TiVO, pay monthy? or Product Lifetime?

[aircooled]

The product lifetime deal is going up from 249.00 to 299.00 in March or the monthly cost of 12.95 . Should I get in on the product lifetime before the price increase?


edit: changed new price to 299 (originally I typed 399)

 

[Arkitech]

are you serious :|

personally I think it blows that they are forcing people to pay for guide data that should really only cost pennies if not free and now they're forcing the price up

I hope this does'nt happen with the replaytvs

 

[Jugernot]

errr.... yah unless you want to give them another $150 of your money in March.

 

[squirrel dog]

I would do it,the lifetime deal.Even if the company fails in 2-6 yrs you would have saved$ vs monthly.

 

[murphy55d]

According to news.com it's going to be $299, not $399.

 

[aircooled]

Originally posted by: murphy55d
According to news.com it's going to be $299, not $399.

My bad it was a typo. I'll edit the original message to say 299.

 

[HomerSapien]

Remember that it is lifetime subscription for the life of the player, not your life. You might want to find out how often people have had to replace their units or if it the subscription continues when the unit is repaired. I dont have one and that is a question that i had about it.

 

[Muadib]

I just got directivo, and I went monthy because it's just $5 if you have directv. Plus, with HDTV units on the way, I know I'm going to want to upgrade.

 

[theNEOone]

I have digital cable from Time Warner, and added monthly tivo for just $5.95. The recording integrates itself perfectly w/ the digital cable (both use the same box) and the options are great. I'm super happy with it, I would definitely recommend it.

 

[Parrotheader]

Having to pay that monthly subscription was one of the reasons (not necessarily the main one) that caused me to go to Dish when I was making the switch from cable to satellite. Dish Network threw in a 60 hour PVR for $50 and there's no monthly charge for their guide data. Granted, it might not have the level of sophistication that Tivo has with learning your viewing habits, etc, but it's more than enough for my needs.

 

[BigFatCow]

Originally posted by: HomerSapien
Remember that it is lifetime subscription for the life of the player, not your life. You might want to find out how often people have had to replace their units or if it the subscription continues when the unit is repaired. I dont have one and that is a question that i had about it.

the hds in my older tivo just went bad a little while ago so i dropped in 2 120 GB drives, theres some stuff you have to do to transfer over the data but it doesnt take that long and the life subscription is still working on the tivo, it is now a 360 hour tivo

 

[The Dancing Peacock]

everyone thinks that you're paying for the guide, it's not that. Tivo and ReplayTV both lose money on selling the boxes at the $250 price. They need that extra $250, soon to be $300 to actually make any money with their product.

That said, if I bought one, I'd probably pay for the lifetime subscription, because I'll try and find one after coupons and rebates bring the price down.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: axiom

Originally posted by: Parrotheader
Having to pay that monthly subscription was one of the reasons (not necessarily the main one) that caused me to go to Dish when I was making the switch from cable to satellite. Dish Network threw in a 60 hour PVR for $50 and there's no monthly charge for their guide data. Granted, it might not have the level of sophistication that Tivo has with learning your viewing habits, etc, but it's more than enough for my needs.

I agree. The deals that combine either Directv, Dish or Digital Cable with the PVR capabilities are usually the best. I only looked at external TiVO devices when I was interested in hacking them to export the digital recordings.

But remember this: DirecTivo boxes can only record DirecTV content. So if you get your local channels with an antenna or cable, you cannot record them on the DirecTivo box.

This is why I love the HDTV DirecTV boxes, because you can intergrate your antenna and/or cable channels into the guide. And if you add a separate Tivo or Replay box and connect it to it's own EXTERNAL dedicated DirecTV receiver, you can record all content, Sat, Cable, and Ant. AND watch another show at the same time.

IMHO, this is the best way to set up a DVR while using Sat and cable or antenna:

A main Sat box (In my case, HD-Sat) and an el-cheapo Sat box dedicated to the DVR player. Let the DVR player have exclusive control over the cheap Sat box, and split your cable/antenna into both your DVR player, and you HD Sat box.

Granted, this means you'll have to run two Sat cables to the same area, but you already should be doing that with DirecTivo boxes because they have two sat tuners in them.