Sky Angel and TIVO

[jholland]

Sky Angel is now compatible with TIVO. I added TIVO to my Sky Angel setup last week. Fabulous! It took me awhile to get everything configured right. I have both basic cable and Sky Angel, with a wired router. I immediately tested TIVO capabilities by recording some Sky Angel radio programs overnight, as well as some basic cable programming. I did need to leave the Sky Angel box on and make sure it was set to radio. TIVO can change channels within the radio stations, but it can’t change over to Sky Angel TV programming — I have to do that manually with the Sky Angel remote, then TIVO can change channels among all the TV channels.

There are so many things I can do with DVR! It’s great to be able to set recordings for both radio and TV ministries, setting TIVO to record every day or every week. That turns even the radio programming, which is not available for 48-hour playback, into “on demand.” I’ll still use the 48-hour playback feature, but an advantage of a TIVO-recorded program is the status bar that displays how many minutes I am into the program. This TIVO model is also a dual-tuner, which means I can watch two programs at the same time. And, of course, DVR lets me pause a program for up to 30 minutes, then pick up where I left off. TIVO also allows me to watch a program from the beginning while it is still recording. So if I want to watch a one-hour program that broadcasts at 10:00 a.m., but I am not available to watch until 10:40 a.m., I can start at the beginning even while TIVO finishes recording the program.



I set up “favorites,” so now my on-screen program guide displays only channels I watch. This morning, I was distracted during a testimony on 700 Club, so I simply “rewound” the live broadcast and listened to it. The on-screen program guide includes program info and lists both the Sky Angel channels and the basic cable channels. I can still use my Sky Angel remote to access the 48-hour playback feature, and I can use the Sky Angel remote to access On Demand programming.

My FM transmitter is now connected to the TIVO receiver instead of the Sky Angel box — that means I can play audio from all of the cable and Sky Angel channels to all my radios throughout the house, garage, and yard. And I can still use my extra Sky Angel remotes with a "remote extender" that allows me to operate the Sky Angel box from any room in the house.

The TIVO unit was $150 (must choose the series 2 to work with Sky Angel), and I paid a year’s subscription for TIVO service, which discounted the monthly charge to $10.75. That is less than I would pay for a DVR box from my cable company, and I have the advantage of using TIVO with both the cable and Sky Angel programming. The TIVO DVR also has twice as much recording capacity as the cable company’s DVR.

I have made extra investments in the FM transmitter, the remote extender and extra remotes, and the TIVO equipment and monthly service — but, oh my, those costs give me so much in return! Well worth the expense!

[glenstewart]

My family and I had the cheapest possible cable TV - it was called
"Lifeline", and it seems Time Warner doesn't even promote it anymore.
They want to sell packages that cost $50 or more per month, but with
Lifeline, we were paying $12/mo.

We also own a ReplayTV (you know, the same as Tivo, but with automatic
commercial skip). Of course, they were sued out of existence. But the
service still works.

On the left side of our TV cabinet, I have a paper that says something
like "TV should be educational and uplifting, and draw us to a closer
relationship with God and man." On the right side of the cabinet, are
the 10 Commandments.

So my 7 year old son asks one day "How come dad sends me out of the room
when he watches some shows?" We're talking about man stuff - "Bazooka
Deathmatch" shows that keep me awake when I watch TV. But, is "Bazooka
Deathmatch" educational and uplifting? So I realize my 7 year old has
just found me to be a hypocrite. Great example, dad. Gotta do
something about that.

So here we were with 25 channels of junk. I looked ahead at the movies
coming on for the next 2 weeks and all I see is PG-13 and R rated
movies. Nothing I can let my son see, and nothing that meets my own
criteria.

A year ago, a friend mentioned a subscription TV service called Sky
Angel. And yes, this is where Linux enters the story...yeah, I'm a big Linux fan...

At skyangel's web site, they sell a set-top box (that
runs embedded Linux) and offer Faith, Family, and Faith & Family channel
lineups for $15, $20, and $25 per month, respectively. The Faith &
Family is about 80 channels in all.

Sky Angel transmits streaming TV over your existing high-speed Internet
connection. It takes about 130kB/s of bandwidth, so you can web browse
and watch TV with no problem, even on a DSL connection. The set-top box
is rebranded from Neulion, and it outputs the TV onto composite or RCA
connections to the TV. But...

Sky Angel also works with Tivo. And contrary to Sky Angel's web page
about this, it works with the very hackable Series 1 Tivo, which you can still
get on eBay for $90 (lifetime subscription). And Tivo runs Linux. The
Australians (and folks in the Netherlands) are still going nuts with
hacking the Series 1 Tivos.

Once set up, the Tivo will record its little heart out on the Sky Angel
TV streams, and provide hours of educational and uplifting TV. Sky
Angel will block any program rated R that doesn't have the bad parts
edited out. And I've noticed a couple shows where bad language was
muted. These are good things.

So what replaces Bazooka Deathmatch? Man vs Wild. The guy drinks water
squeezed from elephant poop - how manly is that?!

So compared to $50 cable packages, Sky Angel is cheaper, and it runs
Linux, and it meets my criteria for "Good" TV. A winner to me!