# Will You Still Be Using Your TiVo In October 2010?



## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

Only just over two years to go and our TiVo's will be 10 years old!

I was wondering how many of you still think you will be using your TiVo on a daily basis in October 2010?

Automan.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

I may also be using MCE or Freesat PVR for HD by then but I can see my lifetime Tivo staying connected until the EPG disappears even if it ends up in our bedroom or my daughters.


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## tenwiseman (Dec 3, 2006)

Definately will be using it!

Now that this poll is up, you people lurking and in for the long term better pipe up and show your interest!

Otherwise "a man in a suit" will read this thread and scribble something nasty in an email "recommendation". And we certainly do not want that...


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## ad_jack (Jul 20, 2007)

most definately


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Can you add an option of "Already regretfully stopped"?


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## Davyburns (Jan 7, 2004)

I hope to be using a brand new series 4 Tivo by then

I think Tenwisemen is right, I wouldn't mind betting that at least 1 "Suit" is watching this thread with interest!


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

3 x lifetimes.


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## a_tivo_noob (Jan 2, 2004)

hmmm, now i immediately answered 'yes' but technically it's a 'no' if they bring out a newer dual tuner Tivo as I will be using that one instead


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## hazydaze (Nov 12, 2001)

Yep.

I only have freeview and it's still the best option for me.

Only feature I would like is dual tuners...but then it already records more than I can watch.

Have upgraded hard drive mind you.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

All things being equal (ie EPG still available, etc.) then it's a 'yes' from me.


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## Raisltin Majere (Mar 13, 2004)

Sorry to over-complicate things but I'm not sure how to vote.

When you say "use every day" do you mean physically use the tivo? I don't do that now, it does it thing everyday, but I don't use it everyday.

I watch little TV, what I do watch Tivo records and I don't imagine this will change in the next couple of years.


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## davidshack (Aug 17, 2002)

Whilst other - apparently sexier - options may have appeared, TiVo is still head and shoulders, chest and knees ahead in terms of intelligence and user interface: a model of good software design and good hardware implementation - even in its series 1 version. 

I use 3 TiVos: which I set and forget for weeks at a time, confident that they will do their work. Even the remote is still a model for today - use it in the dark and your fingers still find the right buttons. How many remotes do you see with that level of design?: usually they are just a mess of buttons.

Sadly, marketers brainwash too many people into thinking that what is new is best. High def? Dolby sound? Twin tuners? Nice ideas but for me no compensation for DUMB machines. And I use all mine on 8 foot screens and with cinema sound, so quality is important to me.

Though perhaps I'm a Luddite: I admit I'd even hesitate to buy the latest TiVo (if it became available) if such useful features as 30 second ad skip have been disabled. 

A design gem. Timeless.

David


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## speedyrite (May 18, 2002)

If the EPG data stil keeps coming through, I'll still be using my TiVo times two...


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## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

Raisltin Majere said:


> Sorry to over-complicate things but I'm not sure how to vote.
> 
> When you say "use every day" do you mean physically use the tivo? I don't do that now, it does it thing everyday, but I don't use it everyday.
> 
> I watch little TV, what I do watch Tivo records and I don't imagine this will change in the next couple of years.


I suppose that would be a "yes" answer...

Please note that a typical UK Tivo with a Set Top Box will be eating up to 60watts of power all the time so if you are hardly viewing it you may wish to put it's running cost into the equation.

Still a 90% yes vote which is cool....

I wonder how many Series 1 Tivo will remain active in the USA in 2010?

Automan.


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## pj280167 (Dec 21, 2005)

A life without my trusty Series 1 ? I really can't imagine it. I'm looking forward to my one year old son being as evangelical about Tivo when he gets to school as I still am to colleagues and friends.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

I will be using it forever or until an alternative lets me record subscription channels easily.

I use MCE exclusively with freeview instead of TiVo now but so far have resisted getting Sky +


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## Richard42 (Dec 27, 2000)

I will certainly be using my 2 lifetime tivo's - though they may need new disc's by then ( both still on their originals and one at least was a first month machine )


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

I'll never say never, but until someting comes along that works better I'll stay with Tivo.
I still buy the new stuff to try them out though 



Automan said:


> Please note that a typical UK Tivo with a Set Top Box will be eating up to 60watts of power all the time so if you are hardly viewing it you may wish to put it's running cost into the equation.


[OT warning] energy saving is good, but how much you value your own time?

10p per kWh ... 60W is 0.06kW 
0.06 x 24hrs x 7days x 10p = £1

£1 a week to run Tivo ? Why bother turning it off when it saves you so much time?

Some standby equipment really is wasting energy and money when not being used, tivo is constantly recording stuff for us to watch in the dead time...


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

davidshack said:


> TiVo is still head and shoulders, chest and knees ahead in terms of ... user interface


I would agree with regard to nearly all the competition out there but, IMHO, Vista MCE is significantly better than a Series 1 TiVo; albeit at a greater cost.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

I still reckon I will be using Tivo in two years time as I have no second satellite feed on my communal satellite aerial system that would support a Freesat PVR. However I can see that having an HD television at least for live tv viewing is going to become tempting if and when F1 is broadcast in HD.

I find the 21 day EPG on lesser channels like National Geographic very useful when periodically subscribing to Sky and wanting to pick up the maximum possible number of programs. Only having a 7 day EPG would be a major retrograde step.


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

Should also be a don't know.

If the freesat HD HDD box is any good the tivo will retire.


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## Maclynn (Oct 6, 2000)

3 lifetimes. Two with freeview and one with Humax 2000 sat box.
I will keep using them until they or I fail, unless TiVo reappears.


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## karl (Oct 1, 2002)

I'm afraid not.

Tivo was definitely brilliant at the time.

I switched to V+ a couple of years back, mainly because it used to confuse the hell out of my girlfriend when the Tivo put a message about changing channels all over the screen when she was in the middle of watching Corrie!

The 2+1 tuners in V+ is definitely a big plus.

However, I'm planning to give up V+ too now. One reason for that being that I recently got back from holiday and for some reason V+ recorded 18 hours of TV which I can't delete. Oh, and the little matter of losing Sky 1. Oh, and the fact they were charging me £90 a month for TV/phone/internet.

Last year I built a new PC with Vista. Might as well spend £50 on a (dual tuner) tv card to try out Media Centre, right? Turns out VMC is not too bad, and the great thing is it's obviously easy to back recordings up, access over the net etc.

When V+ goes wrong, you're stuffed as far as I can see. PCs / Windows may go wrong too, but I feel a lot more in control.

It's a shame that VMC doesn't do season passes as well as Tivo. I also wish I could just have a simple list of the recordings, in the same way as V+ with a "Recorded/Part Viewed/Viewed" column. It is possible to develop plugins of course, plus you can look at the list of recordings in Explorer (of course the latter can't give you the Viewed etc column, and I'm not sure if the former could either - although VMC does know if you are part of the way through watching a recording as it lets you resume).

I haven't fully switched over to VMC yet though because of the backlog of recordings on my V+, but I will have done by 2010.


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

karl said:


> It's a shame that VMC doesn't do season passes as well as Tivo.


I actually think it does them much better then tivo, and 100 times better then sky+.

With Media Centre you can alter the season pass to record off more then one channel, e.g. CH4+1 as well as Ch4 for conflicts, and also you can opt to record at certain times, like around 9pm for news etc. so it does not record every news during the day.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Well we know a season pass is tied to the channel, but a wishlist works across all channels, 
but if you go to view-upcoming-episodes on a season pass, it actually shows episodes across all channels.

Maybe that's a minor bug, and season passes work accross channels on later versions of the tivo software ?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

mikerr said:


> Well we know a season pass is tied to the channel, but a wishlist works across all channels,
> but if you go to view-upcoming-episodes on a season pass, it actually shows episodes across all channels.
> 
> Maybe that's a minor bug, and season passes work accross channels on later versions of the tivo software ?


It would definitely be a big improvement if a Season Pass could be allowed to operate across any number of channels specifically chosen by the Tivo owner and/or on all channels except for certain specific channels on which it should not be able to operate. The same is true of Wishlists if they could operate only on certain channels or on all channels apart from a list of channels that they should avoid.

I'm surprised that no one has yet written a hack for our UK S1 Tivos to make this possible.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Sounds like another opportunity to flex your programming muscles Pete!

It would be quite easy to do within TiVoWeb, but much harder to make it accessible through the regular TiVo interface.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

6022tivo said:


> I actually think it does them much better then tivo, and 100 times better then sky+.


I agree, any problems are guide data related, and as we know TiVo is not squeaky clean on that front!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> I agree, any problems are guide data related, and as we know TiVo is not squeaky clean on that front!


At least they have up to 21 days worth (something I regularly make use of).

How many days date does does MCE have?


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Just checking now, and have data on all Freeview channels (including the terrestrial big 5) until the small hours of Monday 28th so a whit over 14 days.

I don't know about Sky.

For me, that extra week of the main channels is more use.


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## cleudo (Apr 7, 2002)

It's not as though we've had a quantum leap in quality (hd aside) which would have made most TiVo'ers defect.

In fact, you could argue that our S1 tivos exceed the quality of the available material to record onto them (more so with dttv which looks complete garbage).

If HD became the norm, then my TiVo would have to retire, but until then, it's a solid dependable (well mostly) workhorse and central part of my av setup.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

TBH "can tivo be upgraded to HD" is the second most frequenlty asked question I get...

The most fequently asked question is about ... twin tuners


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

I can't agree cluedo, the step up in picture quality when you move to direct recording of the digital signal is quite noticeable to me.

And TiVo really mauls DPL surround sound audio - I'm amazed any surround survives the encoding.


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## Glen (May 9, 2004)

I honestly don't know now. I love my TiVo dearly, but as technology progresses, TiVo gets older. Ultimately, i hope to be running a nice TiVo HD that supports Sky but seriously, who am I kidding, i'm living in a dream world. My LCD TV's built in standard def freeview is a better picture than some of the channels that are piped through my tivo. I want to have my tv running at the best it can, and my TiVo just can't do that. Even with mode 0 (which i am told by looking at my tivo's logs i have). Eventually i'll get Sky HD, because despite what TiVo can do compared to it, the picture quality is better.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

TCM2007 said:


> I can't agree cluedo, the step up in picture quality when you move to direct recording of the digital signal is quite noticeable to me.


And MCE's subsequent upscaling of the picture to 1920x1080 for HDMI output to my Samsung TV is quite impressive. My TiVo can only output over SCART, at best with Mode 0 resolution.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Prices TiVo's go for on eBay are dropping now. One went for &#163;15 today, and one with a liftetime for just over &#163;100.


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## ghstone (Apr 12, 2003)

I'm a definite yes - it works so why change it ? Of course fo we can get a TIVO HD in the UK that would be great too.

And a little off topic, but possibly of interest to Pete - F1 is going to the Beeb next year, and given that they will no doubt want to improve on ITV's current service HD is a possibility, I suppose it all depends on the feeds though.

Graham (just down the road in Leek)


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

ghstone said:


> I'm a definite yes - it works so why change it ? Of course fo we can get a TIVO HD in the UK that would be great too.
> 
> And a little off topic, but possibly of interest to Pete - F1 is going to the Beeb next year, and given that they will no doubt want to improve on ITV's current service HD is a possibility, I suppose it all depends on the feeds though.
> 
> Graham (just down the road in Leek)


If the BBC managed to get the F1 on the HD Channel, then I will have to get some sort of HD box.
Thing is, I have used Sky+ for a while and really hated it, horrible interface, horrible implementation of PVR functions.
I was speaking to someone who works for sky yesterday about tivo and sky, they said the average customer does not want tivo functions, and the complex operation and setup. They want a standard Sky interface they are used to, and apparently market research says Sky+ is the product they want??. They don't want any other features, and enjoy the easy to use system?? Apparently with Sky+ you could give it to a granny and they can use it in minutes, with a tivo it could take weeks???

Anyways, I might get a SkyHD but still use the standard box and the tivo for SD stuff.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

3 Lifetime subbed TiVos in constant use in our household - all going strong. I'm not a leading edge chaser and I don't watch sport so I haven't gone over to HD yet - Mode 0 on a 42" SD plasma is fine for me.

So yes, assuming TiVo haven't brought out a replacement by 2010 (although the signs that they might are encouraging!) I will still be using my Series 1 TiVos in 2010.


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## SimonG (Jun 25, 2002)

Unfortunately HD does it for me. Soon to be getting a Sky HD box. I will keep TiVo for Freeview/Freesat though


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## johala_reewi (Oct 30, 2002)

TCM2007 said:


> Sounds like another opportunity to flex your programming muscles Pete!
> 
> It would be quite easy to do within TiVoWeb, but much harder to make it accessible through the regular TiVo interface.


xTivoweb has this facility already. It can set up a season pass for a series for each channel the series is showing on (bulk season pass add).


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Does it refresh that though, so when a programme crops up on a channel it wasn't showing on initially it still gets it?


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## mjk (Mar 13, 2002)

I have a Vista Media Center system and it does OK, but I don't really use it for recording much. Seems ironic that I ended up having to get a Quad Core system with 4GB to get it to not hog all the CPU. (I use the rest of the cycles converting the stuff TiVo records into DVD format.) It is quite amazing what a TiVo Series 1 manages with a 50MHz processor and 16Mb of memory! No way I am going to replace my 2 TiVos for Sd contenet any time soon. If I go to HD one day I guess I will have yet another recording platform!


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

mjk said:


> I have a Vista Media Center system and it does OK, but I don't really use it for recording much. Seems ironic that I ended up having to get a Quad Core system with 4GB to get it to not hog all the CPU. (I use the rest of the cycles converting the stuff TiVo records into DVD format.) It is quite amazing what a TiVo Series 1 manages with a 50MHz processor and 16Mb of memory! No way I am going to replace my 2 TiVos for Sd contenet any time soon. If I go to HD one day I guess I will have yet another recording platform!


I have a dual core thingy as I was given it. But in case it does put people off, I did use a single P4. 1.6Ghz with under a gig of ram for a year or so with no problems at all.


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## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

SimonG said:


> Unfortunately HD does it for me. Soon to be getting a Sky HD box. I will keep TiVo for Freeview/Freesat though


I've got Sky HD and only use it to watch HD content (of which there isn't much) or when there's a must see programme and my TiVo is busy recording something else. Apart from the improved picture quality (which for SD material isn't significantly better than my Mode 0 TiVo converted to component and upscaled to 1080p by my Onkyo 905 amp) and dual tuners, Sky HD is absolutely ****e - a shockingly bad UI, not to mention quite poor reliability (regular crashes, and if I used it to record more often I'm sure I'd be complaining about missed recordings like everyone else!) It's amazing SkyHD can come up so short when compared to a product that hasn't been updated in almost 8 years!

Take my advice and add the irblaster hack so your TiVo schedules HD content to be recorded on the SkyHD box, and you can enjoy TiVo for everything else - each time I watch HD content I realise what a joy the TiVo is to use.  For me this is the best compromise until the TiVo hardware dies or TiVo return to the UK with an all digital setup!


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## Mark Bennett (Sep 17, 2001)

Milhouse said:


> I've got Sky HD and only use it to watch HD content (of which there isn't much) or when there's a must see programme and my TiVo is busy recording something else. Apart from the improved picture quality (which for SD material isn't significantly better than my Mode 0 TiVo converted to component and upscaled to 1080p by my Onkyo 905 amp) and dual tuners, Sky HD is absolutely ****e - a shockingly bad UI, not to mention quite poor reliability (regular crashes, and if I used it to record more often I'm sure I'd be complaining about missed recordings like everyone else!) It's amazing SkyHD can come up so short when compared to a product that hasn't been updated in almost 8 years!
> 
> Take my advice and add the irblaster hack so your TiVo schedules HD content to be recorded on the SkyHD box, and you can enjoy TiVo for everything else - each time I watch HD content I realise what a joy the TiVo is to use.  For me this is the best compromise until the TiVo hardware dies or TiVo return to the UK with an all digital setup!


And that's pretty much how it works for me - HD content on the Sky HD, everythng else on the TiVo.

Now with all the channel changes recently I need to think about re-mapping my irblaster...


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## Phil B (Sep 9, 2001)

Automan said:


> Please note that a typical UK Tivo with a Set TIop Box will be eating up to 60watts of power all the time so if you are hardly viewing it you may wish to put it's running cost into the equation.


The constant 60 Watts bothers me. Cost isn't huge, but I hate wasting energy out of principle, which is what pulls me towards an integrated Freeview box which would share power supply and presumably only use power for freeview bit when viewing or recording.

Having said that, I voted yes, for the reasons of reliability and ease of use mentioned in other posts. My teenage daughter is even more loyal to TiVo than me. She still gets excited when I very occasionally reboot it and TiVo buddy comes down his slide, before we giggle at the "As recommended by Sky" line.


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## SimonG (Jun 25, 2002)

Milhouse said:


> I've got Sky HD and only use it to watch HD content (of which there isn't much)
> 
> Take my advice and add the irblaster hack so your TiVo schedules HD content to be recorded on the SkyHD box, and you can enjoy TiVo for everything else -


Could anyone point me to a 101 on irblaster. I have an upgraded TiVo initially by myself and then by tivoheaven but no cachecard.

What is the irblaster and what does it do with a Sky HD box?

My alternative is a multiroom sub just for the TiVo


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## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

Almost certainly I'll have either Sky HD or some kind of Freesat HD set up (be it an official PVR or a home-built PVR).

Picture quality is the driving force here. HD obviously, but also for SD material as there's an HDMI feed and it's possible to get upscaled (to 1080i at least) output.

Having a 40" LCD pushes me further as the poor quality of TiVo is blindingly obvious. If I were to rank sources by picture quality I'd say...

composite->TiVo(RGB)->s-video->Sky(RGB)->DVD(RGB)->component->Sky(upscaled HDMI)->DVD(upscaled HDMI)->Sky HD->HD DVD/Blu-Ray(HDMI)


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## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

SimonG said:


> Could anyone point me to a 101 on irblaster. I have an upgraded TiVo initially by myself and then by tivoheaven but no cachecard.
> 
> What is the irblaster and what does it do with a Sky HD box?
> 
> My alternative is a multiroom sub just for the TiVo


Sorry for the delay responding, have a look at this thread.

With the irblaster script you still schedule programmes with TiVo, but when a programme broadcast in HD is going to be recorded the TiVo will tell the SkyHD box to record (as well as the TiVo recording it in SD). When I have a recording conflict in the TiVo which can't be resolved by a repeat (a very rare occurrence) I manually tell the SkyHD box to record it, so in combination with the automated recording of HD content this is an acceptable compromise for the time being.

The easiest way to install the hack is over a network connection to your TiVo - if you don't have a network connection then pulling the disk(s) and installing via your PC should also work but is obviously a lot more hassle.


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## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

DeadKenny said:


> Having a 40" LCD pushes me further as the poor quality of TiVo is blindingly obvious. If I were to rank sources by picture quality I'd say...
> 
> composite->TiVo(RGB)->s-video->Sky(RGB)->DVD(RGB)->component->Sky(upscaled HDMI)->DVD(upscaled HDMI)->Sky HD->HD DVD/Blu-Ray(HDMI)


I've got a Mode 0 TiVo with it's RGB SCART output connected to a JS Technology SCART->Component converter which outputs to an Onkyo TX-NR905 amp upscaling to 1080p which is then fed over HDMI to a Philips Aurea 42" LCD - I have to say the picture quality is very very good, IMHO.

Though I have just watched the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix and the picture quality was utterly sh1te, which is almost certainly due to the source and isn't particularly unusual for ITV (on Sky Digital anyway - I still remember the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester - awful awful awful picture quality!)


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