# Defector returns.......



## royfox (Apr 5, 2004)

I know.... before you say I told you so......

I packed away my long trusted Tivo and sky digi box two weeks ago and hailed the arrival of my first sky+ and HD to boot...

Now.... some people may say im mad... but both my wife and I hate Sky+.. it has so far failed to record many programs.. cut the ends off countless episods and has had more clashes (which it has done nothing about) than Lewis and Tyson...

Sorry but I hate it. I have cancelled my HD sub today (actually there is very little on to watch anyway) and we now want to hang our heads in shame and come back to TIVO....

Here's my question...
I ani't cleaver or bright when it comes to computer stuff..
I still have my Tivo (albeit, it was suffering when I turned off.. I couldn't put it into standby before a recording as it didn't wake up).. 
I also have a turbonet card.. (not installed)
I basically want to either get my old system upgraded to a new drive, PSU with mode 0 activated or shall I consider buying another Tivo?

If upgrade is the path.. can anyone here help me with it or advise a place that can help....

Roy


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## dribble (Jun 8, 2002)

Might help to state where you live.

David.


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## royfox (Apr 5, 2004)

Sorry.....

I have found Tivo Heaven from the listings on this forum, The chap there (Steve) seems reaaly good and I have ordered a pre-configured 250gb mode 0 drive and PSU...

I'm seriously looking forward to getting back to TIVO..

Just one question. I currently use a Sky digibox Amstrad DRX300.. its an old box.. can anyone suggest perhaps a better quality box ??? also.. I now have twin feed bnc coming into the house so can I make use of these.. I understand I can't record two channels at once on my TIVO.. just wondering if I can do anything else with the spare sat feed..?

Roy


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

You could buy a second SKY decoder from eBay and run FreeSat to your TV (make sure the decoder you buy has a SKY card included).

That way you can watch any channel on FreeSat while your TiVo records another from SKY....


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## royfox (Apr 5, 2004)

The Obo said:


> You could buy a second SKY decoder from eBay and run FreeSat to your TV (make sure the decoder you buy has a SKY card included).
> 
> That way you can watch any channel on FreeSat while your TiVo records another from SKY....


Sorry forgot to say that my tv have freeview built in...


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

You can't use that with Tivo though, so I'd go with the Freesat idea


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## frogster (Jan 4, 2006)

royfox said:


> I currently use a Sky digibox Amstrad DRX300.. its an old box.. can anyone suggest perhaps a better quality box ??? also.. I now have twin feed bnc coming into the house so can I make use of these.. I understand I can't record two channels at once on my TIVO.. just wondering if I can do anything else with the spare sat feed..?


All regular Sky boxes have the same features (except for the Sony which has an optical audio output that Tivo can't use, and some Grudigs which have S-Video) and the same picture quality spec so there is no point changing boxes for these reasons. The only real improvement with newer boxes is the menu speed: and with Tivo you never use the Sky menus.

You could use the spare feed with a second digibox and that would give you two satellite channels at the same time: one for Tivo to record, one for you to watch live.

If you do this then you will have to investigate the problem of conflicting infrared commands.
The Sky-Eye bloke has a very clever solution for this.


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## royfox (Apr 5, 2004)

Thanks all.. can't tell you how pleased we are to be moving back to TIVO...


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

royfox said:


> I know.... before you say I told you so......
> 
> Roy


Told you so..... 

I wonder how many people will use the 28 day cancellation policy they have after the world cup???.

I know living planet is good at HD, but how many times can you watch HD Floating fish... After battling with Sky+ a few years ago, I just love my tivo and so far the HD temptation I have resisted.


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## royfox (Apr 5, 2004)

6022tivo said:


> Told you so.....
> 
> I wonder how many people will use the 28 day cancellation policy they have after the world cup???.
> 
> I know living planet is good at HD, but how many times can you watch HD Floating fish... After battling with Sky+ a few years ago, I just love my tivo and so far the HD temptation I have resisted.


I hate cleaver people...lol...

You were so right.. the sky+ interface is so badly designed and executed.

We re-comisioned TIVO last night and it's like a breath of fresh air.. It's already recorded 3 programs for us last night that we would have missed.. this machine is a blinking marvel....

I know there is little chance of TIVO coming back into the UK but why is this case?

I own an electronics business and we have a team of very cleaver linux programmers... is there any way of getting a US machine working????

If we could, would it be legal????

There must be a way us TIVO owners can get HD machines and series 2/3/ what ever...


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

royfox said:


> I own an electronics business and we have a team of very cleaver linux programmers... is there any way of getting a US machine working????


Plenty of threads covering the same subject, but basically the answer is no. Even if some issues - PAL/NTSC, Power Supply, etc. - could be overcome, the thing is that US Tivos serial numbers simply cannot be registered in the UK.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

royfox said:


> I know there is little chance of TIVO coming back into the UK but why is this case?


AFAIK TiVo are still looking to re-enter the UK market, so hopefully it will just be a matter of time....

If they come back with a twin-freeview offering with an attractive pricing policy that de-emphasises the ongoing service charge (eg. a machine with a 1 to 3 years' "free" service included in the base price as in the US) they will clean up IMHO


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## 6022tivo (Oct 29, 2002)

royfox said:


> I hate cleaver people...lol...
> 
> If we could, would it be legal????
> 
> ..


Cyril uses/sells some US tivo's or used to...

The PSU's are multi voltage 110-240 (I think) on all series 1's.
You have to use composite as they don't have scart, guide data and setup will not be supported as Carls is yet again correct (lol) with the service number, but alternatives to getting guide data into a tivo are quite common.

To be honest, you can pick us a series 1 UK tivo on ebay for less than £100 now.

I think the only way to record HD is the Sky HD unit. Other satellite HD receivers and the Freeview one do not have recording capability..


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

6022tivo said:


> ...as Carls is yet again correct (lol)...


No need to sound _so_ surprised


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## royfox (Apr 5, 2004)

Thanks all..

Im a happy TIVO owner yet again.. well I would be if I could figure out the connections for the scart leads... lol


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Check my sig for PDF of User Guide if you've lost yours or whatever


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

I still have a few US TiVo series 1 left.AFAIK every series 1 is multi-voltage.

Not sure about series 2 or 3.

I wouldn't bother trying to get the US series 1 to work as a fully-fledged PVR - they are fine if you want to use them for testing hacks or manually recording via s-video.
They don't have RGB.

I don't think we can discuss getting non-UK TiVos working with UK guide data on this forum.

If you could get your linux programmers to control and record in high def on SkyHD via TiVo it would be nice


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