What would you buy now?

2712 Views 17 Replies 16 Participants Last post by Ament96, Dec 11, 2011

kcarlile

Discussion Starter · Dec 7, 2011

I've finally gotten an HDTV and a TV feed that is HD (FiOS). I have a S2 with a Lifetime on it and an upgraded ~300 GB drive, so I'm used to having a lot of recording time, and not paying a monthly subscription.

So I've got two downsides right now (and they're obvious):
1. No HD.
2. The FiOS TV box keeps going to sleep and I dont' realize for a couple of days--so I get a couple of days worth of blank recordings. Woo.

so I'm looking at a Premiere XL (can't swing an Elite, those are pretty 'spensive!) and a Lifetime subscription. But all these reports of crashes, crummy UI responsiveness, etc, have me worried. And 1 TB of recording space ain't much when you're talking HD.

So I figure I've got a few options:
1. Suck it up, buy the XL and Lifetime, and be happy with it.
2. Find an old(er) S3 with a Lifetime and an upgraded (or upgrade it myself) HD.
3. Get a standard Premiere and the WD drive (ha! Those are even more expensive and prone to failure).
4. Go with WMC (probably not great WAF there, but who knows).

What would you do? Any rumors of a TiVo Lifetime subscription sale?

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ncted

· #2 · Dec 7, 2011

I personally would go with #1. It is hardware they are still developing the OS for. Even if you just run with the SDUI for stability, it will probably be fine, especially on FIOS. I had a Premier XL last year, and if I had had FIOS, I probably would have kept it. Unfortunately, TWC SDV sucks. I wish I had just gone OTA with it at the time instead of going with DirecTV. Good luck!

-Ted

P42

· #3 · Dec 7, 2011

3

atmuscarella

· #4 · Dec 7, 2011

kcarlile said:
I've finally gotten an HDTV and a TV feed that is HD (FiOS). I have a S2 with a Lifetime on it and an upgraded ~300 GB drive, so I'm used to having a lot of recording time, and not paying a monthly subscription.

So I've got two downsides right now (and they're obvious):
1. No HD.
2. The FiOS TV box keeps going to sleep and I dont' realize for a couple of days--so I get a couple of days worth of blank recordings. Woo.

so I'm looking at a Premiere XL (can't swing an Elite, those are pretty 'spensive!) and a Lifetime subscription. But all these reports of crashes, crummy UI responsiveness, etc, have me worried. And 1 TB of recording space ain't much when you're talking HD.

So I figure I've got a few options:
1. Suck it up, buy the XL and Lifetime, and be happy with it.
2. Find an old(er) S3 with a Lifetime and an upgraded (or upgrade it myself) HD.
3. Get a standard Premiere and the WD drive (ha! Those are even more expensive and prone to failure).
4. Go with WMC (probably not great WAF there, but who knows).

What would you do? Any rumors of a TiVo Lifetime subscription sale?

I would buy a regular Premiere and get lifetime ($500 or less) use it for 90 days and then upgrade the hard drive to a 2TB drive. maybe by then the price of 2TB green drives will be back down around $80 like they were before the flooding.

Good Luck,

jrtroo

· #5 · Dec 7, 2011

I would do number 5) a standard Premiere and update the internal drive. If you can upgrade the drive for a series 2, the Premiere will be a snap.

Oh wait-- what atmuscarella said.

rsnaider

· #6 · Dec 7, 2011

If your FiOS box keeps turning off it is most likely you have it changing to a channel you do not receive.

Make sure you have your Series 2 configured for only what you get as this behavior is what I see when I get a new channel update and a TiVo suggestion tunes that that channel and tries to record.

Scyber

· #7 · Dec 7, 2011

If I was making the jump to HD today, I'd probably go with #4 and WMC. While the initial cost is probably similar to to a lifetime premiere xl, it would be cheaper to add additional tuners/displays in the future.

aaronwt

· #8 · Dec 7, 2011

If I were making the jump today I would go with at least one Elite for the main viewing room and then the regular Premieres to upgrade the hard drives to put in secondary and tertiary viewing locations.

DeWitt

· #9 · Dec 7, 2011

I wanted 4 tuners to get all the FIOS goodness, so I have a Premiere and an XL. Upgraded both to 2 Tb (Easy, glad I did)

If the Elite had been available I would have used that method to get 4 tuners.

Fios/Premiere is a very happy combo. (I now use the HD interface exclusively)

The iPad app is also a nice bonus if you have one,

LoadStar

· #10 · Dec 7, 2011

For me, I'd probably go with a WMC system, but then again, I don't need to worry about the WAF factor.

mattack

· #11 · Dec 8, 2011

#5 Save up for an Elite.

(No, I don't have one, and I am not intending on getting one myself anytime soon.. but if I were starting out, I'd probably get one.. I did pay almost as much as that for a S3 with lifetime, that's currently dead.. but I may have caused that myself..)

trip1eX

· #12 · Dec 8, 2011

#4 I just built a WMC pc so WMC. I feel better about my purchase than I did the Tivo Premiere.

I think the WAF is no worse than tivo at least what I have seen in 5 days of use which granted isn't a very long case study.

But I mean I have it setup to operate just like a Tivo. And even with the differences the basic functionality is the same as a Tivo. Wife watches her shows, plays and pauses them, skips commercials sometimes even.

That's about all she does. She will ask me to record them usually, but the recording process is similar. Search for them or use the guide.

MIght have to put up with a learning curve as the interface isn't a clone. But the basics again are similar. Select recorded tv and select your shows. And the interface is flashier than a Tivo, more visual and is much zippier and in HD.

I suppose though there is much variability in the hardware in a WMC setup so YMMV. But select a fast cpu and lots of ram and good hard drive and power supply and decent motherboard and ....

I am pleasantly surprised so far.

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mr.unnatural

· #13 · Dec 8, 2011

WMC has replaced the Tivos in my household for all recording tasks. You have far more options than a Tivo and it's way faster. I'm on FIOS so I don't have to deal with DRM issues. Transferring a file is as simple as drag and drop in Windows Explorer.

Building a stable WMC PC is easier than ever. PCs will always have issues, but then Tivos have their own set of problems. My HTPC is the sole source component in my Home Theater system along with my preamp/processor and power amps. The one thing my HTPC does that a Tivo likely never will is support Blu-Ray playback with full 1080p support and HD audio. If you really want to go over the top you can build an HTPC with 3D capability.

Joe01880

· #14 · Dec 8, 2011

go into settings in the FiOS DVR and set it to no screen saver

Ament96

· #15 · Dec 11, 2011

I have a different question on what to buy, but similar. I have 3 series 1 tivos with lifetime programming. One just showed me the GSOD -- I found out what it was by reading and I assume it means the end of that unit. Having just bought my first (I know...) flat screen TV, I had been thinking I needed to get a Tivo that worked better with the shape of the screen. I am leaning towards a used series 3 with lifetime from eBay. But which one? I have been reading a bunch on your site, but a lot of what you guys talk about goes right over my head. This is my first posting -- hope I didn't mess up.

atmuscarella

· #16 · Dec 11, 2011

Ament96 said:
I have a different question on what to buy, but similar. I have 3 series 1 tivos with lifetime programming. One just showed me the GSOD -- I found out what it was by reading and I assume it means the end of that unit. Having just bought my first (I know...) flat screen TV, I had been thinking I needed to get a Tivo that worked better with the shape of the screen. I am leaning towards a used series 3 with lifetime from eBay. But which one? I have been reading a bunch on your site, but a lot of what you guys talk about goes right over my head. This is my first posting -- hope I didn't mess up.

There were 3 "Series 3" TiVos:

The Orginial Series 3 HD - The best in many peoples minds also likely the oldest. Only down side is needing 2 cable cards and only being able to do a 1TB internal upgrade (you can do 2TB upgrade but need to buy a drive with software already on it).
TiVo HD:
TiVo HD XL

I have a Series 3 HD and a TiVo HD, both are fine, but the Series 3 HD is nicer. If you will need cable cards I would find out how much more renting 2 instead of 1 will cost you before going with the Series 3 HD as it needs 2 cable cards where the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL only need one.

If you buy anything with the original hard drive still in it I would pull it right away, basically right after the unit's software is up to date. At this point all the drives in all Series 3 units are getting old plus it is much easier to upgrade if you have an original drive.

Good Luck,

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unitron

· #17 · Dec 11, 2011

Ament96 said:
I have a different question on what to buy, but similar. I have 3 series 1 tivos with lifetime programming. One just showed me the GSOD -- I found out what it was by reading and I assume it means the end of that unit. Having just bought my first (I know...) flat screen TV, I had been thinking I needed to get a Tivo that worked better with the shape of the screen. I am leaning towards a used series 3 with lifetime from eBay. But which one? I have been reading a bunch on your site, but a lot of what you guys talk about goes right over my head. This is my first posting -- hope I didn't mess up.

Just for the record, that S1 doing the GSOD can probably be saved, most likely with a hard drive replacement.

Ament96

· #18 · Dec 11, 2011

unitron said:
Just for the record, that S1 doing the GSOD can probably be saved, most likely with a hard drive replacement.

I did upgrade the hard drive in that unit and figured it would once again spring to life if I could remember where I put the original hard drive and replaced it. Funny that we have 3 of the same unit and only the one with the replaced hard drive has, so far, gone bad. I love those units and wonder if the newer ones are the same quality as my Sony SVR-2000? They are the reason I resisted buying a new TV for so long.

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

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