Tivo's consumer DVR Future.

Oh happy day! Bring it on! Also: You mean we've had "head-end tech support"??? (The only CableCARD or TA support I've had has come from the TWC/Spectrum national help desk -- local head-end support has always been clueless.)

I only have $300 sunk into my reconditioned Roamio base model with lifetime sub. and that was 2.5 yrs ago. I won't feel bad about reconfiguring it to OTA or shelving it, if an IP back-channel solution is available. Actually I've been teetering on the edge of dropping cable TV anyway, given the growing selection of good streaming sources.

 

Wow, then it was really only officially there for a couple of years at most?

Maybe some threads here will correct my memory, but think I didn't extensively do downloading with my OLED S3 & Tivo HD.. only sometime after I got my P4 (and maybe Roamio Pro) did I use that, instead of recording to DVDs (including rewritable). I download 'for keeps', and also offload stuff for temporary-ish storage to return back to the Tivo.. (not quite as bad as the 'my wife won't delete recordings' situation). I only remember vaguely investigating Toast and finding out about the better kmttg, since I didn't want to reencode recordings anyway.

 

You're lucky. Many are not who have invested thousands in their TiVo based entertainment systems. Early on Cox was spending buckets of non-renewable money on scattergun TiVo tech support. Back then tech CRs were unhelpful simply because new and complex technology had been dumped on them which they were tasked to support without requisite training or knowledge of how tuning adapters, cable cards, TiVos, and head-end systems interoperated. Factor in that cable cards in TiVos and TiVos themselves could not be remotely diagnosed and you had chaos. Multiple truck rolls were common and I expect management wasn't happy. Cox here in the Mid-Atlantic finally consolidated tech support in one regional center where it got better and better. One year early on I found myself on the phone repeatedly with a regional VP for customer support who kept refunding 50-75% of my monthly cable bills until Cox finally got their TiVo support game together. Big incentive to get it right and big incentive to get out of TiVo support if the Feds change the rules.

 

I've had zero problems with FIOS and their personnel in respect to TiVo integration. Their tech's have told me that they've been given a TiVo to practice on. FOIS does it right with no tuning adapters required! I'd be hard pressed to bail on FIOS.