Australian TiVoHD in New Zealand - works!

[Skolink]

I can confirm that an Australian TiVoHD works in New Zealand!
The in-laws picked up a $498 160Gb unit from JB HiFi for us.

Before opening the box I activated the TiVo on the New Zealand TiVo website (mytivo.co.nz) but I don't know that this makes any difference.

During guided setup no channels were found during the scan, but I expected that was due to the old software not supporting H.264/AAC broadcasts.

Once guided setup was complete, the system information screen showed that the software version was 8.2a01-2-663 and the country was Australia.

It was then necessary to force 3 'daily calls' and reboot untill the software updated to version 11.3b2-01-2-663. It still was not possible to find any channels during a scan.

The trick then is to go to settings>channels>channel list>change area code.
Selecte "No" when asked if the information (Antenna, area code) is correct. You then get prompted as to which country you are in! You then select NZ (obviously) and don't get a choice of area code. You can then sucessfully scan for NZ channels!

[petestrash]

No worries, NZ & AU are now inline software wise.

The only unknown is if you got HNP.

HNP has been included in recent JBHI and HN sales here, did it get activated for you?

Peter.

[Skolink]

Yes I got a free Media Acess Key when I activated the TiVo. I haven't yet had a chance to try any of the networking functionality.

[yingwee]

As per this thread, I also got my Australian Tivo to work in New Zealand.
Unfortunately I was not able to find this thread until after I got it to work. Hence the title of my post is the question that I typed into search engines but was not able to find a clear answer.

Before I left Australia, I contacted Tivo support to ask if my Australian Tivo would work in New Zealand. They said it would, but I would need to deactivate my Tivo in Australia, and then when I got to New Zealand, I could re-activate it.
Note that when I attempted to re-register my Tivo in New Zealand, I was not able to use the same email address that I used to register my Tivo in Australia - I had to select a different email address.

It appears that one needs an internet connection before the Tivo device can be setup. I spent ages trying to figure out how to configure the TV channels. I tried selecting the automatic scan for channels, but this repeatedly failed.

As this thread mentions, you need to select Channel List, where the device will ask whether you are in Australia or New Zealand. From here on there is a setup 'wizard' that will take you through the steps. Once the device was setup, it would not respond to key presses on the remote control for a long time. I assume that the Tivo was 'thinking'. Tivo will download a day or so of the TV guide, and then will download the rest later.

It all works well. The Tivo Genie is great.

Note that you need to use a UHF antenna. Apparently there is still analog TV broadcast in New Zealand and hence there are some old style VHF TV antennas that are not really suitable for picking up UHF signals.

Good luck.