I'm a FiOS customer, since 2007, and have a free DVR. I am waiting delivery of my "upgrade" DVR (also at no cost). I received via email the tracking number of that DVR upgrade today. I realize not everyone "can" or "did" get that. I cannot explain who does, and who does not. But the fact that some people can (and do) must be weighed just as heavily as the fact that some of us have reported great resale value of our existing Tivo equipment with lifetime. Or that some of us have never reported a device failure. Or that some of us have had multiple device failures.
Again, saying this for clarity: I do no, will not, and have have, said that there are not situations where IF YOU SPEND OUT OF POCKET MONEY UP FRONT you can end up with a lower pro-rated cost per month with Tivo. That certainly can, and does happen. However, what many of you are apparently unwilling to admit in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is that it is just as possible to see scenarios where Tivo IS more expensive EVEN if you spend the up front money.
I also think that people here are being extremely arrogant by diminishing the impact of having to pay that cash up front. Just because you, and I, are in a position where we find that to be acceptable and have the means, that is most certainly NOT the case for many many many people.
I'll say it again. Obviously paying up front is not terribly relevant to ANYONE here. Otherwise, there would be nobody on this site because that's what Tivo requires. I could care less if it's relevant to somebody in this thread or not. What it IS relevant to is the general public, and let me assure you, the general public is what drives the market, and what drives whether Tivo remains viable or not. If you think the fanatics on this site could financially support Tivo, you are most sadly mistaken.
The biggest reason friends of mine don't use TiVo are as follows:
Hassle factor with Cable Cards
VS cable co. DVR no Cable Card hassle
Unit stops working for any reason, must call TiVo or me
VS just call Cable co and it will get fixed at no extra cost.
Upgrades with TiVo requires selling on E-Bay, or having me sell it for them on E-Bay
VS just call the cable co and get a free upgrade.
Price is not any issue for my friends, at least in terms of TiVos cost to that of the cable co DVR, my friends (who do use TiVo) and myself use TiVo because we like the product, and the record time can be upgraded (by me again).
We all use Lifetime service and use the TiVo for 3 to 7 years, then sell them on E-Bay to fund a large part of the purchase price of newer TiVo models.
Because of the cable card hassle I don't talk up TiVo anymore to my friends as I don't want to take on any more TiVo responsible for others, I now have five of my friends using TiVo that all I want.
IMHO I don't think price is the biggest factor in TiVo not selling more units, except for some on this form nobody can figure out the cost of a cable co DVR as some are free, some have special deals, some people pay $ 7 to $9 per month for each extra cable card and A/O cost, I pay $1.15/month per card, (no A/O cost) don't know why but friends have the same cable system and pay $6.95 per card per month (after the first if no cable box) so cost is so different for everybody I don't think anybody can do a accurate costing between TiVo and a cable co DVR setup that would apply to most people.
Another factor is power usage, the TP uses about 25 watts, the Mini used about 5 watts, and some cable co DVRs use 45 or more watts, each watt cost about 10 cents per month (at 15 cents per KWH), so in my case at one time I had 7 Series 2s in my home at 45 watts each = 315 watts, now I have 3 Q4s and a Mini (still have 7 tuners) and I am using 80 watts, that a savings of about $23 to $24 per month in power for me.
YMMV