Virgin Media TiVo from £49 plus subscription
Digital video recording specialist TiVo entered the UK market in 2000, a year after its pioneering disk-based TV recorder launched in the United States. Too small to commit to a full UK operation, the fledgling business partnered with BSkyB to bring its cutting-edge product to our shores.
However, BSkyB was just months away from launching its rival Sky+ system. To say that Sky’s heart wasn’t in the partnership is an understatement. Initial sales were poor and TiVo pulled out of the UK market soon after Sky+ launched.
Sky’s stalling tactic, though shrewd at the time, may come back to haunt it. Now partnered with Sky rival Virgin Media, TiVo is back in the UK. And after a fortnight of testing I think it could be a Sky+ killer.
At the heart of TiVo is its seven-day TV guide. From there you can schedule recordings, record an entire series, or even set up recordings based on a specific actor’s or director’s name. If you want to build a complete collection of Woody Allen movies, this is a great way to do it.
The TV guide is also available online, so you can schedule recordings over your lunch break or via your mobile phone.
Another noteworthy feature is called Suggestions. Giving a thumbs up to programmes you like and thumbs down to the rest, TiVo builds a picture of your tastes and records other programmes it thinks you might like. Virgin’s TiVo has three tuners, so it’s possible to record two programmes while watching a third live programme or, for real TV junkies, record three programmes while watching a recorded show.
Up to 500 hours of TV can be recorded on the range-topping 1TB box although this drops to 100 hours for high-definition recordings.
On-demand programming, such as that from STV and Channel 4, is neatly integrated into the TV guide, so if you’ve missed a programme you can go back and select it from the schedule rather than resorting to a separate menu.
A separate apps menu hosts YouTube and BBC iPlayer (which, somewhat frustratingly, isn’t included alongside the other on-demand channels) plus a range of other interactive features such as weather forecasts.
Would I recommend it? Yes, absolutely. No other system -- from Sky to BT Vision, Freeview to Freesat -- offers such a complete mix of live, recorded, on-demand and premium content from a single box.
Virgin Media TiVo from £49 plus subscription
Stars: 5/5
Positives: Powerful multi-channel recording paired with unmatched on-demand services.
Negatives: Only available in areas with Virgin Media cabling.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article