TiVo Colossus Amidst Coming of Age of Beyonwiz PVR

TiVo bestrides the DVR market like a colossus as Beyonwiz is enabling interesting features in their PVR’s. These include the capability of copying recordings to USB’s as well as other PC’s. Television recording is now possible simultaneously while watching DVD’s

Version 01.05.192 which is the latest firmware release is meant to solve Beyonwiz’ DP-S1’s biggest remaining shortcoming which is the fact that it cannot add padding to recording times if the program finishes late or starts early.

Australian PVR’s without this feature are almost useless. Programs are purposely started late so that viewers do not change channels. They often fall 20 mins behind schedule late evening.

With the latest update, the DP-S1 can set a global padding margin of about 120 minutes, before as well as after the start of a program. With the latest functionalities recording consecutive programs on the same channel becomes easier.

A number of other issues have been addressed. When you catch up with the live broadcase, chasing playback no longer stops, returning to live TV instead. The only remaining problem in the Beyonwiz DP-S1 is the absence of good disk space management. In the background of all this, TiVo launches in the land of Oz  this year, well in time for the Beijing Olympics. Lets see what they come up with!