Star Choice Canada Satellite TV offers over 430 channels, up to 21 HD channels at no extra cost. A full range of programming packages for English, Bilingual and French Programming.

Star Choice Sat TV Receivers Star Choice Coverage

TiVo is the pioneer of the digital video recorder (DVR). It was introduced in the US, and is now available in Canada, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, and the UK. TiVo DVRs provide an electronic television programming schedule, and provide features such as Season Pass recordings (which ensure subscribers never miss an episode of their favorite shows) and WishList searches (which allow the user to find and record shows that match their interests by title, actor, director, category or keyword). TiVo also provides a range of features when the TiVo DVR is connected to a home network, including movie and TV show downloads, advanced search, personal photo viewing, music offerings, and online scheduling.

Founded in 1997, TiVo, a pioneer in home entertainment, created a brand-new product and service category with the development of the world's first digital video recorder (DVR). Today, the company continues to revolutionize the way consumers watch and access home entertainment, by making the TiVo DVR the focal point of the digital living room: a center for sharing and experiencing television, movies, video downloads, music, photos, and more.

Tivo receiver

It's been a long, messy road, but now that TiVo's beaten a victory out of EchoStar in that seemingly-endless DVR patent lawsuit it sounds like the company is trying to exert some muscle -- it's already in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and sources have told Bloomberg the ultimate plan is to eventually collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US. That might sound bullying and even a little trollish, but keep in mind these patents have withstood pretty much every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo's operating from a position of some certainty here -- especially since it's got license agreements with huge players like Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations as well. Of course, none of this solves any of TiVo's actual problems with its products, and the company's topsy-turvy balance sheet has some analysts thinking its ripe for a buyout by one of the bigs, so things could change dramatically at any minute, but for right now it sounds like your chances of getting the TiVo interface on your cable or satellite company DVR just went up, and that's almost certainly a good thing.

Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO), a pioneer in home entertainment, created a brand new category of products with the development of the first digital video recorder (DVR). Today, the Company continues to revolutionize the way consumers watch and access home entertainment by making TiVo the focal point of the digital living room, a center for sharing and experiencing television, music, photos and other content. TiVo connects consumers to the digital entertainment they want, where and when they want it. The Company is based in Alviso, California.

Tivo Digital Recorder

A TiVo DVR serves a function similar to a videocassette recorder, in that both allow a television viewer to record programming for viewing at a later time. Unlike a VCR, which uses removable magnetic tape cartridges, a TiVo DVR stores television programs onto non-removable hard disk storage. Also, the TiVo device does not have any buttons on the front panel; its functions are solely controlled by remote control.

What distinguishes TiVo from other DVRs is the sophisticated software written by TiVo Inc. that automatically records programs — not only those the user specifically requests, but also other material the user is likely to be interested in. TiVo DVRs also implement a patented feature TiVo calls "trick play," which allows the viewer to pause live television, and rewind and replay up to a half hour of recently viewed television. More recent TiVo DVRs can be connected to a computer local area network, which allows the TiVo device to download information and even video programs, music and movies from the Internet.

TiVo Functions

TiVo polls its network, receiving program information including description, regular and guest actors, directors, genres, whether programs are new or repeats, and whether broadcast is in HD. Information is updated daily from Tribune Media Services.

Users can select individual programs to record or a "Season Pass" to record an entire season (or more). There are options to record First Run Only, First Run & Repeats, or All Episodes. An episode is considered "First Run" if aired in two weeks of the original air date. When user requests for multiple programs are conflicting, the lower priority program in the Season Pass Manager is either not recorded or clipped where times overlap. The lower priority program will be recorded if it is aired later. TiVo DVRs with two tuners record the top two priority programs. A user rating a program.

TiVo pioneered recording programs based on household viewing habits;[citation needed] this is called TiVo Suggestions. Users can rate programs from three "thumbs up" to three "thumbs down." TiVo user ratings are combined to create a recommendation, based on what TiVo users with similar viewing habits watch. For example, if a user likes The Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama, then another TiVo user who watched just the The Simpsons might get a recommendation for the other two shows.

Hacking TiVo Box

Many people and groups have organized to hack the TiVo box, some to improve the service and others to provide service in countries where the TiVo is not currently being sold. TiVo Inc. has generally remained on good terms with these projects, although it has lately tried to clamp down on many of the "back doors" in the software, citing threats to their corporate interests.

Many users have installed additional hard drives or larger hard drives in their TiVo boxes to increase their recording capacity. Others have designed and built Ethernet cards, a web interface (TiVoWeb), and figured out how to extract, insert and transfer video among their TiVo boxes.

TiVo enthusiast groups located in countries where the TiVo is not sold have been able to reverse engineer the television subscription service schedule files needed by the TiVo and the protocol used during the transmission of those files to the TiVo. This allows the TiVo to be supplied with television scheduling data not available by subscription from the U.S.[citation needed] In some countries, these groups operate a simulated TiVo central server to make and distribute the necessary files for programs broadcast within their country. In other countries, each individual TiVo owner operates a simulated server and makes his own files using software that obtains free television scheduling data from the Internet. The ability to supply television scheduling data to the TiVo without paying a subscription fee threatens TiVo Inc.'s subscription-based business model in the U.S., therefore, these groups usually have strict controls over who can access the necessary software or join their group.

Improved encryption found in more recent versions of the TiVo hardware and software has made it more difficult to create the necessary files or to simulate interaction with the TiVo server.

tivo recorders

Web Highspeedsat