Was it ever alive in the UK in the first place?

I know somebody who's had a TIVO for over 2 years and hasn't even turned it on once!

If I were going for a PVR like device, I'd probably go for SKY plus - because you're recording the stream rather than re-encoding, and yes, I'm aware of the "crippled" nature of plus (like if you stop subscribing to the channel which you have a recording of, you can no longer playback the recording).

For TIVO like operation, MythTV seems the way to go and has the added bonus that no subscription is required for listings.