Please Explain Why people should Pay a Monthly Fee for Tivo

[venkman]

I was considering plopping down the $300 for a TivoHD when I saw that the use of the unit requires a monthly payment of at least $13 a month (with a 3 year contract) or a lump sum payment from $180-$300.

The person who buys this thing has already Payed $100 - $300 for what is essentially a VCR with a hard drive instead of a tape deck.

Ok that may be a little harsh, but I don't recall having to pay $13 a month to tape movies off my TV. Did VCR+ even require a "plan" of some sort? Wasn't it a matter of having a VCR that supported it?

I looked on the site and you do get a lot of services, Actor lookup, Movie downloads, and a bunch of other crap that a lot of people would skip if they had a choice. Where is the basic DVR with a Record Button, Time Shifting Buttons, which, gosh, is not very different from using a VCR outside of the convenience, and a guide that I can select to record shows from.

Heck, even a "search" function isn't THAT important in this day of online TV guides.

Sounds kind of like BeyondTV or Windows Media Center, right? Something that you should be able to buy for $70-$100 upfront and NOT pay some crazy monthly fee.

I don't see anything in TiVo that shouldn't be given to the customer with whatever upfront price these guys choose to sell for. What is Tivo giving you new every month that can justify this charge?

I'm waiting for a HD DVR that just costs me $300 - $500 and that lasts for life. No Monthly fee, no BS.

I would get an HTPC but is isn't really an option right now due to cable card issues.

 

[potato28]

I know my Dish network PVR is one time payment, and I haven't used a Tivo but I think that my PVR does the exact same thing.

 

[MrChad]

The entire TIVO interface revolves around the built-in guide software. VCR+ never had a plan but it was certainly much more cumbersome than browsing a channel guide with your remove and clicking "Record".

If you want a basic HD DVR that doesn't cost much, rent one from your cable company.

 

[SearchMaster]

Ever hear of "recurring revenue"?

Obviously it doesn't cost $13 per subscriber for Tivo to keep the subscribers' guides updated monthly. However, if you like your Tivo and want to keep them in business (iffy at this point), pay the fee 🙂.

 

[uli2000]

Are you still able to use a tivo w/o the service by manually setting channel and record start/stop times? Didnt they used to allow that if you didnt buy the service?

 

[uli2000]

Originally posted by: potato28
I know my Dish network PVR is one time payment, and I haven't used a Tivo but I think that my PVR does the exact same thing.

Actually, Dish Network charges a $6/month service fee. It most likely just bundled with your plan (DVR advantage) so you dont really see you are paying it. But, its more than worth it for me.

 

[Schadenfroh]

It pays for firmware updates (new features, not just bug fixes), guide listing updates, support, etc. IIRC, you do not have to pay the monthly fee for the TiVo, but you lose basically everything but the pause live TV and manual channel number / time recording (but that is a big if I recall correctly statement and may not be true).

 

[Slick5150]

I've always wondered how they can justify that monthly fee. The ongoing costs to them are minimal (pushing program guides doesn't cost much of anything). Hell, Slingbox's operation costs would have to be a lot higher I'd think, and they don't have any monthly charge.

I'd think they'd sell a lot more units if they'd get rid of the monthly fees.

 

[Modelworks]

I think part of it is tivo selling some units below cost.
I was able to get a tivo series2 for 60.00 with 13.00/monthly for 1 year.
I know hardware can be cheap, but I seriously doubt they can profit at selling the unit for 60.00.

The same goes for the Tivo HD units.
I suspect tivo is just breaking even on the 300.00 retail cost and hoping to make up for it with the monthly fees.


I'll keep my tivo , I like it because it just works. Its compact, quiet and I can also stream movies to it from my pc.
while HTPC can do this also, I never had one set up that worked as well or as convenient as the tivo.

 

[dclive]

I bought an XBOX360 (hooked into a media center box) to get around all this. True, high initial outlay ($350 plus $100 wireless g usb gizmo, and I bought another controller at $40 and a Halo 3 game at $55; figure $450 required outlay) but from now on, no additional fees - and it plays XBOX360 games free too! 🙂

Then of course I had to buy the HD DVD player ($180 with 8 titles), so it wasn't cheap anymore. Nonetheless, it's not a bad deal. My MCE does HD recording (with a HDHomerun network device) so I stream that via wireless G. It skips a little bit from time to time, but overall it's great when viewing to a 720p Panasonic plasma.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I've always wondered how they can justify that monthly fee. The ongoing costs to them are minimal (pushing program guides doesn't cost much of anything). Hell, Slingbox's operation costs would have to be a lot higher I'd think, and they don't have any monthly charge.

I'd think they'd sell a lot more units if they'd get rid of the monthly fees.

ReplayTV (Tivo too ?) tried that w/ some of their first models. The DVR were selling for $600+ w/ no monthly fees. They sold more units when they lowered the price and introduced the monthly fees.