Review: TiVo
In those advertisements, everybody in the street loves TiVo. TV Tonight has been test-driving the DVR and learns some of the neighbours are happier than others.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
In the advertisements that cute little TiVo is having such a fun time. Everybody in the street loves him, and he’s having a blast sucking up a slew of shows down his aerial. Even in Sex and the City TiVo was a girl’s best friend.
In the real world not everyone loves him so much. He’s a bit of a pricey houseguest and it’s taken a renewed marketing push, plus some additional features, to start winning over the neighbours.
TV Tonight has been test-driving TiVo for a few weeks now.
When you open your TiVo box it’s hard not to notice that in terms of design it’s been hit with the ugly stick. It’s a big, black box with a slab of silver. He’s not even trying to look sleek. The other thing that strikes you is the amount of connecting cords –enough to give anyone a headache. The good news is that by following the instructions and repeating the phrase “calm, blue ocean, calm, blue ocean” it’s actually achievable, if somewhat time-consuming.
To connect your TiVo, you’ll need high-speed broadband. It likes to update and download via the net, so if you’re without a decent connection better get your purchase priorities in order first.
Once you’re connected, you’ll be using the remote and stepping through on-screen instructions. It’s about here you have to remind yourself that what you’ve just connected is a digital recorder –not a content box with an instant world of entertainment. Those ads hoodwink you into thinking that for your $699 you’ve got stacks of new shows at your fingertips. No, you’ve got a wiz-bang recorder that still has the same shows that you accessed via a HD set top box or television.
But make no mistake. If you’ve never been able to rewind live television it’s a great boon. Wanna watch a replay sports moment? Miss the answer to that question? Need to get your head around a crime scene? That’s all a pushover. Recording two shows at once is also very neat. The real power of TiVo is also in its ability to become familiar with your viewing habits, making recommendations, recording shows on your behalf, recording entire seasons, or movies with your favourite actors. That’s super smart technology.
I was a tad insulted by some of the shows it thought I would like, simply because I’d recorded them once, including changing the show I was watching on my TV because it started to auto-record another. I’m sure this can be easily resolved. It was easier just to yell at the TV and find the stop button, or as I got to know it, the “What The?” button.
Recording via the web is a nifty feature provided you have a Yahoo! account.
The on-screen menu is rather clunky but again TiVo is so adaptable it can be personalised to a layout that suits you. It just takes a little exploration…
TiVo has recently begun adding features –you can now order pizza (how, umm, healthy!), and there’s a free movie download each week from Blockbuster. Warning: make sure you are comfortable with the download size 2-5GB before agreeing to go there. So far the movies are disappointing: Jerry Maguire, Hudson Hawke and a bunch of other flicks from the bargain bin.
The biggest omission in the Aussie TiVo is in leaving out the ad-skipping feature. It’s hard to forgive this decision. We’re told that in order to keep the price down to $699 the trade-off was in ads, which like your old VCR, can only be fast-forwarded.
There has been some criticism that its 160GB isn’t big enough storage capacity. Whilst you won’t shore up the equivalent of your DVD library, I found it plenty big for recording and watching FTA shows.
As pleasurable as it was to have a big, ugly box that recorded and replayed everything I could (practically) ever want for a one-off payment, I couldn’t get my head around the fact my multimedia laptop allows me to record, pause and rewind live television via Windows Media Centre. Sure it’s not directly connected to my TV but there are ways around that too.
Still, one of my friends absolutely swears by his new toy. At least some of the neighbours love little TiVo.
– TiVo sells for $699 at Dick Smith, Harvey Norman, David Jones, JB HiFi, Domayne and Clive Anthonys. The optional Wireless Adapter is $59.95.
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46 Responses
I am thinking of getting TiVo, but before I fork out the cash for either a TiVo or other product, I have been trying to find out if watching the free to air channels on TiVo will use up my download.
I know downloading something from CASPA will use both download and $$ but is “free” to air really free if it is using my download allowance? Hope some one can answer this for me, I have searched the Mytivo.com.au site with no luck.
quote “The biggest omission in the Aussie TiVo is in leaving out the ad-skipping feature. It’s hard to forgive this decision. We’re told that in order to keep the price down to $699 the trade-off was in ads, which like your old VCR, can only be fast-forwarded.” end quote
Does anybody believe this tripe ??? – Contemptuous Seven management in collusion with the Advertisers is more likely. Trust me. If they thought they could remove the fast forward all together and get away with it, they would have.
3rd party machines such as mine can ad jump with a couple of presses as I know a lot of other peoples can as well.
Why anyone would buy this machine brought to Australia by a commercial television network is beyond me !!
TiVo is expensive, $699 what a joke! It should be cheaper and then people might buy. Who can afford to spend this much on this sort of product. People are losing their jobs or have money problems, that when they should bring the price down. Give it a couple years any bet the price will go down. I just brought a new TV plus a digital box and I only broiught it because I had to. My TV has broken down.
I can’t say this enough seeing as though only one other person has: Beyonwiz, Beyonwiz, Beyonwiz. Not only is the new DP-P2 compatible with Foxtel (that one’s for you Tony) but in my opinion is the perfect machine. Can network (via LAN) so if connected to a wireless router you can remotely browse and play music, view photos and play other media files. I can transfer recordings wirelessly to my laptop. With IceTV I can schedule recordings remotely and can also control padding so that I don’t miss the end of programs. I can also whack in an SD card or USB drive to transfer or view data. I can edit files on the machine. Now I can also browse limited internet content (weather and news) via the WizTV function. Also, I can skip ads (and re-program the skipping increments if I want)!
Not all of us can get 70gig internet connections. For the most part, internet in Australia is slow and small bandwidth. Foxtel IQ leaves Tivo for dead.
iam happy with my Topfield HDD set top box…had it now for years…and while its not intelligent (the Topfield box)…the owner is…and i dont need to increase my broadband limit with the downloads it (Tivo) would do…and now if I want i can go out and get a Topfield 200 gig HD settop box…. so that will do nicely…plus when you introduce a intellignet TIvo…like David said…it will think you may like a show and record it for you…. no thanks….
Peter you wouldn’t!
all i can say is waste of money, until we can get VoD like the states and have the packages like foxtel but cheaper then ill change my mind otherwise. its just overhyped and you could get a much better recorder for cheaper as well.
I have a question why would you want/need Tivo if you have Foxtel IQ?
Too much $$ for very little IMO. When FTA becomes ‘cant miss TV’ I might bother to invest, until then my trusty VCR will do for the 1 or 2 shows worth recording:)
Whats he deal everyone has about the broadband access.
I have a 70gb plan i barely use
Internet is cheap as
If this uses more than 500kb a day it will be lucky
its just a waste of money. you could probably get foxtel iq cheaper for instalation and everything else and you wont have to worry about having high speed brpad band. so reall channel wasted all that time with false advertising during the olympics. foxtel iq still the best option
I just bought one this week.
Hopefully arrive tomorrow.
The latest deal from tivo.com.au is to pay in installments over 10 months.
So it doesn’t sound so bad
TiVo…too little too late
Had my Topfield for years and it leaves this for dead.
All on air guides are rubbish…government needs to legislate some standards for this mess.
Great review David.
This part was decider for me “To connect your TiVo, you’ll need high-speed broadband. It likes to update and download via the net”
So Seven is forcing people into broadband and even worse to use their broadband connection (and the user’s extracost) to download/upload stuff)
$700 i will not be spending.
Tivo looks more and more like Beta.Costly and unworkable.
Incorrect. Freeview WILL effect TIVO & ICETV so long as it utilizes the same feature set that the UK service uses, and from what our version has mentioned, it will.
It’s more than just a campaign. Yes, it will just be a slight modification of the current channel lineup, but the platform the FTA networks broadcast on will be changed. The Uk system of freeview uses pretty much the same feature set that the TIVO system uses here.
This from the Freeview UK website. And I quote:
“With the great functions available from Freeview, TV viewing has never been better. All you need to do is buy a digital TV recorder with the Freeview logo, plug it in and away you go. You are free to control your TV entertainment experience. Pause, record and rewind live TV to fit around your work and play. You’ll never miss a thing especially as you can now record an entire series at the touch of a button”
The only difference our freeview looks like having is the amount of channels. We are quoting 15 of which 13 are already in service. Whereas the British system has nearly 50 not including digital radio stations.
The only real downside I see of the Australian freeview service is that older devices like HD boxes/PVR’s will probably will not be compatible with the new service without some kind of firmware update (if any). You can watch the channels fine, but the new EPG information system probably will not work, but basic functionality will remain.
The first real freeview enabled product to be released here will probably be the PLAYTV PVR addon for the PS3. Sony have held off release here as it needs freeview capabilities to operate.
All things considered, TIVO will become even more irrelevant within the next 18 months. It was too slow in getting here and too limited in it’s features compared to it’s American cousin.
Tivo? No hope!
1. Initial outlay on IQ2 is $200 then $10 per month for 50+ channels, record 2 at once, watch a 3rd. Tivo price of $700 reached after 4 years or so of having IQ2! And for what realistically is 7 or 8 channels until 2013 – I severely doubt FTA will do much with extra channels until no analogue so as not to lose viewers as digital uptake is so low in Australia (apart from ONE HD). Then again, they could also change this by providing content worth seeing – catch 22.
2. FTA is on Foxtel satellite in Sydney. So all we miss out on with IQ2 is FTA HD – again – nothing much happening here at this stage, these channels will be on Foxtel Satellite once they have the bandwidth capacity improved.
3. If a little more thought went into Tivo, then they could have downloads via FTA digital transmissions similar to what Foxtel do for On Demand. Crazy using internet.
In 6 months use of a TiVo I have found it exceptionally easy to use, and it has managed to record almost all my shows without losing the end, despite the mucking around by the networks.
I’ve used other PVRs like Foxtel IQ and EyeTV (with IceTV), and the TiVo is comparable in the features department, some things better (suggestions), some things worse (ad forwarding over skipping).
The current Blockbuster offerings are rubbish but they are still trialing it. Later this year they are supposed to be moving to latest movies. If the ISP’s get on board and allow the download traffic free like many do for iTunes, then it’ll be great.
One of the things TiVo has which is great is the broadband connection. That opens up a lot of possibilities down the track.
The Tivo is minimalist, appealing to those who dislike flashing lights and scrolling LEDs. It has only one more plug (between the TiVo and modem) than any other AV device but with better instructions and an on-screen set up much easier than reading a poorly written manual. Only a completely uninformed consumer would feel hoodwinked or fail to understand they have not bought a pay TV device. Compare TiVo ads to ‘Freeview’ ads.
Timeshifting programs and scheduling recordings is a breeze and the Season Pass function makes dealing with the programming shenanigans of the broadcasters a thing of the past. The Wish List and Suggestions almost do away with scouring the TV guides/EPG.
By ad-skipping do you mean a 30 second or 3 minute forward jump in addition to fast forward? No machine can auto detect the beginning and end of the ads and skip them. The fast forward on the Tivo is *very* quick, and has this uncanny ability to drop the viewer right on the sweet spot without the need to jockey back and forth.
The size of the HDD is often criticised. But how much TV do you want to watch?
A lot of people are not technologically inclined. The TiVo is a simple solution. It does what it says on the box.
umm Freeview won’t effect TIVO.
Freeview is merely an advertising campaign for all the networks. The channels proposed under Freeview already exist (sans the tweaking on the network’s 2nd HD/SD channels) and can be accessed by any HD set top box.
Channel Se7en are really pushing it uphill with TIVO here is AUS. Like the article said, it’s somewhat crippled compared to the US version. It’s just a glorified STB that allows for program information guide further in advance than what the FTA networks do now, hence the broadband connection requirement for the data. If you seriously must have program data in advance, save money, get a topfield and use the ICETV subscription service. It still needs the internet but works out cheaper in the long run. And doesn’t have a whole swag of data hogging nonsense to confuse people with.
But even ICETV like TIVO may struggle when the freeview system is fully up and running here. Provided it bases it’s system on the British freeview system, the limited program information currently on FTA will be eliminated when freeview launches as one feature is a minimum 7 day EPG. That should make that extra feature of the TIVO/ICETV moot and a standard DVD/HDD recorder even a more attractive proposition.
All the other features the TIVO has are really just filler rubbish to make it more attractive to the mug punter. Anyone with any idea of consumer electronics knows to steer clear of the Australia TIVO, it’s just a waste of money. As much as I hate to say it, The foxtel IQ/IQ2 service is the best functioned PVR service at the moment. Sure it’s a high subscription price, but in return you do get a whole lot of extra content too and there’s no large data usage on your broadband account at least.