Tivo Series3 $649

[quikah]

I have had a series 1 with a lifetime sub for about 5 years now. This is a nice upgrade for me, but really not a hot deal without transferring a lifetime sub. These are going to drop in price next year most likely. I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with a less featured box at a much lower price (THX certification is not exactly useful). I pretty much gave up on HD after struggling with the MyHD MDP-120 for 2 yrs, it is way too sensitive to signal strength, forced me to adjust the antenna (indoor Terk TV4) for each station, not very useful for recording. The TiVo seems to be fine with the antenna in one position for all channels.

 

[jjmIII]

Time Warner Digital Cable w/ HD DVR for the win !!

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: GTFan
But don't they want $200 to transfer that 'lifetime' sub after you sink all this cash into an S3? Lifetime must mean that they'll keep sucking the life out of you every time you upgrade.

If you buy an S3 now, you're wasting money as an early adopter - it will be half this price (or less) by end of next year. Tivo software should be available on cableco DVR's, and you should be able to get Cablecard Vista PC's for full HD recording. Competition is good.

Well if you really want to threadcrap in the guise of debate, I'll humor you.

$200 lifetime is hardly a rip off compared to cable companies that want $20-$40/month for the rest of your life. I'll let you do the math on that.

"Should be available" is based on what? Wishful thinking? Tivo software is at most available on one cable company's hardware, and not now, and only theoretically in the future, who knows how long HD tivo will take.

Vista cablecards... yeah, there's no early adopter fee there. First there's the several hundred for vista itself, followed by money you dish out for tuners that don't yet exist with cablecard support built in. Then you have to hope that the software isn't half bad, which it is more than half bad for HTPCs now compared to tivo.

Tivo may be half price, it's only speculation. Regardless, historically, every time tivo drops the prices, there are conditions for purchasing it at that price, like no MSD and certainly no lifetime transfer. If you are lucky, you could get it at a retailer for half price, although usually it takes much longer than a year for the retailers to sell at half price.

 

[phenderson]

Originally posted by: torpid

Originally posted by: GTFan
But don't they want $200 to transfer that 'lifetime' sub after you sink all this cash into an S3? Lifetime must mean that they'll keep sucking the life out of you every time you upgrade.

If you buy an S3 now, you're wasting money as an early adopter - it will be half this price (or less) by end of next year. Tivo software should be available on cableco DVR's, and you should be able to get Cablecard Vista PC's for full HD recording. Competition is good.

Well if you really want to threadcrap in the guise of debate, I'll humor you.

$200 lifetime is hardly a rip off compared to cable companies that want $20-$40/month for the rest of your life. I'll let you do the math on that.

"Should be available" is based on what? Wishful thinking? Tivo software is at most available on one cable company's hardware, and not now, and only theoretically in the future, who knows how long HD tivo will take.

Vista cablecards... yeah, there's no early adopter fee there. First there's the several hundred for vista itself, followed by money you dish out for tuners that don't yet exist with cablecard support built in. Then you have to hope that the software isn't half bad, which it is more than half bad for HTPCs now compared to tivo.

Tivo may be half price, it's only speculation. Regardless, historically, every time tivo drops the prices, there are conditions for purchasing it at that price, like no MSD and certainly no lifetime transfer. If you are lucky, you could get it at a retailer for half price, although usually it takes much longer than a year for the retailers to sell at half price.

What cable company charges $20-40.00 a month?
My Cable Company charges me $12.95 for a Dual Tuner HD recorder. I coulc probably pick one up off of ebay, for another $200.00, easily.

I am really waiting for the new units that are supposed to allow room to room content from a centralized console....

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: Gart
For me, any new TiVo deal is Not Hot.

The other thing to consider is the monthly fees and contract requirements for TiVo now.

Right around Thanksgiving, they completely jacked up their pricing structure.

It's 19.95/month with a 1 year agreement
14.95/mo for 2 yrs
12.95/mo for 3 yrs.

Used to be 12.95/mo for the first unit, 6.95/mo for any more TiVos. For the time being, their honoring the prices for existing customers, but any new Activations are going to the Higher pricing.

From the Terms and Conditions on tivo.com
An early termination fee of the lesser of $200.00 or the amount owed on the remaining term of your monthly TiVo Package commitment will be charged to you if your monthly TiVo Package is cancelled prior to the end of your commitment, except as permitted under TiVo's 30 day Money Back Guarantee.

The prices you listed above that include service commitments include an S3 (it's a rent-to-own plan and works that same as a cellphone deal). The $12.95 and $6.95 still apply if you pay upfront for the box instead of the rent-to-own plans you listed. In fact the $19.95 a month price you listed will net you an S3 box for $239 dollars and at the end of the 1 year commitment you own the box and revert to the $12.95 or $6.95 monthly price depending on what you qualify for. Don't be dumb, verify your information with TIVO before you go believing baseless and WRONG rumors.

 

[erector16]

Originally posted by: rahvin

Originally posted by: Gart
For me, any new TiVo deal is Not Hot.

The other thing to consider is the monthly fees and contract requirements for TiVo now.

Right around Thanksgiving, they completely jacked up their pricing structure.

It's 19.95/month with a 1 year agreement
14.95/mo for 2 yrs
12.95/mo for 3 yrs.

Used to be 12.95/mo for the first unit, 6.95/mo for any more TiVos. For the time being, their honoring the prices for existing customers, but any new Activations are going to the Higher pricing.

From the Terms and Conditions on tivo.com
An early termination fee of the lesser of $200.00 or the amount owed on the remaining term of your monthly TiVo Package commitment will be charged to you if your monthly TiVo Package is cancelled prior to the end of your commitment, except as permitted under TiVo's 30 day Money Back Guarantee.

The prices you listed above that include service commitments include an S3 (it's a rent-to-own plan and works that same as a cellphone deal). The $12.95 and $6.95 still apply if you pay upfront for the box instead of the rent-to-own plans you listed. In fact the $19.95 a month price you listed will net you an S3 box for $239 dollars and at the end of the 1 year commitment you own the box and revert to the $12.95 or $6.95 monthly price depending on what you qualify for. Don't be dumb, verify your information with TIVO before you go believing baseless and WRONG rumors.

Where did you see that?? I don't see any information about rent-to-own on the TiVo website when it shows the rate plans. It showed me the full $799 box fee plus service charges. If I could get this thing for $239 with a service commitment, I'd be all over that...

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: rahvin

Originally posted by: Gart
For me, any new TiVo deal is Not Hot.

The other thing to consider is the monthly fees and contract requirements for TiVo now.

Right around Thanksgiving, they completely jacked up their pricing structure.

It's 19.95/month with a 1 year agreement
14.95/mo for 2 yrs
12.95/mo for 3 yrs.

Used to be 12.95/mo for the first unit, 6.95/mo for any more TiVos. For the time being, their honoring the prices for existing customers, but any new Activations are going to the Higher pricing.

From the Terms and Conditions on tivo.com
An early termination fee of the lesser of $200.00 or the amount owed on the remaining term of your monthly TiVo Package commitment will be charged to you if your monthly TiVo Package is cancelled prior to the end of your commitment, except as permitted under TiVo's 30 day Money Back Guarantee.

The prices you listed above that include service commitments include an S3 (it's a rent-to-own plan and works that same as a cellphone deal). The $12.95 and $6.95 still apply if you pay upfront for the box instead of the rent-to-own plans you listed. In fact the $19.95 a month price you listed will net you an S3 box for $239 dollars and at the end of the 1 year commitment you own the box and revert to the $12.95 or $6.95 monthly price depending on what you qualify for. Don't be dumb, verify your information with TIVO before you go believing baseless and WRONG rumors.

That's not how I read it at the TiVo site or in many discussions at tiVocommunity.com. If you buy the box say from Best Buy, and go to activate the service at TiVo you can choose a or b as described below and I don't know of any other options and I certainly don't know of an option that will get you a series 3 for $239. There are some wrong rumors being spread, but I don't think Gart is the one spreading them.

"(a) pay for your TiVo service on a monthly basis for three (3) years at $12.95 per month; two (2) years at $14.95 per month; or one (1) year at $19.95 per month; or
(b) prepay for your TiVo service.
If you choose to prepay for your TiVo service, you may prepay for your TiVo service for either one (1) year at $199, two (2) years at $299, or three (3) years at $349."

 

[erector16]

I just found some very old articles (march time frame) that mentioned a rent-to-own type plan for the S3 boxes with the prices in the ballpark of what rahvin listed, but it looks like TiVo never implemented them. That would've been nice... oh well.

 

[drwtsn32]

Too bad you can't watch On Demand stuff with the S3. That pretty much kills it for me. Plus I have heard some horror stories when S3 owners tried to get their cable company to install two cable cards.

I'll stick with the Moxi for now, despite its lame interface and abysmal hard drive storage capacity.

 

[rahvin]

Ok, the deal is altered slightly from what was announced. The worst part is if you pick the 1 year commitment, after your commitment is up you will stay at the $19.99 tier for the life of the box reading their agreement.

The term commitment is to cost recover the boxes of which the hardware costs were estimated (based on the hardware in the box at the time of announcement) at around a $1500 if I remember right. Even with the cost of the box and the term commitment TIVO is still losing money.

I still think the TIVO is the best option if you want to pay cable's outrageous charges, but I doubt I could ever justify an S3 without transferring my lifetime subscription. And that ain't gonna happen on this box.

 

[quikah]

Rahvin, what are you talking about? Give a link to this rent to own plan. I go to www.tivo.com, pick whatever plan, the series 3 box is $799 no matter what I choose.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: phenderson
What cable company charges $20-40.00 a month?
My Cable Company charges me $12.95 for a Dual Tuner HD recorder. I coulc probably pick one up off of ebay, for another $200.00, easily.

I am really waiting for the new units that are supposed to allow room to room content from a centralized console....

Charter here charges $20/month for an SD DVR and there's a 6 month wait list for it too. And it is not very good.