# Tivo and Telewest



## dunnel (Jan 21, 2005)

I have been using my Tivo for several years and have recently upgraded the system for the second time to 320GB. I currently have it configured to record from the internal tuner (channels 1 to 5) and also from a sky digibox. I plan to keep Sky but Telewest are currently offering a deal where if I add digital TV I will pay 50p less a month (I have their BB and phone already). I have looked at several posts on the type of cable boxed and Tivo compatibility but can anyone tell me what the latest box Telewest supplies. I did try calling Telewest but did not get an answer. 
I don't mind if I need to purchase an adapter from Tivoland but I am worried that I may get a box that the Tivo cannot control and so would be a waste of time.

Anyone help.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Hi there!

To coin a phrase, Don't Panic! 

You will get either a Pace box or one from Scientific Atlanta. Either will work perfectly well with you Tivo although, as you suspect, you may indeed need to purchase the Cable Adapter.

I really hate to say this but don't forget that Telewest are about to lauch their new TVDrive sometime soon and it does seem to work rather well and could be a fairly good replacement for a Tivo  even though it's not quite as good in some areas; mainly to do with the lack of meta-data.


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## mike0151 (Dec 13, 2001)

Death Threats to Carl start HERE..... LOL the ex TiVo Tart

Ignore him, just join the TiVo Clan - you can't do better hehehhe


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

mike0151 said:


> ...you can't do better hehehhe


Well, seeing as TVDrive has 3 tuners and 2 decoders, it's certainly better spec'd right from the off  Plus it's recording the stream direct not encoding/de-encoding.

How reliable it is in practise and how good it is at its SP-alike functions I have yet to determine for myself.

I assume you were only joking with the 'death threats' comment  but I am _not_ turning against Tivo at all, I am simply stating that an alternative (for TW at least) is soon to be available.


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## Raisltin Majere (Mar 13, 2004)

From the recent thread on TVDrive, I don't think it sounds like a viable alternative alternative at all.

Hardware-wise maybe, but certainly not the software


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## dunnel (Jan 21, 2005)

Thanks for the replies.

I have another question, if I change the system from using BBC1 on the internal tuner to BBC on the Telewest box (or Sky) what will that do to my season passes. Will the system treat the new BBC1 as the same channel or will all the season passes for any moved channels need to be deleted and new ones created.

Thanks.


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## richard_hamblen (Nov 7, 2002)

As Carl said, dont worry, TIVO will work, the worst case scenario is you need to get something to help sort out the IR. I use the TIVO adapter and also have a RedEye which works fine. (see letsautomate.co.uk)

I've had TIVO and Telewest for about 4 or 5 years now and I also got a TVDrive about 3 weeks ago. I got the TVDrive because the deal was good and after 3 weeks, I can safely say I am not giving up the TIVO. 

The TIVO is far superior in a number of areas.
1, Season passes are superb and Ive not seen anything better
2. Programme search is v. quick
3. you can pause and go to the TIVO menus without loss of the buffer
4. you can press record at anytime in the programme to record the programme.

TVDrive is only better in 3 areas
1. HDTV (when it comes!)
2. 3 turners so you dont (usually) get conflicts
3. you record the original transmission data and not a recompressed version

Until they do something about the season pass and programme selection, I wouldnt recommend any TIVO owner to give up the TIVO.


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## carling (Oct 5, 2002)

Thanks for the comparison of features, Richard. 

I've had TiVo for 3 years, working well with a Telewest box. I am tempted by TVDrive particularly by the direct recording of the data stream as this would give better picture quality. However TIVO software is a dream and would be hard to give up for an inferior TW substitute. The wishlists, for example, make sure I can record programmes across multi-channels if one showing clashes.

Then again a TIVO just sold on ebay for £300+ and that could subsidise my purchase of a HD Tv!!! Decisions, decisions.

Do any other dual users have an opinion on the comparative virtues of each system?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

dunnel said:


> I have another question, if I change the system from using BBC1 on the internal tuner to BBC on the Telewest box (or Sky) what will that do to my season passes. Will the system treat the new BBC1 as the same channel or will all the season passes for any moved channels need to be deleted and new ones created.


 If the channel's callsign is the same then SPs will transfer okay. If not they won't. ie If both your analogue and TW BBC1 are (for example) *"BBC1NTH"* then there won't be a problem. If you see what I mean


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## richard_hamblen (Nov 7, 2002)

feedback on TVDrive

season pass manager
1. You may only want to keep a few of the programmes and auto delete the oldest. For example I only want to keep the latest episode of xxx Or you may only want to keep 5 episodes of xxx  this isnt possible with the TVDrive
2. When you need space, TVdrive does not delete the oldest programmes.
3. Because season pass is not really season pass it is record this programme in this time slot each week. If you only want new episodes recorded not old episodes - first runs only there is no way to tell it this.
4. What isnt clear is if you add a season pass and the season finishes, will it start to record a new season of the series when it returns.
5. No Wishlists  I cant record programmes that meet a criteria  such as movies staring xxx or directed by yyy or programmes with red in the title.
6. you have no todo list to check what has been done and why things havent been done. 

Record programmes
1. it would be good to use the alphabet selection to see the list of programmes to find what you are after. Currently you have to wade through the timetable.
2. the search facility on programmes takes about 2-5 minutes to load  it is cringe worthy. If you go to the option to select a programme by genre (thinking it will be quicker than wading through the programme schedule, youll die of old age before you find your programme. 
3 when you press record part way through a programme, it records from when you press the button. 
4. if you press the record when you are watching from the buffer it wont allow you to record the programme. You cant start recording from the buffer, you can only start when in live tv.
5. there is no way to the entire programme once it has started, if you come in part way through, you loose the start. HOWEVER  there is a 90 minute buffer, so you can rewind and pause till youre ready to settle down. Just hope youve not come 89 minutes into the programme.

Replay
1. I personally like having the record bar that Tivo give you to tell you how far through the programme you are. (TVDrive uses a timer and numbers on the bottom left of the screen - in delay it just says how far behind realtime you are)
2. need a skip to end  you can do it but it isnt obvious how and the only way Ive found means you loose the buffer! 

Menu jumping
1. you cant pause and then go into the menus when watching buffered content.
Comes up with a box to say you will go back to live TV. This means you have to rewind after exiting the menus, to get back to where you were.

Buffered content
1. it has a great 90minute buffer, but you cant do much with it other than pause and shuttle forward and back. 
2. you have no idea how long the programme is in the buffer, you only know where you are compared to real-time.

Video output
1. there is no output on the VCR socket unless you are transferring a recording to the VCR
2. when you switch to HDTV, 4:3 ratio programmes are not stretched or zoomed to fit a widescreen via the box  some tvs can stretch/zoom HDTV some cant. ALL HDTVs are widescreen and so you get a black borders to the left and right if you dont stretch. 
As all SD widescreen TVs stretch and zoom, it is not an issue with SCART output. 
3. you cant have dual output between HDMI and SCART  it is one or the other. (think this is due to the decoders)
And you might want this if you have a second TV connected via a video sender.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Thanks for that, Richard. Seems like I _won't_ be ditching my Tivo anytime soon then  Of course, I will have to get one for a while to do a review for my site, but I'll still keep my Tivo running just in case the TVD stuffs up


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## teresatt (Dec 21, 2001)

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback, Richard. It is as I feared, TVDrive isn't a patch on TiVo. I shall defintely continue to use my faithful TiVo with it's ancient hardware but state of the art software.

PVR software isn't rocket science, I just can't understand why Telewest couldn't spend a bit more effort on a front end that could so easily be much more useful. However, most people who have never used TiVo think TVDrive is brilliant, so why should Telewest bother.


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## HyperionX (Dec 30, 2002)

Thanks for the information...I've been following comments and feedback about the TVDrive for a while. I'm an ntl customer and I'm hoping that when the merger is complete I might be able to get one that way (ntl don't seem to be doing anything in the PVR space on their own, their focussing on buying mobile companies and deploying/promoting VOD  :down: ).

I was very hopeful regarding the TVDrive but the news about the lack of sophisticated season pass is disappointing. The season pass function in my TiVo is the most important feature for me.

The undoubted hardware/technology superiority (multiple tuners, HD ready, etc) of the TVDrive is a major plus but added to limited software it's less of a compelling case.

The only upside is that the TVDrive is a current device and therefore the software is more likely to be updated going forward unlike the TiVo position (sadly  )


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## richard_hamblen (Nov 7, 2002)

I should remind people the TVDrive is HDTV, and even with regular transmissions going through the HDTV port the picture is supurb, white is white mot grey, the pictures are really clear and large areas of a single colour have no distortion. (look at large black areas on the TIVO and you'll know what I mean.

1080i has wobble on the text overlay, but 720p is absolutly fine and not needing 1080i I've not done much to test it, however the pic was excellent even with no dicernable difference from 720p. (Im using a SONY Bravia 32inch tv)

I only did a superficial test with component video out for HDTV and I had a few problems, need to do some more testing here..

The box is a great STB for HDTV with the ability to pause live TV - 10/10 here
It is a marked imporvement for people who use video recorders or dvd recorders but as a PVR I only score it 6/10 

This is because as a PVR it is realy backward in its thinking. It follows the design principles from people who have only seen a VCR and never thought about how a PVR should behave. SKY+, MS windows Media, Snapstream BeyondTV, despitre being good products, all fall into similar traps - worse still are all DVD recorders with some form of EPG. TIVO despite its age is still far superior in how it helps people select programmes and manage choice of recordings, the season pass concept is second to none and IMHO set the benchmark for others to aspire to. What I wonder is whether the UI concepts are patented which is why no one else can do similar things.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Yes, tivo do own many patents, even "but don't have the money to defend them against the likes of microsoft. 

How about this 1998 one: "invention allowing the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program." 

That describes just about every DVR system including many DVD recorders.
If tivo had ,say Cisco's lawyers, they could clean up on patent royalties.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Surely you can't patent the _idea_ of "allowing the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program" whereas you can probably patent _your way_ of acheiving it.

Yes, I do know nothing about the subject so I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong


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## Raisltin Majere (Mar 13, 2004)

My (limited) understanding is that, in the states, you can do exactly that. Not in this country though.

I'm pretty sure that the problems blackberry are having are caused by a company who don't actually make anything, they're just in the business of registering patents and stiffing companies that make something along those lines.

There is some furore over software patents in europe that could lead us down this path...


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