A comment on a year-old post of mine has led me to PVR Source: to the best of my knowledge, the only Canadian source for TiVo, the industry-leading personal video recorder.

They’re strictly e-commerce, and their site still lacks any contact info other than an e-mail address for the Calgary-based company. And since a Whois lookup on their domain name yields an anonymous registration, my antennae were up, and I implied as much in a reply on that thread.

But within three hours of posting my comment (and copying my comment to PVR Source’s e-mail address), I had a reply in hand. That’s extraordinary any time, and bear in mind this is Christmas Eve – not exactly a quiet time of year, even for virtual storefronts. Yet owner Mike Yawney was happy to compose this thorough and reassuring reply:

PVR Source launched just over a year ago. I am a Tivo nut, and have been for a few years now (before it even officially came into Canada) I was very disheartened by the fact that Tivo was about to launch it’s service here in Canada but refused to sell the actual units here. Friends and family saw my Tivo unit and asked me to get them one. Well as it turns out I started getting a flood of requests for Tivo boxes. Now one year later we have worked out a deal with Tivo’s distributor and we now import the boxes into Canada and sell them online. We also started upgrading Tivos, a service that has never been offered here in Canada.

We have had a lot of changes over the last year. Last month we upgraded our website and came back with a new look. We also became an authorized XM satellite radio in November. As we grow we will look at offering other product lines.

You mentioned our website was registered anonymously. Well let me explain. Last year when I started the website I didn’t know a lot about e-tailers and online business. I was a little concerned letting my personal information out on the net. That is why it was registered anonymously. Wasn’t sure what the best option was. I should probably look at getting that changed now. As for a phone number, we trying to get office space so I won’t list our new number until it’s up and running.

I can’t vouch for them personally, because I have yet to do business with them – although if our attempts to repair our unit through Weaknees fall through then you can expect that to change soon. But the fact that Mike replied so quickly, and thoroughly, gives me hope that their customer service would be just as responsive.

One more note: the fact they’re Canadian means more than just a lack of hassles with border taxes and duties. It also means you’ll get a uniquely Canadian perspective… including critical information like the fact that the new HD TiVo isn’t exactly ready for prime time Canuck-wise, relying as it does on cable-card technology.

If you’ve had any experience with PVR Source, feel free to share it via the comment box.