Hands on with Seven's Australian TiVo

by Adam Turner

Tuesday, 01 July 2008

Page 2 of 3 Thanks to the fact Australian networks completely disregard their own program schedules, a generous margain for error when it comes to scheduling recordings is essential to make sure you don't miss the end of your favourite shows. Once again, TiVo delivers the goods. Owners of media centre computers refer to something called the Wife Acceptance Factor, or WAF. It's a somewhat sexist term but it refers to a very real phenomenon. A PVR that constantly fails you will rate a very low WAF, and there's no quicker way to annoy your loved ones than to always miss the last five minutes of a movie (trust me, I'm speaking from experience here). It doesn't make for a happy household. The TiVo's scheduling options are certainly a WAF-booster. As well as setting a one-off recording, TiVo also lets you set a Season Pass to record every show in a series. You can also create rules to automatically record shows according to actor, director, category, keyword or title. The TiVo has no way of detecting when a show actually starts and finished, it can only go by the TV schedule. When you create a new recording, you can set the TiVo to begin recording up to 10 minutes early and run up to three hours over - which is far more generous than Vista Media Centre's options. By default the TiVo automatically records for an extra 10 minutes during prime time, which I think isn't quite enough, but you can change this in the settings. Recordings of live programs such as sport are automatically extended by an hour (this is flagged in the EPG data so the TiVo knows). You can set a custom margin for error for each scheduled recording, so you don't need to waste extra hard drive space for shows you know always start and finish on time. Of course this all relies on a decent Electronic Program Guide, so the TiVo can check what's on TV this week. Thankfully the TiVo doesn't rely on the hit-and-miss, so-called seven day EPG embedded in the broadcast signal, instead it downloads a full EPG via the internet. The TiVo has a built-in Ethernet port, but if your lounge room isn't blessed with Ethernet you can by a $AU59 wireless adaptor for connecting to your home wifi network. There's no way to access the EPG without some form of internet access. There's no subscription fee for TiVo's own EPG data, which is certainly a challenge to IceTV's $99 per year EPG which is used by some Australian PVRs. Like IceTV, TiVo lets you schedule recordings remotely via the web - in this case using Yahoo!7's online TV schedule. In Australia, there's nothing in the consumer electronics space that comes close to matching the TiVo unless you want to sign up for Foxtel's pay TV service and then pay an extra monthly fee for the iQ2 high-def PVR. If you've already got Foxtel, the iQ2 is a no-brainer, but if you don't want to shell out for pay TV then TiVo is the one to beat. PVRs from the likes of Topfield and Beyonwiz are impressive but they lack intelligent storage management. They're also more expensive than the TiVo, yet they still rely on a $99 annual IceTV subscription. PVRs from traditional CE players such Panasonic and Sony also pale in comparison to TiVo, plus they're reliant on the crappy free-to-air EPG. Apart from Foxtel's iQ2, the only real rival to TiVo is a media centre computer. I don't care what anyone says, a media centre is only suited to tech-savvy users who are prepared to tinker. It takes a lot of work to get a media centre running smoothly, regardless of operating system. They're not an off-the-shelf solution for the masses and I certainly wouldn't inflict one on a non-tech savvy relative. While the Australian TiVo is an amazing device, it's certainly not perfect. CONTINUED << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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