Comments on: Review: TiVo

By: Loren

Loren — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 22:46:31 +0000

I am thinking of getting TiVo, but before I fork out the cash for either a TiVo or other product, I have been trying to find out if watching the free to air channels on TiVo will use up my download.

I know downloading something from CASPA will use both download and $$ but is “free” to air really free if it is using my download allowance? Hope some one can answer this for me, I have searched the Mytivo.com.au site with no luck.

By: Southpatt

Southpatt — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:47:07 +0000

quote “The biggest omission in the Aussie TiVo is in leaving out the ad-skipping feature. It’s hard to forgive this decision. We’re told that in order to keep the price down to $699 the trade-off was in ads, which like your old VCR, can only be fast-forwarded.” end quote

Does anybody believe this tripe ??? – Contemptuous Seven management in collusion with the Advertisers is more likely. Trust me. If they thought they could remove the fast forward all together and get away with it, they would have.

3rd party machines such as mine can ad jump with a couple of presses as I know a lot of other peoples can as well.

Why anyone would buy this machine brought to Australia by a commercial television network is beyond me !!

By: littlea

littlea — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:01:45 +0000

TiVo is expensive, $699 what a joke! It should be cheaper and then people might buy. Who can afford to spend this much on this sort of product. People are losing their jobs or have money problems, that when they should bring the price down. Give it a couple years any bet the price will go down. I just brought a new TV plus a digital box and I only broiught it because I had to. My TV has broken down.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:26:20 +0000

I can’t say this enough seeing as though only one other person has: Beyonwiz, Beyonwiz, Beyonwiz. Not only is the new DP-P2 compatible with Foxtel (that one’s for you Tony) but in my opinion is the perfect machine. Can network (via LAN) so if connected to a wireless router you can remotely browse and play music, view photos and play other media files. I can transfer recordings wirelessly to my laptop. With IceTV I can schedule recordings remotely and can also control padding so that I don’t miss the end of programs. I can also whack in an SD card or USB drive to transfer or view data. I can edit files on the machine. Now I can also browse limited internet content (weather and news) via the WizTV function. Also, I can skip ads (and re-program the skipping increments if I want)!

By: Andrew B

Andrew B — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:22:29 +0000

Not all of us can get 70gig internet connections. For the most part, internet in Australia is slow and small bandwidth. Foxtel IQ leaves Tivo for dead.

By: TV worker

TV worker — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:35:41 +0000

iam happy with my Topfield HDD set top box…had it now for years…and while its not intelligent (the Topfield box)…the owner is…and i dont need to increase my broadband limit with the downloads it (Tivo) would do…and now if I want i can go out and get a Topfield 200 gig HD settop box…. so that will do nicely…plus when you introduce a intellignet TIvo…like David said…it will think you may like a show and record it for you…. no thanks….

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:53:46 +0000

Peter you wouldn’t!

By: matt

matt — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:10:44 +0000

all i can say is waste of money, until we can get VoD like the states and have the packages like foxtel but cheaper then ill change my mind otherwise. its just overhyped and you could get a much better recorder for cheaper as well.

By: Peter Gatt

Peter Gatt — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:54:24 +0000

I have a question why would you want/need Tivo if you have Foxtel IQ?

By: ali

ali — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:27:49 +0000

Too much $$ for very little IMO. When FTA becomes ‘cant miss TV’ I might bother to invest, until then my trusty VCR will do for the 1 or 2 shows worth recording:)

By: Paulie

Paulie — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:22:04 +0000

Whats he deal everyone has about the broadband access.
I have a 70gb plan i barely use
Internet is cheap as

If this uses more than 500kb a day it will be lucky

By: damo

damo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:05:25 +0000

its just a waste of money. you could probably get foxtel iq cheaper for instalation and everything else and you wont have to worry about having high speed brpad band. so reall channel wasted all that time with false advertising during the olympics. foxtel iq still the best option

By: Paulie

Paulie — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:43:40 +0000

I just bought one this week.
Hopefully arrive tomorrow.
The latest deal from tivo.com.au is to pay in installments over 10 months.
So it doesn’t sound so bad

By: barrett

barrett — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:23:50 +0000

TiVo…too little too late

Had my Topfield for years and it leaves this for dead.

All on air guides are rubbish…government needs to legislate some standards for this mess.

By: Zambora

Zambora — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:42:00 +0000

Great review David.
This part was decider for me “To connect your TiVo, you’ll need high-speed broadband. It likes to update and download via the net”
So Seven is forcing people into broadband and even worse to use their broadband connection (and the user’s extracost) to download/upload stuff)
$700 i will not be spending.
Tivo looks more and more like Beta.Costly and unworkable.

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:58:07 +0000

Incorrect. Freeview WILL effect TIVO & ICETV so long as it utilizes the same feature set that the UK service uses, and from what our version has mentioned, it will.

It’s more than just a campaign. Yes, it will just be a slight modification of the current channel lineup, but the platform the FTA networks broadcast on will be changed. The Uk system of freeview uses pretty much the same feature set that the TIVO system uses here.

This from the Freeview UK website. And I quote:

“With the great functions available from Freeview, TV viewing has never been better. All you need to do is buy a digital TV recorder with the Freeview logo, plug it in and away you go. You are free to control your TV entertainment experience. Pause, record and rewind live TV to fit around your work and play. You’ll never miss a thing especially as you can now record an entire series at the touch of a button”

The only difference our freeview looks like having is the amount of channels. We are quoting 15 of which 13 are already in service. Whereas the British system has nearly 50 not including digital radio stations.

The only real downside I see of the Australian freeview service is that older devices like HD boxes/PVR’s will probably will not be compatible with the new service without some kind of firmware update (if any). You can watch the channels fine, but the new EPG information system probably will not work, but basic functionality will remain.

The first real freeview enabled product to be released here will probably be the PLAYTV PVR addon for the PS3. Sony have held off release here as it needs freeview capabilities to operate.

All things considered, TIVO will become even more irrelevant within the next 18 months. It was too slow in getting here and too limited in it’s features compared to it’s American cousin.