On PCWorld today, a story about how Microsoft, with its Xbox intends to compete with TiVo

With TiVo’s New Zealand launch imminent, Microsoft has reiterated its promise to provide movies on demand to kiwi Xbox Live users “before Christmas”.
New Zealand Xbox 360 spokesperson Frazer Scott said the movies on demand feature would be “an incredibly powerful” entertainment tool that would allow people to watch1080p HD quality movies through their Xbox consoles.
“We are really excited by the new service. We want to make the Xbox 360 the entertainment hub of every lounge, and movies on demand will help cement that.
The Xbox movies on demand feature would be implemented as part of an annual Xbox interface update, he said. It would navigate differently to similar services provided by other movie on demand providers and would allow people to watch1080p HD quality movies with no discs and no delays.
Another source, who declined to be named, said more information regarding the features and launch date would be available next week.
“[Microsoft] are obviously gunning for a before Christmas launch with TiVo around the corner,” she said.
TiVo distributor Hybrid Television Services announced at a press conference last week that TiVo would become available to New Zealanders from November.
Meanwhile, the price of an Xbox 360 Elite has dropped by $100. It now has a recommended retail price of $499. Gamers who purchase one of the consoles before October 22 would receive a free copy of Halo 3: ODST.

Original link: http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/feature/75de8ffa151810eacc2576390017dcf5?OpenDocument&Click=

This might be an interesting problem….. probably going to have to solve it with a Tivo HD if I am one of the lucky 5 :rolleyes:

Sound would drop out when recording. Sometimes changing the channels would bring it back.

So far have followed advice and swapped the Hard drive and the power supply (from a spare Philips unit) to no avail.

I think a PAL modification – specifically the stereo mod has come un glued (well unsoldered) and I dont know where the wires reattach.

The interesting thing is it appears to be a NICAM mod that doesnt follow any of the guides. It is a proper circuit board in a plastic box with "Andrew Payne NiCAM Decoder" on it. Anyone recognise it?

I will try to upload photos but the wires run from the 2 capacitors on the sound chip back to this unit into L & R labelled soldered connections. There appears to be a wire from (I think) -5v loose on that circuit board and I cannot tell where from. Hard to tell as there is a few terminated witres that seem to go nowhere – possibly from earlier mods.

The tuner is a TMDG2-505A and there appears to be no wire from pin 21 that I can see. There is a long wire from the circuit board with label "SIF" or "SIP" which I guess might be the sound input but I cannot see any evidence if soldering to show where it was originally – again pin 21 shows no evidence of a soldered joint.

I cant just use the Philips box as I have no source box to use.

Help….

Chris
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Tristan Clark – Technical Writer: writes ….

We knew TiVo was coming at some point – it’s part owned by TVNZ. But now details have emerged that Telecom holds exclusive reselling rights for the November launch, and only its broadband customers can have access to TiVo’s internet features.

A TiVo box acts like a digital tuner, giving you access to Freeview HD channels and the ability to record them. It will also provide internet access to pay-per-view movies and TV shows. While few details have been released on this content, it’s one of the bigger selling points of TiVo worldwide.

This is where Telecom’s exclusive deal pays off: it has said that any content watched through TiVo won’t count towards your monthly broadband data limit. Without this, most users would chew through their monthly limit in a matter of days.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that a TiVo set-top box will set you back $899 if you buy it outright, although you can also pay it off in instalments. And while roughly 60 percent of the broadband market is with Telecom, that other 40 percent is left out. These users won’t be able to access TiVo’s paid content or internet services.

We say:

The additional content offered through TiVo will have to be compelling to justify the high price and Telecom exclusivity. If you’re already a Telecom customer and watch a lot of TV, then it may be worth checking announcements about TiVo’s content in the coming months.

via Consumer Blogs – Tech Talk – Home entertainment – TiVo for Telecom.

Hi nztivo headend maintainers. There does not seem to be any guide data for the 02112 Waikanae FTA headend.
On the monthly summary I see there is someone on 02127 (Thomson Waikanae headend), but noone on WK02112.
Are you guys up to speed yet on how to fix this?
Cheers, John
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In a recent story about TVNZ, chief executive Rick Ellis talked about possible revenue streams from the TiVo in New Zealand.

Some interesting insight to how they will make extra money perhaps?

Original story here.

“We think there’s going to be some terrific opportunities for us so long as we get the right rights to content for us to be able to monetise that content in a mobile environment, [and] in a broadband environment as well as on television,” Mr Ellis says.

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Hi All

daylight savings change not taken.

Done sever call home and reboots, tried force index – anyone else having issues or is it just not updated on the server?

thanks
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For the last few days my Tivo has got part way through the Phone process and failed.

It downloads the latest data and starts processing, but sometime after 5% or so it fails with the message “Failed while preparing data”. I’ve tried a reboot with no change.

Something up with the guide data?
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