iTWire - TiVo confirms high definition, but no ad-skipping, for Australians

TiVo confirms high definition, but no ad-skipping, for Australians

By Adam Turner
Thursday, 13 September 2007 05:39

TiVo's Australian distributor has confirmed Aussies will get high definition recorders but be barred from skipping ads when the iconic Personal Video Recorder arrives next year.

Australian TiVos, due for release in the second quarter of 2008, will be based on the TiVo HD recorder released in the United States in July. The TiVo HD features twin high definition tuners, allowing users to record two programs in once, along with an HDMI port and 1080i output.

Australians won't enjoy the ad-skipping features found in US TiVo, confirms Phil Dobbie - chief marketing officer of engin, an Australian consumer VoIP provider part owned by the Seven television network. Seven will sell TiVo in Australia next year through engin, to be available before the Beijing Olympics in August.

"Australians will be able to fast forward through ads, but not totally skip. It will be a fast scan - you should be able to get through an ad break in 30 seconds," Dobbie says.

Dobbie also confirmed that, like the US TiVo HD, Australian TiVos will offer wireless connectivity via USB wifi adaptors, as well as Ethernet, for downloading the two week electronic program guide announced by Free TV Australia earlier this year. Unlike the TiVo HD, Australian TiVos won't work with cable television and Seven is "still wavering" on the hard drive capacity. The US version features a 160GB hard drive along with an eSATA port for connecting an external hard drive, although the eSATA port is labelled "For future use only".

Australians will be able to remotely program their TiVos via Yahoo! Australia (which has partnered with Seven) and tivo.com.au. A similar feature is already offered by Australian EPG provider IceTV which recently won't it's legal batte against the Nine Network.

The TiVo HD retails for $299 in the United States (plus an ongoing subscription fee), but Dobbie says Australian pricing is yet to be finalised.

"I think economies of scale mean it will probably be a little bit higher here, but we'll look at the market when we launch. It isn't the intention that it will be priced at a premium, we do intend that it will be comparable with other PVRs."