[rbienstock]

Is it possible to have the same tivo unit linked to more than one Tivo Central Online account?

 

[JimSpence]

I doubt it. Why would you want to do that?

 

[rbienstock]

I doubt it. Why would you want to do that?

I have three units on my account, only one of which is available to my kids. I'm OK with them programming that box, but not any of the other boxes, and I don't want them to have the password to my TiVo account.

 

[JimSpence]

So you are willing to pay for two TiVo accounts? I doubt TiVo would allow the same TiVo on two accounts. You could dedicate an account and a TiVo for the kids.

 

[rbienstock]

So you are willing to pay for two TiVo accounts? I doubt TiVo would allow the same TiVo on two accounts.

Well maybe we're using the wrong terms here. Obviously there can only be one subscription per box. As far as I know, TiVo charges for subscriptions, not accounts. That would have to be the case, otherwise, the single account that I have with three subscriptions should cost the same as someone else's account with only a single subscription on it, and TiVo owes me a bunch of money. Since this is clearly not what's going on, it must mean that having accounts has nothing to do with paying for subscriptions. Indeed, it is possible to have and pay for TiVo subscriptions without ever having any account at TiVo Central Online. I know this because my mother has one and she can't even use a computer. So I think that we can safely put this to bed.

In any event, it is not uncommon for multiple people to be granted access and control over the same collection of data. For example, my wife and I both have ATM cards with different numbers and PINs, yet we can both access our joint accounts with both cards but at the same time, only the account owner is able to access his or her individual accounts (like IRAs). The same thing happens in many other places, for example Amazon allows all my family's separate accounts to share my Prime shipping purchase, Netflix allows each person in my family to maintain separate queues on one account, FedEx.com allows each member of my family to have separate logins to send packages all using the same account number, and I could go on, but what;s the point. What we're really talking about is separate logins, not separate accounts.

So I'll ask the question again, without using the dreaded word "account." Is it possible for a single TiVo unit to be controlled online with using two different user IDs?