Wondering if you can buy a tivo from overseas where it might be cheaper and be able to use it in australia regardless of power suplly issues?
Tivo from overseas?
bargrin on 22/04/2012 - 16:07
Comments
This might explain the Australia vs USA pricing differences in more detail:
http://www.mytivo.com.au/buy/onlinedirect/pricingpolicy/just wondering, have you considered alternatives like Boxee — more flexible, affordable, faster and easier to use, and if you throw in some storage you can stream and store anything.
if all you want is a basic PVR, though the Tivo is not a bad choice, just overpriced.the boxee looks interesting but as per website (http://www.dlink.com.au/boxee/) clicking on explore in top right corner, do you get all those tv shows and movies on demand ?
The only reason i want tivo is cause of the mothership function, being able to record stuff without the issue of setting the time excatly.
Biggest problem i have with current pvr is time recording when show start and finish, i have to add 15mins each end make sure i record everything. With tivo my understanding it will record the show exactly at start and end thanks to mothership function.
I would think not. Power supply is the least of your problems, most devices these days adapt to the voltage automatically anyway, it usually just requires a local mains power lead. The big thing about TiVo is that it needs a broadband connection to connect to the "mothership" in order to get program guides, updates etc. (it checks in about once an hour). In order to do this you need to activate the device on the TiVo Australia website. The TSN or TiVo Service Number is hard-coded to each device, and only those licenced for Australia will be accepted. If you could get it to work without activation, you'd end up with a dumb box without TV guides etc. Really defeats the purpose of choosing TiVo and its advanced features. From what I understand, the service we receive here in Australia is "lifetime", and it is incorporated into the (relatively) higher purchase price of the unit here. Overseas, they buy the hardware cheaper, but have to pay a yearly subscription to keep it working. I bought one of the very first HD units here and it was $799 from memory, my later units were only $400 and $300. I wouldn't think it would be worth getting one in from overseas at those prices (even if they did work). Years ago some of us brought in the Series 1 NTSC units and hacked them to work in Australia (when everyone was still using VCRs and TiVo wasn't supported here), I think the going rate was $90 freight from the USA. It was a big deal and a lot of work to emulate a "mothership" for those units to get the TV guide etc. I doubt you'd want to go through that grief just to get one imported machine working, just to save a couple of bucks. This mob used to sell them cheap: http://www.onedaysale.com.au/, mostly refurbished or superseded stock (older model with small hard drives). Perhaps contact them or TiVo Australia direct and see if they have any specials or refurb stock.