MSD, two TiVo's at different locations?

According to the rules? No, the same physical location is required.

In practice? Go for it, not a problem.

 

As long as they are both on the same TiVo account and they are billing to the same person/credit card you should be fine. Technically, TiVo doesn't have to honor the MSD pricing in such cases, but I know number of people that do this and they are honoring the spirit of the program. You should be able to add a 2nd unit with no problem, especially online.

Just so you know, TiVo2Go and MRV (multi-room viewing) with Series 2 units at this point will only work with with TIVo and PCs that are connected to the same physical network and subnet. They only way to make TiVo2Go and MRV work in separate geographic locations is to utilize VPN based routers on both sides with plenty of upload and download bandwidth....basically impractical in most situations.

 

I have a spare TIVO now since I just added an HD_TIVO. So my spare third TIVO I was thinking of giving to my son for use away at college (we are in the same State, college is about an hour from home). If I do this, all he would have to do is hook it up and go through setup again to access the local channel lineup? I would still of course be paying the monthly fee and nothing on the account billing would change.

 

If they would give me MSD on my second location, I would buy a new 2-Tuner TiVo and move an old one down there in a second. I bet there are quite a few people like that.

 

go ahead and do it, just bill them to the same place, see posts above, works fine.

 

But couldn't I save a program to my computer in one location, burn it to a DVD, then load it onto a computer at the other location and upload it to the other TiVo there? Since it's all me, I wouldn't really be giving away my access code to anybody. That's not really violating the letter or the spirit of the TiVoToGo rules, is it?

 

The way I look at it, it's either TIVO will get another $6.95 per month from me or I will just cancel my third TIVO account and they will get nothing more for this TIVO. They should not only allow TIVO's to be at alternate locations (cabins, college dorms, etc.) they should encourage it.

 

You'll guarantee this and pay the difference if it doesn't work? Nothing personal, but I'd rather hear this from someone who actually has the authority to speak for TiVo.

 

I have 2 Tivo's at different locations on seperate credit card's on my account with no problems.

 

OR you'll suck it up and grumble and pay the $12.95 instead of the $6.95. OK, maybe YOU won't, but a lot of others might, or else they'd have an expensive doorstop on their hands.

But I completely agree with you. They ought to encourage it.

 

And you can only have 5 tivo's total (or 5 on msd i forget) so you really couldn't abuse it. and maybe limit it to two locations.

 

Actually, I don't have a broadband connection at my second location, so I would definitely need a telephone connection there. Wouldn't the second telephone number be an indicator that there were two different locations? I must admit that this discussion is encouraging, but I don't want to commit to another TiVo DVR and then discover that I can't get the MSD. I just wish there were some official TiVo edict that says it's OK, rather than having to get by on them maybe not noticing what I'm doing.

 

I won't pay $12.95. See here's what TIVO doesn't seem to get. Spread the TIVO word and love around. Pop a TIVO in a college dorm and see all the kids running home and wanting one from daddy and mommy. Class schedules are weird and a TIVO is really a help if you have classes at night, etc. Of course, buying one for everyone in your neighborhood to get the MSD is extreme, but that's not what I'm trying to do. Plus, I've always thought TIVO would do a lot better at say $9.95 a month to start with. But that's another subject.

 

You don't have to convince ME, man. But if you go out and actually pay for the extra DVR, and they don't give you the MSD, you can either pay the extra $6, or get rid of the device. Some people will choose the former.

 

TiVo cannot assume that. I could think of any number of situations where this could happen. Let's say you live on a large piece of property. Now, let's say you have broadband in the main home, and for good measure, a wireless network. Now, let's say you have another guest house on your property that has a phone line but is far enough away from the main house that you cannot get a wireless signal.

TiVo cannot require you to use a signal extender or repeater, nor pay to run cat 5 cable outside and over to the cabin, etc. TiVo cannot require you to pay $x to buy multiple wireless adapters. They have to give you the option to use mixed call-in methods.




Also, regarding college dorms......it is quite possible that the college will have its own line-up that you will need to communicate to TiVo. I believe you can use the following to request a new lineup be built......

http://customersupport.tivo.com/LineUpForm.aspx

 

I ordered a Tivo for my parents (S2DT) and ordered one for myself at the same time. I ordered mine with a 3 year monthly (I get the MSD so I wanted the $6.95. Ordered the other with a 3 year gift card.

The boxes show up, one has the CG taped to it, so I open the other and proceed to set it up. During guided setup, I'm prompted to activate service, which I do without realizing that my box should be pre-activated. FF 2 weeks to Christmas, give the parents the other box and set it up - you guessed it, I'm not prompted to activate or use the gift card, as the box that had the CG taped to it had already been preactivated on my account as monthly.

I call Tivo and try to get them to remove the Tivo at my parents house from my account so that I can use the gift card and get the runaround on how the billing system won't let them do that. After several return calls, a case number and several conversations with a supervisor, I'm told that the change will go into effect in a few days, and to call back if it doesn't.

That was a year ago, (almost) and the Tivo is still on my account, and still getting the MSD and paying $6.95 a month. I finally gave up trying to do the right thing, I did everything in my power to make Tivo aware of the fact that this box on my account was in the next state (where it calls in from regularly with a different lineup and all) and figure that if they can't be arsed to get the thing off my account, I'm going to take the discount on it.

I need to try and get the gift card from my folks and either prepay one of my boxes for a bit or ebay it.

Bottom line, if I'm getting the MSD on that Tivo, there is *almost* no chance that you're going to get boned on the discount. Just activate it online and forget about it.

 

For a period I had them set up in my house one on broadband one on dial-in.

I think the only way they could reasonably track this down is if you used two different zipcodes for program information. And that's saying they'd bother to do it.

 

Here's the best test.
These Tivo Community Forums are filled with people whining about how Tivo wronged them or at least how they perceive to have been wronged by Tivo.
Try to find any post at all from anyone that says their MSD was changed to the full rate because the Tivo was at a different location than the qualifying Tivo.