1rudeboy wrote:So, someone please. Answer me this from first-hand knowledge once and for all. Can I use this thing as a drv without all the fancy tivo bells and whistles, guide, etc. and not have to pay the monthly fee?

Not for long. You'll have to pay for one month just to get it set up. After that runs out, they send a de-activate signal to it, and it won't record anymore, except as a 25 minute buffer for "pausing live TV". If you disconnect it from the internet, you might be able to keep it going for a few months, with no updates to the scheduler you'll have to set up recordings manually. But eventually it will bum out about not being able to contact the mothership and put itself into buffer-only mode. I found all this out when the subscription ran out on my series 3 and I couldn't afford to re-up. Been out of work for a while.

One more point and I'm done.
A little secret about these units is they have what's called a Clear QAM tuner. This basically means you can subscribe to basic cable as I do, and this will pickup hundreds of unscrambled channels such as many of the HD channels for free. The only down side to this is the TiVo service will not be able to automatically find the programming on a Clear QAM channel, but you can easily go into the settings and set your favorite "free" programs to record. A little extra work, but the savings from not subscribing to an expensive Cable package is worth the tweaking.

Something I didn't see mentioned in regards to what makes TiVo awesome - based on shows you watch, it'll record other shows that it thinks you might like. So if you're bored because "nothing's on", you can browse through the suggestions and you'll probably find something in there you'll like.

This is a fantastic deal. I'm still using the refurb I picked up here on 3/5/08 and love it. I use it with a Comcast M-card and have no problems recording 2 shows at once. If you're a Netflix user and don't already have a device that'll stream attached, it's a real no-brainer that this is what you want.

Using a TiVo will make you hate other DVRs though.

Can you put stuff from here onto the new iPhone #4?

The sole reason I wouldn't get this is because I love my On Demand service, which apparently is only available with the Time Warner DVR.

beagleboy99 wrote:It is the lifetime of the TiVo box, not the subscriber, so technically your heirs can still enjoy the service after you've gone to the great beyond-or until technology renders the box useless

Given experience with previous Tivo models - I'm not sure you'd be wise to bet on it lasting 30 months. Inside there is a consumer grade hard drive that runs 24/7 - this isn't the sort of thing that's going to last generations.

Any feedback from someone that owned this and also a Premiere? How do they compare, pros and cons?

Tivo has their own comparison here:
https://www3.tivo.com/buytivo/popups/upgrade/popup_compare-older-dvrs.html

Anyone know how the Premiere's new HD interface looks in SD? or does it adjust the menus for SD? I'm concerned they may be hard to read on an SD TV (but I need dual digital tuners, otherwise I'd stay with the Series 2).

Why do they always talk about all these "hours" in can record, I don't care about hours!!! How many damn gigabytes!

Jeus wrote:ouch no 1080p, up to 1080i only

Ouch?! TV broadcasts are NOT 1080p! In the US they are only 1080i and 720p. Yes this includes OTA and Sat/Cable/EverythingElse

1rudeboy wrote:So, someone please. Answer me this from first-hand knowledge once and for all. Can I use this thing as a drv without all the fancy tivo bells and whistles, guide, etc. and not have to pay the monthly fee?

I have had TiVo service for several years, and a TiVo box needs service or it won't work. That's why I have an older model sitting in a closet and not hooked up to another TV.

I didn't see this mentioned in the post...but I didn't read it that well. But in case it's a selling point for anyone, this does support netflix instant streaming.

dkalnz wrote:Why do they always talk about all these "hours" in can record, I don't care about hours!!! How many damn gigabytes!

See where it says "Product?" It is right there. 1 Terabyte, i.e. 1000 Gigabytes.

This is a very good price for the unit.

What bothers me is the $400 for the lifetime subscription.

Noone has mentioned that rumors of Tivo's financial demise have
swirled around for years; seems almost a decade. So far they
have survived; however, it would sure be a rough deal to pay for
lifetime guide service and then have the company fold without
supplying service a short time later.

Whuffo wrote:Given experience with previous Tivo models - I'm not sure you'd be wise to bet on it lasting 30 months. Inside there is a consumer grade hard drive that runs 24/7 - this isn't the sort of thing that's going to last generations.

Actually, these units typically are supplied with a 1TB Western
Digital WD10EVVS which is designed to run very cool at low power
for a very long time; and, in the TIVO, the drive never "shuts down" -
it runs continuously.

mvsopen wrote:Someone mentioned installing a cable card if you want to use this as a stand-alone tuner (Without a cable box). While the feds are allowing cable companies to sell/rent cable cards, I have yet to see any of them reach the market. Anyone know if Time/Warner will ever allow this? Their set-top tuners are junk, yet they charge $9 a month for them. Even if I buy the same make/model tuner box as theirs, they refuse to activate them.

To be exact, the FCC requires that cable companies supply the cable card option, as they ruled that some cable companies had been engaging in anti-competitive practices by locking tivo out a number years ago.

The cable companies were very slow to roll them out, but at this point the major cable companies have the cable card rental option available. However, depending on the company and your location, you may have to jump through a lot of hoops and make a lot of phone calls to get everything all set up. Additionally, for some companies and locations, you will also need an SDV decoder device (which plugs into one of the Tivo's usb ports) in order to get all digital channels. The decoder device is almost always offered free of charge.

With Cox cable, I had to keep calling customer service until I got someone that was knowledgable about the process. It was a drag, but worth it IMO. I much prefer the Tivo DVR experience to the options that the cable companies provide.

dkalnz wrote:Why do they always talk about all these "hours" in can record, I don't care about hours!!! How many damn gigabytes!

shows are listed in time not file size !


and while we're on the subject
Bluerays/1080p are about 4 to 5 times bigger in size compared to 720p/1080i HD
so that means a Blueray will take up that much more space, instead of 150 hours of recording time you will only get approximately 30 hours of blueray on this unit assuming you can break the security coding on the Blueray disc

720p/1080i HD's average 5 to 10 gig a movie depending on the length of time
Bluerays averages 25 gig and up depending on length of time

Too good of a deal to pass up. I've used Tivo for years, and this is a nice upgrade.

SuperTully wrote:All right, let's get serious. You can get a DVR from your Cable provider for $5 per month, so what does Tivo offer that a cable provider doesn't?

If I could get one for $5, I'd be willing to deal with the horrible UI.

But in the West coast, it's $16/mo. Sure, I get free hardware and upgrade protection through the lease, but at $16/mo, I'm paying $576 over 3 years.

With a TiVo XL at today's price, you're basically paying the same amount ($584) for a far superior product. If you are concerned about the warranty, you can buy a 3-year warranty for $40.

paxt0n wrote:Can you put stuff from here onto the new iPhone #4?

You'll need to pull the media off the TiVo first, and transcode the video before you can view it on any iPhone, regardless of generation.

I personally use kmttg, which is a java-based applet that copies, decodes, and transcodes from your TiVo, and is a all-in-one solution.

Unfortunately, the TiVo seriously throttles its network bandwidth (I'm assuming to protect its video encoding/decoding), so even if you're connected via Gig-E, you're going to get less than 10-base-T speeds, or ~15 minutes to transfer a one-hour show.

Beyond that, transcoding takes time -- depending on your system speed, it may easily take 30 minutes to transcode a 60-minute show, so the investment in time, disk space, power, and effort is somewhat significant.

Whuffo wrote:Given experience with previous Tivo models - I'm not sure you'd be wise to bet on it lasting 30 months. Inside there is a consumer grade hard drive that runs 24/7 - this isn't the sort of thing that's going to last generations.

If the drive fails it can be replaced (go to www.tivocommunity.com for instructions), or you can send the unit and $150 (last time I checked) back to TiVo and they will repair or replace it (and of course allow you to transfer the lifetime sub over to the replacement at no charge).

For what it's worth, the only thing I've seen fail on TiVos has been the hard drive (that's not to say there aren't other problems - I believe earlier models had modem problems, but who cares about that these days? - but it's by far the most commoon ailment).

Lifetime subscription if you get it: This applies to THIS box. If this box craps-out in 2 years, you will have to pay top $ on a replacement box. So, for instance, if in 2 years, this box retails for $150 (or less), they will charge you $300-$400 as a replacement box on your lifetime subscription.

With this said, is Tivo worth it? Definitely. We paid for lifetime subs on a non-HD box years ago and a HD box last year.

We have Comcast and pay $9.95/month for the 1st cable card and $2.95 for the other. I hate Comcast.

A note on Cablecards: by this point most cable companies should be supplying M-cards, which allow you to record multiple programs (assuming your box is capable - TiVo is) using only a single card. The Tivo Series 3 (their first HD box) was not M-card compatible, but all other TiVo HD-capable boxes are.

swechsler wrote:A note on Cablecards: by this point most cable companies should be supplying M-cards, which allow you to record multiple programs (assuming your box is capable - TiVo is) using only a single card. The Tivo Series 3 (their first HD box) was not M-card compatible, but all other TiVo HD-capable boxes are.

Is this a series 3 or no? I mean, I';m not gonna ask a silly question like "do i need a subscription" or "is this a DVR that TIVOs", but I'm not sure what is series 2, 3, 4 etc

Can someone confirm if this does Netflix?
I'm on the fence right now.

From Netflix site:

TiVo® HD, TiVo® HD XL, Series3™, Premiere and Premiere XL boxes now offer instant streaming from Netflix - right on your TV. This is available to Netflix members that have active TiVo® service plans for no additional Netflix fee. In addition, TiVo DVRs provide an easy way to search, record and watch your favorite shows from cable and broadcast TV, even in HD. And, TiVo delivers easy access to movies, music, and web videos.

I got sick of paying Dish fees, which included the DVR, so ditched it and just use Tivo with an antenna. Of course I have a lot less program options, but with the all the movies available, it's great. TV without Tivo is not a good experience because of SO MUCH advertising.

mvsopen wrote:BTW, I own one of these. TiVo's definition of "lifetime service" means the lifetime of the device, not your lifetime.

If it breaks (Usually a hard drive crash or corrupted file system) you either fix it (companies can be found on the web who perform 3rd party repairs), or you pay for another lifetime contract for the new unit. You can't transfer the program guide license, and TiVo is pretty much worthless without it.

Not always true. I bought a lifetime service on my original Tivo 1 when they were first released and TiVo let me transfer it to a Series 3. (It was a special they ran to try to move the Series 3 when it was introduced.)
I think they may have charged a fee for the transfer, though.....

If you have a lifetime service already, call TiVo and ask about your options for transfer. I was told on a different occasion that they might transfer it if you could prove the old unit was destroyed.

Jeus wrote:what does the service cost per month?

Its about $12/month.

DVvM wrote:Looking at the TiVo site, it looks like it's $12.95/month, $129/year, or $399 for a lifetime license. So if you plan on living more than 30 months...

Lifetime of you or of the electronics??? Very large difference.

crossoverking41 wrote:What is better Tivo, Verison DVR, or Comcast DVR?

TiVo, hands down. At least for me.

The major advantage of the TiVo software is that it's very easy to record a series. For example, you can tell it to grab all the first-run copies of a program and it'll get them wherever they're aired, and record them only once. The Verizon DVR I have with my FiOS connection won't reliably do that - it misses episodes, doesn't get episode titles often and duplicates things. For example, since I'm a Doctor Who fan, I want as many episodes as I can get. The TiVo would easily do that with a season pass, but the VZ DVR fails. Having 5 episodes of Dr. Who with nothing other than the date they aired doesn't help. Having episodes that start recording 30 minutes late doesn't help, either.

Also, this DVR has a huge amount of storage compared to the VZ DVR and it's very easily expanded if you're computer savvy. Not so for the cableco DVRs - open it up and you're in big trouble.

Convenience, ease of use, high capacity. What more can you ask for?

OK Tivo-senseis, thinking about pulling the trigger on this, but I have a couple questions I have not seen answered yet. I'm a bit of a TV Luddite in that I've just purchased my first HDTV, and up 'til now have been using a great old SD ReplayTV unit with basic cable.

1. So, explain to me why, if this has a program guide and tuner (enabled by my cable company's cable card), it can't be used in place of a cable box? That's pretty much how I use the ReplayTV now.

1a. Assuming the answer to the above is a definitive NO, how does the hookup work? A splitter from the cable jack feeding both the cable box and the Tivo, then two independent HDMI outputs (one from cable, one from Tivo) to the TV? In other words, must this eat up another HDMI input on my TV?

1b. So then why is it I'm thinking the Premier unit may be a better deal than this in the long run? Doesn't the cable company usually charge $5 to $10/month for their non-DVR boxes? So you'd recover the extra $150 or so for premier in short order and save yourself a remote control and an HDMI input.

2. Has Woot ever offered one of these with a lifetime sub included? I always struggle with this; the monthly fee is a sucker's game but the lifetime is a big chunk of change to cough up at once.

3. Does it have a dedicated 30-second skip button? (This is a huge advantage of my old ReplayTV vs. any cable DVR I've seen).

4. Seems like TWC is significantly increasing their on-demand content lately; does this with a TWC cable card enable that? What about the premier?

5. Somebody talk more about how Boxee is going to make this obsolete, or at least offer up some price competition. An alternative for me would be to negotiate a good first-year upgrade package with TWC and then look into a 3rd-party option next year.

(adding one more)

6. This requires a phone or internet connection, right? So if I have no handy phone or ethernet ports, can I do it wirelessly>

Hmmm.

As a current TiVo owner, I'm eligible for product lifetime service for $300 instead of $400 on the TiVo HD XL under their "multi-service discount." If I buy this Woot, the total price is $180+$300 = $480 for the HD XL versus $300+$200 = $500 for 1/4 the storage on the Premiere.

Does TiVo allow us to get the multi-service discount on a TiVo bought anywhere, or does it have to be bought direct from TiVo? (The $200 lifetime service price on Premiere is only for TiVos bought direct from TiVo.)

SuperTully wrote:All right, let's get serious. You can get a DVR from your Cable provider for $5 per month, so what does Tivo offer that a cable provider doesn't?

Lets see:

1) A ton more space, and it's expandable. This one will hold 140ish hours of HD video standard, and you can hook up another hard drive if that's not enough.

2) A better channel guide. They dropped the TV guide grid listing for something more useful.

3) Shows you might like. It learns what kinds of shows you like, and attempts to record other shows you may be interested in. It's not perfect, but still very cool.

4) It has a much better user interface.

I still miss my Tivo - I switched to DirecTV because my cable company's HD lineup was pretty pathetic. But if you're on cable, the Tivo really is just that much better.

dup

To change the functionality of the ->| button on the TiVo remote to a 30-second skip button, while watching a recording on the TiVo press this sequence on the remote:

Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select

Also, this is the HDXL which comes with the "Glow" remote rather than the standard remote. The remote is backlit, which is good if you like to watch your TV in a darkened room (it has a light sensor that only operates the remote backlight in low ambient light to avoid needless battery waste.) The drawback is that it eats AAA batteries four at a time much faster than a standard remote if it's used a lot in the dark.

I use Sanyo Eneloop batteries and they're good for about six to eight weeks per charge. YMMV of course, depending on how much "night" versus "day" use the remote gets.

As a Tivo investor (I don't want to talk about it) I guess I should get on the bandwagon. It seems like the new Premiere is only a slight upgrade from this and this is the one with the mega hard drive.

Don't forget the wireless adapter unless you can do it wired. It looks like you have to buy theirs on this model. They have an N adapter for about $90, or a G for 60.

If this product has functions, even limited functions, that do not involve a service subscription, we should consider it.

If it does nothing without $$ for a service subscription, it's not for us.

I have an old TIVO that has a lot of function without a service subscription.

Can I use this to record the "free" HD channels I get over cable (ClearQAM)?

Man, I love my TiVoS, yes TiVoS. I have two and couldn't watch TV with out them. Have you ever been somewhere else and try to rewind their live TV? It doesn't work unless you have a TiVo.

Spiky wrote:Aww, crap. I want 2 of these, but just can't swing it right now, even at this ridiculously good price.

*sniff*. I am so proud of you, respecting your budget. Would you run for Congress?

OK, So...

I have TWC and we only pay for Basic Cable...

I bought an HDTV on sale earlier this year and when I connected it right up to the coax, my bedroom can somehow get all of the channels, including OTA HD Channels, without paying for digital cable.

If I get the TiVo Box/service plan, should it work the same with the HD Channels/etc without having to subscribe to digital cable?

Or would that be a "trial and error" thing...and maybe I could do the 30-day MBG with TiVo to try it out?

Thoughts?