I have lifetime Series 2... How can I go HD?

You bought lifetime on your box. It goes with that box. Don't be a cheapskate.

Or buy a lifetime activation card on eBay for $500 and put your money where you mouth is.

 

You paid for lifetime service on the Series 2 box for as long as it works.

If your Tivo is smashed or stolen, you're out of luck. There are a few types of situations where Tivo will transfer lifetime service to another unit, but all essentially involve warranty issues AND transfers to the same type of box (e.g. 540 to 540). I am not aware of any circumstances where Tivo will transfer LT service to a different platform, unless it is part of a promotion.

Tivo has run some promotions in the past to allow lifetime users to transfer their service from one platform (e.g. Series 1) to another (e.g. Series 3). There have been two in the last year - one to transfer lifetime to the Series 3 box, another to the Series 2 DT (if I remember correctly).

Unless (a) there is a future promotion for the Tivo HD box or (b) you buy a lifetime service gift card 3rd hand, you don't have an option for lifetime service on a Tivo HD box.

There is probably another loophole that a few eBay sellers with an apparently endless supply of lifetime subs must be using, but lifetime service is generally not available for any new units unless you have a grandfathered lifetimed Series 1, a Tivo Product Lifetime Gift Subscription (from Tivo), a Tivo Product Lifetime Gift Card (from Best Buy) or a previously unactivated Series 2 Humax DVD recorder.

 

You should be able to sell your lifetime TiVo for some $$.

 

I don't know if this still works but I was able to transfer my Series 2 LIFETIME to my Series 3 for an additional fee of $199.00. With that came a "free" one year subscription for the Series 2.

I believe I've read that Tivo still does this but only for the original Series 3 and not the newer TivoHD unit.

The thing is that I don't think that you can inquire about this until you have the Series 3 in hand and ready to go. So you could try buying from someplace with a good return policy and give it a shot.

 

Weaknees had been running a "buy and S3 and we'll sell you it only if Tivo ok's the transfer of lifetime" for a while, yes you pay the $199 fee, but you get lifetime on an S3. and this was after the official "lifetime transfer" offer had ended.

If I recall the link was only available direct, it's not publicly on their page, might be worth checking out. Weaknees Blog

Diane

 

Pray like me, everyone help out now, that Tivo gives us the best Xmas gift ever....
A Lifetime transfer from S2 to the new HD Tivo!!! (For $2-300 of course)

Crossing my fingers that this deal gets offered for Xmas.... ya hear me Tivo people?
Make it happen!!!!

 

I was hoping Tivo would offer it before Christmas. I was hoping they would do something to coincide with henew fall tv season. I really want one and would gladly pay the $200 transfer fee to get lifetime on an HD unit. I really dont want to bear another new season with that crappy moto box.TIVO HEAR MY CRY!!!

 

I figure Tivo will want to eventually "end of life" the series 1 and the support for it. They probably get almost zero revenue for those machines, but yet have to maintain hardware support due to the lifetime subscriptions. But in order to do that, they must convert those subscriptions to a current geneartion machine. Just a thought.

SBT

 

This is just a single anecdote, but a friend of mine's Tivo broke.. he called them up, and for $150, he's getting a "dual tuner" Tivo with the lifetime subscription transferred.
I presume it will be a S2DT.. but his original one was single tuner. So apparently they are sometimes transferring it to other hardware.

This is not a warranty replacement BTW.