A couple of questions from a new person

[True Colors]

Hello everyone,

I do not know too much about this stuff, so please be patient. Could someone be nice enough to answer a few things for me.

First, I am very interested in buying a series 2 Tivo. I just do not have the money for the series 3 right now. I noticed that the tivo.com site has a 180 hour box with dual tuner for a good price. I am thinking about purchasing a 1 or 2 year prepaid plan from them.

So........

Question 1 - my apartment has digital cable. I have two coaxial cables coming out of the wall. I currently connect these two wires into my digital cable box. That gives me on screen programming.(The "digital" refers to the on screen programming more than it does HDTV or anything like that)......... So if I get Tivo series 2 DT, then will I be able to return the digital cable box to the cable company and just have the regular A/B service from the cable company? That would save me some money. Or do I need to keep the digital box, and feed that into Tivo?

Question 2 - do I have to send the box back at the end of the year, or do I get to keep it even if I do not renew my subscription?

Question 3 - I notice that the Tivo dot com site offers a lot of pricing specials. If you sign up for a deal now(such as a 1 year box + subscription plan), are you able to get another special later on? For example, if I do the $169 package now, can I let my subscription run out, and then go for the same special deal a year later and get an additional box/subscription for $169 more(or whatever the future discounted price may be)?

Question 4 - What if you purchase a box with lifetime off of ebay, and you get one of the new ones for sale direct from the factory today? If you do that, then does the lifetime subscription apply to both, or do you need to purchase an additional subscription for the brand new product?

Question 5 - I am a college student who has a permanent residence in one city, and an apartment in a different city where I go to school. If I purchase two different Tivo boxes(one for here, and one for home), then do I sign up for two separate subscriptions, or will just one cover me? Or can I get a discount on a 2nd or 3rd subscription after paying full price on the first one?

Question 6 - Is it better to purchase Tivo from a retail store such as best buy, or do you recommend purchasing it directly from Tivo the manufacturer? What are the advantages/disadvantages of either method?

Question 7 - if I do purchase directly from Tivo, then how long will the shipping time be for my box to arrive to me?

Question 8 - I have heard that you can remotely program your Tivo to record things. So does that mean that if I am away from home(work, library, etc.), does that mean that I can get online and set up recordings on my Tivo? Is that easy to do, or does it require some special software or anything?

Question 9 - any other things that I should be thinking about as a new buyer?

Thankyou so much,

TC

[Cori]

Hello everyone,

I do not know too much about this stuff, so please be patient. Could someone be nice enough to answer a few things for me.

First, I am very interested in buying a series 2 Tivo. I just do not have the money for the series 3 right now. I noticed that the tivo.com site has a 180 hour box with dual tuner for a good price. I am thinking about purchasing a 1 or 2 year prepaid plan from them.

So........

Question 1 - my apartment has digital cable. I have two coaxial cables coming out of the wall. I currently connect these two wires into my digital cable box. That gives me on screen programming.(The "digital" refers to the on screen programming more than it does HDTV or anything like that)......... So if I get Tivo series 2 DT, then will I be able to return the digital cable box to the cable company and just have the regular A/B service from the cable company? That would save me some money. Or do I need to keep the digital box, and feed that into Tivo?

Question 2 - do I have to send the box back at the end of the year, or do I get to keep it even if I do not renew my subscription?

Question 3 - I notice that the Tivo dot com site offers a lot of pricing specials. If you sign up for a deal now(such as a 1 year box + subscription plan), are you able to get another special later on? For example, if I do the $169 package now, can I let my subscription run out, and then go for the same special deal a year later and get an additional box/subscription for $169 more(or whatever the future discounted price may be)?

Question 4 - What if you purchase a box with lifetime off of ebay, and you get one of the new ones for sale direct from the factory today? If you do that, then does the lifetime subscription apply to both, or do you need to purchase an additional subscription for the brand new product?

Question 5 - I am a college student who has a permanent residence in one city, and an apartment in a different city where I go to school. If I purchase two different Tivo boxes(one for here, and one for home), then do I sign up for two separate subscriptions, or will just one cover me? Or can I get a discount on a 2nd or 3rd subscription after paying full price on the first one?

Question 6 - Is it better to purchase Tivo from a retail store such as best buy, or do you recommend purchasing it directly from Tivo the manufacturer? What are the advantages/disadvantages of either method?

Question 7 - if I do purchase directly from Tivo, then how long will the shipping time be for my box to arrive to me?

Question 8 - I have heard that you can remotely program your Tivo to record things. So does that mean that if I am away from home(work, library, etc.), does that mean that I can get online and set up recordings on my Tivo? Is that easy to do, or does it require some special software or anything?

Question 9 - any other things that I should be thinking about as a new buyer?

Thankyou so much,

TC

Welcome TC ... Will try to answer some of your questions.

1. You can get rid of the digital box if you're not interested in digital cable. The S2 works well with analog basic or extended cable, and a cable box is not required.

2. No, once you pay your contract out the box is yours to keep.

3. Will leave this question for someone else...

4. Each box must have its own subscription.

5. I believe each box must reside at the same residence if under one account. You'll likely need them on seperate accounts to do this. Someone with more experience might have more info on this though.

6. Retail = instant gratification. Usually comes with rebates, but you'll have to wait for the rebate itself. Online deal seems good, you essentially get the box for free after signing up for service so that might be a better choice for you if money is tight.

7. Never having ordered direct from Tivo I really can't say how low. I would think not longer than a few weeks tops but I really can't say...sorry.

8. Setting up recordings is very easy. All you need is an online connection and browser to get this going.

9. Yes..decide if you're going to use a phone line or network connection for your Tivo updates and guide data...if network you might want to consider getting the Tivo branded USB Network adapter to avoid any networking problems. Works really well.

Hope that helps..again welcome

[bigbowood]

actually, in response to #5, tivo DOES let you have more than one account at different addresses (obviously, one is at full price, and the other is at the multiple box discount

[Jonathan_S]

I noticed that the tivo.com site has a 180 hour box with dual tuner for a good price.
[snip]
Question 1 - my apartment has digital cable. I have two coaxial cables coming out of the wall. I currently connect these two wires into my digital cable box. That gives me on screen programming.(The "digital" refers to the on screen programming more than it does HDTV or anything like that)......... So if I get Tivo series 2 DT, then will I be able to return the digital cable box to the cable company and just have the regular A/B service from the cable company? That would save me some money. Or do I need to keep the digital box, and feed that into Tivo?
The Series 2 DT doesn't have built in digital cable tuners. As stated above you can use it to control your existing cable box, but only one of the tuners will be able to use the box.

The second tuner will be restricted to whatever analog cable channels it can pick up without the box. And TiVo's built in tuners aren't really made to handle A/B two cable systems. You'd only be able to plug in one half of the pair (A or B), and hope that you can get (or ask TiVo to create) a channel map for that half.

[classicsat]

1: You should keep the cable box, as thats the easiest way to get all channels on an A/B cable system to work on a TiVo. You can split one of the cables for the DT, probably the one with your local channels.

2: The box is yours to keep.

3: You can keep buying the special of the time after your commitment runs out, but that is wasteful, JMO.

4: Lifetime is just for the one box, however a second service only box can be subbed along side it with the MSD ($6.00/month off the going service only rate for your commitment).

5: TiVo wants the boxes at the same location for MSD elegibility and for the networking features to work, but they aren't strongly pursuing the matter.

6: Right now, AFAIK, the TiVo store only sells their DVRs in bundles, which is okay for a first time TiVo purchaser. With a retail purchase, one usually needs to deal with rebates.

7: I can't say, my TiVos were purchased from private individuals.

8: You just need the TiVo connected to an always on connection, and a web browser where you are. Keep in mind it is only for setting up recordings for programs listed on the supported sites, not for manual recording and channels or programs not listed, and it is one way, so other than a confirmation Email, you don't know what is going on.

You might want to consider a Slingbox as an adjunct to your TiVo, as you can actually control/use your DVR from afar, includ setting recordings.