TiVo Canada How-To

For one reason or another, TiVo has never been available in Canada, which all my friends north of the border remind me of whenever the subject comes up (they're still fighting for it though).

There are ways of getting TiVo in Canada, some involve smuggling boxes over the border, some say the DirecTiVos work up yonder, but the most comprehensive guide to getting a standalone TiVo working in the great white north is the how-to at TiVo Canada.

This is probably the most intense and illegal hacking how-to I've seen for TiVo. It essentially is a way to bypass the TiVo service entirely (a long-standing community no-no subject), by pulling in XML listings of canadian networks from the internet and using a heavily hacked version of TiVo to use it as the programming guide. It's so complete they even have their own logo graphics you can download and add to the TiVo system and built a web-based TiVo service emulator that your TiVo will connect to instead of the real TiVo servers. The group operates from this site, offers files only from a password-protected CVS repository, and this 1700+ member Yahoo group.

Hopefully TiVo will see this group's efforts as enough demand to warrant releasing the service up there.

Comments

[mlhm5]

Hey why bother with TIVO, set one up yourself. All you need is the following:

A P4 with a good motherboard, 512meg ram, 120+GB HD, ATI Radeon 9600, audigy 2 soundcard, Hauppauge PVR-350 video capture card, 8x DVD writer, snapstream's beyondTV, mediamonkey pro.

This will get you to the place where you can record direct to you HD from the TV (like TIVO) and then to DVD. You can use the Happauge card to edit video and it also has a tuner.

[James]

Sigh. Only Windows and Linux software. It's hard to be a minority (Mac user) in a small backward country (Canada) craving Tivo...

[Darren]

thanx for taking time to read my how-to. i would like to clarify a couple of things. first we try really hard to limit the access to the files needed to get this to work to canadians. tivo does know about us. we have a couple members on the forums that have ties to tivo and they do agree with us that tivo should be aviable in canada. from my understanding it would be too much of a cost to tivo to port the software to a second language and getting the rites to the canadian listings. most of agree that after one gets all this working it would be worth the $10/month for tivo serivce.

to james: all this also works on a mac, well you need to be running OS X so you can run apache and perl scripts...

[Gary Tait]

For somebody on a budget, setting up a full PC for the purposes of DVRing is expensive (especially with the specs there), although somewhat easier, as some PC DVR software packages readily have Canadian listings.

Doing Tivo Canada, you only need a second PC (can be lower end, i have an old PI-200 that will suit, if I can get a current Perl build for the old linux on it, withoug having to compile the source), or use your desktop PC to run the TC software, in addition to an SA Tivo.

[Rav]

I agree that MacOSX can be used to run the Apache "emulator" and can use the PERL scripts, but you still need a PC to generate the slice files don't you? Or am I missing something? I tried to compile the XMLTV prog on MacOSX (with its Unix underpinnings) but no luck?

Can anyone help?

Rav

[Sarah]

I'd like to invite Darren from the Tivo-Canada forum, and any Canadians craving TIVO and making do with a hacked or homemade version, to get in touch with me asap at sstaples@canwest.com. I'm a journalist keen to interview you about news that TIVO is taking steps that could open up shows to distributed trading similar to Napster.

the following story twigged my interest... i'd tie mine into the growing underground community of Canadian TIVO devotees...

TiVo's Plans Lead to Fight On Copyrights
Thu Jul 22, 9:08 AM ET
By Jonathan Krim, Washington Post Staff Writer
Hollywood studios and the National Football League are seeking to block the maker of the popular TiVo (news - web sites) television recorder from expanding its service so that users could watch copies of shows and movies on devices outside their homes.
In filings with the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites), the organizations say the new technology could compromise the copyrights of shows that broadcasters send over the airwaves in digital form, which offers much higher sound and video quality than what viewers typically get today.
The organizations fear that computer enthusiasts would capture those programs and begin trading them online in the same way that millions of music files are shared daily, which record companies have said has cut into their profit. TiVo Inc. insists its system will not allow such mass Internet distribution. ETC

[gordon]

I live in buffalo new york(14215). Is it possable to record canadian off-air from the states like chch(11) with my HD DVR for directv. Now that i have to use roof top Ananta for my off air programing.

[JNIcita]

Hey Matt, althogh a PC setup with some sort of VCR type software manages to capture a current program to the harddrive from which you can do whatever you want, this is about 1% of the use of a Tivo. Most people use their Tivo's to interactivly search through program guides, automatically recording programs even when they change air dates and times, Tivo's search and record programs by keywords, genere, actors, etc. NO PC software I have seen interacts in this way, please point me to it if it exists, I even have a Sat card in the PC, I'd love to have MyTheatre operate this way. However, PC's are simple VCRs that record when you tell them to, for how long you want them to. FAR stretch from what a Tivo does.

Just thought I'd point that out, since we wouldnt want someone to think that a PC and TV Capture software = Tivo.

[Jeff]

I'm from Toronto but have lived in the U.S. for the past 6 years and had a Tivo for the past 3 years. That is, until Comcast cable released their own DVR's this month that you can rent for only $10/month, runs Microsoft Foundation software that includes all the features of Tivo, has dual tuners so you can record two things at once (or record one thing and watch another) and also includes On-Demand programming for movies and TV shows.

The fact that it can record and playback in HDTV was the biggest seller for me as that is a huge shortcoming of Tivo with their HD capable boxes going for about $900+. I got the Comcast box about 3 weeks ago and cancelled my Tivo subscription and am now trying to figure out what to do with the Tivo as I don't need it anymore! I was thinking of giving it to my dad but he lives in Canada so without the service it would be nothing but an expensive pause/30min playback device. I've heard Rogers is going to be offering a DVR device but as with anything with Rogers I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere close to a real Tivo.

Another alternative that a lot of my friends are going with (or in addition to the Comcast DVR) is a Media Centre PC running Windows Media Center. It gives you the ability to setup Season's Passes, record at specific times, set priorities, etc. All the features of Tivo. There are a number of vendors that offer these but for someone in Canada I know they're not cheap due to the hardware includes, the exchange rate and the general higher cost of PC components up in Canada. If you were interested in these check 'em out at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx.

Hopefully one day the companies in Canada will get this right and deliver a decent service to Canadian residents but until then, I'm staying down here. :)

[george]

try this:

http://satellitesandfta.blogspot.com/

[Fadi]

I'm up in nova scotia in Canada, here through our eastlink cable we have dual-tuner DVRs without the dual tuner capability yet (soon to come they say).I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anywhere near as many features as Tivo does, but it is a fairly close alternative, the searches etc... are all there.The more intricate features like recommended recordings etc... would be nice,i would trade my dvr anyday for tivo, COME UP HERE TIVO!

[Gordie]

Does Tivo record the commercials as well as the program or edit them out?
Some years ago a friend demonstrated a box attached to his VCR (pre DVD days) that picked up the signal the networks generate when going to commercial and stopped the recording until the program started again. I have never seen one since and suspect thet the technology has been supressed.
Any comments.

[galina]

Can you still use TIVO without hooking it up to a PC? Just use it as a dummy PVR Would that work?

[Sam]

Tivo in Canada is easy now. This store sells them from Canada:
http://www.PVRcanada.com
Tivo is still the best pvr system in Canada. I like it better than the ones offered from the providers themselves. Program guide for Canadian tv providers is available and works good with Bell ExpressVu.
Has any one else use this store?

[Jeff Anderson]

I thought you might like to know that here at PVR Canada (http://www.pvrcanada.com) we warranty all of our TiVo sales. We are the only company offering warrantied TiVo's to Canadians.

[Jason Sloan]

I bought mine from PVR Source in Calgary. (http://www.thepvrsource.com) They also have full warranty and price was a bit better.

[steve]

Is pvrcanada.com for real? Can we really get TiVo up here in Canada and still use Shaw service to plug it into? What are the hiccups with this new availability or is it a marketing ploy?

[Brian]

According to the radio this morning, TiVo is coming to Canada in December.

[jad]

Does anyone know if the tivo being sold in the states is the same models that are being sold here. I see that one can pick up a 80GB, dual tuner for $99 through tivo whereas they appear to be around $200+ here. I don't know exactly what the price includes here in Canada.. but if its the same box and the setup determines the programming.. why would there be so much price difference?

[Kim]

As of Mid December TIVO is available in Canada. I just picked one up, The Brick carries it.

Cheers!

[Kim]

Sorry forgot to mention it was $199.00 cdn plus GST. The TIVO service is $12.95 per month. I live in Whitehorse Yukon, so I had to order it through our Brick and wont get it until Jan. 5/2008. I told the guy when he ordered mine, he should order more, people want them. If you go to any brick website there is TIVO available there and a brief but informative explanation on its specifications/abilities.

Cheers again, and Merry Christmas! :)