It seems to me that the official guide data is not as accurate as would be liked; particularly for the shorter listings. WHile you can extend by 10mins and cover most things it messes up if you want to record two programs following each other. Most of my experience is with recording programs for the small children, which tend to be short, frequently repeated, and episodic.

My analysis of it would be -

TV1, TV6, TV7 – Very accurate, broadcasts start within 1min of scheduled time. Lots of detail on episode data. Thumbs up for TVNZ.

TV2 – seems to be broadcast about 4-5min later than scheduled. I need to have an extra 4min or ‘extend’ enabled for recordings to be sure of catching the end, and then it messes up following recordings.

TV3 – seems to be broadcast about 3-4 minutes earlier than scheduled, which is even more problematic as you can’t easily start recordings early. Also, several programs appear to be missing the episode data so we end up recording duplicates – particularly since TV3+1 causes the program to be recorded again 1hr later if the episode data is not there.

CTV8 – Missing episodic data completely, as it is probably not being provided by CTV at all.

Prime, MaoriTV – Missing entirely, of course.

I havent bothered with Parliament TV and the radio channels yet.
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I know two series 1 Tivos can ‘talk’ to share playing lists etc, and I know two of the new Tivos can share their Now Playing – but (and I suspect I know the answer) can a new HD Tivo and an old series 1 connect together?

Also, while I know there is no guide data to support it, can the new HD Tivo’s control a Sky decoder ? I would love one, but would miss out on recording Mythbusters, Click etc off Sky – and I wouldn’t mind being able to record these in some manner…

Appreciate any feedback,

Thanks
Neil
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One of my Tivos keeps failing to complete it’s routine daily call. If I reboot, then force a call via putty, it works fine, but left to it’s own devices, call fails, if I just force a call without the reboot, fails again. Any bright ideas?
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My series one is up for sale on trademe ( link )

Series 1 Philips TiVo.
All operational
* 320GB Hard disk  (Western Digital, worth $120)
* Cache/Network  card, with 512mb memory (worth $94USD from 9thtee.com)
* nzTiVo software installed and running

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The one here: http://www.telstraclear.co.nz/sub-sites/homemedia/
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As you’ve heard, both MaoriTV and Prime have refused to allow TiVo access to their guide data for various reasons. I’m not to affected by MaoriTV but Prime is a nuisance because I’d watch it more if I knew what was on.

The TiVo guide just chunks it into 1-hour blocks and says to contact Prime or MaoriTV to ask for the guide.

My personal opinion is that Maori TV have refused due to their ongoing spat with TVNZ over the Rugby, and Prime have refused because Prime is owned by Sky, and TiVo is a competitor to MySky – although their official line is that TiVo prevents them from collecting viewing statistics, somehow.

Does anyone know what name/address we should write to in order to complain and/or request that the guide data be released? The only details I have for Prime are:

0800 759 759 (SKY Customer service)
SKY Television
PO Box 9059
Newmarket
Auckland

however it would be better to have it more targeted to an individual or department.

Also, does anyone want to co-ordinate a group petition to Prime and MaoriTV asking them to increase their viewership by playing with the TiVo users?

I’ve also found some inaccuracies in the guide, so far for TV3. Missing episode info (Dora the Explorer) is causing it to record the same show from both TV3 and TV3+1, plus TV3 seems to be starting about 5min earlier than the TiVo is recording. There’s another program (Wipeout) being listed as Simpsons, too. If I’ve found this many errors so far Im a bit worried about overall accuracy (or how well the station keep to their schedules)

Steve
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Well, I now have my TiVo, despite dire warnings from the Telecom shop that it would not work unless I sign up for Telecom Broadband and that they would not give any refunds if I change my mind…

Here’s my findings so far on the NZ TiVo Experience.

Pre-Sales: Pretty clueless
I suppose this is to be expected, with it being a new product, but I could do without the FUD over ISP choice. A clear explanations would be better.

Value: Excellent
Getting the wireless adapter and full PC software for the NZ$920 price tag is great. It was a bit unclear as to how you get the software at first, and the sales people didnt know. It turns out that once you have registered on the TiVo website, it gives you your activation keys and the download link for the software.
It would have been nice to get an HDMI cable with the box, and the ariel lead was the wrong gender, but that was no great problem.
It comes with a fair quality component video cable (decent length), fair quality AV cable (decent length), ariel cable (female, decent length), ethernet cable (very short), and of course a decent length power lead.

Installation: Easy
Configuring the wireless network and everything was very easy, even with our password-protected WEP on the home network. Installing the home networking was easy (once I had the codes and had enabled networking on the TiVo itself) but it will not work until your TiVo has fully updated that night, unless…
To speed things up, after all was done I forced a connect to TiVo (to update the software). This then required a reboot, which installed the new software and rebooted again. Once this was done, a final forced connect to TiVo updated it properly, and the networking all worked.
TiVo Genie (control the Tivo via the internet) works well but you need to configure it online AFTER all the home networking is fully configured and working.

Premium Services: Don’t know
We have Orcon as our ISP, as as advertised, the premium services menu item just gives ‘cannot contact server’.
As far as I can see, the Premium Services basically amount to video rental on demand. The prices seem fair, and you cant beat the convenience, but we never rent videos anyway. No loss to me.

TiVo Service: Good, but a few problems
The service is all I expected, apart from the lack of scheduling data for Prime. Instead, you just get a list of entries saying ‘contact prime to ask for this’. Probably they want us to pressure Prime to release the guide data to TiVo.
I notice with this version, you can no longer choose a recording quality for your recording – it is always high quality HD or SD depending on the broadcast. This is a bit annoying for people wanting to make the most of the disk space.
The TiVo video out mode defaults to 720p; its best to change it to ‘Native’ if your TV supports all modes.
I also had problems in making the TiVo remote support our TV (Acer). It knows the brand, but the codes produced don’t control our TV. I’m hoping for updates in the future…

More when more things crop up. However I can definitely confirm that everything bar the pay-tv-on-demand works via Orcon.
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We did a couple of bulk buys for TiVo here in Oz back in May.

So wondering if there was any interest in doing a bulk buy to send to NZ.

TiVo/Hybrid have said that Aussie’s and Kiwi’s can move between countries as both units are the same, and I have now tested the NZ software on our TiVo’s and it works fine.

Not sure of current pricing until I can get some numbers to gauge interest, the last bulk buy here was A$599 ~NZ$750.

The biggest killer is shipping, as they weigh about 6Kg each, but might make sense shipping a few together to the same address then distribute from there.

You may also be able to organise something yourselves though Telecom NZ, but from what others have said about Telecom being inflexible this may be unlikely.

Anyway don’t really know, just putting it out there let us know if your interested or want to give some feedback…

Peter.
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