TiVo, Inc. long ignored the Canadian marketplace. In fact, like the Australians, the Canadian marketplace consisted of imported boxes to be hacked for free (and local) guide data. More recently, TiVo did make legit service and guide data available to Canadian customers – though I believe units were only available for online ordering or required a trip across the border. If you like your standard definition recording with dual tuners, TiVo has good news for my northern friends:
The TiVo Series2 DT DVR will be available in early December at major Canadian retailers including Best Buy, The Brick, London Drug and Future Shop for just $199 CAD MSRP plus standard TiVo subscription fees. TiVo will not be available in Quebec immediately.
I’m not sure if TiVo’s required to upgrade the system interface, but at the very least they haven’t got their bilingual French packaging together for retail sale in Quebec. I assume they’ll offer a CableCARD-neutered TiVo HD at some point… to a variety of regions.
WOO HOO!! It’s about time!
How close are you to the border and would it be cheaper to buy it in the US? ;) $199 without a rebate doesn’t seem too attractive…
TiVo rebates have never been available to Canadian residents. If you read the fine print, it’s always “for US residents only”. So $199 really is the cheapest way for a Canadian to get a TiVo, unfortunately. Still, it’s going to be a LOT easier to point my friends and family to the local Futureshop than try to explain how they have to “import” one from the US.
Maybe with the Canadian retail rollout, TiVo will start extending rebates to Canada, too? One can dream…
Better yet, how about Unbox in Canada? That’d be an even better dream!
Unbox would be very nice – but I’m not going to hold my breath on that one. Assuming licensing for TV/video as as cumbersome as licensing for music, it’s not an easy problem to solve. I’d file that in the same category as “it would be nice if Canadian telcos supported CableCard”.
Ooops – by telcos I mean “cablecos” (cable companies)!
Lame! You can get an Standard Def satellite or cable box with a built-in PVR for half the price in Canada already. And these boxes will be able to record from two full digital channels, rather than one digital and one analog channel like Tivo. Why is Tivo now finally looking at Canada? Is it because the Canadian Dollar is now worth more than the US buck? If Tivo thinks it’s going to turn its profitability problems around by gouging Canadian consumers, it’s really on shaky ground.
From the US Tivo Website:
TiVo® Series2 DT for 99.99 (150 instant rebate) So I guess I will ask my american friends …..
Yousuf: have you used one of those “PVRs” provided by the satellite and cable companies? They suck! The only people I know of who can (barely) stand to use them are people who haven’t used a TiVo before. There are no season passes or wishlists, no kidzone, programming is more like programming a VCR, no TiVo2Go, MRV, or online scheduling, etc. etc. There is just SO much more functionality in a TiVo box, there just isn’t comparison. I had a Bell Expressvu “PVR” for a few months but I had to return it because I couldn’t stand using it instead of a TiVo. :)
Yup, used one from Rogers cable a few years ago. Really only needed it to record tv programs, and I wasn’t looking for a device that could predict my tastes or anything like that. Also I never had a problem programming VCR’s before that, either. I’m sure there’s some nifty features in a TiVo, but is it worth twice the initial price and upto $13/month ontop of that?
I’d say – YES it’s definitely worth it!!