# returning from the dark side



## poggs (Feb 2, 2003)

Hello,
Sold my beloved tivo in april 2006 and got a skyHD box Well, I'm now fed up with the excessive cost and hurricane like noise of the skyHD system. So I cancelled my expensive sky sub, which I just paid to get recording rights having long ago cancelled HD, and I want my tivo back!

Having been out of the loop for a couple of years, what have I missed? Where is the best place to get a lifetime subbed tivo? Is it ebay? And what should I expect to pay for one?

Or am I best just getting a topfield and sticking to freeview?

All tips welcome.


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## jdwood37 (Dec 6, 2002)

Tivo prices for lifetime ones seem to be falling a bit on Ebay, but remember you really need a cachecard and good size hard disk (Samsung 400GB is good) to make it interesting. (Non-lifetime ones are really worthless now, unless for spare parts). Topfield looks interesting but I'm sticking with Tivo - it's quiet, the remote is great, the software rock solid..no lock ups. (I recently ran mine for 7 months without reboot)


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## poggs (Feb 2, 2003)

jdwood37 said:


> Tivo prices for lifetime ones seem to be falling a bit on Ebay, but remember you really need a cachecard and good size hard disk (Samsung 400GB is good) to make it interesting. (Non-lifetime ones are really worthless now, unless for spare parts). Topfield looks interesting but I'm sticking with Tivo - it's quiet, the remote is great, the software rock solid..no lock ups. (I recently ran mine for 7 months without reboot)


Thanks. Was just about to get a cachecard for the tivo when SKYhd and the world cup turned my head. Sheer folly. I truly wished I've never sold the tivo. got £200 for it back in april 06 (had alifetime sub) but what will I be looking at paying now?

Or does anyone here want to sell me theirs


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## jdwood37 (Dec 6, 2002)

Put a search on Ebay and keep an eye what comes up. You can also search past listings (tick the box to do that) to get an idea of prices. Might be worth paying more for one with cachecard....


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

poggs said:


> Sheer folly. I truly wished I've never sold the tivo.


From Luke 15:7


> *there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance*




Its now much cheaper to get a Tivo with a Lifetime Sub and Cachecard and enlarged hard drive on Ebay than to upgrade a basic Lifetime Subbed machine yourself. However the problem is that a machine of this spec *with* a Lifetime Sub is now not coming up that often on Ebay. A year or so ago they were coming up all the time.

The problem is that those who have been tempted off the true and righteous Tivo path to worship false gods (the ones named Sky HD and V+) have by now mainly sold their high specced Tivos. Those of us who have stuck to the true and righteous path of Tivo still have little interest in selling our prized possessions.

Perhaps I could point you in the direction of forum members TCM2007 and Automan, who I believe have recently consigned one or more Tivo machines of just the specification you need to their lofts. Its pure sentimentality on their part and they will never get them out again until they are old and grey so perhaps if, as one returning to the Tivo fold, you offered to give their old friends a home where they would be loved and cherished in return for a small financial consideration they might possibly accept.

See www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5416099#post5416099

and

www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=389857

Alternatives to Tivo just now still look poor. Down the road we have the promise of BBC/ITV Freesat boxes (probably Humax and Topfield) with PVR functions and Series Link but they are a non starter until C4 and Five start broadcasting their signal unencrypted. Also three HD channels (BBC, ITV and C4) have just been permitted by Ofcom but its going to be well in to 2009 before the transmitters are upgraded and the hardware appears to support this. Probably Autumn 2009 at the earliest.

So I would say try and barter with TCM or whoever to take one of their Tivos off their hands or keep an eye out on what's listed on Ebay. A machine with the spec you want will appear on a one to two month view and will probably cost between £220 and £250. You just need to spot it and use a bidding program like www.hammersnipe.com to make sure you definitely bag it when the auction closes.

There is a machine on Ebay right now with the hardware spec you want but it has no Lifetime Sub and assuming that Tivo lasts another 4 years in the UK (likely) that would cost you nearly £500 in Monthly Subs.

So a Lifetime subbed machine with the required hardware is what you need to find one way or another. A non upgraded Lifetime Sub machine on Ebay is bad value as it will only be £80 or so less than a heavily upgraded one. Whareas buying a Cachecard and RAM and doing your own hard drive upgrade would cost you at least another £150.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

For the sake of fairness to those who would like to tempt you down the expensive route (that is buy a non upgraded Lifetime subbed machine on Ebay then buy expensive separate hard drive and Cachecard upgrades from them) can I also mention www.tivocentral.co.uk, www.tivoheaven.co.uk and www.tivoland.com as places that will sell you upgraded drives and Cachecards for a basic Tivo machine.


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## poggs (Feb 2, 2003)

Thanks to one an all for the tips. Ive got the hard drive already and loads of SDRAM around the place, so it would just be the cachecard at $90 fro 9th tee required. Anyway, now on the ebay prowl. THanks everyone.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

poggs said:


> Thanks to one an all for the tips. Ive got the hard drive already and loads of SDRAM around the place, so it would just be the cachecard at $90 fro 9th tee required. Anyway, now on the ebay prowl. THanks everyone.


Beware of the 9th Tee international shipping fee though (another 30 USD or more) and a long wait of 4 or 5 weeks for it to appear. If you are unlucky you may also get hit with VAT on the declared value plus customs duty payment fee charged by Parcelforce International (another £11 or so). You may find it just as cheap to buy one from www.tivocentral.co.uk

Alternatively a cheaper option is to go www.ebay.*com* (*instead of* .co.uk)and search for Turbonet. You will then see the TurboNZ card which they developed to run in our S1 Tivos they run over there. Only around 35 quid delivered. But they don't take RAM so no speed up if you fit a large hard drive on the menus. But they do provide full network access for Tivoweb etc.

Might still be worth asking Automan or TCM2007 how much they would want for their redundant machines though.


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## Nero2 (Aug 22, 2005)

poggs said:


> Thanks to one an all for the tips. Ive got the hard drive already and loads of SDRAM around the place, so it would just be the cachecard at $90 fro 9th tee required. Anyway, now on the ebay prowl. THanks everyone.


Before ordering anything from 9th Tee you might want to check out this thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=383741&page=2

Thanks


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## Fred Smith (Oct 5, 2002)

Yes, avoid 9th Tee, been waiting over a month for my order and Mark has not replied to any of my e-mails.

Next step get my CC card company involved and get a refund.


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## poggs (Feb 2, 2003)

Again, thanks. i will avoid 9th tee. seems on of the site above has the cachecard for &#163;65 anyway.

So, next question. If I get a unmoded lifetime tivo. What upgrades am I recommended to do. Bigger hard drive obviously and I quite like the idea of doing mode 0 and cachecard. What else should I look at. and where are the best guides?

thanks


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

poggs said:


> Again, thanks. i will avoid 9th tee. seems on of the site above has the cachecard for £65 anyway.


Indeed they do because 9th Tee's shipping rates for 25 Cachecards are hardly any more than for one Cachecard and even if customs duty is charged on the declared value (17.5% VAT + 2% customs duty) there will still only be one customs duty payment fee of £11 or so to Parcelforce International.

This is why it is not cheaper to import a Cachecard yourself. 9th Tee does supply in the end - but you just have to be patient............

Just checked though and it seems to be £69 now? Perhaps they have had a price increase?


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Pete77 said:


> Just checked though and it seems to be £69 now? Perhaps they have had a price increase?


£69 - £5 (pay with google) = £64 delivered , and in stock


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## gwynnej3 (Dec 23, 2002)

I bought and have used a Topfield TF5800 for about three or four months since my Daewoo Setpal STB became unreliable and the TIvo kept recording the wrong channels.
We (me, wife and 10 year old) all thought the Toppy's hardware great - twin tuners, 250Gb disk, small size, reasonably quiet (after rejecting the first one that arrived). But after the Tivo it's AWFUL to use. Horrid user interface, inconsistent and inconvenient to use, picture quality not all that good, the Freeview EPG is far below the quality of the TIvo service. Set a repeat recording and it goes on recording the wrong programme yet names it as per the original prog you wanted. Dreadful.
So I've purchased a Sony VTX D800 STB which while proce seems brilliant and looks good on top of the Tivo.

The Topfield is going on Ebay once we've watched everything from it's hard disk.

Welcome back Tivo, it's like putting on an old jacket or pair of shoes - it's feeling its age, but Just Does The Job.:up:


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## worm (Feb 10, 2005)

gwynnej3 said:


> So I've purchased a Sony VTX D800 STB which while proce seems brilliant and looks good on top of the Tivo.
> 
> The Topfield is going on Ebay once we've watched everything from it's hard disk.
> 
> Welcome back Tivo, it's like putting on an old jacket or pair of shoes - it's feeling its age, but Just Does The Job.:up:


We now have two of the Sony D800s, and love them.

TiVo loves the box - I can't remember a single problem, and we can now watch another Freeview channel while TiVo records another.

Woo hoo!


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## gwynnej3 (Dec 23, 2002)

proce ? 

I think I meant pricey!


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

Poggs.

I know your Sky HD is over 12months old, probably has the buldging capacitor problem which will still your until stuck in standby after about 15 months, and is probably well noisy with the crap fans they stuck in it.

If you are interested, I would do a swap for one of my lifetime tivo units with a net card???


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## nathan (Feb 18, 2002)

I have a networked, 120Gb lifetime subbed Tivo boxed up in the spare room and looking for a good home. PM me if interested.


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## poggs (Feb 2, 2003)

6022tivo said:


> Poggs.
> 
> I know your Sky HD is over 12months old, probably has the buldging capacitor problem which will still your until stuck in standby after about 15 months, and is probably well noisy with the crap fans they stuck in it.
> 
> If you are interested, I would do a swap for one of my lifetime tivo units with a net card???


I got automan to sell me one of his via pm and am awaiting my happy return to the fold! I'm looking forward to having a play with tivoweb. Never had that on my old one.

I will be using Tivo with my old digibox in another room. The Sky HD will still be in the living room doing its 747 impression. Its buttons no longer work, and I've had to swap the hard drive, but the unit's still working! Piece of buggy rubbish though.

Thanks for all the help.


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

Yes enjoy your new toy which should be along before 13:00 on Monday.

Automan.


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## TivoTortoise (Apr 7, 2002)

If anyone is still looking out for one of those rare highly specced Tivos I've just listed my 250Gb Lifetime sub networked machine on ebay. Its the first thing I've ever tried to sell on ebay but sadly I went over to the dark side & my Tivo was sitting under the telly not being used so I thought I might as well see it get some use and generate some cash. This forum has been hugely helpful over the years and my final question is what should I move onto to play with instead? I've got a Reciva radio but that's a bit limited. The next generation Asus EEE?
PS - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I might sell the Tivo for close to the price of the original machine, which would be quite something.


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## afrokiwi (Oct 6, 2001)

I think you want to get rid of the pic with your service number .....



TivoTortoise said:


> If anyone is still looking out for one of those rare highly specced Tivos I've just listed my 250Gb Lifetime sub networked machine on ebay .......


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

afrokiwi said:


> I think you want to get rid of the pic with your service number .....


Just blanking out the service number in the pic should be enough. afrowki's point being that it is rather easy to clone Tivo service numbers.


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## TivoTortoise (Apr 7, 2002)

thanks for the advice guys - I've now blanked out the service number
cheers, Dave


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