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I was one of those who bought the original TIVO for $1000, back in the day … I now own a series 3. I am moving from the US to Victoria, BC … will I be able to use my Series 3 up there?

You seem to have a handle on this stuff (and the right passion); will you advise on how I can use my TIVO Series 3 in Victoria? I am not the most tech savy guy so you will need to make it simple. )

Can I simply try the OTA signals from Port Angeles or Bellingham, WA and an appropriate zip? Is it that simple?

Ian

It was the cablecard 2.0 standard that I naievely thought back then would be ratified in 2007. According to Wikipedia, Cablecard 2.0 negotiations remain at an impasse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cablecard

But, even if/when the standard is adopted, it is probable that the Canadian cable companies will not support it. My best advice is to assume the cable companies will never do anything to support the TiVo S3 and plan accordingly. Though sometimes miracles happen!

…Dale

It sounds as though I can probably receive all the Canadian HD networks over the air but I can’t know this for sure. However, the channels I’m most interested to see in HD are only available through cable: the movie channels, Showcase and A&E. You mentioned in an earlier post that there was a possibility of CableCards being available in Canada by 2007. Has anything come of this?

The second sticking point is that I just discovered that I need to pay service for each individual TiVo separately. I would be able to get Lifetime Service for my new TiVo for $299 but would also have to pay $399 to get Lifetime Service for my Series 2 as it wasn’t available when I bought it two years ago, just before the series 3 came out.

I don’t really need a second TiVo. I already have additional recording space as my son installed extra hard drive in my Series 2. I’d just like HD TiVo in order to get the benefit of my HD TV because I tend to TiVo all the programs I watch. I tried to justify getting the HD TiVo by offering to hand over my old one to my husband but he rarely watches TV other than live news and sports and isn’t interested.

In downtown Toronto you will be able to receive the major Canadian HD channels over-the-air: CBC, CTV, Global and City. You are just a few blocks from me. I get all the U.S. networks too but I’m 26 floors up (though facing North). I tested my S3 at a friends house up at Yonge and Eglinton with just the basic indoor silver sensor antenna I describe above. He could get all the Toronto networks but couldn’t get the U.S. networks. He had trees and buildings blocking his southern exposure. But, if he was willing to put up a proper outdoor antennae my guess is he would get most, if not all the U.S. channels.

I haven’t done the math on which TiVo to get. After doing the math, factoring in exchange rates, delievery charges, customs charges and taxes, my suggestion is to get the largest one you can afford. Adding the side-car isn’t that difficult but, obviously, if you get one with an integrated larger drive, it makes things easier. I’d look to be certain the newer one CAN be upgraded with the addition of external drives later (that I don’t know).

Finally, you can share Standard-def programming between the two TiVos but you can’t share high-def content from the S3 to the S2 for obvious reasons. You can also use the TiVo Desktop software to offload TV shows onto your PC over a home network and then import them back to the TiVo at any time to watch later.

…dale

Now that there are less expensive TiVos with more space and TiVo is offering Lifetime Service at $299 for current subscribers (or $399 for new members) I’m thinking of buying a Series 3 or XL TiVo to take full advantage of my HD TV.

First of all, do you have any idea of what kind of over-the-air signal I would get from downtown Toronto: Church and Front Streets? There are low rise buildings between me and the lake and the CN Tower. I don’t know how bendable TV signals are.

Secondly, would you recommend getting one of the new 150 HD hour TiVo XLs at $599 from TiVo or choosing a basic 20 HD hour Series 3, which TiVo offered me for $199, then getting a DVR expander to increase the HD capacity. Amazon .com presently offers a 60 HD hour expander for $134 and a 150 HD hour expander for $235. Since memory keeps decreasing in price, I could easily wait a while to expand.

What size is your Series 3 and is this satisfactory?

Can programs be shared between Series 3 and Series 2 TiVos?

It was great to find your blog through Weaknees and to get answers already to many of my questions. Thanks for posting and sharing your TiVo expertise with other TiVo users!

If Tribune/Zap2It ever starts providing OTA guide data for Canadian postal codes TiVo could create an over-the-air-only box for the Canadian market but that is unlikely to ever happen – our market is too small.

The best we can hope for is for Tribune to start providing digital OTA guide data for all Canadian postal codes. When they do, the U.S. product will work well in Canada without having to do what I do – rely on near-by U.S. zip codes to get my guide data.

George … Glad to find another early adopter. Since I have no way of verifying your claim nor was there anyone on the Intenet claiming to use an S3 in Canada back then, I’ll stick with my claim to be the first. But, if you were the first – my hat goes off to you. Sure wish you would have written about it online back then – would have saved me a lot of grief!

Thanks

As I mentioned above, TiVo has all the guide data for ALL sources in Canada EXCEPT digital over the air. On August 7, 2008, I just checked the “Local Broadcats (Antenna) option for your postal code on Zap2it and it does NOT contain guide data for digital stations. The guide data you got back was for every other type of source. If all you want is to record from Rogers cable (for example) the S3 is not what you want. The TiVo S2 is what you want. The only reason to get an S3 in Canada is for over-the-air digital recordings (which include HD recordings). The S3 does not record digital (including HD) from Rogers set top boxes because Rogers does not support the cablecard standard that TiVo needs to record from digital cable.

Hope that helps.

…Dale

I entered the Roger’s Center Postal code (M5V 1J3) into zaptoit.com today and got back guide data without issue. (Click on rogers digital cable)

Does this mean that the problem has been resolved and I can now go ahead and buy a TIVO and not worry about any of this?

Your assessment is right … I need to update this blog post at some point. In late January I redid Guided Setup using zipcode 14174 from Youngstown NY. It has all the guide data I got before PLUS guide data for the Canadian stations: CBC (5-1), City TV (57-1) )and CTV (9-1)

The CBC (5-1) Guide data is still screwed up though – I recently put a service request into Tivo to get that fixed for their New York customers. As of today it still isn’t fixed yet so recording from CBC is still a manual process – but happily not from CityTV or CTV any longer.

My nephew has just purchased an S3 and has it set up in Mississauga with a clear southern exposure (no trees, buildings etc. blocking his second floor antenna locations). He gets a couple more channels than I do and ALL of his channels come in even stronger than mine. He likes it so much that he’s cancelling his Rogers subscription and is about to purchase a second TiVo S3 or TiVo HD (it looks like TiVo is phasing out the higher end S3 model).

Installation is easy. The TiVo comes with all needed instructions. You need the Silver Sensor antenna (discussed above) and a coax cable that will span the distance from your TiVo S3 and your best window facing south (or ideally to a roof mounted UHF antenna). If you wish you could also plug in your Rogers cable and record from the analogue stations from Rogers but recording from analogue cable can only be done in manual mode if you choose to use the U.S. zip codes as I and my nephew have. But, frankly, you probably won’t want to bother.

Good luck and let me know how it goes. And ideally, generally where you are in Metro Toronto (facing which direction) so I can continue to chronicle successes or failures.

Just a few questions to help clear some things up for me before I take the plunge.

I live in Toronto.

If I get a S3 and input my location/zip as being in the US (let’s say Buffalo for sake of argument) I can get full Tivo Guide date including Season passes etc and it’s only IF I want to record a Canadian station (like CITY or the CBC) that I have to manually input the recording? Basically will I be able to hook up my TiVo, say I’m in the US and recevie the normal Tivo experience for any of the major networks like CBS. ABC etc and just have to worry about the occasional Canadian show on a case by case basis?

Also about installation: I have Rogers Digital (no PVR) right now (no antenna) how easy is ti to install/what do I need to do exactly?

As I mentioned above, you can check out the various Toronto area threads in the digital home Canada forum to see what other non-TiVo users are able to receive in various parts of Toronto:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=81

Anything that any one of these guys that are living in your neighborhood are able to receive would be receivable by a TiVo S3 (assuming you have a decent exposure to the CN Tower and south across the lake to Upstate New York.)

Cheers.

Thanks for shedding light on something I knew nothing about and would have been lost not knowing. I have a quick question if your able to answer it for me. I am entering the whole HD world and in regard to the antenna etc. I live around Islington and the 401. A bit north of the CN Tower. My House already has a tower for an ancient VHF antenna, so mounting an outdoor UHF would be way too easy for me to bother with an indoor or anything else. Do you think with a decent high gain ant I would be able to get most of those channels you had up there??

Thanks

Matt

NO neither the S3, TiVo HD, the S2s nor any TiVo since some ove the early S1s will NOT work in ANY mode without a subscription – PERIOD.

In my case, while my TiVo can manually record all the digital shows broadcast in Toronto, the U.S. zipcode I have does NOT have the guide data for the Canadian shows. So, if I want to record the digital channel for City TV in Toronto, I must tell my TiVo to record channle 57.1 from time x to time y on the specific day rather than how TiVo normally works which essentially is to say – just record the darn show – and TiVo figures out when its on, when to record, when shows are repeats and not – getting a Seasons Pass to the show etc. etc.

Nick;

I’m not up on the Vancouver market. You can try the Vancouver thread on Digital Home Canada’s Digital OTA forum:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=81

Good luck.

…Dale

It’s me again. After re-reading your reply, I went on Zap2it and put in a Plattsburgh, New York zip code and it gave me ALL the listings of the stations that I can receive at the moment including ALL the Montreal HD and SD stations. I guess that if I do that, I should be able to record anything that I am receiving at the moment.

Please let me know what you think

Thanks again

Thanks for your reply. I read it very carefully but there is one little detail that you sort of omitted. If I can receive ALL the US networks in HD where I live I guess that the reverse is also true. If a French speaking individual that lives in Plattsburg, New York or Burlington, Vermont wants to watch or record a program from CBC French HD network in Montreal and doesn’t have cable or satellite but has a rooftop antenna like me, shouldn’t he or she be able to receive and/or record that program. Won’t the Tivo guide include that station on their list since it is receivable from their location? I also contacted Tivo yesterday to get more info and I was told by the gentleman over there that I should be able to receive everything that my tv receives at the moment. The only difference might be the lack of the actual program guide datas. To correct this, he asked me to contact them once the machine is set up and they will add the guide datas that I’m missing on the Tivo. The problem is that I don’t have the slightest idea of what he’s talking about since I have never seen a working Tivo before.

In your reply, you also mention the fact that you were using Tivo in manual mode. Does that mean that if I do the same I won’t have to subscribe to their service. I seem to have read somewhere on the net that if you are using OTA and that you don’t mind using the Tivo in manual mode, you don’t have to subscribe to their service. You know, I have been using a BETA and VHS vcr for so long now that I don’t really care to have to manually program my recordings.

Thanks again for your patience

Claude