# tivo & the vm hd box



## deesee (Nov 4, 2002)

Will tivo be able to record from the new vm hd box, because it does not have a hdd, it would be handy if i could use tivo to do that job.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

If you mean this one just announced
http://whathifi.com/News/Virgin-Media-offers-new-entry-level-HD-set-top-box-and-its-3D-ready/

Then it has a SCART socket so there's no reason not to assuming the infra red remote control codes are the same as existing Virgin boxes or someone can capture them and get them added to the Tivo database. You won't be able to record in HD though.

Virgin have partnered with Tivo and will be releasing new hardware this year so you may want to wait for that instead. It will probably have multiple tuners and builtin HD recording so that would make it more attractive to me.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/announcement.php?f=14&a=86


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

AMc said:


> Virgin have partnered with Tivo and will be releasing new hardware this year so you may want to wait for that instead. It will probably have multiple tuners and builtin HD recording so that would make it more attractive to me.


If Virgin/TiVo integrate their GUI well enough with Virgin's video on demand,
then the number of tuners and recording may well become _irrelevent_.

"Record" a programme = set a placeholder for streamed VOD content.

In fact an HDD would only be required if you want to store content after it has expired from the on demand servers (a week or so).

You can already do the 1st stage towards this on the current VM boxes by searching by programme name:










It doesn't save a list of those previous searches yet though.


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## deshepherd (Nov 30, 2000)

mikerr said:


> You can already do the 1st stage towards this on the current VM boxes by searching by programme name:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


But that GIF doesn't show how long the process takes ... on our V box each keypress (e.g. moving one item across/down in a list) takes 5-10 seconds. That's why catchup TV for us is a "last resort" item only. From feedback I got when I thought of moving to V+ last year then those are described as "slow" as well.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

I'm on a V+ here, and its not the quickest, but I'd say 1-2 seconds, not 5 !
Once on the letter entering page its instant to type the letters.

I did find the V+ gets slower and slower if you don't reboot it every day
(press reset on the front), the normal boxes are similar.

I also noticed TiVo is now mentioned in the menus, 








but pressing (5) goes to the same page as (4) which just talks about padding.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

mikerr said:


> In fact an HDD would only be required if you want to store content after it has expired from the on demand servers (a week or so).


Agreed, but that's probably more than half our regularly watched programmes. We tend to let things pile up a bit then watch 2-3 episodes back to back like a DVD boxset rather than flit from programme to programme close to transmission. We have films etc. recorded last summer and a couple of programmes before that I intend to watch someday 

One of the things I dislike about the "all connected personal viewer of the future" is you will only be 'renting' the programmes not owning them. Back in VHS days you could tape and keep indefinitely. Now with things like Amazon remotely deleting Kindle books the concept of the "right to view on our terms" has taken over the "right to use as I choose". I can see finding archive content will be possible, but as a jumble of web browser bookmarks shows - if they're not sensibly searchable then finding them twice may be difficult.

I'm still buying CDs and ripping to MP3 because even though we're 100% iPod I don't want lower quality DRMed 'virtual' copies. I actually like the physical thing. Spotify feels like cheating on my record collection.

I'd really like download to disk on demand then replay at leisure but there are no legal ways to do that at the moment.

Perhaps I'm becoming stuck in the mud


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

It all depends on how they implement it of course, but replacing "tuners" with "streams", mean you could effectively "record" as many channels as you like at the same time.

Say you recorded 10 shows on 10 channels simultaneously - the box then just plans to download those shows in the background to HDD.

If you tried to play one while it was still downloading, then you are effectively streaming VOD, the next day when its complete, you are watching entirely from HDD.

Doing it that way would mean a HDD digibox would just have longer term storage than the standard non-HDD boxes. Most other features and operation would be the same.

That would also assume all content is available on demand - in practice the broadcasters limit some things to be live only.

Maybe they will just stick to a more conventional physical tuner based machine...


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

AMc said:


> Agreed, but that's probably more than half our regularly watched programmes. We tend to let things pile up a bit then watch 2-3 episodes back to back like a DVD boxset rather than flit from programme to programme close to transmission. We have films etc. recorded last summer and a couple of programmes before that I intend to watch someday.


Totally agree.

I think that a good PVR should be used like a personal VOD server, with far more programmes recorded than you'll ever watch. You can then select to view by length and mood, to fit your current attention span.

I often wait until all episodes of a mini-series have been recorded before starting to watch the first. And if I don't like it, I will delete them all immediately.

To be tied to live schedules, albeit a little time-shifted, would miss the whole point of a PVR.


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

Sorry to hijack yor tangent chaps but....
Does anyone have one of the new V HD boxes connected to TIVO yet?
I've asked Virgin for one but told it's not generally availible yet. Spcifically I'm after the self install option as:
1) I'm fairly sure I can handle an F plug
2) given the 200M of assorted cabling behind the telly at the mo, I wouldn't trust a Virgin engineer not to bollix somthing else up (V-box with IR dongle, TIVO, digihome freeview pvr, Humax freeview pvr, DVD, Wireless CCTV switchgear, Wii, Panny midi sound system, Tablet PC connections for those occasions when all else fails and I download off t'internet, or when I just can't/wont wait for UK schedules to catch up).

So, will TIVO control the new V HD box?


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

I have the Samsung V+HD and TiVo operates it just fine.


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## davisa (Feb 19, 2002)

Thanks to AMc for pointing me here.

So, anyone got one of these new boxes yet?

I'm hoping to replace my trusty Pace 9000 box which I've had for 10+ years.

It needs to be able to work with TiVo (obviously!), output HD and SD simultaneously. Having component connections for HD would be a bonus.

Also, is £50 to buy the box, or 'rent'.

Anyone?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

davisa said:


> Also, is £50 to buy the box, or 'rent'.


Always the latter with cable.


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

BUMP!
Not seeing any recent posts to this thread so thought I'd bring it back up the list a bit.
Anyhoo, has anyone actually got a V HD box yet ad managed to connect it up with their TIVO and discovered if it works (is controlled correctly) by the TIVO?

I ask as I've bitten the bullet and ordered V HD box for self install and just want to know whether or not the lead underpants will be required -to protect the most valuable assetts in case it doesn't 'do' TIVO and SWMBO becomes more than mildly peeved.

Currently got one of the old fashioned 'wind up' style Blueyonder boxes from last century running smoothly via the IR dongle adaptor, be nice to be able to remove at least one plug and a few yards of wie from behind the telly. I can then 'sell' the £49 cost of the box on its Eco features, "Yes dear, but getting this means I've unplugged that, thus I'm actually saving money , trees, the planet and most importantly the polar bears dear!"

P


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

Got home today to a missed delivery card from UPS quickly followed by knock on the door from the neighbours who had signed for it (cool!).

After an hour of fun and games with various CS folk (Scottich or Welsh good, Indian useless, "I need the MAC off your cable modem please"!) and a blank screen (AP:52 not good!) the box evenually got whatever signals it needed to pair up with the card and off we went.

Used Samsung code 20045, last in the list (phew) so TIVO now doing what it used to.
Only had a brief play with the HD bit as Tivo has it's own agenda tonight and not necessarily blown over at the mo but hopefully some fettling with settings will improve that.
OD seems to work ok, far faster than the previous Pace, also no dongle needed so my eco pitch is working!

Bit of amusement from Virgin, I have to send back the old box in the packaging the sent the new one in, only the old Pace box is twice the size of the packaging! Doh!


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## kenrob (Apr 20, 2010)

I'm thinking about changing over to the V HD box and it's good to see that TiVo can control the box. I only have one question before I upgrade, what happens if you record a program on an HD channel? Does it record a downscaled version via the scart or do you just get a blank recording?


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

The Scart output is there (SD obviously) at all times and their instructions actually state the Scart socket is for connecting to a VCR (that's aparently something to do with large tapes or something!).

When watching a HD channel the same is output down the Scart but obviously not at HD quality.

Still seem fairly impressed with the V HD, far faster responce to remote and even had a play with their catchup TV to get Corra from Monday (Tivo worked fine, old Pace box decided we wanted to press ok to remove some bollix message aout chanels I dont want to watch). Fount it fast, played it fast, good quality and adverts edited right out without having to fast forward or skip. I can see what the earlier posts were on about now, if we could find everything we wanted to watch OD, why bother recording anythng?

I've left my setup running through a 24 hour timer to reset everything at 03.00 each morning, don't want to risk not having it there and find out we lost several days worth of planned recordings as the Pace box wanted ok pressing (again).

Paul


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

microbe said:


> The Scart output is there (SD obviously) at all times and their instructions actually state the Scart socket is for connecting to a VCR (that's aparently something to do with large tapes or something!).
> 
> When watching a HD channel the same is output down the Scart but obviously not at HD quality.
> Paul


That bit is the same as what you get from the V+ box when HD is selected to use HDMI as the TV output. The only downside is that the VCR scart will only output composite video not RGB so Tivo recordings are not as good.

I ended up leaving the V+ box to itself and chose to use a 2nd cable STB to feed Tivo


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

Hmmm, looks like the V HD box is a step up on the V+ HD then in that there is a menu option for scart output and RGB widescreen is what I selected. Options for RGB 4:3, just widescreen and just 4:3 also avalible, I guess the latter 2 would be composite not RGB.
Woohoo!


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

microbe said:


> Hmmm, looks like the V HD box is a step up on the V+ HD then in that there is a menu option for scart output and RGB widescreen is what I selected. Options for RGB 4:3, just widescreen and just 4:3 also avalible, I guess the latter 2 would be composite not RGB.
> Woohoo!


The V+ box only disables the TV output and the modulated RF output if you choose to use HD with HDMI output.


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

Just to clarify as now I'm confused, the V HD is set to HDMI 1080 widescreen AND the option is still availible to select Scart RBG widescreen to give the TIVO somthing to play with.


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

microbe said:


> Just to clarify as now I'm confused, the V HD is set to HDMI 1080 widescreen AND the option is still availible to select Scart RBG widescreen to give the TIVO somthing to play with.


It may be that the options are different to the V+ box. The V+ box has 2 scarts TV and VCR the VCR scart is active all the time but only composite.
The TV scart has RGB or Composite options but both get switched off when you select HD output via HDMI.


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## microbe (Nov 23, 2002)

Ok, got you now.
V HD only has one scart and it's designated for VCR, output to TV is via HDMI only, though I guess you could use the scart but kind of defeating the point of the exercise.

For info, the VCR scart shows all the menu options if, for example, you happened to be messing around with your new toy and forgot TIVO was doing something more important in the background, like trying to record something. Sounds pretty much like A TV output if you ask me, they've just labelled it VCR.

P


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## kenrob (Apr 20, 2010)

Many thanks for the info, I think I'm going to go ahead and order the V HD box. I think it's a good stop gap until the official VM TiVo is launched. On a side note my TiVo drive failed a few months ago and I had to wait a few days for a replacement. I had to use the Virgin interface until the drive got delivered, drove me absolutely mental !


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Whilst you are right about the VM interfce, I think what would drive me _more_ mad is having to sit through a load of ad breaks; or at least wait until they'd finished!


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