TiVo To Brick All Remaining UK PVRs On June 1

[Edward78]

Clicky

"Perhaps in order to 'encourage' existing users of UK Tivo units to change their TV service to Virgin Media, pay £149 for a new 'Virgin TiVo' that they won't actually own, plus £34.50 per month in service charges, Tivo is to cancel all EPG data service to all the Tivos still in use in the country — and existing units will become basically nonfunctional at that time. The faithful aren't amused, having stuck by the company for several years, and mostly paying £120 per annum for service until now. 50% of UK residents aren't able to avail of this generous upgrade offer even if they want to — the cable company in question only covers about half the country."
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[xJcBx]

And do you have an opinion on this, or are you looking to become an RSS feed?

I've only briefly used one before and I thought it was a very cool gadget, shame their giving up on a great product!

So will the new Virgin boxes basically be the same but cost more?

 

[dante6491]

I just watched the demo video on the Virgin Website. Looks like a seriously impressive bit of kit.

Although, I think they blew out a secret. The showed Boardwalk Empire being recorded, yet that is only available on Sky Atlantic which Virgin does not get.

 

[Werewolf]

A lovely, if overblown headline....Tivo aren't bricking the old boxes, they are simply stopping the EPG updates the units will still work manually.
Given that they are all Analogue recorders with very limited (as I understand it) ability to work with external Digital receivers, combined with the fact that this year most of the country will be on purely digital reception, combined with the fact that these are boxes that are approaching 10 years old it's not really surprising that Tivo are looking at shutting down the EPG service.
It costs money to maintain the EPG and given that Tivo offered a £200 for life deal on the EPG updates when they cleared UK stocks 10 years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if they've been running at break even at best for a while (you could go for the £10 a month offer, or the £200 for life - most people who could afford it went with the £200 for life). so the number of people actually paying to maintain that EPG is likely to be very low.

Remember this is a product that sold something like 20k units 10 years ago...It's about as close to obsolete as you can get now for something that still works (one of the main reasons many of them still work is because they used Standard IDE drives so could be replaced upon failure, and they are getting harder to find now as they are obsolete/EOL in themselves).

 

[Duke]

There are people still using these?

 

[stockhausen]

Capitalism - dontcha luv it?

... It's about as close to obsolete as you can get now for something that still works ...

So not actually obsolete then?

Unfortunate TiVo users are just being forced to stop using them in the hope that they will buy something new.

I wonder why when the Government introduced the Scrappage scheme, they didn't simply say that ANY motor vehicle over 10 years old would no longer be allowed on public roads - I'm sure that the SMMT would reluctantly have risen to the challenge

 

[Deleted member 66701]

So not actually obsolete then?

"Cause (a product or idea) to be or become obsolete by replacing it with something new:"

So yes, obsolete.

Unfortunate TiVo users are just being forced to stop using them in the hope that they will buy something new.

No, they aren't being forced to stop using them, they still work, they just have a minor part of their functionality non active.

I wonder why when the Government introduced the Scrappage scheme, they didn't simply say that ANY motor vehicle over 10 years old would no longer be allowed on public roads - I'm sure that the SMMT would reluctantly have risen to the challenge

What has that go to do with the price of eggs?

 

[Bleek]

And do you have an opinion on this, or are you looking to become an RSS feed?

Have you seen the rest of his 'posts' ... his existence has no point!

 

[Werewolf]

They are as nearly obsolete as say a first gen non Tivo PVR, and nearly as obsolete as VCR's.

They don't receive digital, so in about a year and half at most their built in tuner is going to be worthless.
It's pretty amazing that Tivo have supported them this long as it is, they never sold well in the UK, and the number of boxes paying subs must by now be tiny.

 

[stockhausen]

The Electronic Program Guide - what use is it?

... they still work, they just have a minor part of their functionality non active. ...

The EPG, surplus to requirements - quite so, a "minor part of their functionality"

I guess that if Microsoft engineered all their operating systems such that when they released a new version, the old one ceased to have a graphical interface and required users to revert to the DOS box and enter data in binary, you would describe it as "just having a minor part of their functionality deactivated"

 

[Duke]

and the number of boxes paying subs must by now be tiny.

Going by The Reg, they stopped billing them at the end of last year.

 

[DreXeL]

The EPG, surplus to requirements - quite so, a "minor part of their functionality"

I guess that if Microsoft engineered all their operating systems such that when they released a new version, the old one ceased to have a graphical interface and required users to revert to the DOS box and enter data in binary, you would describe it as "just having a minor part of their functionality deactivated"

Are you deliberately sticking your fingers in your ears and not listening to the FACTS just so you can make your tired and played out political statements again?

THE INBUILT TUNER CAN'T RECEIVE DIGITAL SIGNALS, IT'S ANALOGUE ONLY. THEY HAVE BEEN SUPERSEDED. THEY ARE OBSOLETE.

As others have already pointed out, it's amazing that TiVo have supported them for this long....

 

[TheVoice]

I didn't even realise TiVos were sold over here.

 

[MrMoonX]

A) who still uses analogue

B) who uses tivo in the UK

im sure all of their 5 customers will be gutted

 

[theukmoog]

THE INBUILT TUNER CAN'T RECEIVE DIGITAL SIGNALS, IT'S ANALOGUE ONLY. THEY HAVE BEEN SUPERSEDED. THEY ARE OBSOLETE.

Who cares about the analogue signal - the TiVo came with the IR leads and software to control a separate receiver box - either Sky or Freeview.

My TiVo is still working fine, controlling a Freeview box.

TiVo are choosing to shutdown the EPG which will stop our TiVo functionality - Virgin want all existing customers to 'upgrade' to their new offering but as Virgin only covers 49% of UK households (if the figures I saw yesterday are correct) then that's not going to be of much consolation to, say, 51% of existing TiVo owners.

As much as I love my TiVos, I hope both TiVo and Virgin suffer a lot of bad publicity over their shoddy treatment of existing, loyal customers!

 

[Fr0dders]

So not actually obsolete then?

Unfortunate TiVo users are just being forced to stop using them in the hope that they will buy something new.

I wonder why when the Government introduced the Scrappage scheme, they didn't simply say that ANY motor vehicle over 10 years old would no longer be allowed on public roads - I'm sure that the SMMT would reluctantly have risen to the challenge

its called planned obsolescence

Just about every major manufacturer does it with electrical equipment. Deal with it.

 

[Gothic Draconia]

The tuner is analogue and no broadcasts mean that part is obsolete. However, ever heard of common freeview boxes and SCART sockets? Yes, it's analogue but then lots of people don't have HDMI televisions or set top boxes.

I have a TIVO from 2004 and don't use it anymore but they are still a good piece of kit as a secondary setup.
A good modified TIVO such as mine will have

Ethernet access
Additional RAM for buffers and cache
Web interface/ server running
Modified resolutions and bitrates
Video file extraction and re-encoding
Modern large SATA hard disks

 

[Glaucus]

So a company should lose money, because a handful of people have heavily modified it, anyway it will still work with a welfare tuner. It's a dead format.

 

[Janesy B]

OMG THEY STOPPED MAKING VHS TAPES I AM GOING TO SUE LOL.

 

[Gothic Draconia]

So a company should lose money, because a handful of people have heavily modified it, anyway it will still work with a welfare tuner. It's a dead format.

I'm not saying that, it is ancient and obsolete-ish. I say this as the new Virgin TIVO boxes use what is more or less the same interface and wish lists/ season passes. I'm just saying the TIVO is only obsolete now because TIVO have decided it should be, due to coming back to the UK market, 8 years later.

Australia and a few other countries have maintained their Series 1 EPGs through community efforts so there is hope for those those can't bear sending theirs to the dump . Anyways, i use Virgin HD now so i'm not going to stick up for TIVO against all the people that have probably never used one.