High Definiton Tivo

I am sorry if this is a really bad question but i'm new. I have a hard-drive recorder at the moment. And honestly it sucks - the picture quality is bad because i can't do timed recordings with my HD box, the machine is sluggish and sometimes doesn't record properly. Then i found this sight and thought i had found salvation. But i am worried that if I buy a Tivo, like the ones mentioned on OZTivo.net there will be no improvement in picture quality. Then i recently saw some HD-Tivo's on CNet.com. My question is: If i imported one of these and made it PAL compatible then would it work? TV Guide, every channel and all?

Thank You,
Orangeehnry

In one word: No.

You can use a Series 1 TiVo in Australia in PAL mode and that is it.

Also, I don't think any broadcasters over this side of the world are broadcasting in high def anyway, so there would be no point doing it even if you could get a high def tivo working.

ZollyMonsta

It's rather funny here in Australia because we have a mix of some that don't, some that do (sometimes) and some that claim they do but really don't apart from a poor attempt to upscale it!

No doubt some of them then are playing on the fact that the average joe bloggs home customer isn't totally up on the play. The thing they don't realise is more and more domestic customers are becoming aware of these technical standards of delivery. ;)

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Originally Posted by zollymonsta

No doubt some of them then are playing on the fact that the average joe bloggs home customer isn't totally up on the play. The thing they don't realise is more and more domestic customers are becoming aware of these technical standards of delivery. ;)

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Why are you not able to use a series 2 Tivo in Australia? And if you cant then what is the advantage of a tivo over say a HDD recorder?

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Originally Posted by orangehenry

Why are you not able to use a series 2 Tivo in Australia?

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Typing into the OzTiVo website search engine "Series 2" shows you a few pages explaining why:

http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/sea...eb=on&regex=on

In short: You cannot because the Broadcom BCM7020 and BCM7040 chips are configured for NTSC. They CAN do PAL but because the programming literature is under lock and key (called the NDA or Non Disclosure Agreement) then nobody knows or is willing to tell any hobbyists what the information is that we need to know. If you can help then great.

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And if you cant then what is the advantage of a tivo over say a HDD recorder?

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1. Guide data up to 7 days in advance

2. Suggested recordings based on your habits

3. Up to almost 1TB (that's 1,000GB) of recording space if you want that with two of the current largest IDE hard disks you can buy.

4. Controllable over a network or the internet if you want to do that

5. Able to "talk" to one another over your local network if you want to share recordings or reslove conflicts (ie more than one thing to record at a time).

probably more that others can think of too.

Hi,

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Why are you not able to use a series 2 Tivo in Australia?

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You can, sort of, but there are problems. The main issue is that they haven't been successfully hacked to work with our PAL video system. More info here:

http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/vie...es2InAustralia

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what is the advantage of a tivo over say a HDD recorder?

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It's EPG (Electronic Program Guide), which means that getting it to record your favourite shows is basically a "set and forget" process. More info here:

http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view/FAQ/WhyGetATivo

Cheers, Dave.

Would it not be possible to take the HD signal boradcasted in all major Australian which is in PAL run it through a device the converts the signal to NTSC and record from there?

Hi,

Sorry, I edited my post to begin with "You can, sort of ..." after your reply. What I mean by that is basically what you've described. However there are other issues - described on the page I linked to - which means that they aren't as good a "package" as the Series 1.

Cheers, Dave.

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Then i recently saw some HD-Tivo's on CNet.com. My question is: If i imported one of these and made it PAL compatible then would it work? TV Guide, every channel and all?

Would it not be possible to take the HD signal boradcasted in all major Australian which is in PAL run it through a device the converts the signal to NTSC and record from there?

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Which model HD tivo are you talking about?

The Hughes unit is for DirecTV via satellite, and although it also accepts OTA boradcasts it does not decode the Australian Digital system and does not have any other inputs so you could use a separate STB and format convertor.

Peter.