TiVo South Africa
From TivoZA
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A brief introduction to the world of TiVo
TiVo is truly life changing, for those that don't already know why here is a brief summary. TiVo will record all your favorite shows and have them available when you are ready to watch them, this allows you to enjoy your life and not be beholden to the TV schedule. Recording is as simple as selecting the program name you wish to record and just press the record button, no more hassling with time or duration of the show and what channels it's on, TiVo does this all for you. If the program you want to record is a series you have the option to get a Season Pass for the show which will mean the TiVo will record every episode of the show for you. Even watching Live TV becomes a better experience as the TiVo buffers what you are watching so if you need to pop into the kitchen just press pause, the TiVo will continue to record what you are watching and will be ready and waiting where you left it when you get back.
One of the greatest advantages of TiVo is the ability to fast forward through adverts, you can skip 5 minutes of ads in literally 10 seconds. Hour long shows now become 45 minutes, giving you extra time to do the things you'd prefer to be doing.
When it comes to watching movies the TiVo provides you with more information than you've ever had before. Movies are now star-rated from 0 to 5 stars, these ratings are based on the thousands of users input in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) (http://www.imdb.com) and allow you to determine easily whether a movie is worth watching. Other such great features includes the ability to search for shows based on the Actors appearing in the show as well as who Directed it. Based on shows you've selected to record, TiVo will suggest shows it thinks you may like to watch and will automatically record them when space is available.
A TiVo is basically a digital VCR, instead of recording to video tapes it records to an internal hard drive. Going this route has many benefits such as never needing to remember which tape you recorded last weeks show on, how far into the tape you recorded the show, etc. TiVo list all your recording on a easy to view menu with the name of the show, the details of that episode, the time and date it was on, plus a lot more.
For a detailed view on just how user friends and intuitive the TiVo interface is, take a look at the Quick Tour.
TiVo in South Africa
TiVo Inc. does not officially support South Africa or any other PAL countries anymore. We manage to provide all the wonderful features TiVo offers through the use of a guide emulator which sits on the servers kindly provided by Nanfo (http://www.nanfo.com), this generates all the information you require.
A TiVo can be set up for as little as R1000 which in comparison to its cheapest competitors at R3000 makes it a really great deal. To see why TiVo is really the best choice, have a look at the Comparison Matrix between the TiVo and its competitors.
We provide guide data for viewers of SABC, e.tv, M-NET, DSTV, DSTV Compact, DSTV Dual View and even the DSTV PVR. We do not charge for using this service nor do we sell the TiVo's, for information on purchasing a TiVo and how to set it up for South African (or African) TV viewing take a look a the Getting a TiVo page.
There are a couple of ways in which to retrieve the guide data, you can use the TiVos internal modem, you can connect via a broadband or PC internet connection with the help of a TiVo network card or the included serial cable or you can upload the guide data manually. More details about the different connectivity and network options are available in the "Connectivity" guide. In order for the TiVo to receive TV input you will need a device (e.g. DSTV, M-NET or VCR) that has RCA cable (Red, White & Yellow cable) output and that can be controlled via an remote control so that the TiVo may automatically change the channels for you. All DSTV decoders are supported and there is a list of currently supported VCR's. Note it is possible to get the TiVo to learn the specific codes your VCR uses, see Adding Remote Codes for information about how to do this.
The below two video links give great insight into the power of TiVo:
- TiVo Talk (High quality: 9.4MB (http://www.rapidsatellite.com/media/wma/tivo-1_hi.wmv)) (Low quality: 1.7MB (http://www.rapidsatellite.com/media/wma/tivo-1_lo.wmv))
- TiVo Highlights (High quality: 11.8MB (http://www.rapidsatellite.com/media/wma/tivo-2_hi.wmv)) (Low quality: 2.1MB (http://www.rapidsatellite.com/media/wma/tivo-2_lo.wmv))
