good satellite PVR, or anything that comes close to the tivo, nor at the tivo price.

I think the only reaosn you would go for satellite, is if you are not in UHF signal area. There is no other reason, apart from a few different channels.

kana1980

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#776556 7-Mar-2013 23:41

Hi Jaxson, bfginger, mattwnz, thank you for your post!
We have moved to Tauranga so we believe we have Freeview HD here too. The previous owner said they used dish to watch Freeview so we somehow thought UHF and dish are just same quality but very good to know UHF is much better and HD only available through UHF.
I will ask my husband to read Jaxson's post to see if he understands what you are talking about, and get him to go up the roof to check the existing fitting of the dish.

I would have made a wrong choice of going for satellite if I didn't ask here. Thank you for your help.

Skolink

1081 posts

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#776617 8-Mar-2013 08:13

gregmcc: Keep the Tivo, put up a UHF aerial, you will not find a better PVR than a Tivo.

I agree

Jaxson

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#776699 8-Mar-2013 10:25

kana1980: Hi Jaxson, bfginger, mattwnz, thank you for your post!
We have moved to Tauranga so we believe we have Freeview HD here too. The previous owner said they used dish to watch Freeview

Yep, Tauranga is in a freeview HD area so UHF is the way to go. Take a look at the neighbours aerials when you are up on the roof to get an idea of where you need the aerial to be pointing. Here's your local coverage map: http://freeviewnz.tv/userfiles/pdfs/Kopukairua_Standalone_Freeview.pdf

Sky and freeview satellite are both broadcast from the same satellite, so the dish can be used for either, but as others have mentioned, the quality is not as good. Freeview HD shows 3 channels (1,2 and 3) in HD and they also have surround sound capability (if the show offers it) as well. Freeview satellite does not offer any of that.

Deev8

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#777002 8-Mar-2013 17:04

gregmcc: Keep the Tivo, put up a UHF aerial, you will not find a better PVR than a Tivo.

I certainly agree that installing a UHF aerial and continuing to use a Tivo that was bought some time ago is the better option. I'm not so sure about not being able to find a better PVR than a Tivo though.

The Tivo does a fine job as a PVR, but (unless it has been improved recently) it can't use the Freeview broadcast EPG - it needs an internet connection to get programme guide data. That is quite a weak point.

Skolink

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#777172 8-Mar-2013 23:14

Deev8: The Tivo does a fine job as a PVR, but (unless it has been improved recently) it can't use the Freeview broadcast EPG - it needs an internet connection to get programme guide data. That is quite a weak point.

The TiVo EPG is more enhanced than the the broadcast EPG though, and extends 2 weeks in advance.

mattwnz

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#777189 9-Mar-2013 00:05

Skolink:
Deev8: The Tivo does a fine job as a PVR, but (unless it has been improved recently) it can't use the Freeview broadcast EPG - it needs an internet connection to get programme guide data. That is quite a weak point.

The TiVo EPG is more enhanced than the the broadcast EPG though, and extends 2 weeks in advance.

It is also not laggy like the freeview one is on freeview tvs. It is more like skys. Not pretty, but it is very functional, and great once you are used to it.

Skolink

1081 posts

Uber Geek

#777212 9-Mar-2013 07:41

mattwnz:
Skolink:
Deev8: The Tivo does a fine job as a PVR, but (unless it has been improved recently) it can't use the Freeview broadcast EPG - it needs an internet connection to get programme guide data. That is quite a weak point.

The TiVo EPG is more enhanced than the the broadcast EPG though, and extends 2 weeks in advance.

It is also not laggy like the freeview one is on freeview tvs. It is more like skys. Not pretty, but it is very functional, and great once you are used to it.

And if you use the TiVo like me, you never even see the timetable 'guide' but instead browse the list of programs by genre or by actor, or just search by title if there is a particular program you want to record.

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