# Dual Tuner TiVo - how much?



## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Serious poll:

What is the *maximum* you would pay for a twin tuner freeview TiVo (the Australian one),
working in the UK (still requiring a UK sub).

£100 / £200 / £300 / £400 / £500 ?

..and don't all click £100!


----------



## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

Have gone for &#163;200. I would have gone for &#163;300 or maybe even &#163;400 if I was able to get the programs that I watch from anywhere other than Sky but sadly the evil Murdock empire has me by the short and curlies 

I would love to be able to pay just for the handful of channels I watch at say &#163;1 per channel per month rather than having to subscribe to a whole bundle of stuff that I would never watch. I also wish there was someway to hide all the unwanted channels in that awful Sky EPG but I guess that only irks me becuase I am one of those who has been spoilt for life by the Tivo EPG


----------



## jdwood37 (Dec 6, 2002)

Dual Tuner would be nice but a problem also is the Tivo Guide which seems to miss the start / end of recordings quite a lot these days (only updates once a day, using 'scheduled times'). I've tried the Panasonic PVR which records exactly on time even if a program is running late!  But terribly complicated to use!


----------



## Richard42 (Dec 27, 2000)

I've gone for the £100  because that's what it would cost to get a second ( or in my case 3rd  ) TiVo from Ebay. Why pay more ?
Now if you're offering other extra features as well that may be different.


----------



## staffie2001uk (Apr 1, 2004)

I went with £300, as my Humax Foxsat PVR was only £250, but if it was HD compatible then maybe £400. Hell, if I could replace the series one and my Humax 9300 with an HD TiVo maybe £500. I would need more specs/details to be certain what it is worth to me. 

Cheers,


----------



## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Richard42 said:


> I've gone for the £100  because that's what it would cost to get a second ( or in my case 3rd  ) TiVo from Ebay. Why pay more ?
> Now if you're offering other extra features as well that may be different.


If dual freeview tuners isn't enough of an extra feature for you, the aus tivo also has HMO:
http://www.mytivo.com.au/whatistivo/tivois/newfeatures/homenetworking/


----------



## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

Was this just a bit of fun? or real market research? I went for £400, but it would really depend on the complete spec.


----------



## staffie2001uk (Apr 1, 2004)

Looking around the Aus TiVo site that Mikerr posted, the Aus TiVos are going for AU$699. This is close to £400, so if it is a buy and import scenario, I can't see much change out of £500. For a HD compatible twin tuner TiVo with a good sized hard drive that might be acceptable. But what of guide data? 

If TiVo were importing them, then a UK price of £350 would be feasible, and very attractive if UK HD compatible. I'd happily pay £10 a month on top of the box for that spec in a TiVo.


----------



## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

&#163;300 for a dual tuner, HD compatible unit with a sensible lifetime/multiyear discount sub. I'd be more tempted by Freesat and Freeview multi tuner compatibility but I'd certainly settle for dual Freeview.


----------



## Glen (May 9, 2004)

i have voted &#163;300. that said, if it didnt support channel changing of a Sky box, i'd be gutted that I couldnt get one.


----------



## pj280167 (Dec 21, 2005)

AMc said:


> £300 for a dual tuner, HD compatible unit with a sensible lifetime/multiyear discount sub. I'd be more tempted by Freesat and Freeview multi tuner compatibility but I'd certainly settle for dual Freeview.


I agree, £300 with all the above sounds reasonable to me


----------



## martink0646 (Feb 8, 2005)

Dual HD Tuner, Freeview TiVo with HMO. Come on guys!! If Mike is thinking what I'm thinking he's thinking you should be clicking the £400 option. If Mike is going to modify the hardware and software as required I'm right behind him.

We've all been moaning about the lack of new tivo hardware for as long as I can remember and Mike did say this was a serious poll so here's hoping.

Martin


----------



## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Well as staffie2001uk said, if _I _imported them it would likely come to £500 and be unsupported by TiVo.

The poll is for an officially produced TiVo model, for which much lower price points would be possible.

Pie in the sky? TiVo do have a UK proof of concept version, but no plans to release it. Allegedly


----------



## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I think that a PC-based TiVo, where one could add extra USB tuners, add internal or external hard drives, use a BluRay drive, and can be networked together, could meet my criteria for a Media Center.

I like my Windows 7 Media Center, but I don't particularly want an operating system to intrude on my media management. Maybe a Linux-based Acer Aspire Revo that hosts a software TiVo might fit the bill.

Networked TiVos that could use a shared EPG to allocate recordings to available tuners, and stream the results back to any of them, would be an ideal solution. The shared EPG should be handled by a single lifetime subscription.

Using file-sharing techniques to keep the EPG up-to-date, and share recorded content, could also be used.

As stated several times before, I don't think that having accurate broadcast timings is going to help unless one can have enough tuners to allow for recordings from different channels that subsequently overlap. Personally, I find that three tuners is probably the minimum, and I don't watch that many channels.


----------



## bryl (Apr 28, 2004)

mikerr said:


> TiVo do have a UK proof of concept version, but no plans to release it. Allegedly


Come on Tivo. I'll help you prove the concept. I'm getting on now but I *will* write to father christmas if it helps. I still remember the magic of that first christmas all those years ago.


----------



## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

&#163;100 only if it's HD, and no sub.

Sorry, but that's the market out there. &#163;300 for a PVR is just silly these days. They'd never shift them in the stores when there are much cheaper things on the market.

But I've changed my mind after much deliberation and just got Sky+HD installed. I just can't do without HD. Yes the EPG sucks. Dual tuner, HD and digital audio makes up for the weaknesses for me.


----------



## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

£100 for a UK TiVo HD requiring sub, and full featured with sub. None of this extra for HME/TTG like the Aussies pay.


----------



## stevencarpenter (Sep 4, 2003)

DeadKenny said:


> Sorry, but that's the market out there. £300 for a PVR is just silly these days. They'd never shift them in the stores when there are much cheaper things on the market.


Hmm, who said TiVo needs to sell from a store like Comet or Dixons? I'd happily buy one if it were pitched at a high end user with a web based support and order management portal.

TiVo screwed up big style last time by trying to sell to the common chap, yet now everyone 'gets' putting a live broadcast on hold, thanks to $ky.

We have not mentioned subscription free which would also be my choice. So £400 for the unit (HD spec Freesat + Freeview), access to Amazon content like the US, web access via TiVo central, and £400 for a lifetime sub.

10 years ago lots of people laughed at £400 + £200, yet its the best AV investment I ever made and still used every day...


----------



## ash10 (Jul 8, 2004)

mikerr said:


> TiVo do have a UK proof of concept version, but no plans to release it. Allegedly


I'd be happy to pay quite handsomely for a more up-to-date, twin-tuner box - provided that I could transfer my lifetime sub...


----------



## Glen (May 9, 2004)

what do you mean by a proof of concept version. This new v irgin deal will put that to bed now anyway as the contract is 'mutually exclusive'


----------



## ash10 (Jul 8, 2004)

Glen said:


> what do you mean by a proof of concept version. This new v irgin deal will put that to bed now anyway as the contract is 'mutually exclusive'


Not necessarily - Virgin must be acutely aware that they do not (and cannot ever) have the geographical reach of either Sky or Freeview.

By releasing a Virgin-branded TiVo/Freeview box they would reach new customers outside of their cabled area, but more importantly it would dent the number of Freeview users signing-up for Sky+.

I can't imagine anyone who's familiar with TiVo being either impressed or satisfied with the Sky+ offering...


----------



## gazter (Aug 1, 2001)

iankb said:


> I think that a PC-based TiVo, where one could add extra USB tuners, add internal or external hard drives, use a BluRay drive, and can be networked together, could meet my criteria for a Media Center.
> 
> I like my Windows 7 Media Center, but I don't particularly want an operating system to intrude on my media management. Maybe a Linux-based Acer Aspire Revo that hosts a software TiVo might fit the bill.
> 
> ...


Has there been any movement from Nero in regards to tivo on a PC? There press release last year referred to PC Tivo being launched around the world in the first quarter of 2009. That obviously hasnt happened.


----------



## gazter (Aug 1, 2001)

ash10 said:


> Not necessarily - Virgin must be acutely aware that they do not (and cannot ever) have the geographical reach of either Sky or Freeview.
> 
> By releasing a Virgin-branded TiVo/Freeview box they would reach new customers outside of their cabled area, but more importantly it would dent the number of Freeview users signing-up for Sky+.
> 
> I can't imagine anyone who's familiar with TiVo being either impressed or satisfied with the Sky+ offering...


Those who have never seen tivo, rave about sky+, how easy it is to use, how flexible it is, how innovative and clever it is. It takes all my inner strength not to bludgeon them.


----------



## gazter (Aug 1, 2001)

DeadKenny said:


> £100 only if it's HD, and no sub.
> 
> Sorry, but that's the market out there. £300 for a PVR is just silly these days. They'd never shift them in the stores when there are much cheaper things on the market.
> 
> But I've changed my mind after much deliberation and just got Sky+HD installed. I just can't do without HD. Yes the EPG sucks. Dual tuner, HD and digital audio makes up for the weaknesses for me.


If they just had a season pass type priority list, it would be so much better. Why did they go to so much trouble to update their interface, but left out such an elementary and simple improvement. A priority season pass would probably result in me retiring tivo.


----------



## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

gazter said:


> Those who have never seen tivo, rave about sky+, how easy it is to use, how flexible it is, how innovative and clever it is. It takes all my inner strength not to bludgeon them.


 +1



> If sky+ just had a season pass type priority list, it would be so much better.


Wow ! they don't even have that basic feature? 
which takes priority then, newest set SPs?


----------



## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

stevencarpenter said:


> Hmm, who said TiVo needs to sell from a store like Comet or Dixons? I'd happily buy one if it were pitched at a high end user with a web based support and order management portal.
> 
> TiVo screwed up big style last time by trying to sell to the common chap, yet now everyone 'gets' putting a live broadcast on hold, thanks to $ky.


For an off the shelf PVR box, you need to sell to the common man if you want to make money and sell at an acceptable price.

Actually, TiVo screwed up last time by not selling well enough to the common man. Why is pausing live TV so well known now? Because Sky have sold to the common man.



mikerr said:


> Wow ! they don't even have that basic feature?
> which takes priority then, newest set SPs?


There's very need for priority with a dual tuner generally.


----------

