Despite a big
push to market the product in the U.K. and across Europe, TiVo never really made it big outside of North America, and
no-one really knows why. Perhaps the Europeans just weren't ready for the next big technological leap in home entertainment, or maybe the subscription model of a combined PVR/EPG system wasn't right for our pockets. Whatever the case, TiVo just isn't as big as it should be outside of the U.S. -- although it's started to catch on in Australia via retrofitted imports from an Adelaide based software development company.
The company imported their first TiVo in early 2005 from America "to see what all the fuss was about" and quickly fell in love with the Tivo experience, so they we decided to import TiVo's in large quantities and make them available for Australians. Their website has a blog, details on a repair and support service -- and you can purchase a fully-working TiVo directly from the website.
What's more, thanks to the work of a small dedicated group of people in Australia, full program listings are available for free with no service fees.
1. Intresting "add", but I think you need to do further research before you go posting. That dedicated group you nicely mentioned at the end of the add (and I do mean add, not article) has been modding and importing series 1 Tivo's, to Australia, for over 3 years. We all volunter, and work with each other, helping one another for free. Now this company comes along from Adelaide and you make them out to be the first kid on the block with OzTivo, when infact they are the last and just want to jump on the back of and pilfur the hard work that we dedicated Oztivo people have been doing for many years. They want to charge money and we do it all fro free. My suggestion is to do a follow up article to point to OzTivo and show ppl how to get involved and get there own gear. Show people the real cost of Tivo and not the inflated cost that these piggy back companies want to charge. Thank You
Posted at 6:05AM on Jan 24th 2006 by G Johnson