Someone please explain Tivo and my options

[UDT89]

Im curious why direct TV would charge $4.99 a month for tivo. How does the tivo service involve directTV when it records to a hard drive? i'm just confused about that.

what are my other options besides tivo? Basically i want to buy the recorder but not pay monthly. Even if i have to pay a lifetime membership for something, that fine, but monthly is ridiculous.

 

[KLin]

use a video camera.

 

[theNEOone]

they charge you to rent the equipment. you don't have to pay the money, you can just buy the recorder yourself. you can either pay $200+ to buy yourself a tivo box , or pay the $4.99 to rent a tivo capable satellite receiver from direct tv. getting a dvr w/ your direct tv service is a much better option IMO because it intergrates tivo functionality into the receiver and remote control. so in addition to easy recording, timing, scheduling, etc. you don't have to worry about having a tivo box AND a satellite receiver, along w/ remote controls for each unit. it's virtually seamless. in addition, in a year when HDTV dvrs are more common you can go ahead and call direct tv and they'll just replace your regular dvr w/ an hdtv capable one for no charge, just keep paying the $4.99. consider this against having to purchase an additional unit.

btw, i have dish network w/ dvr and i love it.


=|

 

[imported_Strang]

Originally posted by: theNEOone
they charge you to rent the equipment. you don't have to pay the money, you can just buy the recorder yourself. you can either pay $200+ to buy yourself a tivo box , or pay the $4.99 to rent a tivo capable satellite receiver from direct tv. getting a dvr w/ your direct tv service is a much better option IMO because it intergrates tivo functionality into the receiver and remote control. so in addition to easy recording, timing, scheduling, etc. you don't have to worry about having a tivo box AND a satellite receiver, along w/ remote controls for each unit. it's virtually seamless. in addition, in a year when HDTV dvrs are more common you can go ahead and call direct tv and they'll just replace your regular dvr w/ an hdtv capable one for no charge, just keep paying the $4.99. consider this against having to purchase an additional unit.

btw, i have dish network w/ dvr and i love it.


=|

DirecTivo does more than that -- it has two tuners (so you can record two shows at the same time) and records directly from the satellite signal (so there's no loss of quality).

The $5 fee is for the tivo service, but it's actually discounted (it's normally $10/mo with a standard TiVo). IMO, it's totally worth that tiny fee. It's totally changed the way I watch TV.

 

[torpid]

Uhhh... if you buy a stand alone then you have to pay $13 instead of $5. You don't have to pay the tivo fee AND the extra $5. It's just $5. The tivo service is actually through directv. All of your customer/technical support and billing goes through directv. Your unit will not be upgraded with the latest software that normal tivos have, etc. So that is why you pay directv (because they are the ones providing the tivo "service").

 

[UDT89]

according to the directTV site you have to pay 99 for the receiver

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: UDT89
according to the directTV site you have to pay 99 for the receiver

then get dishnetwork. my dvr was free, all i pay is $5/mo and it can record two shows, or you can watch one and record another.


=|

 

[RossMAN]

DirecTIVO is better than regular Tivo (even Tivo series 2) because it's all digital streamed from the satelliet dish directly to the hard drive.

If you don't want to pay monthly fees (I don't blame you) here are a few options:

• 1) Buy a TIVO for $50 (after rebate) and pay $299 for lifetime activation.
• 2) Buy a TIVO with lifetime activation for around $350 from eBay.com
• 3) Buy the Toshiba SD-H400 which is a combo TIVO with DVD Player, which comes with FREE TIVO BASIC. No monthly fees and no lifetime fees either!
• 4) Build an HTPC with TV Tuner Card. If you already have a computer just buy a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 card with Beyond TV or Sage TV software for around $130. !!!NO MONTHLY FEES!!!

 

[imported_Strang]

Originally posted by: UDT89
according to the directTV site you have to pay 99 for the receiver

That's true (unless there's a deal -- sometimes they have promotions on them). All in all, it's cheaper than anything but a base TiVo with monthly service -- $300 lifetime activation + the unit would trump buying the receiver and paying $5/mo for maybe 3 years (I'm not exactly sure what the expected life of the product is, so I'm guessing).

 

[torpid]

Hard to play numbers games here, because the services you get will differ. You can get a direcTivo for $50 or an 80 gig one for $100 right now. So you save $100-$200 there. A lifetime fee would only even out after 5 years ($5x12 = 60 x 5 = 300). So you still have that lingering $100-$200. But, on the other hand, you get a lot of the new software and hardware features (e.g. home media, tivo2go when it's out, etc.). But on the other other hand, with the directTivo you can record 2 things at once, or watch one thing while recording another.

I personally would go with a directv + tivo 80 gig unit for $100. I would not under any circumstances buy a series 1 tivo unit (I have one and it has nothing going for it compared to DTV/series 2). You might consider a series 2 receiver if you think you may not continue using directv service.