When I was talking to the sales rep at TiVo yesterday and mentioned the price of the lifetime, she said it was "already discounted." "Discounted from what?" I asked. She didn't have an answer to that. Having said that, lookig at the price of the Mini holistically, I agree with other posters that the device costs $240. This basically gets me a fully functioning TiVo with HD in any room in my house. Far cheaper than yeseterday's alternatives, where I had to buy a whole new TiVo, plus lifetime ($700 total, at least), PLUS (and this is the truly galling part), an additional $9.95 each month to Comcast. So, looked at in that perspective, it's not a bad deal.
True, if you have an old setup like I do (S2, S3 and S4) then I'd have to buy a Roamio Plus and get the Mini's to replace the other TiVo's, then it is a substantial investment. However, the older TiVo's, all with lifetime service, have a residual value on Ebay of about $800, making my net investment about $900 to effectively put a HD TiVo in 4 rooms in my house, and that's about $225 per room. That is a bargain. AND, I save $31 a month by not paying Comcast a bunch of "additional outlet" fees each month, or $360 per year. And there is the added bonus of being able to move or stream shows to my iPad when I travel. All around, a good deal. The savings in Comcast fees pays for the entire TiVo setup in 26-30 months. And THAT is a really good deal.