I had a series 2 Tivo from long ago (2004ish?) that I loved that died on me about a while ago. I haven’t been in a rush to replace it since I don’t watch TV. But rather than cancelling, they put my billing on hold for a few months and so I need to figure out if I’m going to get a new box or cancel.
I assume DVRs from the cable companies have made some strides, but they’re pretty crappy. I used one at a relative’s house recently - it was laggy with a mediocre menu system. So unless there are competitors that popped up recently, or TiVo became massively bloated or something, I assume they’re still the best. Is that true?
This seems to be the latest TiVo unit, is that right? For $85 that seems quite good and cheap. But it’s apparently subsidized by a contract on a $20/month service plan, so… you end up paying for that.
Is the payment plan $20 indefinitely, or just for the year the contract lasts? My current tivo subscription is $13/month - would I get to keep that or do all new purchases require the higher payments?
The only thing is - can you stick a cablecard in a TiVo and not have to deal with a cable company digital box at all? Just have channels decoded straight to the TiVo? Those boxes are a pain in the ass and being able to skip them would be quite appealing.
Do the cablecards you can get now allow you to have multiple channels recording? Do the cable companies charge for that?
I’m actually going from quite primitive (basic analog non-HD standard def, dead tivo) to not quite so primitive (digital, HD in a few months when I get a new TV, whatever the best DVR is). Any advice for what I should do to make the transition?
I have the TiVo HD XL, so it’s not the latest (I believe the Premiere model you linked is), but I can answer a couple of your questions:
I have no experience whatsoever with cable company DVR’s, but I do love my TiVo. I’m not aware of a major competitor (and I think TiVo is actually in danger of becoming genericized).
This is odd; I just checked at the web site to see what my options are (I currently am in the middle of an annual plan), and both the $19.99 option and the $12.95 option are listed as monthly subscription prices. I can’t see what the difference is (besides the obvious monetary), so that doesn’t make a lot of sense - unless the $19.99 is required for a new account and you’re allowed to switch once that initial year expires. My case was similar to yours (upgraded from TiVo Series 2), and they carried over my existing subscription price, which was $12.95/month (I switched to yearly shortly after). So your active account will probably allow you to continue your current price plan once you add the new TiVo box to your account. (Of course you should check with TiVo.)
Largely dependent on your cable provider, but yes, the TiVo can do that; it’s exactly how mine is set up (M-Card cable card that decodes for the TiVo’s dual tuners). The only downside is you will probably not be able to order “On Demand” from your cable company (you can still get subscriber channels like HBO and Showtime). With my cable company (Comcast), there was no additional charge.
When you’re shopping for your new HD television, get one that supports full 1080p, and check charts like this one at Amazon to make sure you get an appropriate size screen.
Oh, and of course, once you have an HD television, you’ll want a blu-ray player - but they’re getting more and more inexpensive. Have fun!
Tivo.com sells Tivo Premiere for $0 plus $19.95 per month for 2 years, or $199 plus $12.95 per month for 1 year. I think $12.95 per month is their standard cost anyway. If you have more than one Tivo you get a break on the second one ($8.95 per month IIRC.)
Tivo still works great, it has rarely if ever glitched or messed up for me (I have a TivoHD.) They even have a rudimentary Netflix client now, it just browses your Instant Watch queue and lets you watch stuff from that.
Also check with you cable company regarding their digital service. Mine (TimeWarner) is now using a switched digital signal which basically means that they sent the signal for a digital channel down your cable only when you tune to that channel. This allows them to carry much more bandwidth, but it requires two way communication that TiVo isn’t designed to do. You will need a tuning adapter to watch most digital channels on a TiVo if your cable provider has switched digital signal. Mine was provided and set up for free from TimeWarner, but the hardware is relatively new and not too reliable. About once a month I have to reboot it.
We had TiVo for years and loved, loved, loved it. Then we got Comcast digital cable and their DVR was cheaper than TiVo so we went with it – huge mistake. The Comcast DVR was slow, clunky, hard to search with, and in general inferior to Tivo in every way.
About two years ago we switched again to DirectTV and their built-in DVR is much better. Not quite as good as TiVo was (it won’t record your preferences or make recommendations, for one) but it’s good enough.
We’ve got the DVR from Comcast, and so far I’m happy with it. That said, we never had a Tivo before (or any other DVR), so we’ve nothing to compare it to. I’ve heard that Tivo navigation is better, but since I never had it to begin with, I don’t know what I’m missing, I guess.
I am surprised at the size of the Comcast DVR’s harddrive - it seems fairly small. We don’t record much though, so I guess it’s a wash.
Anyway, just a data point out there for someone who’s like me and who’s never had a Tivo but wants to jump into the DVR pool.
I have AT&T U-Verse, which apparently uses Windows Media Center as the basis for the interface. I don’t know how it compares to TiVo, but it’s a thousand times nicer than the SD Explorer 8300 DVR that I had with my cable service at my last house. And if you have an Xbox 360, you can use it as a second set-top box. It is a little laggy, though, and there’s no way to add an external hard drive to get more space.
We had Tivo and LOVED it but then we got stuck with DirecTV’s proprietary DVR, it’s not bad but it’s been 2-3 years and we still lament the loss of Tivo.
You should be able to get a TiVO and lifetime subscription—after about two years or so, you are in the black. Comcast’s hard drive space is VERY limited, the drive is so small I don’t think they make that size anymore—even for laptops!
This is in Montreal so I don’t know the story elsewhere. I bought a DVR recorder whose brand is from our cable company. But I bought it elsewhere to save $50. It still cost $500, but there are no monthly fees. Now $20/month for two years is $480 so I am not behind. It holds several hundred GB. They say up to 200 hours of recording, but my experience has been about 135. I don’t know if it harder than other boxes to program, but it never seemed that hard. Now I can go online to the cable company’s web site and program it that way. That’s much easier because I have a full keyboard and screen.
What I like to do is record an entire curling tournament (which can be about 80 hours over a 9 day period) and watch one game at a time for three weeks. It takes some discipline to avoid knowing the outcome, but is much more enjoyable. Aside from that I don’t record much.
My parents use the DishNetwork version. It seems just fine; schedules things well, can record things on two channels at once*, rarely has space issues. I’ve never used a TiVO DVR, though, so I’m not absolutely sure.
Whoops- meant to add a footnote that recording multiple things at once is key, especially for families. One is a bit of a difficulty, two is enough that we (a family of four) had only occasional conflicts, and three or four would be almost hassle-free. I have no idea what the standard is.
I have a TiVo Premiere, and I love it. I’m also with Time Warner Cable, which I don’t love…they were absolutely horrible about sending a technician out to install the cable card and adapter, and their inept customer service department nearly canceled most of my service in the process. As mentioned by USCDiver, I have to reboot the entire setup every once in awhile. I had used the standard box provided by the cable company prior to this; the TiVo absolutely blows that out of the water! It’s very easy to program, it holds a lot of shows and movies, and it has several extra features that are nice – I’m very fond of the YouTube channel, and I like being able to purchase movies and TV shows on Amazon (the download speed is pretty decent, even though I don’t have an optimal setup). I also ran an extra audio connection from the TiVo to my receiver so I can listen to the digital music channels without turning on the TV. Oh, and having two tuners absolutely rocks.
I’m on my second TiVo; the other one died. I purchased the lifetime subscription when I bought my original one. They simply transferred the subscription over to the new serial number when the old one died. Does TiVo still offer the lifetime subscription plan? I only hear about people paying a monthly subscription fee.
Of course I don’t watch TV anymore on TV, so my TiVo is just a box collecting dust, so yeah, I’m not paying to use it, but I’m not using it either.
You can still transfer shows from your TiVo to your desktop PC, and even have it converted to Ipod format and stuff, right? My old series 2 could do that.
I still refuse to join the TiVo bandwagon and never will because it’s a service I really don’t need. I wish I could get a decent DVR that I program manually; the digital equivalent of a VCR. Seems impossible to get around here without paying for a service to guess what other shows you’d like based on recording habits. No thanks.