Buying a new Tivo

You can buy a new TiVo from other channels such as amazon.com, Best Buy, etc and not have a service commitment on your new box. After you purchase the new box, you can simply swap the TSN number online at tivo.com and your old unit will cease getting programming info and the new unit will gain the subscription.

You are a bit unclear in the Original post, but you will need 2 subscriptions if you want to maintain service on both your old unit and new one. The second subscription is $10/month as part of the Multi-Service Discount (MSD), or $99/year if you prepay for the year in advance.

You can look at this FAQ to understand the difference between a Service only plan (Retail) and Package plan (tivo.com)
http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/573/kw/buy%20tivo/r_id/100041

and to transfer your subscription from one tivo to another....
http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20/kw/transfer lifetime/r_id/100041

 

Most Tivo's die due to hard drive failure. The hard drives are easily replaceable. For $79 you could buy a huge 750gb or 1tb drive and image the new drive using the free software MFSTools or the $20 InstantCake. That way you will have tons more storage.

The second most common cause of a Tivo's demise is the power supply, which is also easily replaceable and inexpensive.

If you have the slightest bit of technical know how (open up the case, pull the drive, follow instructions to image a new drive, etc) you should be able to repair the unit yourself if either of the two above situations apply to you.

Also, if you plan on replacing your broken tivo (instead of repair) then consider buying a TiVoHD to "future proof" yourself in case your cable provider goes all digital and you lose one of the two tuners in the S2DT.

Finally, if you do buy the refurbished S2DT from tivo.com you will still pay $12.95 month. The only difference is you will make a 1 yr. commitment for the service. So if you plan on keeping TiVo that long anyway, there would be no downside.

 

Well the answer is "it depends". If you are currently under a commitment (ie. Contract) then you will incur an additional monthly charge until the end of your contract. If you are not obligated under a contract then simply cancel your existing service and then buy the new TiVo. Either way call TiVo customer service to see if they will offer you a deal or to simply to find out the status of any service commitment you may have.

 

Good advice in general but the OP should be aware there is a potential problem if you use the THD only on analog channels, i.e., without cable card(s). This is called the "gray screen" problem and is summarized in the TivoHD Overview sticky thread, in the "Known Issues with 11.0d" section. (11.0d is the latest software version for the THD.)

On the other hand I have a THD and used it on 11.0d for a while without cable cards. I did not see this problem.

If you do have this problem you would have to get cable cards and upgrade your cable to digital service. This will cost you an additional $10 to $15 per month, assuming just the minimum service levels. Of course if you want to enjoy all the features of the THD (e.g., HD video output) you would want those upgrades anyway.