New Ice TV Skippa PVR, Expensive, Has No Netflix + You Get Charged For Ad Skipping + Program Guide.
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Ice TV the Company that is still trying to sting consumer $99 for a TV Guide despite most TV’s delivering a guide for free is now trying to slug consumers $499 for a Personal Video Recorder or $599 for ad skipping software that does not work all the time.

Called the Skippa because it skips advertisements in 30-second increments the device is three years late, the catch is that if you want an Ice TV program guide you have to pay an additional $100.

Back in 2012 the CEO of Ice TV Colin O’Brien told ChannelNews that he was about to release a personal video recorder that was being taken up by mass retailers, the only problem was that when ChannelNews checked not one single retailers was able to confirm the ranging of an Ice TV box.

When O’Brien was asked to nominate which retailers were set to stock the new device he said “it’s confidential”.

Even now the Skippa box is only being sold online via the Ice TV web site.


The device which competes head on with other products from Beyonwiz, Humax, Strong, Topfield and UEC, or computer-based PVRs such as Windows Media Centre and Elgato EyeTV is expensive when compared to what’s on offer from other media centre devices. It also has no Netflix, Stan, Presto or other mainstream streaming services, though it does deliver HBB TV.

It features three high-def MPEG-2/4 digital TV tuners and has a 1TB drive which is standard in several PVR’s.
 
A big disadvantage is that if you  one records a series of shows the device will not add padding either side of the show similar to what one can do with the new Foxtel iQ3 or the Fetch TV box. 

Nor can you set Series recordings to only keep a certain number of episodes before deleting them to save space.

An IceTV subscription costs $99 per year or you pay $599 to get a lifetime subscription when you buy a Skippa which retails for $499 without the Ice TV guide. 

You also get stung $49 per year for the auto ad-skipping features if you don’t pay for lifetime subscription. 

 Fairfax Media said after reviewing the product “AutoSkip can’t work its magic while you’re watching a live broadcast. Nor does it work if you’re watching on a slight delay because it needs time to process the recording, which takes about as long as the length of the show. It doesn’t delete the ads, it simply marks where they start and finish”. 

They added “The AutoSkip feature is surprisingly good but not foolproof, IceTV says it’s around 90 per cent accurate”.