# Telewest TV Drive + TIVO



## markabuckley (Dec 23, 2004)

I'm more than happy with my TIVO .. (even though I've had to change HDD once due to a failure). Great with subscriptions etc, but sometimes wish to record more than one item at a time on Telewest cable.

Question is - is it possible to use TIVO + TV Drive - or is it a disaster waiting to happen ? I'm basically concerned that I'd end up with 2 pausable devices, and I'd never know where I was.

Would TIVO be able to control one of the "non-live" tuners on the TV Drive ?

Thanks for any help,

Mark.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

I have both; for now. I use my Tivo with my old Pace 2000. I believe it is possible to control the "visible" tuner with a Tivo. Never tried it myself, though so would not know how to set it up to do so.

I hardly ever have un-resolvable clashes but then I watch a lot of non-terrestrial stuff that is repeated a lot


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Yes, I'm using the TVDrive like this.. the tivo sees it as a normal digibox with one tuner.

The problems occur not on recording, but when you start wanting to watch the recordings the tvdrive has made...

pros:
If tivo says it can't record something due to a clash, just set the TV drive to record the other one as well.
HD is great on a HDTV 

You can record any cable channel on tivo, while the tvdrive records another 2 different channels.

cons:
Tivo records the TVdrive's output, so tivo can't record anything while you are watching
a tvdrive recording.

If you leave your TVdrive in a menu, or on pause, tivo can't record - more accurately, tivo can't change channel... so records 12 hours of a paused screen or menu!

The TVdrive can't currently ouput HDMI and SCART at the same time (the SCART is garbled)


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## Arny (Nov 14, 2001)

mikerr said:


> Yes, I'm using the TVDrive like this.. the tivo sees it as a normal digibox with one tuner.
> 
> The problems occur not on recording, but when you start wanting to watch the recordings the tvdrive has made...
> 
> ...


Presumably then Mike you are NOT using HDMI at all or have I got this all wrong?

I have Tivo and Sky and I am getting TVDRIVE next week. I would like to keep my Tivo if at all possible as it has 2x160Gb drives and has a lifetime sub.


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

I would just keep the TiVo accessing Sky, and use the TVDrive "manually", I think.


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## Arny (Nov 14, 2001)

ndunlavey said:


> I would just keep the TiVo accessing Sky, and use the TVDrive "manually", I think.


mmm... I wasn't planning on keeping the sky box. I am cancelling my sky subscription so I am not sure how useful it would be to keep using it.

I planned on removing sky altogether and replacing it with the TVDrive along with the Telewest Supreme subscription.

If anyone can think of a reason why I should carry on using the sky box I would be interested to hear it... thanks.


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## Fred Smith (Oct 5, 2002)

If you cancel your Sky subscription your card will become a "Freesat" card allowing you to view FTV CH4, Five and Sky Three along with the FTA channels (which don't require a card) BBC, ITV, Film 4 etc, etc. That way clashing programmes should still be able to be recorded.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Arny said:


> If anyone can think of a reason why I should carry on using the sky box I would be interested to hear it... thanks.


You presumably by now own the Sky box and Sky dish (any Sky customer who has done more than 12 months on contract will), neither of which will be removed from you by Sky when you desubscribe the box. Your Sky Digibox will continue to get BBC1 to 4, ITV1 to 4, MM, Ch4, Ch5 and now Film 4 (which has just gone free even on Sky). Also it gets the free film channels Zone Horror, Zone Thriller, True Movies 1 and 2, Movies 4 Men, Travel Channel, Reality TV, BBC News24, CNN, Sky News, Euronews and a host of Shopping and Islamic/Moslem tv channels that most of us here admittely would have rather less use for.

So as most brand new programs still appears on these channels (especially Ch1 to 5) rather than on Sky's many timeshift subscription channels surely your Tivo would still have loads to record from Sky? You could obviously partner your Tivo with a Freeview box instead of the Sky Digibox but in many areas a Freeview signal is a lot less robust and stable than the Sky one? Also Teleworst/NTHell are in the habit of leaving their customers without television service on fairly regular occasions when their systems crash and they stop sending out any programs down the cable.

So looked at another way why would you not also keep your existing Sky setup in operation either to use with another telly in another room or as a secondary Scart source on your HD television?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Also Teleworst/NTHell are in the habit of leaving their customers without television service on fairly regular occasions when their systems crash and they stop sending out any programs down the cable.


Please define "regularly". I can't remember the last time I had a problem with my Telewest TV service. However, my father did lose his Freesat channels during the last round of storms


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> Please define "regularly". I can't remember the last time I had a problem with my Telewest TV service. However, my father did lose his Freesat channels during the last round of storms


I'm only judging it from my mother's NTHell service in a large block of flats in Central London. Firstly NTHell would regularly randomly add and subtract certain channels like Discovery and National Geographic from what was authorised on her service each month and also total loss of tv for several hours seemed to happen about every two months.

Now that was a very large block of flats indeed and one of NTHell's earliest Digital Cable installations so I expect that was the main reason for the problems. Especially faults with switching units etc that distributed the cabling round the various flats.

Perhaps elsewhere their service is more reliable. Also are you an NTHell or a Teleworst customer Carl?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Fair enough. I know that NTL don't have the best reputation and that some parts of the country seem to be worse than others. Plus I'm on Telebest anyway


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> Fair enough. I know that NTL don't have the best reputation and that some parts of the country seem to be worse than others. Plus I'm on Telebest anyway


NTHell didn't even finally launch any form of digital teletext or proper BBC interactive channel facilities until the start of this year. Both had been "Coming soon" for about 3 or 4 years while both Sky and Freeview had them all the while.

It may be that TeleWest are better than this.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

I honestly didn't know that! Yes, TW are somewhat better, though not perfect by any means. They are miising some channels (Sky Two and FX for start) and their phone pricing could be better, but the basics are there. Plus, TVDrive rocks


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

NTL was on the verge of bankrupty for ages and basically all further development and investment was on hold during this time.

Are you saying that the new TvDrive thing is actually pretty good apart from no Suggestions or Wishlists? I have tried out Sky Plus at a Currys and from what I could see of the way it did Series Links etc it wasn't a patch on Tivo. Its only advantage was the dual tuners so the kids could watch their live programs while other stuff recorded in the background.

The latest NTL software release for their boxes is pretty impressive considering it can run on a four or five year old Pace box design. But as all that was needed was new software and not a hardware upgrade it seems all the more shocking that NTL waited so long to have it develeoped and implemented. They must have lost a lot of customers to Sky during the interim.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Are you saying that the new TvDrive thing is actually pretty good apart from no Suggestions or Wishlists?


Actually, yes. Only in the fact that it can record two things at once. That's about it 



> I have tried out Sky Plus at a Currys and from what I could see of the way it did Series Links etc it wasn't a patch on Tivo.


Like Sky+, the TVDrive records the bitstream directly, rather than the encode/decode process of the Tivo. That said, I never see much difference between the two picture qualities, but then I haven't got brilliant eye-sight 

I am hoping that they will introduce the "search by title" feature at some future point but for now you can only use the EPG.


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## Arny (Nov 14, 2001)

I now have TVDRIVE installed. I thought it best that I removed the Sky box to save confusing the Telewest engineer (  ) but now TVDrive is in and working I really don't think that I will want to reconnect Sky.

The TVDrive is working well. Teleport is good too but I can comment of the HD as my HD ready tv arrives tomorrow (Toshiba 42WLT66) however one comment must be made - the EPG and menu system is utter rubbish compared to Tivo. I am afraid that we are all spoilt rotten with Tivo... it is simply the best in spite of all our gripes. So much so that if it wasn't for the 2nd tuner and HD I would probably be sending it back!.

So, TVDrive stays but no way will I get rid of Tivo. It is in the system on the composite input just so I can use the Tivo EPG to search etc. I might even use it as extra recording space when TVDrive gets full. I have a lifetime sub so it isn't costing anything.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Arny said:


> So much so that if it wasn't for the 2nd tuner and HD I would probably be sending it back!


 the TV-Drive actually has 3 tuners, it can record 2 channels simultaneously, with the the third tuner being reserved for you watching a third channel - or tivo recording that third channel


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

I think that we're going to see three-tuner boxes as the norm - I think the two-tuner model, with you having to know if there's a "spare" tuner not recording something if you want to watch live, is too confusing for most people.

I wonder what that's going to mean, though, for Freeview boxes in marginal reception areas, where the signal will have attneuated a lot by the time it gets to the third tuner. Maybe these boxes will have built-in amplifiers and take taps off that in parallel. Or maybe in marginal recpetion areas they just downgrade to two-tuner boxes, perhaps with single-record.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Arny said:


> ... however one comment must be made - the EPG and menu system is utter rubbish compared to Tivo.


It is rather, isn't it  Of course, they had to desigen it around the existing EPG/middleware so it looked like the exsiting boxes.

One other thing. I do believe that three-tuner recording will appear at some point on the unit. The functionality _is_ there, they just didn't put it in at the start


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## Arny (Nov 14, 2001)

mikerr said:


> the TV-Drive actually has 3 tuners, it can record 2 channels simultaneously, with the the third tuner being reserved for you watching a third channel - or tivo recording that third channel


My apologies if I misled anyone...

Yes it does of course have three tuners and what I meant to say was not "two tuners" but "two recording tuners"... thanks for that :up:

BTW, at the moment I am leaving Tivo controlling the TVDrive through the IR-Blaster so I can still choose the program through Tivo and Tivo changes the channel for me to save me having to wade through the EPG on TVDrive. I tried doing it myself through the TVDrive remove and nearly lost the will to live!


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Arny said:


> I tried doing it myself through the TVDrive remote and nearly lost the will to live!


It's not _that_ bad  Like you said, Tivo has simply spoiled us


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

I don't have TV Drive but the Telewest interface (on Pace 2000) is so poor I really have only got their remote out about once a year! It completely put me off wanting TVDrive as I only have an Standard Def TV and Projector.

I doubt that Sky will want to go to 3 tuners as that would probably limit the number of boxes per dish. At the moment Sky+ or Sky+ HD need 2 'slots' and conventional Sky boxes need 1 each up to a maximum of 4 for a quad LNB dish. If they introduced a 3 tuner box then you'd only be able to offer 1 mutliroom addition with a standard box.

Not sure about 3 tuner Freeview either - are there ever 3 things on at once with no repeats?

My guess is Video on Demand is going to replace the 'tuner/timeshift' paradim quite soon. Look at Sky launching broadband and BT selling Freeview boxes.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

AMc said:


> My guess is Video on Demand is going to replace the 'tuner/timeshift' paradim quite soon. Look at Sky launching broadband and BT selling Freeview boxes.


I would disagree, in the short-term anyway. The Telewest Teleport service is certainly a good start, but until these "record every programme shown on every channel" systems become the norm there will still be a need for the PVR/DVR (and +1 channels )


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## mccg (Jun 18, 2002)

> I doubt that Sky will want to go to 3 tuners as that would probably limit the number of boxes per dish.
> [\quote]
> 
> Sky are now offering "Octo LNBs" for customers that need them... so that would enable eg: 2*3 tuner PVR boxes + 2 Basic multirooms, or similar.


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

AMc said:


> Not sure about 3 tuner Freeview either - are there ever 3 things on at once with no repeats?


That's not the issue, IMO. I think people often enough want to record two things at once that having two tuners for recording is A Good Thing. If, however, those tuners are also available for live viewing, the average punter is going to get muddled. Having a third tuner dedicated to live viewing is good.

As I said, though, I do wonder how that's going to work in areas of marginal reception, unless the manaufactuers can find a way around the signal attentuation.


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