Can A TiVo Record Shows Manually Without A Subscription?
Here’s another question that I received via this site’s feedback form. I think I know the answer to the question however; I want to make sure that I don’t provide any misinformation.
I currently have a tvguide powered dvr/dvd recorder and am very happy with it. I’m planning on adding 1 to 2 more dvr’s. My question is can you use the TiVo’s manually without paying tivo a dime, because the one thing I refuse to do is to ever pay a company a monthly fee to use a piece of hardware that I own. With the tvguide powered ones you can use tvguide or manual programming. Does TiVo units offer manual programming? Thanks
October 13th, 2005 at 4:51 am |
I’m pretty sure that this post on TiVoCommunity.com answers your question:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=258106
October 13th, 2005 at 4:53 am |
More info on TiVo basic can be found here…
http://www.pvrcompare.com/tivobasic.html
October 13th, 2005 at 11:47 am |
I disagree with the links. I had a series1 and currently have a series 2 TIVO.
In the recording section there is a manual record option where you can select time, date and channel.
Without subscribing to tivo you would not get the guide but manual recording should work fine.
October 13th, 2005 at 2:36 pm |
thanks. looks like i’ll be leaning more toward another tvguide dvr/dvd recorder
October 13th, 2005 at 3:04 pm |
Standard Series2 TiVos do NOT allow manual programming. They’re doorstops without a subscription.
The Toshiba and Pioneer DVD-RW systems come with TiVo Basic. Which is, well, a very basic version of the TiVo service. You can optionally upgrade to the TiVo Plus subscription for the full feature set, and they come with a 45 day trial of TiVo Plus so you can check it out before deciding. (The Humax DVD-RW units DO NOT have TiVo Basic.)
The old Series1 TiVos work as VCR-like recorders without a subscription, and you can still get them on eBay cheap.
If you don’t like monthly payments, do what I do - make the one-time lifetime payment of $299. After two years of use that’s the same amount you’d pay monthly, and you have equity in the unit. Over the years I have owned 5 TiVos, and I own 2 now. The other 3 I’ve sold as I’ve upgraded to newer units, and they’ve all had lifetime. Since the sub goes with the unit, that ups the resale value by $300 right there.
October 13th, 2005 at 6:53 pm |
Rob,
On the Series2 there is indeed an option in the menus for time/channel recording. However, if the unit is not subscribed even that option is disabled. The thing is a complete door stop without some form of subscription. All of the recording menus become inactive and it tells you to activate the unit.
John,
If you’re going to a DVD-R/DVR unit anyway, you should look at the Toshiba or Pioneer TiVo units. The TiVo Basic is superior to the TV Guide EPG. And you’d always have the option of the free TiVo Plus trial to see if you liked it enough to pay for it.
October 13th, 2005 at 11:09 pm |
thanks, i’ll check into those 2 units
October 13th, 2005 at 11:16 pm |
4 total - Pioneer DVR-810H (80GB) and Elite DVR-57H (120GB), and the Toshiba RS-TX20 (120GB) and RS-TX60 (160GB).
Alternatively, TiVo is currently selling the Humax DRT800 (80GB) for $200 after instant savings and rebate. This unit does not have TiVo basic, but you could buy lifetime and just think of it like a $499 DVR/DVD-RW box. For that price you’d have a very full featured DVR/DVD-RW box, that also allowed transfer of video to/from a PC, music and photo playback, online scheduling, use of Home Media Engine applications, etc. Basically a lot of stuff other units don’t offer, for not a bad price.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:44 pm |
I think it is ridiculous that you can’t manually record w/o subscription. It even seems “illegal”, for lack of a better word. It would be like if you bought a jvc VCR and it would only work if you bought their tapes, or you car would only run if you bought a certain brand of gas. Why should I have to pay too use the functionality of a device I own. I understand not being able to use the other features but the basic recording function, give me a break. It still pauses and what not. Is there any way around this.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:19 pm |
It is the cell phone model. You can get cell phones cheap with a contract because they’re ’subsidy locked’ to only work on that carrier. You buy a phone from AT&T and you can’t use it with a T-Mobile account despite them both being GSM carriers. And sometimes you can buy an unlocked version of the same phone - for a few hundred more, because you’re not getting the subsidy. Same with satellite receivers, technically there is no reason one box couldn’t work with DirecTV and Dish Network, but they both lock their boxes and sell them at a loss because they count on the revenue from the subscriptions.
TiVo is the same way. They found early on that people balked at paying high prices for the hardware, so they shifted to a subsidy model whereby they sold the hardware at a loss and counted on subscriptions to cover it. And that’s how they’ve operated ever since.
Even the TiVo HD, which they like to say has no subsidy, is really subsidized. When they sell one directly from TiVo.com they just better than break even on it - and that’s not enough to sustain a company. When they sell a TiVo HD at retail they still lose money on every box sold, because they have to sell it to the retailer at wholesale prices, and those are below their cost to build the box. So why it technically isn’t a subsidy, it is the same thing.
That’s why TiVo requires a subscription. In many ways the equivalent to buying an ‘unlocked’ phone is the TiVo product lifetime plan. You’re ‘unlocking’ the TiVo to work without any further payments - in both cases you pay more up front for more flexibility. Though with the phone you’re just getting the ability to move it between carriers - you still need to buy a plan on top of the higher phone costs.
And none of the respectable TiVo sites, even the hacking sites, will discuss ways around this because it is viewed as undermining TiVo’s business, a violation of the user agreement, and some consider it theft of service (I don’t, really, since you’re *avoiding* the service not getting it for free, but in spirit I can see the point).
April 13th, 2008 at 2:46 pm |
your all wrong it works without a sub
April 13th, 2008 at 6:06 pm |
crip - That’s not very helpful, since the behavior is different with different models of TiVo. The Series1 works without a sub, the Toshiba and Pioneer units include a TiVo Basic sub, so they’re always subscribed and so work without a TiVo Plus sub. Other units are doorstops.
If you have evidence to the contrary please share the specific model and circumstances in which it works without a subscription.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:09 pm |
I have a Series 2 and the manual time/channel recording worked for a while. Now, I’m getting a message saying the functionality is suspended until I activate the service. So, it’s only good for pausing live TV at the moment.
Does anyone know if the photo/music networking feature can be activated w/o a subscription.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:25 pm |
Matt,
Sorry, without an active subscription *all* networking features are disabled - the only exception is the basic daily call home, which can still be performed over the network.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pm |
OK, I have a SONY SVR 2000(Series 1) for a very very long time. I thought it would work w/o a sub, and I didn’t even make an initial call in the US for years, ‘cos I didn’t need it that time. I don’t live in the US now, and after months of hard work, browsing the internet and trying everything, IT WILL NOT RECORD MANUALLY WITHOUT A SUB. The only way is to take the hard disk out and format the disk with a OZTIVO or NLTIVO cd. That’s what I am going to do right now. If ANYONE knows how to do that without these methods (including the weethet’s method of bypassing nagscreen) just let me know. (It is going to be late, I am off the road already, but just to feel OK, I need to learn this.)
July 8th, 2008 at 5:49 pm |
vaiari - You may have gotten (very) unlucky. A small number of SVR-2000s were shipped with 2.0 and not 1.3, and those units don’t record without a sub.