TiVoWorld NZ

Telecom’s director of home services, Ralph Brayham, has quit as the telco cleans out 200 middle management jobs.

Brayham was behind the company’s introduction of TiVo, is a director of its online joint venture, YahooXtra, and ran the online retailer, Ferrit, until its demise early last year.

Brayham has announced his June exit internally and is expected to be replaced from inside Telecom, a source said.

“While I’m disappointed to lose someone of Ralph’s calibre and experience from the team, I certainly respect his decision and who knows maybe one day we might convince him to come back into the fold,” said Telecom Retail chief executive Alan Gourdie.

An industry insider said Brayham had an entrepreneurial approach to products and services, but may have felt stifled by the Telecom corporate structure.

His departure comes as Gourdie reviews Telecom’s retail business with a proposed new structure released to staff last week.

Under Gourdie’s plan jobs held by Brayham, incoming head of mobile Kieren Cooney, branding and marketing head Craig Herbison and small business head Victoria Crone would disappear.

Telecom Retail spokesperson Nick Brown said rather than grouping teams around particular product sets, Telecom Retail will be grouped around key functions such as product development and management, marketing, sales, customer service and support, and these teams will work across all products sets.
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“There is a new structure and people will get appointed into new roles some of which will be more similar to what they were already than others,” said Brown.

“Final confirmation on all roles and appointments are still to be announced internally. This is happening through an ongoing process of communication and consultation with staff over the next month.”

Brayham, who became a co-owner of music store Real Groovy in 2008, said the organisational changes meant it was the right time to move on with minimal disruption.

“But a new structure is not the reason for the move, I’m simply looking forward to putting energy into my own business venture and looking at what’s next for me,” he said.

Telecom announced in April it planned to slash 200 jobs by mid-year with more lay-offs likely.

Taken from NZHerald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10645037

There are reports that the MAK (Media Access Key) is not included with the NZ TiVo now? TiVo just recently dropped the price of the TiVo by $200 but it came with a free $129 MAK so I guess it will increase the cost of the NZ TiVo now so effectively a drop of $71 . Unfortuately I can’t find where you can actually order the MAK in NZ so what gives?

Telecom’s Website says:

Please note the HNP is not currently available for sale. If you would be interested in purchasing this product in the future register here

The NHP is the thing which includes the MAK.

With the proliferation of high-definition personal video recorders, you need the judgment of the Three Wise Men to choose among them.

Essentially it comes down to three types: the subscription-based MySky HDi; the broadband-driven TiVo; and Panasonic’s Blu-ray recorder with twin FreeviewHD tuners.

The catch with the first two is you have to be a Sky or Telecom customer respectively, whereas the third option is fatally limited by an electronic programme guide (EPG) that won’t let you record more than a few hours ahead.

However, unlike the other two, there aren’t ongoing subscription or broadband costs with the DMR-BW850.

See Full Story @ http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/3185565/MySky-vs-Tivo-vs-Blu-ray-recorder

Steve Browning has stepped down as New Zealand general manager of the organisation that runs TiVo in this country – Hybrid Television Services.

Browning, who moved from Freeview in April, is now working as chief financial officer at up-and-coming publishing company The Image Centre.

Browning and Hybrid could not be reached for comment. But an industry colleague said Brown had always been expected to stay only for the start-up phase for the digital video recorder firm.

It is understood the uptake for the TiVo set-top box has been slow.

Tech reviewers are impressed by the slick technology that puts it on the cutting edge for a consumer-led convergence of television and computers. But apart from movie downloads, it lacks content compared with its main digital video recorder competitor, MySky HDi.

TiVo is backed by Telecom with an unmetered broadband deal that allows unlimited movie downloads. Unlike MySky it does not require an ongoing subscription. Hybrid is one-third owned by TVNZ and two-thirds by Australia’s Seven Network.

See Full Story @ http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=0&id=45709

There have been quite a number of reports of people that have had problems with the Tivo Desktop 2.8 software not working correctly with Windows 7 as the software doesn’t install the MAK (Media Access Key) properly. A number of people have found a Fix (it may or may not work for you, but here it is).

1 – Uninstall Tivo Desktop
2 – Right click PROPERTIES on the Tivo Desktop INSTALLER exe and select Run as Administrator.
3 – It will install. Enter MAK code as asked.
4 – Right click the Tivo program Icon and also go to properties and select run as administrator….

The newest box of tricks for your television, TiVo, is the biggest step yet towards media convergence.

It’s packed with functionality designed to fast-forward television into the future, when it will be the home’s central hub for everything from entertainment to commerce.

The drawback for early adopters is that it’s expensive, with limited content.

To use TiVo as a hi-tech video recorder with on-demand options, you need $920, a Telecom broadband connection and Freeview high-definition reception.

Set-up was surprisingly straightforward, the only hitch being TiVo’s tuner seems weaker than other Freeview HD tuners on the market, which may mean fiddling with an inside aerial.

TiVo’s lively graphical interface is far more appealing than the dull, text-based architecture of its nearest rival, MySky HDi. It also boasts extraordinary recording flexibility and customisation, with options to tailor and categorise recordings that will astonish those old enough to remember shelling out $2500 for their first video recorder. If you’re 45-plus, chances are you won’t find TiVo as easy to use as the marketing suggests.

See Full Story @ http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/technology/3069776/Buyers-guide-to-TiVo-and-Caspa

In a 3-part series I’ll be reviewing the TIVO digital recorder and video on demand service launched last week by TVNZ and Telecom.

This post deals with the TIVO installation and set-up.

DVR war declared (finally)

So finally, a decade after time-shifting TV, ad-skipping and digital storage of TV programmes came to American homes via the TIVO box, New Zealanders can get their hands on the same service.

tivo boxWhile the TIVO brand is new to New Zealand, the concept of the digital video recorder is not – Sky’s successful MySky recorder was the first official box to employ an electronic programming guide, digital recording and intelligent services like series link, which allows you to set up recording of an ongoing TV show with one press of a button.

See Full Story @ http://sciblogs.co.nz/griffins-gadgets/2009/11/15/tivo-reviewed-part-1/

The TiVo is a wonderful box but it has a few things which aren’t officially documented anywhere.. (or are they ?)

These may or may not work with NZ’s TiVo but please let me know if they don’t work or there are anymore not listed here.

Note: Try at your own risk and if your new shiny $920 TiVo doesn’t work anymore after trying these don’t blame me.

Enabling/Disabling Remote Backlight – Press TiVo and Thumbs Down until the red light blinks 3 times. To Turn it back on Press the TiVo and thumbs Up until the red light blinks 3 times.

SELECT PLAY SELECT PAUSE SELECT (Quicker Display Hiding)
SELECT PLAY SELECT 9 SELECT (Enable/Disable Clock)
SELECT PLAY SELECT INSTANT-REPLAY SELECT (Input Debug mode?). You may have to reboot the TiVo to disable this?

Port 31339 – For remote/home automation so you can use an iphone app for example to change channels etc

Port 443 (SSL Port) – You can connect to your TiVo via your web browser. https://ipaddres_of_tivo and then the username is tivo and the password is your MAK

Today (Well I found out today but it was in the last day or so) TiVo released some new software for the Macintosh which works under Snow Leopard. Previous versions of the software did not work under newer versions of Macintosh Software (Snow Leopard). The latest vesion is 1.95 and can be downloaded from TiVo’s US Website.

It will allow you to transfer Music from iTunes (including playlists) and Photos from iPhoto. You cannot transfer videos with it between the TiVo and the Computer. Hopefully we see TiVo NZ having a local copy of this file.

Software can be downloaded from : https://www3.tivo.com/buytivo/tivogear/software/tivodesktopmac.html

A few TiVo Videos have started to come onto Youtube in the last few days. I know people like to watch them so here they are.

The first 2 are Television adverts as far as I know and the third one is a Radio Wammo Show on KiwiFM which talks about the TiVo at the start.

Read more…