First time potential tivo user

[jhatru]

I'm thinking of getting a tivo HUMAX DRT 400 box as a March bday present with a lifetime subscription. But now i'm having second thoughts.. would it be better to wait for a dual tuner to come out in appx 6 months? With the quick advancements in technology is it worth it to buy a lifetime subscription?
any advice would be helpful!
thanks

[Stanley Rohner]

The dual tuner unit will cost you about $800-$1000 when it's initially released.

The release date is supposed to be last quarter of 2006. That probably means available December 20th, 2006.

[jhatru]

how much!? why are tivo members willing to get tivo over the services that their cable company offer. with dual tuner features?

[ZeoTiVo]

Do you use a cable box now? Do you want to record in HD ?

those are the two main things that a series 3 will do that even having two Series 2 Stand alones will not do for you.

now the series 3 is slated for second half of 2006 so 6 months from now you may still not have the ability to get one. When they are out the box itself will cost from 500 to 800$ according to latest estimates. Are two tuners worth that for hardware ? So you are back to the original question of No more cable box or HD being worth the wait and moeny of a series 3 (in my opinion)


as for lifetime vs monthly - on my first TiVo I would go lifetime since it pays back in 23 months if you do nothing (You most likely will use it that long as a backup on another TV) and you can also sell the TiVo for 300$ if it has lifetime and then your monthly fee is near 0$.

[jhatru]

thanks! good points! and i was not looking to spend that type of money anyway.

do the series 2 tivo boxes work with cable boxes?

[ZeoTiVo]

The dual tuner unit will cost you about $800-$1000 when it's initially released.

The release date is supposed to be last quarter of 2006. That probably means available December 20th, 2006.

both of these are your pessimistic estimates. While we all are guessing you should at least signify your guess is a pessimistic one and indeed TiVo has never given a "release date" and all we know is that TiVoPony said the second half of 2006. So your relase date point is complete speculation by you.

we also heard 500$ to 800$ for the cost from CES (not sure who it was) so does your 800- 1000$ inlcude a lifetime subscription or are you being pessimistic on that guesstimate as well.

so I have no problem with your speculation being in the realm of possibility but you should make note it is your guesstimate and on the pessimistic side of what TiVo has said

[Stanley Rohner]

When the HDTV/TiVo/Directv unit came out it was $1000.

The price stayed at $1000 for about a year and a half.

I doubt the TiVo Series3 will be $500 when it's initally released.

If you want HDTV, 2 tuners, and be able to record HDTV right now I'd go with the cableTV companies offerings right now.

About a year after the series3 comes out you can think about buying one once the price comes down and the bugs are worked out.

[ZeoTiVo]

thanks! good points! and i was not looking to spend that type of money anyway.

do the series 2 tivo boxes work with cable boxes?


yes they do, they are a single tuner box and use a cable (ir blaster or serial) to send commands to the cable box to change channels. when the TiVo is recording it will need the cable box to stay on the channel being recorded.

You can watch what is being recorded or anything else that has already been recorded. Most TiVo DVR users get to the point after a few weeks that they do not watch live TV much but are watching what is in their now playing list. Of course with one tuner you may watch something live if it is on as the same time as something else you record.

[ducker]

exactly why I pulled the trigger... I should be able to recoup most of the costs of having a series 2 w/lifetime by the time I want to upgrade to a series 3,vs shelling out moeny to the cable company during that same time.

In issue of only 1 tuner, I'll deal with by simply splitting the cable (most likely 3 ways, in case I want a back up record something else at the same time as the tivo is recording.)

[ZeoTiVo]

When the HDTV/TiVo/Directv unit came out it was $1000.

The price stayed at $1000 for about a year and a half.
and the series 1 with 14 hours cost like $600 when it came out, things change over time. That estimate of under 800$ came from a TiVo employee at CES. Again, I agree that your speculation is in the realm of probablility but it is your own pessimistic guesstimate that is more than what TiVo inc. itself has thrown out as a range.

and frankly anything over 500$ just for hardware vs 50$ for a 40 hour series 2 is an order of magnitude already. I think you would really want to ditch the cable box or really want HD to be paying over 500$ for the series 3.

[Stanley Rohner]

my "pessimistic guesstimate" is what aTiVo employee said in an interview I read somewhere a while ago.

FYI- Under $800 could mean $799.95.

[jhatru]

thanks all for the great information.

Two more questions:

In order to watch another tv program while tivo is recording..this will rrequire a spliter? so you will need a switch to switch back and forth from the tivo to standalone tv?

Does anyone have any recommendations on any specific tivo boxes? i'm looking at purchasing the HUMAX DRT 400. Will it be easy to upgrade in the future? Do people have problems with the unit??? (only concern is because i'm buying the lifetime subscription)

[gonzotek]

my "pessimistic guesstimate" is what aTiVo employee said in an interview I read somewhere a while ago.Which employee, what publication, how long ago? Best report I can find with price guesses is from Gear Live, where they first stated 800-1200, then added an edit to the article putting it at 400-800.
http://www.gearlive.com/index.php/news/article/ces-2006-video-tivo-series-3-video-interview-first-look-0108051437/
FYI- Under $800 could mean $799.95. Which would still put it at over $200 or 20% less than the high end of your guess.

[ZeoTiVo]

my "pessimistic guesstimate" is what aTiVo employee said in an interview I read somewhere a while ago.

FYI- Under $800 could mean $799.95.

or it could mean 600$ which is what the HD TiVo for DirectTV is retailing at currently. Anyhow you want to believe you have that 1,000$ price direct from TiVo and it is a firm definite they are going to do that then I guess others will just have to come along and poke some reality at it. :)

[MickeS]

In order to watch another tv program while tivo is recording..this will rrequire a spliter? so you will need a switch to switch back and forth from the tivo to standalone tv?

No, just change the input on the TV, like you would between a VCR and the TV.

[ZeoTiVo]

thanks all for the great information.

Two more questions:

In order to watch another tv program while tivo is recording..this will rrequire a spliter? so you will need a switch to switch back and forth from the tivo to standalone tv?
yes a splitter, for the cable. now the kicker is the cable box. You have just the one - so you can eitehr hook it up to the TiVo and record everything including premium channels but then without anotehr cable box the only thing you will get on the TV without the cable box is teh channels below 99 - the basic cable stuff.

or
you can switch and have the cable box on the TV to watch anything live but can only record channels under 99 with just the cable into the TiVo

or you get two cable boxes

or someone in another thread went out and got a TV with a cable card slot so they did not need a cable box to watch all the channels live and used their cable box for the TiVo.

Does anyone have any recommendations on any specific tivo boxes? i'm looking at purchasing the HUMAX DRT 400. Will it be easy to upgrade in the future? Do people have problems with the unit??? (only concern is because i'm buying the lifetime subscription)
no problems - just a different manufacturer of the same design from TiVo.
The hard drive is easy to upgrade in size, but that is all. No memory or CPU upgrades or anything like that - the motherboard is specific to a TiVo.
Also the hard drive ios the typical thing to fail in the TiVo and it is easy to put in a new one and you can use any off the shelf hard drive.

TiVo will work with you on transferring the sub to another box if the board or something like that goes bad in the first year.

[jhatru]

too bad i wont ever be able to throw in a dual tuner in there one day ;)

[ZeoTiVo]

too bad i wont ever be able to throw in a dual tuner in there one day ;)


yep, that is all new hardware, which would be cool as you could also put a better CPU in and crank up the performance. Then you could add etherent, Then you could add cable card to do away with the cable box even. Hmm that would be a good design ;)

[jgaermom]

If you buy a Second 40 hour tivo (I got one for $20 after rebate) it is the same as 2 tuners. I have the humax dvd 80 hour and a 40 hour in my room. Then I can record 2 shows at the same time. my first has lifetime so I only pay a $6.95 monthly fee for the setup.