Tivo lifetime subscription going away next week

I think they're making a horrible mistake - besides, a lot of cable companies are offering PVR units now, and in the case of my cable co, they don't charge any extra (except for the price of buying the receiver in the first place). It doesn't have anywhere as nice a UI as Tivo, but it also has dual tuners and HD.

I would never buy a Tivo unless I could get the lifetime plan. They're really shooting themselves in the foot with this. Granted, it may make them some extra $$$ in the short term as owners rush to upgrade before the cutoff, but afterwards, Tivo is dead.

Dave

 

I actually have two Tivo units. I got my first in 2000 and the lifetime cost was something like $159. I would NEVER buy one with this new price structure.

 

I don't know. Last time I bought a TiVo, a series 1 box was $200 something, and then lifetime was another $200. Lifetime is non-transferable, and the unit lasted about two years before the modem fried. (It is still working fine with an external modem, though)

Now, no matter how you slice it, to many people $400 up front is out of reach. $200 + $15/mo (or whatever it was monthly) is still out of reach. But $0 + $20/mo? Assuming it isn't something silly like 'new accounts only' and you can do it again once the year commitment is up (so if your TiVo dies or there's some New Big Thing in TiVoland, you can upgrade cheaply...), it doesn't really sound that bad. You end up paying $240 for the first year (less if you prepay), and then you can call and drop down to a service-only plan which looks to be $13/mo. (You'd probably get another 1 year commitment, though. Now that seems stupid to me, and did when they added the commitment requirement.)

Comparing to current prices, paying monthly, $226 ($70 AR + $13/mo * 12 months) for the old plan or $240 ($20/mo * 12) for the new plan. So it's a price increase but it doesn't seem like that much of a price increase. Hell, I'd pay $14 to avoid dealing with those damned mail in rebates!

Now, does it suck compared with the lifetime plan? Well, you'd pay $370 for a new box and lifetime currently. If you prepay under the new plans, that'd get you two years. So yeah, I guess it does suck if you're uninterested in upgrading. But I'm surprised lifetime lasted at that price for as long as it did. And in 2 years, I expect they'll finally get the series 3 HDTV Cablecard TiVo out the door :-D (How much you wanna bet that one won't be free with a service commitment?)

 

Yikes! I have 3 Series 2 TiVo's. Two are on the lifetime. The last one I bought I'm paying $6.95 a month because of the discount for multiple TiVo's. I did this only because I wanted to ditch it easily when the Series 3 comes out. Now I might have to spring for the lifetime.

I actually wouldn't mind paying $16.95 a month for 3 years for a Series 3 TiVo, but not for the current generation. I'm so glad you posted this. I take delivery on my Prius today so I haven't been on top of my Tivo News.

 

Dang. That means ReplayTV will have to follow suit, as they've had to through all TiVo's crazy pricing structures. My new Prius has kept me off my ReplayTV news as well. I haven't tried TiVo, but do hear they edge out Replay in ease of use. But Replay's features are so hot, they had to take them out of their current model. Automatic commercial skip and people fighting to send you shows you missed. And they still let you set up your home network free where you can stream or move shows to any unit or PC. Althought, they don't even do high-def.

 

Replay TVs are no longer being manufactured. They sold out all of their inventory by end of last year.

That's probably why TiVo has finally decided to revamp their pricing. They no longer have any competition.

Personally, I thought Replay TV was better than TiVO.

 

I really have been out of it. Hard to recommend a product you can only get on eBay, but....

 

I could not imagine having anything but a Tivo. I use DirecTv with 4 Tivo units in the house. They don't charge for the Tivo service as long as you pay for their premier service. All in all it is expensive, but the best entertainment toy in the house. Tivo HD is my dreams answered. I've had Tivo for over 5 years and record every show we watch. A 30 minute show can be watched in 20 and and hour show in about 40 minutes.

Technology is grand

 

I got the DVR recorder from my cable company, the wife is over joyed she can watch her soaps (gag) & I can wander around aimlessly and cplay on the computer when not at work