IceTV Resurrected

[antman]

anyone who trusts this company to provide any service they promise without changing the rules over and over is kidding themselves.
I bought a Skippa with life time subscription included.
well that actually means about 1 month free then you must pay or the Skippa is a useless box.

heaps of bugs on these machines.
my ADSKIP stopped working weeks ago...THATS WHAT THE MACHINE IS SUPPOSED TO DO

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY
just a matter of time before it folds for good.

Some people really have trouble with basic concepts.

The company that sold you a SKIPPA (the original company) has stopped trading because it became insolvent, not to because it wanted to change the rules - that would be a breach of contract, among other legal problems it would cause for the company. Because it was insolvent, the directors had no choice but to stop trading, it is a breach of the Corporations Act to allow a company to trade while insolvent. There is anecdotal evidence, which may or may not be true, that the insolvency was caused by issues related to the supplier of the SKIPPA units to the original company. Nobody has made a credible claim yet that any of the owners or directors of the original company have done anything improper to cause the original company to become insolvent or have benefited from it.

To protect the company's assets and provide the best chance of salvaging something from the insolvent company (for the creditors, not the owners), administrators were appointed. The administrators obviously thought that there was little hope of the company being able to trade again and honour its contracts so they sold the assets in relation to the EPG service to a new company in order to realise some cash and, hopefully, be able to pay out something to as many creditors as they can. The original company is as good as dead, it has already folded for good; it cannot recommence trading so, even if it still owned the EPG assets, it would not be able to provide the promised services. The business failed, the subscription contracts with people like yourself are dead. The owners of the company are not responsible for the company's debts, their liability is limited to whatever they have invested in the company, which they have now lost - that's how our system of limited liability companies works. Apparently there had been loans to the company from one or more owners, which may also be lost. How much do you think they have lost? How many SKIPPA units worth?

There appears to be some link between the owners of the original company and the owners of the company that bought the assets - they may all be the same or only some may be the same. Not only have they lost their investments in and loans to the original company, on top of that they have had to fork out to buy assets that they already owned (not literally, the original company owned them, but they had an interest in them as owners of the original company). It makes sense that people associated with the original company would want to buy the assets; they understand the business and believe, with the benefit of experience, that they can build a viable business with the EPG assets. Clearly, the do not think that the SKIPPA part of the business is viable or they would have bought that too or the administrator would have tried to resurrect the original company.

The new company is a completely separate legal entity. It does not have contracts with any customers of the original company; they do not automatically transfer with the assets. It is offering a new EPG service using assets that it has bought. The assets obviously include the customer list from the original company because the new company is able to contact those customers and offer their new EPG service so that those customers can benefit from a continuity of service. This is not the same company resurrected, nor is it the same business. It is a new business that has not been trading to build up cash reserves or an established cash flow so needs to charge for its services to get cash coming in through the door to pay its bills. The old business model simply won't work for a new company. It would probably last all of 5 minutes if it had to provide a free service to disgruntled customers of a different company/business. If you bought an oven from a baker who had to shut down his business, should you have to provide bread for free to the baker's customers who had pre-paid for their orders? They are free to try to reclaim their money from the baker but you should not have any obligation to them, even though you are providing the same type of product.

In short: you had a contract to receive services (a lifetime EPG) from a company. That company folded so the service that they were to provide is dead. There's been no change of rules, no attempt to get out of any obligations, there has been a business failure: that chapter has closed. A new company has bought some of the assets and is offering a similar service under a different business model. There is nobody able to provide the old service so you have the choice of taking up the new service from the new provider, finding an alternative service or doing without.

[TimC]

anyone who trusts this company to provide any service they promise without changing the rules over and over is kidding themselves.

You obviously have no idea what Administration means and if you haven't picked up anything by reading the posts in this and other threads, then it is not worth trying to explain it.
The key point is that currently the IceTV providing our EPG is not the same company that provided the Skippa.

Its not a matter of trust either.  IceTV does some things that are unique.
If you want to take advantage of those unique things then you use the service.

If IceTV folds, a few things will happen:

1.  All the Skippas will become bricks. None of the owners will ever get a return on their investment.
2.  All other PVRs will lose the IceTV functions. They'll work fine as PVRs but we all go back to hunting through "TV Weeks" (or the FTA EPG) to find programs to record.
3.  Nobody will receive more than a cent or two in the dollar for their subscription losses.
4. The good people working for IceTV will all lose their jobs.
5.  The current owner loses the extra money he used to buy the EPG service out of Administration.

Nothing positive will happen.

If you want all this to happen, OK, but it looks like "Cutting of your nose to spite your face" to me.

If IceTV survives, a few other things will happen:

1.  The Skippas will remain functional. Admittedly they are a bit buggy and unfortunately we will be stuck with the bugs. The latest and last firmware gets Addskip working again, but there still a few minor bugs. I have found workarounds for most of them.
2.  Everyone using the EPG service will have to pay for it regardless of subscriptions paid to the original IceTV company.
3.  The owner will make enough money to consider keeping the EPG going worthwhile. If it doesn't make enough money then it will fold again for good.

I want IceTV to keep going so I don't lose so much, not because I trust the company.

[NBOSTI]

Well said Antman.
I can't understand all the people trying to kill this service before they have even given the new company a fair go.
You will have a week to assess the service for free , then decide if you want to subscribe.
Nobody is under any obligation to renew, the new company is under no obligation to refund or honour any subscriptions made by the old company.
The posters on this site all have used and enjoyed a hassle free way of remotely programming their PVR's for many years. There is NO OTHER service available in Australia that comes any where close to that supplied by IceTV, so suck up your loss, accept it and continue to support a great service or spend hours each day trying to keep those PVR's on schedule.

[2353]

Another +1 for Antman.

It's not a conspiracy by the CIA, KGB or anyone else.  The original IceTV has gone - it is an extinct company.  It's no use pining for the fjords, if you want to keep receiving the service you need to pay for it (again).  And by the sound of it, your loss is nowhere near the loss of the new company owner.

[NBOSTI]

I recall buying a Divico PVR through IceTV, it was a good machine for about 6 months. It had features that I wish others would adapt, but the manufacturers stopped firmware updates and eventually thier support site disappeard altogether.
Was this IceTV's fault? No. it was  the manufacturer proclaiming a product that they could not or would not support.
If I recall correctly, it was Altech, maybe wrong.
My advice is buy a well known brand,...
I salvaged the 1Tb HDD from that machine and ditched the box that contained it.
My point is I spent $ 600 dollars on that, it failed and I got over it...I will stick with Elgato tuners.
They work,..have superior options over a stand alone PVR, and I have 3 running giving me 6 simultaneous channels of recording, all playable through my large screen TV.

[Gwhat]

Hi

One fact that has been forgotten, the Skippa concept is a great one, it won't take long for the new company or others, to realise this and to either support the existing units or offer an alternative.

Yes! We're all licking our wounds at the moment, but even with the few bugs, isn't using Skippa a great leap forward?

If the forum remains positive, it will encourage further investment of time and money into this concept.

Regards

Grahame

[MB4913]

One fact that has been forgotten, the Skippa concept is a great one, it won't take long for the new company or others, to realise this and to either support the existing units or offer an alternative.

Yes! We're all licking our wounds at the moment, but even with the few bugs, isn't using Skippa a great leap forward?

If the forum remains positive, it will encourage further investment of time and money into this concept.

+1

[grmarks]

• The latest 1.1.10604 version software will soon be available to download for updating from a USB stick.

Dave... back at IceTV

So will skippa continue to get new version updates or is this lost now after this update?

[DVS]

ok I'll put in my 2c worth,

1.  Am I upset ICETV ver 1.0 went guts up, you bet I am.
2.  Am I glad I cancelled my Skippa and got a different PVR, I'm relly glad about that one.
3.  Am I going to use ICETV 2.0 so I don't have to stuff around programing my PVR's, 100% I am.

I'm really sorry for anyone who has lost out on the Skippa, the push back in the delivery times is why I cancelled it, so glad I did,
do I blame the owners of ICETV for all of this not really as I don't know them and it would be little or no difference to the out come anyway,
I'm not angry, though I thought I would be, I just hope they keep plugging away and in the end it goes back to the way it was, I've been
using ICETV for over 8 years and I'm not going to stop now.

Keep up the great work you blokes and ladies do and I hope you get enough support to work it all out.

[drumkit]

I want IceTV to keep going so I don't lose so much, not because I trust the company.

A very fair position.  I can sympathise with that point of view.

[drumkit]

Another +1 for Antman.

It's not a conspiracy by the CIA, KGB or anyone else.  The original IceTV has gone - it is an extinct company.  It's no use pining for the fjords, if you want to keep receiving the service you need to pay for it (again).  And by the sound of it, your loss is nowhere near the loss of the new company owner.

So there should be no loyalty or warm feelings for the new icetv.   This shouldn't be "glad to see you survived I will support you" instead its does the new company service provide something im prepared to pay for again.

[sam]

All good...

WOW that price is shocking... (really sorry to say Sam - apologies)

I realise there is a markup on these things but that is over DOUBLE what i sell em for...

I need to up my price, lol...

Yeah I know the price is/was a shocker, & I really didn't want to spend anymore on SKIPPA.
I was going to purchase through you but was so desperate and impatient to try to get SKIPPA at least booting up, that I rushed off to Jaycar & grabbed one as posting to me was going to take a few days

Cheers,
Sam

Hi Warkus / Mark,

Unfortunately the new $64.94 PowerPack has not fixed the SKIPPA freezing problems .
It helped with at least being able to Boot up SKIPPA.
But SKIPPA only works for approx. 10 - 15 mins before it freezes completely & is unresponsive. Frozen picture on the TV with live audio playing. I have to pull the power plug to shut it down.

I feel this SKIPPA is repairable, when it works it looks great - but how more money do I have to spend on this SKIPPA?
It has always run very hot, and even gets hot in Standby - I suspect HDD is probably still running.
My TEAC HDB850 PVR is always cool even when being used (I realise it does not have a internal HDD, it uses a USB drive for recording).

I'm suspecting now that 'perhaps' there is a faulty cable connection to the HDD.

Mark, if you think its worth you looking at my SKIPPA would you please message me and I will give you my contact email address.
Thanks,
Sam

[prl]

... and even gets hot in Standby - I suspect HDD is probably still running. ...

I don't have a SKIPPA - speculation follows

If it's pretty much instant startup from Standby, very likely much of the mainboard is still running. The HDD should (in principle) be programmed to spin down on idle, but if Standby also maintains the timeshift buffer, then the HDD must stay spinning.

"Ear to the case" is usually the best way of telling whether the HDD is spinning.

[warkus]

It's similar to the wiz Peter in terms of standby but not deep standby, the Skippa and the Altech 9600 don't have deep standby, so yes basically it's always on regardless.

It simply turns off the video feed, that's it. It is near instant on from power up.

It doesn't even power down the HDD in standby, like ever, have never heard my Altech or Skippa ever turn off the HDD in standby, not once.

[warkus]

Sam,

I have a Skippa here in the office doing exactly that at the moment. It lasts between 30 seconds and 5 minutes on boot before freezing, audio still running but frozen other than that and occasionally reboots itself automatically.

I am 80% sure it's a faulty SOC (main controller). Freeze spraying the heat sink on the SOC keeps it up for an indefinite period, most I've had it up is 15mins. As soon as I stop spraying the heat sink, it locks within a very short time.

If it is a faulty SOC, it's a bin job, simple. I'm really sorry.

I haven't finished testing yet but once I've finished I will post confirmation either way...

Mark