Free TiVo (Brighton)

[tivosoon]

Series 1, with cachecard/ethernet card, and er I can't quite remember whether 500GB or 1TB drive. Also remote.

All good working order, at least working fine with altEPG as at January this year. Sadly now supplanted by Virgin.

Would anyone like?

[The maverick]

Are the Virgin tivos as user friendly (or incredibly superior??) to the series 1 then? Not that I would ever be able to get Virgin in rural East Yorkshire.

[tivosoon]

Are the Virgin tivos as user friendly (or incredibly superior??) to the series 1 then?

Not quite as user friendly (definitely not incredibly superior, more a bit inferior) but not bad. Certainly massively better than the Sky+ system which I struggled to use at my mum's this weekend.

It's very familiar to a Series 1 TiVo user - mostly the problem is where it's spoiled by branding (i.e. everything hideous heavy red) and by being skewed to their commercial imperatives instead of what the user might want (e.g. you can't just set a preference to have the guide never show you channels you don't get - you can carefully tune your favourites, and choose to see just favourites, but it goes back to all regularly; and other filters such as "films" show all film channels: presumably to constantly encourage you to upgrade your package).

But: it has three tuners instead of one, so a clash is a very rare thing; it's all digital so the picture and sound quality is very much better; and it integrates with the internet in cunning ways.

But mainly I didn't switch to get a different TiVo, but to get the Virgin package (my broadband supplier - O2 - was sold to Sky and I hate giving money to Murdoch, and SWMBO was demanding channels we don't get on freeview). I ran the two TiVos in parallel for a while, but we just stopped using the Series 1, and at some point I unplugged it for some reason... and months later noticed it had never been plugged back in. So time to find it a home where it will be appreciated, before it's too late... if it isn't too late already.

[The maverick]

Got three myself. I bought the last one within a hundred miles as they were stopping selling them(was it around 8 years ago?). The only reason I hadn't got one earlier was that I refuse to pay a monthly sub as it add up in the end. When I learnt about the annual sub I snapped one up just in time.

[mikethebike]

I'd love that but the trek to Brighton is too much for me

I'll ask around the family

[tivosoon]

I bought the last one within a hundred miles as they were stopping selling them(was it around 8 years ago?). The only reason I hadn't got one earlier was that I refuse to pay a monthly sub as it add up in the end. When I learnt about the annual sub I snapped one up just in time.

That's almost exactly my story too (though I think it it's a lot more than eight years now!). Best value tech investment I ever made.

I'd love that but the trek to Brighton is too much for me

Brighton's looking lovely in the sun right now!

... but the tip is a dark and gloomy place. Don't make it go there...

[tivosoon]

Still available, will take to tip next time I go there if nobody wants it... please reply or PM if you'd like it.

[nick1austin]

Are you prepared to take it apart? The cachecard (if that's what you have) could be worth quite a bit as is the IR dongle and (if in good condition) the remote. Other bits might be worth selling such as the PSU and hard drive brackets.

[tivosoon]

Hi Nick,

I wasn't really looking to make money, just to find it a better home than the tip.

But if anyone wants the bits that can more easily be posted (or can't collect but will pay for carriage) at least I won't be dropping those in a skip.

It's all in reasonable condition (and I think that I actually have the cardboard box in the attic) including the remote.

If someone wants to take it and can make money off it that's fine by me.