Hey Qaz,
I feel a little awkward helping as I had so much trouble and needed so much help myself that it feels weird being the one not asking!
However from what I know:
1) I don't think that you would be using it much for watching anything other than what you recorded. From what I have read, (HEAPS!) it is fairly unusual to use it to playback anything other than what you actually record yourself. Which isn't to say it is impossible but just isnt generally used for that.
2) Unless you were very keen ie able to modify the board, you will need either a Turbocard, a serial cable or able to use the onboard modem. The turbocard is by far the best, I beleive you can use the onboard modem but it would it may need to have a sympathetic phone number?!? The serial cable is a pain in the ***, I know because I spent a frig load of time playing with it when my turbocard was broken. It is very temperamental and not very useful.
3) Im only going on New Zealands satellite set up but the answer here is no you cant watch sport on one channel while recording something on another. Unless you were watching say a Free to air channel via your normal aerial. You can however watch something you have already recorded while recording something else which is pretty cool.
4) No not with only one Tivo!
5) Yes you can there is a fair amount of stuff on the How-to's for this. I understand it is very straight forward I think you just need to play around with the settings. Im going to start doing this very soon... will let you know more soon.
6) I have played around for about 18 months with different Media centre PC's and they have nothing on the TIVO. It is FAR FAR superior to anything I have experienced on the PC. The best thing about the Tivo is that you have a easy to use intuitive interface to record your shows on. Even a very nicely set up Media PC is only a glorified VCR compared to TIVO's programming guide. Ok with the Media PC you still get the chasing playback, but you dont get stuff like Season Passes, whereby the TIVO records every show that season. I think from experience the better solution is to spend the money on the Tivo and use it in conjunction with the Media PC.
Because of a dud Turbocard I spent the better part of 3 weeks playing with this thing and was very very frustrated but I have found that since getting it going it is the best toy I have bought in the past 5 years.
Marv
Marv
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'I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time'
Mark Twain (on his 70th Birthday December 5th 1905)
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