Feel ripped off By Tivo:Bought a S2DT for $299.00

4861 Views 55 Replies 21 Participants Last post by ZeoTiVo, Jul 29, 2007

jdmatl

Discussion Starter · Jul 24, 2007

Arghhhhh!!! I feel that tivo just ripped me off with this S2DT $299 deal I just purchased. Anybody else buy a DTS2, transfer their lifetime and now wish they hadn't?

The only thing keeping me from just exploding with anger of getting taken advantage of with this deal is the HOPE that comcast will keep Channels 2-99 alive for at least 2 maybe 3 years so I can almost "get" my money out of it. ($6.95 month x 36months).

Something tells me there won't be a "Transfer your Lifetime to the S3Lite" deal anytime soon.

S2DT's are now boat anchors, at best will become S2single tuners when cbl co's drop 2-99 channels.

Yeah Tivo "Gets Me". It gets how to "screw me over"

1 - 20 of 56 Posts

jfh3

· #2 · Jul 24, 2007

Nope.

You can't have any remorse when buying CE products - whatever you buy today, there will be something more, better, faster, cheaper tomorrow.

I bought 2 S3s last year and will buy 1 or 2 THD boxes - with no regrets.

Redux

· #3 · Jul 24, 2007

There are ways of reneging on just about any purchase and I'm sure you can find one.

But in general, one should always to do some research when a vendor drastically lowers price on a old model/service/whatever. In general, companies are not in the business of giving gifts. There is usually some less altruistic underlying reason for the offer.

In this case, the internet has been full of data about the new model and its pricing for the past few weeks.

Lots of discussion about the DT lifetime offer and whether it made sense. The consensus was it did not, for most customers, even _before_ the new s3 imminence and its pricing became so definite late last week.

GoHokies!

· #4 · Jul 24, 2007

Nope. It isn't like the announcement of the new box created any of the issues that you have with your S2DT, they've been there all along.

Your S2DT doesn't work any differently this morning either, it's no more a "boat anchor" than the day you bought it.

Like jfh3 said, you can't have remorse about these sorts of things. You pick your time and pull the trigger. Tivo offered a deal and YOU took it. Want to be mad? Look in the mirror.

bicker

· #5 · Jul 24, 2007

GoHokies! said:
Nope. It isn't like the announcement of the new box created any of the issues that you have with your S2DT, they've been there all along.

Your S2DT doesn't work any differently this morning either, it's no more a "boat anchor" than the day you bought it.

Like jfh3 said, you can't have remorse about these sorts of things. You pick your time and pull the trigger. Tivo offered a deal and YOU took it. Want to be mad? Look in the mirror.

Well said, especially the point about the S2DT being just as functional and useful today as it was yesterday. :up:

dheerema

· #6 · Jul 24, 2007

Actually, it would have cost more for the Tivo HD. Check out the new policy:

What if I have a box with Product Lifetime service?
TiVo no longer offers Product Lifetime service as a TiVo Service Plan for new purchases.

However, if you have a legacy TiVo® box with a Product Lifetime subscription that is actively using the TiVo service on your account and you want to add a new TiVo box to your account, those boxes qualify and will be discounted $6.00 a month.

jdmatl

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 24, 2007

Yes, I knew there was a new unit on the horizon, but not at the same price as a S2DT.

I would have not thought they would have put the S3Lite unit in for $299.00 maybe 499.00 or 399.00.

If I had got the S2DT for 199.00 with lifetime swap, I wouldn't feel so bad.

jfh3

· #8 · Jul 24, 2007

jdmatl said:
Yes, I knew there was a new unit on the horizon, but not at the same price as a S2DT.

I would have not thought they would have put the S3Lite unit in for $299.00 maybe 499.00 or 399.00.

If it'll make you feel better, buy a S3lite for $299 and send me the extra $100 ...

StuffOfInterest

· #9 · Jul 24, 2007

I'm a little bothered that the THD was released (or perhaps pre-released) right after the close of the S2DT transfer offer. It looks a little too much like clearing out old inventory before the new product hits shelves. Still, in the end it won't make that much difference. I'll be keeping my analog TV for some years to come and I don't even own a HDTV yet, so the S2 will have a place in my home for some years.

My S1 gave me nearly seven years of service. The only reason I upgraded to the S2 was for the network capability (both for guide data and for sharing with the computer) and because my S1 suffered a modem failure months ago (using an external modem since then slowed down to work with a Vonage service). Considering that the THD won't even support most network features for a few months, I'm still ahead with the S2 unit.

When I'm finally able to buy a HDTV (waiting for some home remodeling before I have a room suitable for HD), it is likely the THD will be even cheaper and have the MRV capability by then. At that point I'll be happy to have the S2 in one room and the THD on a new HDTV. That should give me the best of both worlds and multi-service discount as gravy.

The one thing which could really throw lemons in the mix is if TiVo decides to phase out support for the S2 as they have with the S1. Those rumors are floating around and if it happens in the next year or two I'll be very frustrated.

See less See more

jlb

· #10 · Jul 24, 2007

StuffOfInterest said:
.......The one thing which could really throw lemons in the mix is if TiVo decides to phase out support for the S2 as they have with the S1. Those rumors are floating around and if it happens in the next year or two I'll be very frustrated.

Well, what do you mean by "phase out support"? If you mean that at some point in the future the box will stop functioning totally, then that will not happen (barring failure of the box itself).

But if you mean they will stop selling, and refurbing the units, then that is a possibility. However, as long as an image of the S2 machines is available out there, the box should continue to work going forward.

atmuscarella

· #11 · Jul 24, 2007

The one thing which could really throw lemons in the mix is if TiVo decides to phase out support for the S2 as they have with the S1. Those rumors are floating around and if it happens in the next year or two I'll be very frustrated.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "phase out support" I could live with no new updates/features/bug fixes as long as they continued to provide what's being provided now.

Thanks,

GoHokies!

· #12 · Jul 24, 2007

jdmatl said:
Yes, I knew there was a new unit on the horizon, but not at the same price as a S2DT.

I would have not thought they would have put the S3Lite unit in for $299.00 maybe 499.00 or 399.00.

If I had got the S2DT for 199.00 with lifetime swap, I wouldn't feel so bad.

The box isn't for the same price. For the $299 you also got the lifetime transfer, the fee for that when the S3 came out was $199, so if you think of it that way the box only cost you $100 (which is the exact price you can buy the box for now).

HDTiVo

· #13 · Jul 24, 2007

jdmatl said:
Yes, I knew there was a new unit on the horizon,

I warned y'all to consider all this kinda stuff. TiVo's policy says no backsies.

bicker said:
Well said, especially the point about the S2DT being just as functional and useful today as it was yesterday. :up:

I can't agree because there were folks encouraging people to just suck it up and pull the trigger - without thinking through all these possibilities.

So before putting all the blame on someone less informed who came here for advice, look a bit to those of us who didn't lay it all out.

ZeoTiVo

· #14 · Jul 24, 2007

jdmatl said:
Arghhhhh!!! I feel that tivo just ripped me off with this S2DT $299 deal I just purchased. Anybody else buy a DTS2, transfer their lifetime and now wish they hadn't?

The only thing keeping me from just exploding with anger of getting taken advantage of with this deal is the HOPE that comcast will keep Channels 2-99 alive for at least 2 maybe 3 years so I can almost "get" my money out of it. ($6.95 month x 36months).

Something tells me there won't be a "Transfer your Lifetime to the S3Lite" deal anytime soon.

S2DT's are now boat anchors, at best will become S2single tuners when cbl co's drop 2-99 channels.

Yeah Tivo "Gets Me". It gets how to "screw me over"

many will have zero sympthay for you.
You read the posts here, you knew the deal going in.
I jsut checked - my DT DVRs are working fine and so are yours I bet,
the move to digital will take some time for sure

so go ahead and rant and post multiple threads on how you can heare the analog drying up in your cable line as you type. If you want to look reactionary and wrong, that would be the way to do it

ZeoTiVo

· #15 · Jul 24, 2007

StuffOfInterest said:
The one thing which could really throw lemons in the mix is if TiVo decides to phase out support for the S2 as they have with the S1. Those rumors are floating around and if it happens in the next year or two I'll be very frustrated.

there is aboslutely nothing to lend credence to those rumors. the whole feature set TiVo is working on is to make some money off the broadband connections. the S2 has a fine broadband connection. No way they will keep S2 out of the loop on any of that. Plus they have lots of developers intimately involved in the S2 code base that will have plenty of work to do for years to come

StuffOfInterest

· #16 · Jul 24, 2007

ZeoTiVo said:
there is aboslutely nothing to lend credence to those rumors. the whole feature set TiVo is working on is to make some money off the broadband connections. the S2 has a fine broadband connection. No way they will keep S2 out of the loop on any of that. Plus they have lots of developers intimately involved in the S2 code base that will have plenty of work to do for years to come

That is what I hope. I bought my Series 1 in September 2000. For the first couple of years there were new features and improvments happening in the software so that I was actually looking forward to when the box would tell me it needed to reboot. Then, one day, the updates stopped. I would read about new features going into the Series 2, but my Series 1 just sat there. I'm sure that most of those new features were broadband related, but a few of them must have been relvant to what the Series 1 platform could handle. And I'm not even going to go into the DST issue. That was just annoying for a few weeks.

If the Series 2 does stick around for a few years as TiVo's SDTV platform, then I'll hopefully continue to see new features being added in. My frustration will be if the press releases start to read "for Series 3 only" on every new feature.

After playing with my new Series 2 last night I'm excited about the possiblities for it. Some of the media service to PC integration (such as Galleon) are very impressive. Now if I can just get the DVD rip to TiVo transfer to give me some useful output I'll feel like I have a 2007 ready system able to replace my old 2000 technology work horse.

See less See more

Dan203

· #17 · Jul 24, 2007

StuffOfInterest said:
Now if I can just get the DVD rip to TiVo transfer to give me some useful output I'll feel like I have a 2007 ready system able to replace my old 2000 technology work horse.

What kind of "useful output" are you looking for? If you're simply looking to rip DVDs and then upload them to your TiVo then try VideoReDo. Just rip the DVD to your hard drive using a decrypter like DVD Decrypter. Then go into VRD and select Open Title from DVD from the File menu. Select the main movie from the PGC list. Then finally save the file into your My TiVo Recordings folder as a standard .mpg. When it's done you should have a file that you can transfer to your TiVo no problem.*

Dan

* One exception.... TiVo's only support playback of files with a 29.97fps frame rate. Some DVDs use "film mode", which is 24fps. For those films you'll have to completely reencode the video for it to work.

bicker

· #18 · Jul 24, 2007

HDTiVo said:
I can't agree because there were folks encouraging people to just suck it up and pull the trigger - without thinking through all these possibilities.

Then a small measure of blame, perhaps, rests with those specific people who advocated to act without thinking, though still most of the blame rests with the reader of their advice who decided to act without thinking or accept what these folks were saying as gospel, even though the rest of us kept bringing up the issue...

StuffOfInterest

· #19 · Jul 24, 2007

Dan203 said:
What kind of "useful output" are you looking for? If you're simply looking to rip DVDs and then upload them to your TiVo then try VideoReDo. Just rip the DVD to your hard drive using a decrypter like DVD Decrypter. Then go into VRD and select Open Title from DVD from the File menu. Select the main movie from the PGC list. Then finally save the file into your My TiVo Recordings folder as a standard .mpg. When it's done you should have a file that you can transfer to your TiVo no problem

I had hoped to avoid having to buy any more software, but things are pointing that way. I hope something like pyTivo will handle the convert and reencode (using ffmpeg) to take a combined vob from DVD Shrink and get it into a useable format. If not, it looks like I may have to burn some more discretionary funds. Sorry to get off topic.

Dan203

· #20 · Jul 24, 2007

In some, but not all, cases you can use DVD Decrypter to get a transferable video. What you do is first disable the file splitting option in the preferences window. Then open a DVD in IFO mode and enable the Stream Processing mode. From there select just one audio and one video stream and output. When you're done you will have a single .VOB file. Simply rename that to .mpg and put it into your My TiVo Recordings folder. The problem with this method is that some DVDs aren't multiplexed correctly to be compatible with TiVo, so it fails. With VideoReDo the entire stream is remultiplexed on output so as long as the frame rate problem mentioned above doesn't come into play then they work every time.

VRD is really a worthwhile investment. In fact very soon there will be an updated version which will allow you to do the reverse was well. (i.e. convert .tivo files to DVDs

)

Dan

1 - 20 of 56 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.