Which TiVo Should I Buy?

From NLTiVo

TiVo is not officially supported outside of the United States and the fact that the new units do not support PAL leaves us with just one choice: eBay

What to get

There are plenty of TiVo units available on eBay but don't rush off just yet as their are a few things we still need to explain. Firstly, not all TiVo units will work in The Netherlands. Currently only Series 1 standalone units are supported, Series 2 and DirecTiVo units are not supported.

The following Series 1 standalone units are currently the best options:

• Philips 14hr HDR110 (13.6GB)
• Philips 14hr HDR112 (13.6GB)
• Philips 20hr HDR212 (22GB)
• Philips 30hr HDR312 (2 x 13.6GB)
• Philips 30hr HDR31201/2/3/4/ (30GB)
• Philips 60hr HDR612 (2 x 30GB)
• Sony 30hr SVR2000 (30GB or 40GB)
• Thomson PVR10UK (UK model 40GB)
• TiVo PTV100 (13.6GB)
• TiVo PTV300 (2 x 13.6GB)

Don't buy a Series 2 TiVo yet, as we don't yet know how to get them to run correctly in The Netherlands. Don't buy a Sony SVR3000 as these are Series 2 units. DO NOT buy a "DirectTV" type TiVo (eg an DSR-6000 or similar) as these are only designed for the USA pay-TV system and will not work at all here. However do not confuse getting a "Stand Alone" TiVo with a peanut shaped remote that has the "DirectTV" logo on it as the remotes will work fine even if some of the extra buttons do not do anything.

Harddisk & recording time

As you can see the units above come with varying hard drives sizes, the only other difference between them (except for the UK model) is the operating system that is installed. We will be replacing the original software, so feel free to choose your TiVo based on its hard drive size or colour and styling.

As you will be modifying the TiVo for Dutch road conditions, increasing the disk drive capacity is pretty trivial compared to the other stuff you'll be doing. A 200GB hard disk (approx 180 hours recording) is currently priced EUR 90 here in The Netherlands, and a TiVo can take two of these. Imagine a stack of almost 100 VHS videos! If you can open a PC to put in a new disk, you are capable of doing it on the TiVo. On the subject of anything you may have heard about 137GB partition limitations this is no longer an issue so if you can afford two 400GB hard drives then go for it! See the Recording time-section for more details on the amount of video you can store on a disk. For real big harddrives, a cache-card is recommended, since this significantly improves the responsiveness of the TiVo user interface.

If you are going to purchase a new hard drive you may be able to save some money by buying a Series 1 unit with one of the smaller drives or no drive at all. Also bare in mind that TiVo's are very hard on drives and some units are now around 5 years old, so there may not be much life left in the original drives.

When you do buy a new disk it is highly recommended that you perform a full surface scan of the disk before setting it up for use in your TiVo. The TiVo has been known to perform erratically when confronted with disk errors. Disk manufacturers usually provide a utility that you can download to do this. Be prepared though, the scan can take a long time (eg. 9 hours for a 120GB HDD!).

UK versus US TiVo's

The Series 1 "Stand Alone" (SA) TiVo from the UK like the "Thompson Scenium" have the added advantage of having an internal analogue PAL tuner suitable for The Netherlands but they are usually somewhat more expensive than buying a USA TiVo and either using a digital STB or getting an internal analogue PAL tuner fitted.

As mentioned above, the US TiVos are cheaper to buy and import than the UK TiVos, but they require you to unsolder the NTSC tuner module and solder in a PAL tuner module if you are going to use a direct cable-connection to receive analog TV; this operation is only for the brave hearted. See Darren King's website for more information on what is involved and a picture of what it looks like.

If you are going to receive TV via a PayTV (digital cable or sat), a digital STB, a VCR, you do not need the tuner mod done on a US TiVo as TiVo will accept PAL inputs, by the one factory fitted AV input without any changes, or you can elect to have two A/V inputs by way of the "second audio mod" as also described in pictures and words on Darren's page.

It is prefered that you buy a Phillips US unit over a Sony unit or a UK unit as the masses are Phillips units. However the Sony SVR-2000 does work fine with the latest operating systems (or you can simply use a Philips "peanut" remote) and not many have UK units by virtue of the sheer cost.

Accessories

If you want to fit a network card for communications to and from the TiVo (the serial port on the TiVo makes a slower but free alternative), and also purchase a disk mounting bracket for the second drive, you can source both of these things from George www.eksys.com or 9th Tee www.9thtee.com.

For information on what extra hardware can be purchased, please refer to the FAQ.