# Time for a campaign for the HD TiVo in the UK?



## Timdownieuk (Nov 27, 2002)

I realise that I'm by no means the first to bemoan the lack of new TiVos in the UK but it's really galling to read this forum and see the sponsored ads for the TiVo HD PVR on sale in the US.

There must be some way of appealing to TiVo to re-enter the UK market now that HD is here. Up till now, the old faithful TiVo has been doing an excellent job and despite the lack of integral digital tuner(s) it's still the best PVR around for ease of use. I've tried Humax & Sony PVRs but by comparison, they just don't come anywhere near the TiVo.

Now though, my old TiVo is in danger of becoming obsolete but I'm not about to shell out good money for an inferior product if there's any chance at all that TiVo might be persuaded to come back to the UK.

So, who can we moan to? How many letters would it need to a MD somewhere to convince them that the time is right to return to the UK?

We all know that the first time around, the TiVo was "ahead of its time" and poorly marketed. The general public just didn't "get it". This time though, things are completely different and I'm convinced the TiVo HD PVRs would fly off the shelves.

Anyone got any names or contacts?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Timdownieuk said:


> So, who can we moan to? How many letters would it need to a MD somewhere to convince them that the time is right to return to the UK?
> 
> We all know that the first time around, the TiVo was "ahead of its time" and poorly marketed. The general public just didn't "get it". This time though, things are completely different and I'm convinced the TiVo HD PVRs would fly off the shelves.
> 
> Anyone got any names or contacts?


This has already been tried by several forum members with Tivo but their corporate answer is no in the UK either to a full blown Tivo S3 PVR or to to a launch of their PC based Tivo service in conjunction with Nero. There is also a corporate stonewall policy of Tivo board members not responding to email correspondence on such matter and of staff in Sky's Tivo customer service operation saying it is not an issue for them to discuss with customers.

Basically Tivo doesn't believe that it can make a profit in the UK when it is now up against Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview and Freesat and when two of those four platforms offer subscription free hard drive recording. Not to mention services such as BBC Iplayer and 4OD.

The only good news is that Tivo seems committed to maintaining the S1 Tivo service for some time to come given their just having put in the time and effort to restore the broken Suggestions functionality on the UK S1 Tivo units.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> There is also a corporate stonewall policy of Tivo board members not responding to email correspondence on such matter and of staff in Sky's Tivo customer service operation saying it is not an issue for them to discuss with customers.


Well duh! Board members are not "customer facing" and are more about the background workings of a company and Sky ain't Tivo


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> Well duh! Board members are not "customer facing" and are more about the background workings of a company and Sky ain't Tivo


Actually the Chief Executive/Managing Director has traditionally been the last point of escalation for high level complaints from customers in most well run companies.

Only in badly run companies do senior management try to avoid all customer issues and try and fob everything off back to customer services.

To be fair we have had direct recent fairly high level feedback to UK customers from both TivoPony and TivoJerry in connection with Suggestions and daily call/subscription transfer issues but I doubt they would be prepared to enter in to a discussion as to why Tivo is not prepared to re-enter the UK marketplace.


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## Gavin (Jan 1, 2003)

Being perfectly honest it's too late for us. Moch as I andf the wife like Tive we have a High Def TV and the only way to get HD for free is Freesat. The Humax box may not be a Tivo but it's here and available (or at least I'm on a waiting list for Humax to get stock) NOW.

Would I buy a new Tivo if they released a new HD Tivo, probably not, unless it's announced in the next few weeks before the Humax arrives. After we get the Humax I won't be looking at replacing the PVR for at least 2 years.

Sorry Tivo is a great system, but it's going to be too late for US, and once Freeview+ and Freesat+ take off (Freeview+ is, Freesat+ will do so) it's going to be very hard to find anyone in the UK who will pay extra for the Tivo software. As the BBC, ITV, C4 and C5 all do an ondemand catch up service I don;t see any reason to get something that can schedule around conflicts, when things are either repeated a lot, or on demand.

Sorry it's a bit doom and gloom...


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Gavin said:


> Sorry Tivo is a great system, but it's going to be too late for US, and once Freeview+ and Freesat+ take off (Freeview+ is, Freesat+ will do so) it's going to be very hard to find anyone in the UK who will pay extra for the Tivo software. As the BBC, ITV, C4 and C5 all do an ondemand catch up service I don;t see any reason to get something that can schedule around conflicts, when things are either repeated a lot, or on demand.


I agree with you, although on the positive side the development of tv catchup services is one reason why the lack of dual tuners on a Tivo S1 is now a less serious problem as there is an easy workaround.

So the only thing that really seems to encourage people to replace their Tivos with newer equipment is the fact that they feel they cannot continue to make do without HD picture quality.


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## jonphil (Aug 7, 2002)

Have to admit we have been considering a SKY HD box, but at the same time neither of us want to give up on Tivo which has been recording our Sky on a lifetime sub for 7 years. It's become like a member of the family.
However Tivo seem uninterested in the UK market, so it looks like we have little alternative.
With the current economic climate I doubt that Tivo would want to risk entering other markets 

Unless Tivo or someone can say otherwise we may have to say bye to Tivo (or at least move him into the bedroom)


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

jonphil said:


> Unless Tivo or someone can say otherwise we may have to say bye to Tivo (or at least move him into the bedroom)


Doesn't the restoration of Suggestions functionality by Tivo do anything to restore your faith in your trusty old friend?


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## Gavin (Jan 1, 2003)

Pete77 said:


> So the only thing that really seems to encourage people to replace their Tivos with newer equipment is the fact that they feel they cannot continue to make do without HD picture quality.


Partly, but also we are going to dump Virgin Media as a TV source, and I'll get one box of a Freesat tuner / recorder than having two boxes that do one job. I could use Tivo and a Freeview box, but thats two power cables and the IR blaster wires.

We are moving (estate agents permitting) soon, and I'm already planning on rationalising the boxes, losing the HiFi Tape deck I almost never use, losing the CD player, DAC, network hub, TV signal booster and VM boxes and just using the DVD as a cd source. Moving to a Freesat+ box I can go lose the TV booster (Freeview a very low signal strength here till the switch over) as well and go from 12 plugs at the back of the TV/Hifi unit to 6, and also losing a lot of the wiring I have down there thats grown over time. ( I dread having to touch it as it usually end up knocking a wire out and it's a PITA to work out what goes where again.)

So it's partly quality, Mode 0 tivo works well, but it's a fudge, and partly a move to tidy up my AV kit, so we'll just have the gaming, CD player and TV/ cinema kit in the lounge and the rest of the Hifi bits will go in my den.

One thing that was great getting Tivo was going from a few remotes to one. Convergance worked in it's favour, now it's working against it. Ot we had better Tivo's like the US I may have upgraded it, but we don't and it will be consigned to a den or sold.


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## mutant_matt2 (Dec 16, 2008)

Someone will have to prise my TiVo out of my cold dead hands, that's how good I think it is (as does my wife), and is why I have done all the usual things to keep it going (network card, TivoWeb+, large hard drive, Mode0, expensive SCART cable to and from it).

I sincerely hope it lives many more years (and if not, I hope to be able to buy a replacement off eBay, or one of you lot), to keep it going further, as I will have a use for it as long as I need to record SD programmes, and if you ask me, they will be around for a very long time yet!

However, I would dearly like to augment it with another TiVo, which is HD capable, as now having a Freesat Panasonic large plasma, I have been wowed by some of the programming on BBC HD and (not so much) ITV HD (the football looks amazing though!!  ). I am currently resisting a Humax HDR for the HD recordings, as it's clearly not a patch on TiVo, but perhaps if they iron out the bugs, and add some dearly needed features, I might jump in. But, even if I do, if I could lay my hands on an HD capable TiVo, I'd happily spend the money on that also.

How hard could it be to offer an EU wide (in fact these days, surely they could make a single global model), generic DVB-S/S2 twin tuner unit, perhaps even with single/twin DVB-T as well? That would open up a very large market for the single unit, and and if the only way of getting updates was via the network, over the internet, no local phone costs either. I guess then, the stumbling block would be the EPG updates for a wide ranging area (all of the EU), which is presumably the bit where they don't think they could make a decent profit, and their model is making the profit on the service/updates?

There must be at least several hundred people who would happily buy a US model, if there was some unofficial or semi-unofficial way of getting it to work, even if they didn't supply the updates? There are surely plenty of ways to get programme data independently these days?

Finally, if anybody has any decent contact details of people we *could* at least write to, to try and keep the pressure on, you never know (after all, how many people expected suggestions to actually get fixed?  ). If you don't keep making a noise, you certainly won't be heard!

Matt (dreaming  ).

P.S. Even if it was available, no I don't want anything running on top of Windows


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

You can find the Tivo management team at http://investor.tivo.com/management.cfm and their Board of Directors at http://investor.tivo.com/directors.cfm

Tom Rogers, Jim Barton (co-founder of the company), Joe Miller and Mark Roberts look like the people you need to lobby.

However I have never had any luck with getting a Read Receipt or reply for any possible variation of likely Tivo staff member email address formats eg [email protected] etc. It seems to be a closely guarded secret but perhaps you could try sending them a letter in the post instead.

Alternatively there is an Investor Relations Contact Us form at http://investor.tivo.com/contactus.cfm


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## Timdownieuk (Nov 27, 2002)

mutant_matt2 said:


> Finally, if anybody has any decent contact details of people we *could* at least write to, to try and keep the pressure on, you never know (after all, how many people expected suggestions to actually get fixed?  ). If you don't keep making a noise, you certainly won't be heard!
> 
> Matt (dreaming  ).


Almost certainly a waste of time but it can't hurt to try so I popped a letter in the post to customer support at:

TiVo Inc.
2160 Gold Street
P.O. Box 2160
Alviso, CA 95002-2160

It probably would have been better to address it to Tom Rogers, the CEO and president.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Timdownieuk said:


> It probably would have been better to address it to Tom Rogers, the CEO and president.


Yes it would as customer services are never equipped to handle policy issues. They only handle counting the number of complaints under standard headings. As they don't service the UK product (done by Sky remember) then this will mean nothing to them.

I would print it out again, address it to Tom Rogers and send it off to him as well.


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Why did TiVo believe Mexico City or Australia were a profitable market but not the UK?

BTW for those of you that might not be aware TiVo works in both Mexico City and Australia officially.

http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport...lityhelp/CABLEVISION_TiVo_in_Mexico_City.html


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## mutant_matt2 (Dec 16, 2008)

ciper said:


> Why did TiVo believe Mexico City or Australia were a profitable market but not the UK?
> 
> BTW for those of you that might not be aware TiVo works in both Mexico City and Australia officially.
> 
> http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport...lityhelp/CABLEVISION_TiVo_in_Mexico_City.html


No idea but a wild guess would be, depends on what services are already available in that specific market, what the competition is, and therefore likely market share, and profit.

On that basis, I suspect they don't want to re-enter the UK market, because of Sky and Sky+, and because of now, Freeview+ and Freesat+ - too much competition, and some of it, zero subscription based.

Thanks for the contact details guys, emails and letters on their way shortly, for what it's worth...

Matt.


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## ghstone (Apr 12, 2003)

so what would it take to get a U.S. or Australian TivoHD box working in the UK ?

I already have lifetime subbed TIVOs, is there a way of getting one of those to schedule the recording, change channel on the FreeSAT HD, but use the other box as a slave -turning manual recording on and off ?

In my previous life as a coder, I'd have had a crack at this - but finding the time to get back into it is unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Graham


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## Timdownieuk (Nov 27, 2002)

mutant_matt2 said:


> No idea but a wild guess would be, depends on what services are already available in that specific market, what the competition is, and therefore likely market share, and profit.
> 
> On that basis, I suspect they don't want to re-enter the UK market, because of Sky and Sky+, and because of now, Freeview+ and Freesat+ - too much competition, and some of it, zero subscription based.
> 
> ...


Whilst I agree with the above, I think *we* all know that once you get a TiVo in your front door and plugged into your telly, the superiority of the TiVo and the value of the programme guide become apparent. It has to be said, I wouldn't ever go for a monthly subscription and acknowledge that selling a hefty one-off lifetime sub is going to be a hard sell to UK customers.

If ever TiVo were to enter the rental market (does that still exist?) or some other "try before you buy" scheme, I think they'd have no trouble convincing folk.


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## Glen (May 9, 2004)

ghstone said:


> so what would it take to get a U.S. or Australian TivoHD box working in the UK ?
> 
> I already have lifetime subbed TIVOs, is there a way of getting one of those to schedule the recording, change channel on the FreeSAT HD, but use the other box as a slave -turning manual recording on and off ?
> 
> ...


It would take compatible guide date being allowed, aswell as TiVo allowing service numbers from the UK, and a in the case of the US TiVo's a PAL tuner instead of a NTSC one. It really irritates me tho, seeing the ads on here going on about the better tivos they have out there. Fine, TiVo, dont want to know about starting back up over here, but why wont they allow us to buy an Oz tivo and then allow it to read our guide data, i dont know what they would need to change in the guide thats different to what we have now. It cant be that hard to get an Oz tivo working over here can it?


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## Gavin (Jan 1, 2003)

Timdownieuk said:


> Whilst I agree with the above, I think *we* all know that once you get a TiVo in your front door and plugged into your telly, the superiority of the TiVo and the value of the programme guide become apparent.


Absolutely true. However many people HAVE bought (or rented via VM) a box already, Tivo may be better, but is it better enough to justify throwing away one recorder and buying another. Probably not. Tivo's good, but once something is in place most people only replace boxes when they die.


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## BrianHughes (Jan 21, 2001)

Gavin said:


> ...
> Tivo's good, but once something is in place most people only replace boxes when they die.


I agree. I'm only going to replace my Tivo when I die.   
(Which - if you go by my photo & the nasty flu I have at the moment mighn't be too far away  )


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## randap (Jan 21, 2003)

I wonder if we were to buy shares in TiVo (NASDAQ) then we could legitimately question the company at the AGM??? Shares are currently trading at $7.56 USD.


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

randap said:


> I wonder if we were to buy shares in TiVo (NASDAQ) then we could legitimately question the company at the AGM??? Shares are currently trading at $7.56 USD.


I think you need about $2000 USD of shares and have owned them for a year.. http://www.socialinvest.org/projects/advocacy/resolutions.cfm
(This is quite different from the Uk where you need 5% or 100 shareholders http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gba7.shtml)

However a majority control of the shares might be more persuasive.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Most UK AGMs you can just pitch up (if you own 1 share) and ask away.


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## Glen (May 9, 2004)

Well I have written a nice letter to Tom Rogers and Jim Barton, which I will be sending off to Alviso tomorrow.


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## Glen (May 9, 2004)

well, my letter went by Airmail this morning! I wonder what my reply (if at all) will be like.


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## ghstone (Apr 12, 2003)

Glen said:


> It would take compatible guide date being allowed, aswell as TiVo allowing service numbers from the UK, and a in the case of the US TiVo's a PAL tuner instead of a NTSC one. It really irritates me tho, seeing the ads on here going on about the better tivos they have out there. Fine, TiVo, dont want to know about starting back up over here, but why wont they allow us to buy an Oz tivo and then allow it to read our guide data, i dont know what they would need to change in the guide thats different to what we have now. It cant be that hard to get an Oz tivo working over here can it?


I agree if I wanted to use guide data etc, but if I don't - Digiguide scheduling from PC perhaps - then surely it would work ? I'm not sure about the PAL/NTSC problem either - surely the output from an HD STB over HDMI is neither PAL nor NTSC, it's HD over HDMI ??


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

ghstone said:


> surely the output from an HD STB over HDMI is neither PAL nor NTSC, it's HD over HDMI ??


PAL/NTSC are really analogue standards, HDMI is a digital standard,
- but hold on - PAL/NTSC also define the resolution and refresh rate:
PAL is 576/50Hz, NTSC is 480/60Hz
...and that will be carried accross HDMI.

Better notation:
"does my TV support both 576i25 ("PAL") and 480i29.97 ("NTSC") over HDMI?" 

Anyway, the bigger problem with a US TiVo would be getting a compatible tuner,
otherwise how are you going to get HD content into it?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

I just registered at www.lead411.com on a trial (free) subscription. This US website gives contact details of a company's senior execs.

They list these contact details for relevant Tivo senior staff.

Tom Rogers CEO/President [email protected]
Jeff Klugman SVP [email protected] 
Jim Barton Co-Founder [email protected]
Joe Miller SVP Consumer Sales/Distribution [email protected] 
Mark Roberts SVP Consumer Products/Operations [email protected]

The postal address and phone details are listed as:-

2160 Gold Street
Alviso, CA USA 95002
Phone: 408-519-9100
Fax: 408-519-5330

So if you get no reply to your letter by Air Mail you could always try emailing and cc'ng those email addresses.


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## son_t (Feb 5, 2009)

Do online petitions work?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=985553


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

son_t said:


> Do online petitions work?
> 
> http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=985553


Sadly they usually don't but they do perhaps help to relieve some stress?


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

Have any of you considered importing the unit yourself and get your own guide data servers running? This is currently being done in many countries around the world where TiVo is not available.

It might even be easier if you could download the S1 guide data and convert it to populate your custom servers.


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## son_t (Feb 5, 2009)

I've read that these 'servers' are driven underground due to the legal aspects (TiVo's intellectual properties)...

(The underground scene is not for the mass market TV consumer... or even an enthusiast clique!)


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

@ciper I think the main obstacle to this approach is that although the Tivo hardware isn't available new in the UK the Tivo service is and it still generates some revenue from the £10 a month subscribers. In territories where there is no Tivo service I think a blind eye is turned but I doubt Tivo could afford not to protect revenue streams where they exist.

Once I have my Freesat feed in and my data cabling running I'm going to start looking at Media Centre with a lot more interest. I'm still crossing my fingers for an HDTivo in the UK or as a compromise the Nero product launching here.


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## cleudo (Apr 7, 2002)

AMc said:


> Once I have my Freesat feed in and my data cabling running I'm going to start looking at Media Centre with a lot more interest. I'm still crossing my fingers for an HDTivo in the UK or as a compromise the Nero product launching here.


I'm playing with windows 7 beta at the mo' (which has got media centre built in) along with a Hauppauge nova-hd-s2 card. Looks very impressive and was a breeze to install and set up. 14 day guide as well.

Think I'll be buying the full version when it goes on sale.


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## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

Simple fact is that in the UK, if you want decent HD choice you are going to have to get it from Sky (or at a push Virgin), via a subscription package. Freesat and Freeview are not going to have anywhere near the choice for a long time. And that's considering Sky's HD offering is very poor compared to the US.

With that in mind, it doesn't matter what you wish for, Sky are *never* going to allow their subscriber cards in a third party box (yes I know there are illegal ways of getting around this but for Joe Public it has to be a legit and simple to use box).

So, TiVo HD with decent choice of HD in the UK... no chance*

* Well, the only chance is in my opinion if you petitioned Ofcom instead to force Sky and Virgin to open up their platforms to allow competitor boxes. However really, why should they?

I've gone off the idea of Freesat and Freeview for HD as the stuff I want really is all on subscription channels.

The way forward I think is with (legit) download services. Now if Tivo could offer a "net" media box worldwide, that would be great. Problem is such devices would be a legal minefield for dealing with rights to particular shows and films within each region.


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## eric23 (Jan 15, 2002)

TiVo need to completely change their business model to ever come back to the UK.

They either need to embed TiVo functionality into an existing set-top box from another manufacturer (like Humax). Or they need to manufacture their own boxes and make them both PAL/NTSC compatible. Neither is beyond the wit of man and both options would open up worldwide opportunities.

Why they won't let Nero LiquidTV be the interim solution to the current situation is just beyond me.

It sometimes feels like TiVo Inc. is being run by a bunch of nincompoops.


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## cleudo (Apr 7, 2002)

DeadKenny said:


> Simple fact is that in the UK, if you want decent HD choice you are going to have to get it from Sky (or at a push Virgin)


Yes, but you shouldn't have to pay any extra for it - it's not that much of a step up (arguably).

A much bigger step, historically, was the jump from black and white to colour - thank goodness Sky wasn't around then!


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

Until I get a SKY TiVo HD Box I am going to point my domain www.mytivo.co.uk at sky+hd under protest......


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## ciper (Nov 4, 2004)

AMc said:


> @ciper I think the main obstacle to this approach is that although the Tivo hardware isn't available new in the UK the Tivo service is and it still generates some revenue from the £10 a month subscribers.


My response is "so what?"
TiVo only has service for S1 boxes. I argue that an imported S2 is a different beast entirely. If I was in the UK I would be pushing to get a UK forum on Deal Data Base and start figuring out how to automate the process of extracting guide data from a working lifetime S1, automate the conversion to a format the S2 likes and upload to an underground guide data server. From the reading I have done in the "other" forums this could be a trivial thing.
I personally wouldn't feel guilty doing so in the UK. Doing this in the US however I would be against (since we have the option to buy a THD).


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## mutant_matt2 (Dec 16, 2008)

Actually, I would happily run my S1 Tivo alongside a new imported TiVoHD, if I could use the guide data from the S1, to feed the HD Tivo in some way. That way, I wouldn't be relying on any external "underground" type service, and it wouldn't be obvious to TiVo Inc what was going on, either.

Matt.


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## djb2002 (May 1, 2006)

So is the EPG information the main reason why an imported TiVo wouldn't work in the UK ?

Thanks
Daniel


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## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

djb2002 said:


> So is the EPG information the main reason why an imported TiVo wouldn't work in the UK ?


Mostly when it comes to a basic Tivo, apart from maybe a few technical issues.

For an HD Tivo though, how are you going to get an HD feed to the box?

Can't just hook up an HDMI connection. Not sure US HD PVRs have HMDI input anyway, but the copy protection in HDMI will prevent it from working. That's one of the key requirements from broadcasters and movie studios, so they can reverse the situation of the video recorder where users can freely record whatever they like.

HD Tivo (or an HD PVR in general) requires an integrated box.

So it's Freesat / Freeview - very slight possibility of it happening, but both have their own EPG platform and likely licence deal with manufacturers to use their EPG. Also, how would a Tivo box cope with Freesat/Freeview software updates?

or Sky / Virgin - not going to happen. Closed platforms with their own interests in their own PVR and EPG platforms.

And even with an integrated solution, for all subscription channels, Tivo will have to comply with licence restrictions and force expiry on recordings.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

DeadKenny said:


> or Sky / Virgin - not going to happen. Closed platforms with their own interests in their own PVR and EPG platforms.


Virgin media could (and should have) put TiVo OS on their V+ PVR.
It would also nicely give them an advantage over sky.

The TiVo system is ported already to run on the same hardware in the US (Virgin use a SA 8300 box)

Carl started a petition to get TiVo on VirginMedia:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=356039


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## DeadKenny (Nov 9, 2002)

mikerr said:


> Virgin media could (and should have) put TiVo OS on their V+ PVR.
> It would also nicely give them an advantage over sky.
> 
> The TiVo system is ported already to run on the same hardware in the US (Virgin use a SA 8300 box)
> ...


Pointless though even if it's technically possible. They've chosen their system and it isn't TiVo. Yes they should have seen sense and picked TiVo, but knowing Virgin Media (formerly NTL, formerly CableTel) as I do, sense is something they lack 

Can't see a petition from a minority making a blind bit of difference. To be convinced it's worth it, they need to be convinced it'll make a difference to the majority of their consumers. I doubt they can be. So long as they can record shows and do the same as Sky+, that's all that's required.

Besides, there will be licence deals involved with whoever supplies their software (or they'll have invested a lot of money in house if they did it themselves), and they wouldn't be about to change. Supporting two systems side-by-side would be an unnecessary expense. A third party box would be illegal as only authorised equipment is allowed on their network. A third party modifying the boxes to run TiVo software would be likewise illegal as VM own the boxes.


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## David Black (Jan 8, 2001)

Good morning from Australia

I have to say that i would have thought that the amount of effort for TiVo to convert the Australian HD box to the UK market would be small.

They may have to tweak the software that controls the digital tuners (UK digital tv is marginally different to Australian) and they would have to point the guide data servers correctly but apart from that.... 

I think the issue is probably finding a marketing partner in the UK and the question as to whether the $ per month model will still work - in Australia they partnered with a tv station and sell the box outright (i.e including tivo service - no monthly subscription). The Australian box also doesn't support external inputs - so no foxtel/austar/optus support here (no sky, virgin etc.. if it came to the UK in the current form) i.e. it would only be a freeview box if they did bring it to the UK.


David


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

David Black said:


> They may have to tweak the software that controls the digital tuners (UK digital tv is marginally different to Australian) and they would have to point the guide data servers correctly but apart from that....


We don't have HD on OTA TV here.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> We don't have HD on OTA TV here.


Surely you should have said we have no HD on DTT *to date* here in the UK. However as you are perfectly well aware TCM it is planned to launch three HD channels on DTT within the next 12 months.

I am also perfectly sure the Australian Tivos can handle SD channels since clearly not all broadcasts on Australian DTT are as yet in HD.

That being so there seem to be few actual obstacles to using an Australian Tivo to receive UK Freeview?


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

My comment was correct as we were talking about the present, we don't all fill the need to make all posts marathons with what ifs.

Anyway, UK OTA HDA when it comes will be in MPEG4 over DVB-T2 while Australia's (and therefore Aus TiVo'S) is MPEG-2 over DVB-T. But I'm sure a man of such wide ranging and in depth knowledge as you knew that already Pete.


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