when did you get your first tivo unit? [Text View]

joker81

12-07-2006, 01:44 AM

Nov 11, 2002

I purchased life time about 3 months later. :cool:
3*12.95 + 249.99 = 288.84

If not life subbed = (4*12 + 1) *12.95 = 634.55

Total Saved = $345

2nd Tivo bought in Jun 5, 2003
9 *12.95 + 299 = 415.55

If not life subbed = (2*12) *12.95+(12 + 7)*6.95 = 442.85

Total Saved = $27

3rd "broken" Tivo Bought off ebay. $80

Total Paid = $80

If not life subbed = Wouldn't have purchased lifetime but it was worth $299

Total Saved = $80 - Free Hidden Life Sub($299) = $219

btwyx

12-07-2006, 02:06 AM

I got my first DirecTiVo 20th(ish) December 2002.

I got my first TiVo TiVo (and S3) on the 16th of September this year, when TiVo couldn't ship me one on time.

Dan203

12-07-2006, 03:53 AM

March of 2000. Right after the prices on the 30 hour Series 1 units dropped to $399. I had two more within the year.

Since then I've personally owned a total of 8 TiVos (3 S1s, 4 S2s & a S3) and bought a half dozen or so more for family members.

Dan

Billy66

12-07-2006, 05:26 AM

I remember Dan's first day here on the forum.

Middle of Novemebr 1999 14 hour TiVo $599 from Sears.

OLdDog

12-07-2006, 08:00 AM

I remember Dan's first day here on the forum.

Middle of Novemebr 1999 14 hour TiVo $599 from Sears.Wow, someone else that actually got one from sears.

I bought the first one that the local Sears would sell. They REFUSED to sell the first one they received as that was supposed to be a demo. I don't remember the exact date but I think it came with software Ver. 1.1 and I remember every upgrade and fix since.

Remember when there was no season pass manager??

Billy66

12-07-2006, 08:04 AM

Old Dog, that was before Nov99 as I had 1.21 initially. The post 2.0 people will never know how big of a step that was.

mrpope

12-07-2006, 08:13 AM

i got my first unit june 2000. i payed $9.60 for it. i was working at a bestbuy. the satalite section had just moved into my tv area. the mangager had put a bunch of demo units on open box discount. i argued with him that 9.60 for a tivo was absurd. he held his ground stating that no one would buy it without the cords, remote, manual. So I did. went to the other department found all the missing items.
off topic, but that reminds me of sept 11. i was watching recored movies on my day off. didn't know about the towers until a roomate came in crying.

davezatz

12-07-2006, 08:17 AM

I got my first unit, a used Series1 Philips, either off ebay or a DC forum/message board in 2001 I think. I met the woman in a parking lot at a neighborhood pool for the exchange. I remember she worked for the Bureau of Prisons, so we compared notes on law enforcement and government. She was pretty cool and seemed like someone I could be friends with, though we didn't maintain a connection.

Shortly after getting the TiVo I fried it while trying to put a bigger hard drive in. I called TiVo to cancel (you void the warranty if you open it) and they wondered why I had only been a customer for such a short period... so I told them the truth. They said no prob and shipped me a free replacement unit!

rlcarr

12-07-2006, 09:25 AM

First unit was a refurb 60hr purchased on 13 Jan 2003.

TydalForce

12-07-2006, 09:25 AM

Wow everyone's been on board for so long... I got my first unit, a refurbished Humax DRT-800, early this year. Fell in love with it, and decided to Lifetime it the following month when TiVo announced they were dropping Lifetime.

Just got a Series3 on Friday, and transferred Lifetime. This stuff's so much fun (c:

cab2

12-07-2006, 09:28 AM

I remember Dan's first day here on the forum.

Middle of Novemebr 1999 14 hour TiVo $599 from Sears.

Yup, another sears customer here. Don't remember the exact date, but it was prob. within a few weeks of when they first came out. I still have that 14 hour box somewhere! Should dig it out and drink a toast to it. We've come along way from my 14 hour S1 to my S3. (and only 4 or 5 units inbetween for me. Only have 2 tv's. Ugh. Do I need a 12 step program?) :)

Deacon West

12-07-2006, 09:33 AM

January 8, 2002 activation after getting it as a Christmas gift two weeks earlier. I can't believe I waited two weeks to activate, but at least when I did I got lifetime service for $249. September 16 on the S3 with lifetime transferred to it.

jlb

12-07-2006, 09:42 AM

End of 2001......the AT&T Series 2. Went monthly to pass the WAF. Have been monthly since......

philinny

12-07-2006, 11:03 AM

October 2000 -- I won an S1 in the essay contest TiVo had early on.

(Anybody remember that? In 250 Words or less: why you should get a TiVo. Mine was a dialog with my dog, crossed with some Matrix-like scene descriptions. Hey, I'm in Hollywood :rolleyes: I'll paste it here if anyone's interested. I'm still pretty proud of it.)

My wife didn't get it at first, insisted on monthly subscription ($9.95) and within three months we changed to Lifetime and she was sold -- to this day. She evangelizes more than I do to our friends.

Even bougt 100 shares of TiVo stock. Didn't do so well on that.

Switched to DirecTivo for dual tuners a couple of years later. Sold the Lifetime S1 on eBay (dang!).

Now getting an S3 in the next few weeks.

Faithful to TiVo ... never ever ever looked at another DVR. Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?

Phil

classicsat

12-07-2006, 11:19 AM

March/April 2004, Series 1 Philips, no drive.

At the same time, I bought two 80 GB Samsung drives (got a discount for buying two at once), one for the TiVo, one for my PC (to upgrade it from a 3.2 GB drive).

ah30k

12-07-2006, 11:39 AM

Dec 2001, thought my wife would give me grief about another tech-toy. She is hooked more than me now. Monthly for a few months then went lifetime.

ButchKy

12-07-2006, 11:40 AM

I bought my first Series2 60 hour Tivo in September 2002, the first of four. Probably the best electronic item i've ever purchased.

tsings31

12-07-2006, 11:44 AM

I purchased my S2 on December 13th, 2003. Just this past September, I purchased an S3. :)

Dan203

12-07-2006, 01:00 PM

October 2000 -- I won an S1 in the essay contest TiVo had early on.

(Anybody remember that? In 250 Words or less: why you should get a TiVo. Mine was a dialog with my dog, crossed with some Matrix-like scene descriptions. Hey, I'm in Hollywood :rolleyes: I'll paste it here if anyone's interested. I'm still pretty proud of it.)

I won a TiVo in that contest as well! Mine was a goffy poem I threw together. It was humorous, but I think the only reason why I won was because they had a computer glitch and they sent out winning notices to a couple hundred people on the first day instead of just the 10 they were supose to. Being the company they are they decided to honor them all and give out the TiVos anyway.

Dan

gezzuzz

12-07-2006, 04:06 PM

my dad thought is was the dumb idea in the world when i got mine.. after i sold it (to force him to get his own he bought a new one with in a week... he now owns 3.. my mom even used it everyday

Cabinwood

12-07-2006, 07:17 PM

I got my first Tivo in March 2000.

jdbastin

12-07-2006, 07:29 PM

davezatz

12-07-2006, 07:37 PM

There was a web site called Mercata that would lower the price of the item depending on the number of people that purchased together. Kind of like a bulk discount so I got my Philips 30 hour for $350 in October of 2000.

Wow, I remember that site. I think one of the Microsoft guys was an investor or founder? Another dot-bomb...

Sy-

12-07-2006, 07:41 PM

October 10, 1999. I remember that I had to tell the Sears salesman what it was as they had no idea!

pokegol

12-07-2006, 07:43 PM

I got my first TiVo in September, 2002. It was a Philips Series 1 and I found it in a thrift store. I had heard something about TiVo being able to record television, but other than that, I had no idea what it was. It looked cool though and I figured it had a hard drive in it and it was probably worth the $40 they were asking for it just for the parts alone. So I took it home and the addiction began.

jjb415

12-07-2006, 07:44 PM

Got my first tivo last month. Tried to get the Directv model about 5 years ago, but, they wouldn't give it to me because of the inability to install with the dual line from the dish to my condo unit. Now, after spending 2 days trying to get my Tivo Desktop to work (with success), I'm not sure about how satisfied I will be in the long run. With a lot of assistance from this forum, I just may end up happy. :)

robomeister

12-07-2006, 08:26 PM

megazone

12-07-2006, 11:06 PM

February, 2002 - the week the S2's went on sale on TiVo.com

redtape

12-08-2006, 08:49 AM

October 7, 2003, activated with lifetime immediately and never looked back.

MaryT

12-08-2006, 12:36 PM

May 2000

Doit2it

12-08-2006, 02:52 PM

Got a ST 40hr last Christmas (2005). Upgraded to DT 80hr in October.

Bierboy

12-08-2006, 02:55 PM

June 2004

aadam101

12-08-2006, 10:25 PM

I got mine in August 2000. I rememeber the 1.3 software. It sure has come a lone way.

cyoung06

12-09-2006, 12:15 AM

Just got my TiVo I'm so happy!

jkovach

12-09-2006, 02:53 AM

1st: Nov 16, 1999 bought at CompUSA
2nd: May 5, 2000
3rd: Apr 29, 2004 (Pioneer DVD burner Tivo)
4th: May 6, 2005 (Free w/purchase of Lifetime)

All units with lifetime, and all still working.

I feel like an old-timer after reading the responses here. Plus my Forum account is the oldest one to have replied so far!

Now I'm just waiting until some other expenses are cared for before getting my S3. Donations accepted! ;)

jkovach

12-09-2006, 02:59 AM

Got my first Pioneer DVR-810H-S from CostCo for $399, Lifetime for $299, on 22 December 2004. Got a second one from CostCo, same prices, on 5 January 2005. Then I went crazy on ebay and I have a bunch more. :)

And I have never had an issue with slow or buggy software. It just seems to work for me, or I have a higher threshold of annoyance than other people.

Can't get enough of TiVo.

Robo, I have a Pioneer 810H and it never suffered the sluggishness that other models experienced with the KidZone software rollout. You are just lucky to be addicted to a model of Tivo that didn't take a big performance hit due to KidZone. I think the 810s have more RAM than regular Series 2 units due to the additional overhead required to facilitate DVD burning while performing other tasks.

Uncle Briggs

12-09-2006, 04:17 AM

Sept. 2004

tbeckner

12-09-2006, 04:23 AM

Sony SVR-2000 May 2000, upgraded. *1

Added 3-Hughes HDVR2 October 2003, all currently stock. *2
Added 2-Hughes SD-DVR80 January 2006, all currently stock.

*1 An addtional retail 60GB Maxtor hard drive was added to the OEM drive in June 2000 and both drives are still runing today. Sony SVR-2000 was bought at GoodGuys in Tacoma, WA and 60GB Maxtor was bought on sale at Staples in Port Orchard, WA.

*2 One Weakness.com upgrade drive (120GB Quickview Maxtor) that was added to one HDVR2 in 2004, failed in 2006. This is the only failed hard drive I have had in the last six years, out of a total of 24 hard drives, of which 22 run 24/7.

megazone

12-09-2006, 04:31 AM

I think the 810s have more RAM than regular Series 2 units due to the additional overhead required to facilitate DVD burning while performing other tasks.They have 32MB just like the other S2 boxes. S1s had 16MB. S2s 32MB. S2DT 64MB. S3 128MB.

The DVR-810H is a 2xx series box, like most of the black S2s, which is a faster platform than the 5xx platform which accounts for most S2s sold, and the Humax and Toshiba burners. That's why the 810H didn't slow down as much with 7.3.1.

steve614

12-09-2006, 08:41 AM

Got my S2 for christmas last year (2005) and lifetimed it. I'm glad I did 'cause lifetime ended shortly after.

Already have enough TV saved to get me through this christmas and next summers' hiatuses. :D

Gregor

12-09-2006, 09:15 AM

Feb 2002, IIRC. $200 for the Tivo on sale at an outlet store, $300 for the upgrade HD, and $200 for lifetime. I think I had it 2 days before I cracked the case and upgraded the drive :)

Jombi122

12-20-2006, 05:20 PM

April 2000
Someone returned it to Circuit City so I got it for a discount (can't remember the price)
Got lifetime (just moved it to the S3 ;-)
and upgraded the HD a while back. It still runs and I love it!

smak

12-20-2006, 06:50 PM

August 2000. As you can see from my join date, i was here 6 months before doing research.

I got the Circuit City $299-$100-$100 rebates to get the 14 hour for $99.

Since them i've owned 11 total tivo's, and with today's Series 3 delivery, that makes 11.

-smak-

phox_mulder

12-20-2006, 07:14 PM

Happened to be checking the status of my S3 lifetime transfer and noticed I activated my first TiVo in October 2004.

I guess I'm a "late adoptor" when it came to TiVo, but remedied that by getting the S3 beginning of November.

My first DVR experience was the Dishnetwork 501 PVR.
Had that for a couple years before I heard about TiVo.
Got the SA TiVo and realized how much better it was than the 501, heard that the DirecTV DVR's were TiVo powered so I called up D*, got that installed and cancelled Dish.

I now have 4 TiVo's in the house.

phox

dzirpolo

12-20-2006, 07:29 PM

March 2001 - A Sony Tivo - Incorrectly priced at the Sony Outlet. I was hooked within a week.

Since then I have an upgraded Philips to 170-hrs, 60hr Series2, 80hr Series2, and a Series3 on the way.

tivoman

12-20-2006, 09:39 PM

July 19, 2001 at Target on the clearance area. They had three and I only bought one. If I known I would fall in love with it, I would of bought all three at that time.

windracer

12-20-2006, 09:49 PM

Christmas 2002 ... I think my wife still regrets ever getting that first 40hr S2 for me.

Stumbled into here a few weeks later.

Ariel817

12-21-2006, 11:13 PM

We got a Sony series 1 just before summer olympics in 2000 (not for the summer olympics necessarily, I just remember that was being pushed as an advertisement..) I think from Fryes Electronics... For $400 or so.... and seems like we had free guide data for a while, and then ran w/o for a very short time, then did the lifetime subscription in September of 2000. The salesman gave us like 4 Tivo plushie dolls (the kids were 6 & 4, and he kept giving them another and then another..) I think 2 or 3 of those are still hanging around! :)

Then the series 2 came out with the transfer option in 2003, and we jumped on that bandwagon.. LOVED having 80 hrs of space, too!

By 2004, we decided the kids' shows were taking over our tuner (or maybe it was vice versa) and we added a 2nd 40 hour tivo.......

And if pukey Dell hadn't of sold out before I spotted the deal, we'd be adding an S3. :) Maybe someone else will have that kind of price in the next week or so.... otherwise, I'm still on the fence..