Comments on: Should I Do It?

By: pedro

pedro — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:30:58 +0000

Alan, I would do the math to see how you would come out ahead with the lifetime subscription and $799 TiVo. Make a rough estimate as to how long you’ll own the TiVo, then figure out if the TiVo without lifetime transferring at, say $500 is a better deal than with the TiVo at $1000 with lifetime. Its not perfect, but whether you can justify the expense now

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:38:29 +0000

But I can only transfer my Lifetime Subscription if I buy from Tivo.com. Does anyone have suggestions of how to avoid paying $799. + $199. for this? Perhaps Tivo will have a sale for existing owners…..

By: pedro

pedro — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:57:27 +0000

I would say to at least wait until the online retailers start selling it at close to cost. Cost is apparently about $500 for these. I would say at $549-599 it is a significantly more compelling deal and making the “Tivo-Tax/Early Adopter tax” a bit more palatable.

By: michael

michael — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:48:35 +0000

Do it!

By: Jorge

Jorge — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:54:11 +0000

My reasons for waiting:

1. Too expensive right now.
2. Let others deal with beating the cable companies into submission.

Other people have mentioned the lack of support for MRV and TivoToGo but since I’d be switching from a DirecTiVo, I don’t know what I’m missing!

By: Robert Aitchison

Robert Aitchison — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:50:11 +0000

IMO you should wait.

For one thing the price is almost guaranteed to come down significantly in the next year or so.

For another it’s entirely possible that the hardware will be updated in the same time frame (remember how long the original 140xxx Series2 units were out before they came out with the 240xxx units with upgraded hardware)

If you wait you might be able to get one that doesn’t have many of it’s major features crippled, at the very least there may be hacks that restore (or replace) the missing functionality.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:23:58 +0000

If you’re the owner of tivoblog.com I think you sort of HAVE TO. Haha, jk.

Good point. That’s probably why I feel kind of guilty :).

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:17:18 +0000

Hey Doug! It was good advice wasn’t it?

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:53:21 +0000

Yes. I paid the 1k for DirecTV HD DVR so many moons ago because you convinced me that TiVo was better than my Myth box!!

By: Rafael

Rafael — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:19:27 +0000

If you’re the owner of tivoblog.com I think you sort of HAVE TO. Haha, jk.

By: Geoffrey Sperl

Geoffrey Sperl — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 03:06:36 +0000

My opinion is: Not yet.

I, personally, have two issues with getting one now: 1) MRV and TiVoToGo aren’t working yet because TiVo has to come to a deal with Cable Labs; 2) It’s possible that the current Series3 won’t work with CableCard 2.0 once that spec is finished. If that’s the case, and you want to be able to use things that need two way communication, like video on demand, it’s possible this $800 box may not be able to handle that.

Once the home networking is good and there is blessed CableCard 2.0 capability, then I will be all over the Series3.