$160 for lifetime service for a device that only connects to another one. Good for them I am already committed to upgrading to a Roamio and replacing my setup with 3 of these or I might have balked. That is far too much when I have already paid for 4 lifetimes (3 TivoHDs, 1 Premiere). Really a nasty scam.
No much to do about it, but I am venting here anyway!
It's only $149. If you count the cost of the Mini and lifetime as a whole it's not that bad. The only reason TiVo split it out like this is because they're a service company and it makes it look better on their books.
I didn't look at is as $100 for hardware and $150 for lifetime service. I looked at it as a $250 box that saved me from having to buy a second TiVo, and from having to pay Comcast for a second outlet all while letting me watch the same pool of shows in another room while managing only one set of "season passes" and "now playings."
Personally I think this is the best TiVo deal since I paid $200 for lifetime for my Series 1 14 years ago, which just got transferred over to my Roamio Plus.
Several weeks ago, after having some issues with some shows on Netflix with my S3, I purchased a Roku3 for $100 which is indeed really cool, but quite frankly, the Mini is worth a whole lot more than 2 1/2 times the value of the Roku. The Roku will still fill some holes that TiVo doesn't, but no it's where as valuable to me as it was a week ago.
Got to be honest it hurt today when I activated my new Roamio w/ Lifetime and 3 Mini's with lifetime.....
However, I think they are worth every penny. I'm already in love with extending Tivo to rooms where I wouldn't normally put a full tivo box like my office. Also, since my last Tivo purchase was back when the Premieres were fairly new I am loving the moca support out of the box, that is working really really well. Very happy to retire my wifi adapters.
I think a Rolls Royce is too expensive for just a car, what a scam, but I fixed their wagon, I did not fall for that pricing scam and purchased a much less expensive car and they lost my business.
Hmmm... I thought when I looked it said the MSRP was $199 and it was marked down to $179.
In any case that's still only a $70 difference, which I would consider "in the same ball park". TiVo is cheaper up front and if you pay the monthly fee it would take over a year to reach the price of the Echo. Lower cost of entry is important to some people. In fact that's where TiVo really shines. If you compare an HTPC setup to a TiVo setup with lifetime the prices are about the same. But if you pay TiVo monthly it's significantly cheaper then an HTPC setup and it'll take 2-3 years before you hit the HTPC price point. For people with limited funds or who are unsure about owning a DVR that lower cost of entry is compelling.
A Tivo Mini is not a Rolls, get a little real on this.
The $159 price includes the tax, so that is the price. I didn't see an option to leave that part off.
It is still absurd to buy a remote device that must connect through an existing Tivo and have to pay almost twice the price to get it to work. I know lifetime is a value if I expect to keep it, but that doesn't make the extra cost any more enjoyable.
List price on the Tivo Mini at Amazon is $99.99, so $150 more is still 1.5 times the price of the unit for permanent service.
Comparing this to the price of a stand-alone device is not a valid comparison. I will be paying $399 soon for lifetime on a Roamio (or more if the other posts are right) which should cover their cut. The $149.99 cost is noted in the product info, but it is still a bit outrageous. Another "because we can" fee.
Why would TiVo sell a Mini, at a one time charge, that in many situations would replace a Roamio that has both a one time charge plus a monthly service charge (or lifetime), and give up the revenue stream? Dumb idea.
If people don't like the Mini pricing model, don't buy it. Simple solution that will get Tivos attention.
The ability to get HD live TV in a location that cannot accommodate a full sized box is worth the price for me. The additional bonus of accessing recorded content is the frosting on the cake.
I did just that. Got a used TivoHD box with lifetime for about the same price as a mini with lifetime. Now the guests have their own two tuners, and dont steal any of mine.
I did just that. Got a used TivoHD box with lifetime for about the same price as a mini with lifetime. Now the guests have their own two tuners, and dont steal any of mine.
It is discontinued, but the Moxi Mate was comparable too. It was 300 purchased by itself or 200 when you bought it with a moxi. MOCA was not builtin either.
I'm actually surprised TiVo hasn't done more bundle deals with the Mini yet. Seems like a 6 tuner Roamio + 2 Minis for a little discount would be a hot seller and something they could market to Hopper and Genie users.
I don't get the scam part of it. It's not like TiVo stops your old TiVos from working when you buy the new Minis?
Shouldn't you be able to sell your three old TiVo HDs, pay for three TiVo Minis + Lifetime, and still walk away with money in your pocket?
Before the Mini, I'd guess you paid $550 minimum to get TiVo in another room. ($399 Lifetime + the price of the TiVo HDs) Now you're getting TiVo in another room for $250. Granted, a Mini must connect to another TiVo to work, but TiVo's charging you 2.4x less for a Mini than they charge for a "regular" TiVo.
As for the TiVo they connect to, even there, the total price of a box with six tuners + Lifetime is astronomically cheaper than what you had to do to get six tuners a year ago.
The ability to get HD live TV in a location that cannot accommodate a full sized box is worth the price for me. The additional bonus of accessing recorded content is the frosting on the cake.
I don't get the scam part of it. It's not like TiVo stops your old TiVos from working when you buy the new Minis?
Shouldn't you be able to sell your three old TiVo HDs, pay for three TiVo Minis + Lifetime, and still walk away with money in your pocket?
Before the Mini, I'd guess you paid $550 minimum to get TiVo in another room. ($399 Lifetime + the price of the TiVo HDs) Now you're getting TiVo in another room for $250. Granted, a Mini must connect to another TiVo to work, but TiVo's charging you 2.4x less for a Mini than they charge for a "regular" TiVo.
As for the TiVo they connect to, even there, the total price of a box with six tuners + Lifetime is astronomically cheaper than what you had to do to get six tuners a year ago.
I doubt I will come out of this without money out of my pocket. Remember the Roamio is around $1K itself. Even accounting for selling my 3 TivoHD and 1 Premiere XL units still is likely to fall short of recouping the entire cost.
I find the "scam" part in that the lifetime cost is significantly more than the box, not true with the Roamio, plus the fact that it is almost 1/2 half the cost of the Roamio lifetime MSD cost.
I do not recall this being the case with my TivoHDs, though that was a while ago. I did get stuck paying monthly for 3 years on one too, before being able to buy lifetime. (It was not available when I bought the unit.)
I would probably have hesitated if I had known I was putting $450 more into the deal rather than just the $270 plus the cost of the Roamio. My fault, but still not pleasant.
And making the "just don't buy it" excuse someone else made does not negate the slimy feel of this.
The only thing I find slightly slimy with the Roamios/Minis is the $200 price difference between the Roamio Plus and the Roamio Pro.
The only difference between those boxes is the hard drive. Using consumer prices (amazon.com), the cost difference between those drives is about $50. I'd guess that difference is even less for TiVo. Anyhow, TiVo's taking that $50 price difference and charging $200 extra for it.
Also FWIW there are several Roamio models. For the $199 model, the cost of the $399 Lifetime is 2x the cost of the box. With the Mini, Lifetime costs 1.5x the cost of the box. IIRC, before the Roamios came out, TiVo was selling Premiers for $149, which made the Lifetime cost 2.67x more than the box! It's all relative to the cost of the box (and apparently you're buying the macdaddy box).
Either way, a slimy feeling is a slimy feeling. Hopefully in the end, you'll end up loving your new setup, and the sliminess goes away.
At this point, nobody is forcing anyone to buy anything. Everything you own still works. This is the price of technology. I'm more pissed at Apple when they encouraged me to upgrade my iPhone 3Gs to the next iOS and it started to act like a brick. When I tried to revert to the prior OS, it wouldn't let me. The only way for me to get my iPhone working was to buy a new one.
TiVo on the other hand leaves your current box alone. My Series 1 worked perfectly till the day I took it out of service last week. (And not to gloat, but what the hell, the $200 lifetime covered me for close to 14 years, and is now covering me on my new Roamio.) The Series 3, that I was running with a $6.95 msd, I lifetimed that for $100. I have no complaints with TiVo at all. My trick was simple, I didn't buy every new box that came out. I waited patiently till I saw the right boxes to purchase, and the right lifetimes to purchase. YMMV
The only thing I find slightly slimy with the Roamios/Minis is the $200 price difference between the Roamio Plus and the Roamio Pro.
The only difference between those boxes is the hard drive. Using consumer prices (amazon.com), the cost difference between those drives is about $50. I'd guess that difference is even less for TiVo. Anyhow, TiVo's taking that $50 price difference and charging $200 extra for it.
This is common practice in the tech industry. Apple charges $100 more for a 32GB iPad vs a 16GB. You can buy a 16GB SD card for $11 on Amazon, so how much do you think Apple pays for those surface mount chips? Dell does the same thing with memory upgrades charging 3-4x what the RAM costs on Amazon or Newegg.
This is common practice in the tech industry. Apple charges $100 more for a 32GB iPad vs a 16GB. You can buy a 16GB SD card for $11 on Amazon, so how much do you think Apple pays for those surface mount chips? Dell does the same thing with memory upgrades charging 3-4x what the RAM costs on Amazon or Newegg.
For some reason, I thought the Plus had a 2TB drive. So much for late night posts from me. :down:
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