Good deal at Best Buy...should I upgrade from S3 to Premiere?

[dmk1974]

Best Buy has a pretty good deal where if you buy a HDTV, you can get the TiVo Premiere for $200 off (i.e., $100 for a Premiere!). Adding lifetime is an additional $299, so basically it would be $400 for me to add a Premiere w/lifetime to my home. I am getting a small HDTV for my kitchen anyway so I'm strongly considering this.

If I did that, I would be replacing one of my S3 Tivo boxes (the one that has the original stock HDD in it and also has Lifetime on it). It's about 3 1/2 years old, but (knock of wood) works just fine.

Would it be worth it to put the S3 up on ebay and replace it with a Premiere? Or should I wait till whatever/whenever the next gen of TiVo rolls around?

[t1voproof]

$400 is better than any upgrade offer from Tivo itself. I'm thinking of doing this deal when I buy a tv.

[wisehammer]

Don't buy it. I'm on my third replacement unit.

[smbaker]

Would it be worth it to put the S3 up on ebay and replace it with a Premiere? Or should I wait till whatever/whenever the next gen of TiVo rolls around?

There was quite a delay between HD/S3 and Premiere, I have a feeling you could be waiting a bit if you want to wait for the 'next generation'.

It all comes down to whether or not the additional features (Pandora, Hulu+, more space, HDUI) are worth it to you. Keep in mind that there are many problem reports and the HDUI is considered unfinished and appears to be taking longer than it should.

I was in much the same boat as you and decided to take the leap from HD to Premiere. Can't really say why I did it other than that the upgrade offers seemed good and it just felt like it was "time" to upgrade the box. Time will tell whether or not it was a mistake.

[tomm1079]

Go for it...i have had no issues and i preordered it. I did not even have the crashing issues people where reporting (alot of that had to do with IR codes from harmony and things like that).

Since its debut the UI has gotten alot faster. I never used the SD menus personally...always used the HD ones.

That is a killer deal for a pretty damn good box

[Dan203]

Mine is working pretty good too. I had one lockup a few days after I bought it, but it's been fine ever since. (few months now) Although I disagree about the HD menus. They are slow and annoying to me so I still use the old SD menus.

Dan

[ZeoTiVo]

Don't buy it. I'm on my third replacement unit.

yours were shipped via UPS from tivo.com and you have a distinct experience. It is not fair to leave out all the details (such as enclosed 80degree cabinet) and that you have to have each one shipped via UPS.

[dmk1974]

If I do make the change, I prefer NOT to have Comcast come out to put in the cable card. Even with them here, they screwed it up and it took forever to activate.

I've searched a few threads...is there one perhaps with concise simple instructions for moving one of the cable cards from an S3 to a Premiere plus the instructions of what to tell Comcast over the phone (maybe even a better number than their general support line)?

If the setup and swap is pretty painless, I think I'll do it. But last time, they stood me up for an appt and when they were here, they couldn't figure it out! Took about 7-8 hours of my time total...then whoever I got at the end, had it working in like 3 minutes.

[smbaker]

I've searched a few threads...is there one perhaps with concise simple instructions for moving one of the cable cards from an S3 to a Premiere plus the instructions of what to tell Comcast over the phone (maybe even a better number than their general support line)?

The problem is that the Premiere is designed to work with M cards and the S3 was designed to work with S cards. Presumably, if you could move over one of them (someone here probably knows better than me whether it will even work) then you'd only have access to one tuner in the premiere.

One of the advantages I considered when moving to a Premiere was to dump the "additional cablecard fee" (yes, comcast is charging me an additional $1.50/month for the extra S cards). Pity that it'll probably take years worth of savings to add up to the cost of the truck roll for an installer to insert a card and read a number off the screen.

[dmk1974]

The problem is that the Premiere is designed to work with M cards and the S3 was designed to work with S cards. Presumably, if you could move over one of them (someone here probably knows better than me whether it will even work) then you'd only have access to one tuner in the premiere.

One of the advantages I considered when moving to a Premiere was to dump the "additional cablecard fee" (yes, comcast is charging me an additional $1.50/month for the extra S cards). Pity that it'll probably take years worth of savings to add up to the cost of the truck roll for an installer to insert a card and read a number off the screen.

Comcast here in Chicagoland actually installed M-cards into both of my S3's as well as my HD (i.e., all 5 cards are marked exactly the same). That would be one nice thing to have less cards to pay for.

[trip1eX]

YOu can get Premiere for $150 through Electronics Expo. no hdtv purchase necessary.

[Arcady]

If I do make the change, I prefer NOT to have Comcast come out to put in the cable card. Even with them here, they screwed it up and it took forever to activate.

I've searched a few threads...is there one perhaps with concise simple instructions for moving one of the cable cards from an S3 to a Premiere plus the instructions of what to tell Comcast over the phone (maybe even a better number than their general support line)?

If the setup and swap is pretty painless, I think I'll do it. But last time, they stood me up for an appt and when they were here, they couldn't figure it out! Took about 7-8 hours of my time total...then whoever I got at the end, had it working in like 3 minutes.

You can only do this if the Series3 has an M card in it. The Premiere does not work with the old S cards. Your Series3 will be limited to a single tuner with only one card installed. As for calling Comcast to make the change, I don't know how they would react to that, or if they would even do it without a truck roll. If it were me, I'd just have them bring a new M card for the Premiere and leave the Series3 alone.

[sdzc]

Comcast's biggest joke is "Outlet Fees". I have three tivos that need cable cards and basically pay $14 a month for the 2nd and 3rd ($7 each for the outlet fee).

What a load of crap. The cable cards should only be $1.50-$2.00 each per month, if even that.

Why the outlet fee? Just pull the money out of our pockets I guess.

[dmk1974]

Another option I was thinking of (and I know it's kinda half-ass)...can I use a Premiere with Comcast without a cable card to get the HD basic channels?

When I plug my cable directly into my TV, I get the 2-1,5-1, 7-1, etc HD cable channels. Only the local basic stuff though (which I can live with). I was just wondering if I would get the same if I connect the cable to the Premiere without a cable card. That way, I could watch and record the local HD basic channels, transfer shows from my other TiVo's, listen to music through my network, and even watch netflix if I wanted to WITHOUT paying Comcast their extra $7.95 per month for that cable card.

[sockgap]

I upgraded from S3 to Premiere recently. It's not really an upgrade. You lose the front panel display for a start. Then there's the new HD UI, which is so slow that I disabled it and went back to the much faster, old UI.
Doing that disables the picture-in-picture on the TiVo home screen, but personally I just found that annoying anyway. I like to get some time to think when I'm on the TiVo home screen, not still have the program blaring away in the corner.

[dmk1974]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I may only upgrade to Premiere if I get two of them (to replace both S3 units) resulting in less cable card charges. If no savings, then I may hold off. Just seemed like a really good deal to get a lifetime Premiere for $400 and I didn't want to pass up. Technically, my S3's with lifetime had cost me $750 each.

[txporter]

I recent purchased a Premiere at Bestbuy with this same offer. I called up Tivo customer service and was able to get product lifetime for $199 (current price you can get if you upgrade through them). It's worth a try to see if you can get it.

I haven't actually played around much with my new premiere (other than upgrade to 2TB drive), but the reason that I finally got it was that it is reported to handle non-MPEG2 streams much better than either S3 or HD. Netflix streams should be decoded better and if you push any h.264 encoded material to the box (which I like to do with pyTivo), it is supposed to decode better.

P.S. I grew up in Woodstock, IL and I have grandparents in Cary, IL. Nice area.

[netringer]

The worst part of your deal is buying a HDTV from Best Buy. Don't do it!

Try the Amazon Warehouse - or anywhere else - for real deals.

[dmk1974]

I recent purchased a Premiere at Bestbuy with this same offer. I called up Tivo customer service and was able to get product lifetime for $199 (current price you can get if you upgrade through them). It's worth a try to see if you can get it.

I haven't actually played around much with my new premiere (other than upgrade to 2TB drive), but the reason that I finally got it was that it is reported to handle non-MPEG2 streams much better than either S3 or HD. Netflix streams should be decoded better and if you push any h.264 encoded material to the box (which I like to do with pyTivo), it is supposed to decode better.

P.S. I grew up in Woodstock, IL and I have grandparents in Cary, IL. Nice area.

Small world! Not too bad...been out here for about 9 years in the far southwest corner of Cary.

I tried way back to get TiVo to give me the $199 lifetime on another box, but they didn't budge. Maybe worth trying again. Did you escalate to a supervisor or something?

[eskay]

Amazon is running a similar deal on a 40" or larger TV:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_353891462_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000578991&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=0APT90ZPATKHT789JD23&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1274754282&pf_rd_i=B0036WT3RA