Tivo isn’t sold here in Australia. As such, my inner geek has had to listen with frustration to my US-based colleagues talk about their Tivo’s for a couple of years now. Well no longer!

No, Tivo’s haven’t started selling here. No, Australia hasn’t changed from PAL over to NTSC. What has happened is a friend of mine pointed me to OzTivo, a community of volunteers who have done all the hardwork in figuring out how to convert US Tivos over to work with Australian TV, as well as provide Program Guide Data. So, a quick trip to EBay for a second-hand Tivo, and quite a few hours spent following instructions and hacking around with the cover off, my Tivo is up and running. It’s certainly not a task for my mum, but if you’d be comfortable installing a new hard drive in your PC and installing and configuring Linux, then you should be able to handle getting your own Tivo up and running.

Thank you OzTivo. You guys rock!