Comments on: TiVo to miss year one target

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:44:23 +0000

i dont work for foxtel or tivo, both are overpriced, $700 for tivo and an ongoing rip off from foxtel.
Think about that for a minute

By: WinC

WinC — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:59:11 +0000

TIVO may be a good and easy to use product with good functionality, but I agree with the person who made a comparison of US and OZ channels. We only have a handful of free to air here, so much less use for TIVO than in US. I use a PC for my viewing needs, running Vista. I can schedule recordings, watch TV (can do 2 channels with a dual TV tuner card), watch DVD (can add Blu-Ray), listen to music, surf the internet, run Office….blah blah blah, and it cost me less than $500! TIVO is overpriced for what it can do.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:34:20 +0000

I use selectv, i dont record i dont care, my box is satellite + digital free to air and cost me only $99 once plus $44 monthly subscription, tivo only fta $700 its a no brainer

By: GW

GW — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:01:46 +0000

The answer is you are all correct.
What we needed and never got, was FoxTiVo.
The Foxtel content is great but the interface and functionality of IQ is terrible in comparison to TiVo. TiVo is the best tech I have ever used for TV, for the 5 plus years that I have been using it, but TiVo available here at retail is only FTA, therefore not enough content.
The answer is both.

By: Basil Scrotum

Basil Scrotum — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:45:19 +0000

Hmmm.

One half of the comments on here seem to come from the TiVo marketing Dept., the other half from FoxTel’s.

Raise your IQ by 20+ points – throw your TV out altogether.

By: Dan German

Dan German — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:12:14 +0000

I’d also point out that with Foxtel, I can record commercial free movies on a half a dozen channels. If I see a movie on FTA channels, I avoid ‘em.

It should be noted that IQ is very cheap to install now. I think there is a free IQ promotion on at the moment. So yes, regular monthly payments, but oh so worth it.

Something like 80% of homes in USA pay the cable/sat bill.

By: Andy McKeon

Andy McKeon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:10:07 +0000

I worked for Goodby in San Franciisco when we launched TiVo in the USA in the late 90′s and I had one of the first boxes. Alongside the internet and mobile phone i think it’s one of the best technological breakthroughs in years.

Watch what you want, when you want and – you can skip through the crappy ads. And 99% of them are rubbish.

It worked across both cable and free tv. Brilliantly.

So why, in tiny Australia, nine years later, do we have this inferior version? Or, the need to buy both an IQ and TiVO? Politics? Land grabs?

Australians have been completely stiffed.

By: TVAnon

TVAnon — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:34:19 +0000

Aimee – you’re obviously someone who works for Foxtel – no one else would use STV instead of PAY TV.

‘b’ – a Tivo for 2 years is still half the price of the cheapest PAY TV equivalent. The lifespan of a Tivo would be similar to a PC purchase rather than a mobile phone.

I subscribe to Foxtel, but most people can get much better value out of a good PVR.

By: The Buyer

The Buyer — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:55:21 +0000

Some of the comments left here read suspiciously like planted testimonies to paint Tivo in a positive light.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:42:40 +0000

Adam – would be interesting to know how long ago you had Foxtel?
Foxtel prides itself on having first runs, premium programming and investing in top notch local productions, miles ahead of its beginnings.
If the current industry has shown us anything, it is the Foxtel channels that are continuing to soar because of their committment to their viewer to deliver what they want when they want it. So its this content I would be more interested in being able to access rather than restricted to FTA because of a one-off investment.
Technology changes at the rate of knots. And you’ve now – as you said yourself – have this for life. Is it more fool you?

By: b

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:31:08 +0000

Adam, TVAnon and anyone else who would like to make calculations on a “forever” basis, who are you kidding? If the digital age has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that any piece of digital equipment that we buy has a limited shelf life and is then outdated, outmoded, needs to be replaced with a superior model (a must have for all consumers) or the technology is changed making it obsolete. So your calculation with a “forever” included fail from the start since most consumers are savvy enough to know that the way to calculate value is to say that the $700 is for the next two years at most.
Sure, you may be able to use it for more than two years, but how many people here have had the same mobile phone for the last five years?

By: adam

adam — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:10:16 +0000

I only bought one of these last week….$700 is a cheap cost for something that I now own forever.

I can go online and set up my recording from work, download movies, and watch TV whenever I want.

I had foxtel and most things were re-runs anyway, except live sport. And most of which such as AFL, League, and Cricket on can get on free TV anyway.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:04:11 +0000

Dan, you may want to try it before you knock it. I’ve had a Tivo for almost 4 years (prior to the official launch I had a unit bought from the US with a PAL tuner in it for this market) and it has changed the way I consume TV. You can set it up to access all free to air (including digital) as well as download shows from Tivo to your PC, iPhone and other media devices (or the other direction).

The system is easy to use and if you actually try it will change the way you watch TV (I now only watch sport and the odd news live – the rest is taped to watch when I want to watch and best of all allows me to easily skip all the crap commercials).

The IQ provides very similar functionality and gives you access to Foxtel.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:46:18 +0000

Aimee – very well put. TiVo is an amazing product, but it’s only as good/worthwhile as the content it can access. The reason it’s shthot in the US is because it can record from a ridiculous high number of channels and there’s so much content available.

The product here (correct me if I’m wrong) is a dumbed down version of it’s far superior American cousin and coming to market a few years too late.

By: gus

gus — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:38:36 +0000

Get a TiVo.. get a lesson on TiVo…. get someone.. a stranger … to show you TiVo.. you will never ever look back. And for the one flat fee it’s an absolute bargain.