# Tivo replacement - what did others do - things to look out for?



## Mox (Dec 29, 2001)

I'm welded to SKY (looks at daughters..) and my area has gone digital. In these days of HD etc what have others done? I need a PVR with an EPG that I can also plug my sky service into as well as freeview. Is there such a solution? Looking at the blurb on various pvr's it's not immediately obvious, at least to me.

Are there things to look out for or avoid? I also have an aged VCR and DVD player (will move to bluray rsn) that it would be to have in the equation.

I'll also be moving on from my dear old CRT but that's for another day and something I think I can sort out myself but will be done in conjunction with the pvr change.

thanks in advance


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## Furball (Dec 6, 2001)

TBH I looked at this when it seemed TiVo was going to die, but after checking out what was out there and having tried (in vain) to opperate our Media Centre PC as a PVR I gave up 

They all seem to have pretty clunky interface which very quickly drove me and the wife up the wall, with only Beardys TiVo being half reasonable, well its a TiVo after all  but even though I'm cabled I wasnt and still not willing to up my package and pay even more for eleventy billion channels that I'm not going to watch (one can OD on Mythbusters and Ice Road truckers )

So have carried on with altEPG and about to take delivery of a 2nd TiVo to give me "Twin choooner recording"  one recording off the Beardy box and the other off a freeview box 

If youo really have to lose TiVo have a look at the Humax range as they seemed to be the best of a bad bunch be found although that was over a year ago we looked now


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## russmacdonald (Dec 11, 2011)

I've recently dusted off my old TiVos and installed AltEPG on them. As long as you have a PC which you can put an IDE hard drive into, it's a piece of cake to use the AltEPG ISO image to upgrade the drive. I've done 3 now ... 2 to go!

As far as Sky+ / SkyHD+ alternatives go, the Humax Foxsat HD+ box is hard to beat if you really can't get your TiVo to work.

I'm using a Foxsat HD receiver with no recording capability connected to a TiVo, so best of both - apart from not being able to record in HD quality ... but is that really important??


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

If you need paid for Sky you're pretty much stuck with Sky.

There are PC based solutions, but it's hard to recommend them for encrypted stuff.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Furball said:


> .. even though I'm cabled I wasnt and still not willing to up my package ...


You don't need to. It's been available on all packs for a while now. Unless... are you on the legacy 'M' pack?


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

And only £50 now on the very lowest package. Extraordinary how fast it's come down.


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## davisa (Feb 19, 2002)

I replaced TiVo with:

Humax HDR-Fox T2 HD Freeview box. Quality excellent. UI and features woeful, after having TiVo. Excellent hacking community though, so now running 'alternative' firmware which allows remote programming, HD decoding etc. 

Mac Mini running XBMC. 'Simple' skin. Excellent, flexible player for iPlayer and content from NAS (over WiFI). Don't bother with all the metadata/library stuff on it.

Still miss proper season passes and suggestions though...

Use torrents a lot more as I keep missing stuff!


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## Furball (Dec 6, 2001)

cwaring said:


> You don't need to. It's been available on all packs for a while now. Unless... are you on the legacy 'M' pack?


Not even on a legacy, got a very weird package from when Beardy had that ding dong with Sky and I managed to have them for not supplying the Sky channel but still charging me for it over many months :down: so they set me up on a pay peanuts for it but after they got over the sky ding dong they never changed me back  it seems to cover most of the channels a M does for about £4.99 from memory , hence my reluctance to move, then I still think they still want something like another £4 a month for TiVo 

Nah think I'll stick with my TWO TiVo's for now


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## SolidTechie (Dec 11, 2002)

davisa said:


> 'alternative' firmware which allows remote programming,


Care to elaborate?

I just acquired an HDR - I have the modified firmware :

Media & File Server Bundle for the Foxsat HDR - Release 4,0

but this doesn't yet allow for remote programming/scheduling - although it's promised soon.

It's a reasonable piece of kit IMO - takes a bit of getting used to, and of course nothing is ever going to be so delightful to use as the TiVo


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## davisa (Feb 19, 2002)

SolidTechie said:


> Care to elaborate?


If I'm allowed to post links, you'll find the thread here - http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/remote-scheduling-portal-now-open.563/


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Furball said:


> Not even on a legacy, got a very weird package from when Beardy had that ding dong with Sky and I managed to have them for not supplying the Sky channel but still charging me for it over many months


1. "Beardy" (sic) has never had anything to do with VM.
2. Do you also expect them to put the price up whenever they add new channels? I suspect not. Yet you want them to lower the price when channels are removed. A little hypocritical, don't you think?


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## Furball (Dec 6, 2001)

cwaring said:


> 1. "Beardy" (sic) has never had anything to do with VM.
> 2. Do you also expect them to put the price up whenever they add new channels? I suspect not. Yet you want them to lower the price when channels are removed. A little hypocritical, don't you think?


Look I dont want to get into a slagging match 

I do expect them to supply the service they say is on the tin, if they have a ding dong with a supplier and fail to meet their end of the bargain then I'm afraid I do feel and was supplied a refund :up:
They have their rules and if I or anyone failed to meet their contractual agreements then you know dam well they would be down on you like a ton of bricks, it works both ways remember, just sometimes you have to remind them of their commitments 

If they dont want me to call them Beardy then they shouldnt have chosen the name "Virgin" 

Beardy TiVo just isnt for me at this stage, I'm not saying it wont ever be, but not at their current pricing stucture, that and I'm still pretty peaved with their really poor treatment of the so called "super special deal" that exisiting TiVo owners didnt get 

Moving on


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

No slagging. Just my stating facts  I notice you didn't actually answer the question I asked though 

Their current pricing structure? It's currently a one-off £49 and then £3 a month. Exactly how much cheaper (other than completely free) would you like it to be?  

(I'm pretty sure it's a lot cheaper than the V+ was at this stage - ie less than a year - after it launched. Unless anyone wants to correct me?)

IIRC the deal was they got it before everyone else. Again, unless anyone can state (with sources) that it was supposed to be a "special price".


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

cwaring said:


> IIRC the deal was they got it before everyone else. Again, unless anyone can state (with sources) that it was supposed to be a "special price".


Try the TiVo System Message sent out on 29/1/11 http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...0471&highlight=very+special+price#post8350471


> Subject: TiVo's changing. Here's what you should know
> From: The TiVo Team
> Date: Fri 28th Jan 2011
> Expire: Fri 4th Feb 2011
> ...


Or the TiVo System Message on 7/4/11 http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...5113&highlight=very+special+price#post8465113


> Subject: Virgin Media TV, powered by TiVo, is here.
> From: The TiVo Team
> Date: Thu 7th Apr 2011
> Expire: Thu 14th Apr 2011
> ...


Or the TiVo System Message on 20/4/11 http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-v...4451&highlight=very+special+price#post8484451


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Okay. Well, my memory's going and I didn't have a Tivo to see those messages anyway; though I do now remember them being mentioned on here.

That said, maybe Tivo thought there was going to be a 'special price' but it never happened. Certainly nothing to keep bringing up more than six months later. 

Really. It's not that big a deal. You got it early and we now have Tivo back in the UK


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## romanpj (Dec 23, 2003)

Only about 50% of the UK have access to Virgin. So those bloody messages were (and still are) damned annoying. Misleading at the least.

So plenty of us still have reason to be pi##ed off with Tivo Inc and Virgin Media and your smug, nit-picking, un-helpful posts don't help. So unless you have something to contribute to the OP's original query, please keep quiet.

R.


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

@romanpj - a little harsh, I feel. I understand that you can't get cable, and that this annoys you.

The discussion was aimed at post number 2, where the poster says they are cabled. So in that case, IMO, it's perfectly reasonable to use "we"


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

cwaring said:


> maybe Tivo thought there was going to be a 'special price' but it never happened.


Yes I got that impression too  
I think TiVo thought VM were offering more than they (VM) actually were. But hey that's marketing


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

ColinYounger said:


> @romanpj - a little harsh, I feel.


More than a little, actually.

*Obviously* (well, at least I *thought* it was obvious ) "We" as in "those of us who are in cabled areas".



> The discussion was aimed at post number 2, where the poster says they are cabled. So in that case, IMO, it's perfectly reasonable to use "we"


Which is why I did so.

Jealousy's a curse 



spitfires said:


> Yes I got that impression too  I think TiVo thought VM were offering more than they (VM) actually were. But hey that's marketing


Indeed.


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