TiVo Canada


The word Tivo has evolved into a verb synonymous to the act of recording television programming with a Digital Video Recorder or DVR (also called a PVR for Personal Video Recorder).

"Did you Tivo the show last night?" It's the kind of "Scotch Tape" brand recognition marketers fantasize about. But Tivo is just that, a brand of video recorder and subscriber service that provides a menu system allowing you to record at the push of a button. The Tivo service and hardware is only available in the US, Tivo is not available in Canada.
Shoppers at Canadian Best Buy locations may have been lead to believe differently as this display is commonly seen in Canadian Best Buy franchises.

TiVo display at a Canadian Best Buy location
Tivo demo displayed at Best Buy in Canada.

Best Buy is new to Canada and like any slow moving behemoth, requires time to adjust to its new environment. The good news for Canadians who would like the flexibility of the PVR is you don't need Tivo. Most satellite and Cable services offer receivers with built in DVRs you can use for no extra cost than the price of the hardware and the channels to which you've already subscribed. For standard definition TV all satellite and cable TV services in Canada offer a PVR receiver for their signals. At the time of writing only Rogers cable offers a PVR capable of recording High Definition video. There are alternative methods of recording television programming using your computer's hard drive using media center or other low cost alternatives to the Tivo.