Yes I remember eyeing them up in Dixons at the time (1999?) but all I remember from then was they cost an awful lot (was it as much as £400?) with a £10 monthly ongoing sub.
I bought a Tivo for very little (£70??) when Dixons were finally getting rid of them forever.
However I sold it on when I found that there was no way out of the ongoing costs (or a £200 lifetime fee!)
I bought a Tivo for very little (£70??) when Dixons were finally getting rid of them forever.
However I sold it on when I found that there was no way out of the ongoing costs (or a £200 lifetime fee!)
I bought one of the 1st (£400 + £100 lifetime sub) - possibly, more money than sense those days. It has been used heavily ever since (terrestial recordings).
1 failure in 9 or 10 yrs (so long I can't remember exactly).
Box looks dated these days (too large & silver) - but reliability has never been matched. (has seen off several replacements).
Only 1 tuner - but then so did sky+ in early days - USA developed a twin tuner equiv but never marketed here.
Eventually, it will have to go (analogue switch-off) - not sure what I will do to replace it then.
Sky did not 'introduce tivo to the UK market' - on the contrary tivo existed before sky+ was invented.
I must correct you, BskyB partnered with Thomson to introduce Tivo to the UK market. Tivo did exist before Sky+ but this was never in doubt. You seem to think the tie up with sky however was?
The small number of people who bought TiVo (a single tuner analogue HDD recorder) seem obsessed by it - I've never been able to understand why?.
Tivo is a fantastic PVR, and knocks Sky plus into a cocked hat.. I had a unit for years, and the only reason I changed was because Sky + has twin tuners...
The functionality of the system is brilliant.. The search facility on it is far better, compared to Sky just using the one letter...
I loved my TiVo, It was like a member of the family, Sky+ has never really had the same personality. I paid £200 + £200 lifetime subs, and actually sold it on for a profit to a cable user when I got sky+ (at the time mainly for the two tuners & dolby digital sound)
My favourite feature was that it recorded things for you based on your preferences, so each morning you'd have some new things to watch. I discovered some great shows that way.
Id love sky to incorporate something like that, or do a deal with TiVo
The functionality of the system is brilliant.. The search facility on it is far better, compared to Sky just using the one letter..
It's probably still better than the new HD EPG. Sky finally allow us to enter text to search for - but you have to enter starting with the first character.
Now I'm a programmer, have been for many years. I feel fully justified in asking:What kind of moronic pillock, string matches from the front only? I think it highly unlikely that there is a technical reason for it. It's just sloppy, careless and badly thought out.
if the new tivo could be made to work with sky hd,then i would switch,but im not sure if it would,unless sky could get involved with tivo once again.in use there is tivo hd box,which looks great
when is it comming to uk,it does not say anywhere.
It's probably still better than the new HD EPG. Sky finally allow us to enter text to search for - but you have to enter starting with the first character.
Now I'm a programmer, have been for many years. I feel fully justified in asking:What kind of moronic pillock, string matches from the front only? I think it highly unlikely that there is a technical reason for it. It's just sloppy, careless and badly thought out.
Not to mention badly flawed by the EPG listings.
Example: The Virgin EPG was updated days ago to say that Hallmark was starting the brand new series of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on Monday. No TV listings mags or Digiguide had this as the change was too late. And the Sky EPG did not show it either. I only knew thanks to a thread in programming to claim this.
So I waited until yesterday and decided to try to search for the episodses to see if they have series/episode details on the new EPG (they don't). Worse still the search revealed that to find all possible episodes you have to enter multiple titles and know what these are.
Some are listed as Law and Order:.... others as just Special Victims Unit. Making a search effectively useless.
This is by no means the first time I have come across such issues with the new EPG search...incredibly missing something like 'A' from a title as the first word can cause you not to find it.
With all these anomalies this much vaunted new feature is needlessly hit and miss and you were actually more likely to find things via the old EPG - which is a sad indictment of the vast sums and supposed expertise wasted on developing this new EPG.
Presumably search via TIVO is not so dependent on you knowing (a) the precise title of the programme and, (b) the precise form that the EPG has chosen to list it in anyway.
Example: The Virgin EPG was updated days ago to say that Hallmark was starting the brand new series of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on Monday.
They are? Wow. Thanks for telling me
Some are listed as Law and Order:.... others as just Special Victims Unit. Making a search effectively useless.
This is by no means the first time I have come across such issues with the new EPG search...incredibly missing something like 'A' from a title as the first word can cause you not to find it.
Yup. Yesterday I tried to find "First of the summer wine" and failed. Had to locate it manually. I've no idea why it couldn't find it though. It isn't billed as 'The first of...'
I must correct you, BskyB partnered with Thomson to introduce Tivo to the UK market. Tivo did exist before Sky+ but this was never in doubt. You seem to think the tie up with sky however was?
Absolute rubbish - when I bought Tivo (one of 1st) there was never any tie-up with BskyB/sky whatsoever.
The tie-up came later when sky took over the support for Tivo - sky+ followed a bit later on.
Absolute rubbish - when I bought Tivo (one of 1st) there was never any tie-up with BskyB/sky whatsoever.
The tie-up came later when sky took over the support for Tivo - sky+ followed a bit later on.
Sorry mate, it is you that is talking rubbish.
I also bought a Tivo on the 2nd day it came out and it was indeed in conjunction with Sky (the menu screen used to have SKY at the top until about 2002).
The small number of people who bought TiVo (a single tuner analogue HDD recorder) seem obsessed by it - I've never been able to understand why?.
I still use my series 1 TiVo daily so here are some of my reasons why:
1. It isn't so much that it has an analogue tuner (which I've never used) but the fact it has an analogue INPUT so will work with Freeview, Sky+, Virgin, etc...
2. Usability. Everything about the interface says "quality" - from the useful beeps to the automatic 'rewind' after a fast-forward so you don't miss stuff!
3. In 9 years of use, a single tuner has never been a problem, because it juggles schedules so well you never care what channel a programme is on, or even when.
4. 'Suggestions' are brilliant and I've found stuff I'd never have known about without them.
5. Season passes work across seasons so never need resetting. They also know about 'new series' and repeats.
6. The guide is fabulous and passes the "Wife Test".
7. TiVo self maintains itself. No having to delete stuff to regain space etc.
8. Reliable. It has not been switched off for 9 years.
9. Hackable. TiVoWeb is cool, as is the ability to WATCH two programmes at the same time - one on our main TV and the other streamed to our computer in the other room.
not to mention the slightly contraversial "Tivo suggestions" which by monitoring your choices would come up with lists of programmes you might care to record.
Tivo does actually record them using any blank space on the hard disk. So you always have complete programmes ready to watch (and fast forward through).
Thankfully the new Sky+HD EPG is finally delivering much, though by no means all of the functionality Tivo users have enjoyed for a decade.
I still use my series 1 TiVo daily so here are some of my reasons why:
1. It isn't so much that it has an analogue tuner (which I've never used) but the fact it has an analogue INPUT so will work with Freeview, Sky+, Virgin, etc...
2. Usability. Everything about the interface says "quality" - from the useful beeps to the automatic 'rewind' after a fast-forward so you don't miss stuff!
3. In 9 years of use, a single tuner has never been a problem, because it juggles schedules so well you never care what channel a programme is on, or even when.
4. 'Suggestions' are brilliant and I've found stuff I'd never have known about without them.
5. Season passes work across seasons so never need resetting. They also know about 'new series' and repeats.
6. The guide is fabulous and passes the "Wife Test".
7. TiVo self maintains itself. No having to delete stuff to regain space etc.
8. Reliable. It has not been switched off for 9 years.
9. Hackable. TiVoWeb is cool, as is the ability to WATCH two programmes at the same time - one on our main TV and the other streamed to our computer in the other room.
And.....
10. Tivo learns what you like and what you don't. The remote has thumbs up and thumbs down buttons.
You can give shows up to 3 thumbs up or 3 thumbs down. This then teaches Tivo what to record as suggestions.
11. You can search by keyword, title, actor etc to quickly bring up a list of shows.
12. You can save keyword searches as wishlists. you can have wishlists record automatically whenever the show turns up on any channel. Saves you looking out for stuff on hundreds of channels.
13. You can tailor your channel list to exclude channels you don't watch. The epg then doesn't show them.
14. You can prioritise your season passes so that if there's a clash, the higher one on the list will win out.
Comments
However I sold it on when I found that there was no way out of the ongoing costs (or a £200 lifetime fee!)
I bought one of the 1st (£400 + £100 lifetime sub) - possibly, more money than sense those days. It has been used heavily ever since (terrestial recordings).
1 failure in 9 or 10 yrs (so long I can't remember exactly).
Box looks dated these days (too large & silver) - but reliability has never been matched. (has seen off several replacements).
Only 1 tuner - but then so did sky+ in early days - USA developed a twin tuner equiv but never marketed here.
Eventually, it will have to go (analogue switch-off) - not sure what I will do to replace it then.
Sky+ has always had 2 tuners.
With which you have always been able to watch/timeslip one, record another.
What it didn't have until December 2003 was the ability to dual record from both tuners.
I am sure you are correct - just not usable originally - as you say initially only able to record 1 programme at a time would be more accurate.
I must correct you, BskyB partnered with Thomson to introduce Tivo to the UK market. Tivo did exist before Sky+ but this was never in doubt. You seem to think the tie up with sky however was?
Tivo is a fantastic PVR, and knocks Sky plus into a cocked hat.. I had a unit for years, and the only reason I changed was because Sky + has twin tuners...
The functionality of the system is brilliant.. The search facility on it is far better, compared to Sky just using the one letter...
Sven
My favourite feature was that it recorded things for you based on your preferences, so each morning you'd have some new things to watch. I discovered some great shows that way.
Id love sky to incorporate something like that, or do a deal with TiVo
Now I'm a programmer, have been for many years. I feel fully justified in asking:What kind of moronic pillock, string matches from the front only? I think it highly unlikely that there is a technical reason for it. It's just sloppy, careless and badly thought out.
I only got rid of it because there were advantages of getting Sky+.
when is it comming to uk,it does not say anywhere.
watch this clip,its tivo hd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLEQWbpon-A
Not to mention badly flawed by the EPG listings.
Example: The Virgin EPG was updated days ago to say that Hallmark was starting the brand new series of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on Monday. No TV listings mags or Digiguide had this as the change was too late. And the Sky EPG did not show it either. I only knew thanks to a thread in programming to claim this.
So I waited until yesterday and decided to try to search for the episodses to see if they have series/episode details on the new EPG (they don't). Worse still the search revealed that to find all possible episodes you have to enter multiple titles and know what these are.
Some are listed as Law and Order:.... others as just Special Victims Unit. Making a search effectively useless.
This is by no means the first time I have come across such issues with the new EPG search...incredibly missing something like 'A' from a title as the first word can cause you not to find it.
With all these anomalies this much vaunted new feature is needlessly hit and miss and you were actually more likely to find things via the old EPG - which is a sad indictment of the vast sums and supposed expertise wasted on developing this new EPG.
Presumably search via TIVO is not so dependent on you knowing (a) the precise title of the programme and, (b) the precise form that the EPG has chosen to list it in anyway.
Absolute rubbish - when I bought Tivo (one of 1st) there was never any tie-up with BskyB/sky whatsoever.
The tie-up came later when sky took over the support for Tivo - sky+ followed a bit later on.
Sorry mate, it is you that is talking rubbish.
I also bought a Tivo on the 2nd day it came out and it was indeed in conjunction with Sky (the menu screen used to have SKY at the top until about 2002).
There is a link here that confirms it - http://www.pjb.co.uk/t-learning/lvmsept00.htm
Also, lifetime subscriptions were £199 even from day 1.
1. It isn't so much that it has an analogue tuner (which I've never used) but the fact it has an analogue INPUT so will work with Freeview, Sky+, Virgin, etc...
2. Usability. Everything about the interface says "quality" - from the useful beeps to the automatic 'rewind' after a fast-forward so you don't miss stuff!
3. In 9 years of use, a single tuner has never been a problem, because it juggles schedules so well you never care what channel a programme is on, or even when.
4. 'Suggestions' are brilliant and I've found stuff I'd never have known about without them.
5. Season passes work across seasons so never need resetting. They also know about 'new series' and repeats.
6. The guide is fabulous and passes the "Wife Test".
7. TiVo self maintains itself. No having to delete stuff to regain space etc.
8. Reliable. It has not been switched off for 9 years.
9. Hackable. TiVoWeb is cool, as is the ability to WATCH two programmes at the same time - one on our main TV and the other streamed to our computer in the other room.
Lol.. skyHD is not even close unfortunately.
And.....
10. Tivo learns what you like and what you don't. The remote has thumbs up and thumbs down buttons.
You can give shows up to 3 thumbs up or 3 thumbs down. This then teaches Tivo what to record as suggestions.
11. You can search by keyword, title, actor etc to quickly bring up a list of shows.
12. You can save keyword searches as wishlists. you can have wishlists record automatically whenever the show turns up on any channel. Saves you looking out for stuff on hundreds of channels.
13. You can tailor your channel list to exclude channels you don't watch. The epg then doesn't show them.
14. You can prioritise your season passes so that if there's a clash, the higher one on the list will win out.