Hobotech, TiVos for Aussies!

Your source for TiVos in Australia

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) Tell me what the TiVo can do for me?

A) If you have to ask that question you really need to do some more research before you even think about buying! Start by going to ozTiVo and reading for a while. If you have specific questions feel free to email us.

But, just to tempt you, here are a few of the TiVo’s features:

1. Pause Live TV! If you’re watching live TV and the phone rings, just hit the pause button and answer the phone, talk for up to 30 minutes and when you come back, just press play and your program continues from where you left it! TiVo is always recording "behind the scenes" and so it always has a buffer of 30 minutes that you can rewind.

2. Rewind live TV! If you want to see that goal again, just press the instant replay button to replay the previous 8 seconds, or press the rewind button to go back as far as you like, up to 30 minutes*.

3. Set a Season Pass™ on your favourite show. With a Season Pass you’ll never miss a recording, even if the show changes timeslots!

4. Set up a WishList® for your favourite things. Cooking shows, De Niro movies, anything! Tell TiVo about your interests and it will find and record them for you!

5. TiVo lets you rate TV by giving thumbs up™ or thumbs down™ to programs you like. This will help refine TiVo’s “Suggestions.” Suggestions are programs which TiVo has recorded for you because it thinks they might interest you, based on your viewing history. But don’t worry, a TiVo suggestion will never get in the way of something you explicitly ask to be recorded. If TiVo needs to delete a suggestion to make way for a recording you have asked for, it will do just that.

6. Perfect stills and slow motion. Lots better than a VCR, even a multi head one!

And much, much more!

Q) How hard is it to set up a TiVo?

A) With Hobotech's exclusive Australian Guided Setup preparing a TiVo for use in Australia has never been easier! When you first turn on your TiVo you go through a simple process in which you tell the TiVo where you live, how your TiVo is connected and run a couple of tests, in as little as 30 minutes you can be rewinding and pausing live TV.

Q) How many hours of TV can I record?

A) On the supplied 250GB you can record between up to 305 hours at basic quality or 85 hours at best quality. We at Hobotech generally use high quality which gives about 125 hours on a 250GB disk. You can of course add more disk space to increase this if you need to.

Q) What are the advantages of the PAL tuner mod?

A) It’s compact, elegant, quick and reliable! That's why we decided to include it on every TiVo we sell! Changing channels on an external box is slower and can sometimes be a bit unreliable. There’s nothing worse than finding that TiVo recorded the wrong thing because it failed to change to the correct channel! With an internal PAL tuner this never happens. And if a family member is addicted to “channel surfing” they will find the few seconds that it can take to change the channel on an external box a little frustrating.

Also, as part of the Tuner Mod, a second set of sound inputs is fitted to the TiVo which will make your TiVo “future proof.” If the government eventually forces Analog FTA to cease transmission (originally scheduled for 2008, but certain to be delayed) you will still be able to simultaneously connect both a PayTV box and a Digital STB to your TiVo!

For more info on the Tuner Mod, see Darren’s Website

Q) I've never heard of Hobotech! How do I know you’re safe to deal with?

A) You could check our customer feedback That should help to prove that we are reliable!

Q) Will my partner like it?

A) Very probably! Most of us has have had the experience of bringing home some cutting edge new toy, and having one’s partner say “why on earth did you buy THAT?” But with TiVo, while that may be the initial reaction, it usually lasts about 2 hours, and then they’re hooked! Everybody loves TiVo! See also How to prevent divorce

Q) What’s the story on Guide Data?

A) Guide data in Australia is a collaborative effort by a small but dedicated team of ozTiVo enthusiasts. Currently it is available for all Free To Air (FTA) and PayTV channels. There is no charge for this service. More help is always welcome keeping it accurate and you can join in! Log into ozTiVo’s Guide Data Central here and learn how you can help to improve it!

Note: Being a voluntary, user maintained service the guide data could cease at any time, but with 900+ users now regularly downloading it, that seems unlikely! Also, ozTiVo will cease providing the free guide data service if TiVo Inc ever commence providing a paid service in Australia.

Q) How many TiVos have you got?

A) Personally? Three, in constant use! Everybody needs at least two TiVos!

Q) No! I meant how many have you got for sale?

A) Not very many, and Series 1 TiVos are getting much harder to find, these may well be the last I'll be able to get. So act quickly, this might be your last chance!

Q) Do you think my Grandma could use it?

A) Very likely! If she can use a VCR she should have no trouble with a TiVo, it’s much easier. You might need to set it up for her though, unless she’s more hi-tech than the average Grandma!

Q) Can you sell me “spare parts”

A) Hobotech is not in the parts business. You should contact Darren King for any parts needs, he can supply most things you’ll ever need! Check out Darren's range of parts here.

Q) Can the TiVo automatically skip ads?

A) No, not “automatically.” But it can speed through them at speeds up to 60 times normal, or by enabling the 30 second skip you can skip forward 30 seconds at a time very easily.

Q) Does the TiVo work on 240V or do I need a transformer?

A) Yes, it has a power supply and works just as happily with 240V as 110V. Of course you need a power cable that will fit an Australian socket, but we include one with every TiVo we sell.

Q) Why do I need the ethernet card?

A) You need it so your TiVo can access the internet to fetch program guide data. In the USA this could be done over the telephone via TiVo’s internal modem but the modem is NOT approved for Australian use and has been disabled on all TiVos supplied by Hobotech.

Q) Can I have a cachecard or airnet card instead of a wired card?

A) Of course, but you’ll have to buy it elsewhere, not from us. We have found that the Airnet card is somewhat slow and limited in range (unless you use an external antenna) and the Cachecard is expensive and not needed for 95% of users. We decided to stock only wired ethernet cards to keep our inventory, and thus our costs, to a minimum. If you wish to use your TiVo in conjunction with a wireless network we recommend the use of the wired ethernet card in conjunction with a wireless bridge, such as the Netgear ME101, which we use ourselves. We don't supply bridges, but they are easily and cheaply available from most computer shops or on eBay.

Q) Will it work with my (insert brand) Set Top Box?

A) There's a good chance it will. See this page for a complete list of Set Top Boxes, VCRs, and PayTV boxes currently supported. Alternatively this page is slightly less complete, but considerably more informative! If your box is not on these lists you will have to build and load your own IR codes. This is a well documented process but a bit fiddly. If you haven’t yet bought a STB do yourself a favour and buy one which is already supported!

Q) Who are ozTiVo?

A) ozTiVo are a dedicated band of TiVo enthusiasts who have managed to get an unsupported USA device to an astounding level of usability in Australia.

How did ozTiVo begin? Well, I first heard of TiVo sometime in 2000, liked the sound of it, and contacted TiVo Inc to see if they had any Aussie plans or a PAL version, at that time the answer was “no” to both, so I thought no more about it for a while. Then, in January 2001 I set up my first Linux computer, which I wanted to network to my Windows ones, and so I started reading about a software tool called Samba, which allowed that to be done.

While reading about Samba I discovered it was written by an Australian Linux Guru living in Canberra, Dr Andrew Tridgell (universally known as tridge). I was interested that a famous software package had been written in my home town so I looked up tridge on the net and discovered he had hacked the TiVo for Australian use. Remembering how much I wanted one when I first heard of it I contacted tridge who was kind enough to demonstrate his TiVo to me, and to explain how he had modified it, I was instantly hooked and by April had my own. (And yes, it’s still running fine, four years later!)

Then for a little while I was the sole regular Australian poster to the American TiVo Community forum, which was then the only source of TiVo hacking info, and I got a lot of mail from other Aussies who were interested in TiVo. This prompted me to write what I believe to be the first “howto” on setting up a TiVo for Aussie conditions that was simple enough for a non-linux expert (like me!) to follow. As a result the number of TiVo owners began to grow, slowly at first.

By July 2002 there were about 20 of us communicating with each other by email, and Warren Toomey created the ozTiVo mailing list. We really didn’t (I believe) expect it to get as big as it did, the mailing list was essentially started so that there was a centralised archive of the messages we previously emailed to one another. As time passed we got a few mentions in the popular press and our numbers began to grow and grow, until “Baby! Look at us now!”

Trademark Information

"TiVo" and "TiVolution" are registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. "Thumbs Down" and "Thumbs Up" are trademarks of TiVo Inc.

All other products and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.