Tivo. What are the costs?

[Makdyn]

We have Dish Network and a DVR. For both of those we pay a total of $43 a month, including tax. The downside (if I understand right) is that with TIVO you can watch something live while recording something else. With the DVR you can watch something taped, but not live while recording something. However, they will hook it up to 4 TV's, so we have a small tv in our bedroom that we rarely watch that we usually tell the DVR to record to. That way the livingroom is still freed up.

Maybe it has to do with dish network, but with my dvr I can watch something live and have something else recording. The only thing that i can not do it have two shows recording and watch something else live. I have to be watching one of those shows. But since I do not have to watch commericals anymore I will not watch a show unless it has already been recorded so i can forward though the commericals.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I am not sure of how comfortable you are with computers, but one option is to build your own Tivo like system. It is not that bad and there is no monthly fee. Here are a few links to get you going if your interested

http://www.makezine.com/extras/4.html

http://www.byopvr.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-4.html

http://www.byopvr.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-5.html

 

[jennilouwho]

Disneysteve...you are a budget king, however- no matter what i tried, i could never record with my vcr through my satellite box- and without the satellite box, we got no channels!
jennilouwho- how do you hook the dvr up to another set? we hooked up our own,on one set, i was wondering how to get around that"watch and tape" thing- any specifics? other than that- cost is $31 a month for our dishnetwork including the dvr box, so I'm happy!

I have no idea how to hook it up! Dish Network sent someone out for free to do it. It was kind of complicated and they had to do some rewiring, but they did it for free. I know the ads I always see say up to 4 TV's for the same price. It might vary by region.

Makdyn-I was wondering if there were "newer" DVR's that would allow you to watch live and tape something at the same time on the same tv. It may just be that we have an older model or something. The people I nanny for have TIVO, and although it's very picky of me, I hate how long it takes to go through the guide channels. The DVR seems to let you move through that more quickly.

Once you go from VCR to DVR/TIVO it's hard to go back, that's for sure. I'm not sure why. We don't watch that much TV, but we love that when we want to, we can record it with the touch of one button and then start it a half hour into it so we can skip all the commercials...or Ryan Seacrest stretching things out longer than necessary It's actually cheaper for us than cable.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

I was all set to disagree with bicker but then I went and checked out the tivo forum.. and could not believe what i read!

Tivo Forum Article on new Pricing

We have a 140 hour tivo box with lifetime, and set my grandma up with an 80 hour tivo with lifetime. I am so glad we have lifetime! We paid $200 or so for the box and $300 or so for lifetime and have had it over 2 years, so we're past the point of what monthly service would have cost under the old system. On the new system 2 years of rental and service is $369, 3 years is $469.

I guess they finally realized that they would see more recurring income if they switched to monthly/yearly fees. It's probably quite good for their books.

Last day to convert or sign up for lifetime is March 18th -- If you have an existing tivo on month to month you can call till March 18th and convert to lifetime.

As to your original question.. your local cable provider may have an option for you - if you have satellite your provider almost definately has an option for you (and some of those boxes are cooler, because they have 2 tuners in them!) and if you have a techy geeky person in your life, or are one yourself, you can build your own dvr.. which has gotten significantly cheaper and easier in recent years.. even if you're not an uber geek, but can follow directions you should be able to build your own. Also, I think it's an option when you a buy a Dell anymore, to get the software to do some basic dvr stuff, so you might not even have to build it yourself.

Check out the forums on www.tivocommunity.com for more info and reviews about dvr's

--heather

My dh has built his own dvr which we have dubbed the "SIVO" - lol! He did a pretty good job.

That being said, we have 2 TIVOs in our house and bought another one for my parents. We originally bought it for my parents because our kids are over there all the time and they are spoiled by the TIVO at home. Well, now my dad is spoiled by the TIVO and wants us to buy another one for their home in Miami.

We only use the "SIVO" - homemade dvr - as a back up system when our 2 TIVOs are recording somthing else. Reason being that the TIVO is just so much easier to use and the "SIVO" is only hooked up to regular basic "free" tv like CBS, ABC, NBC, etc., whereas the TIVO is hooked up to the cable box.

One TIVO has the lifetime subscription and the other one (1st back up) we manually program with the date and time like the old vcrs (older model - newer ones won't let you do that).

My parent's TIVO has free lifetime basic service that came with the box. It has limited sevice such as only 3 days worth of programming data in advance and no season pass and extra features. TIVO has since discontinued this model but it is perfect for my parents because they don't need or know how to use all the bell and whistles and there are NO service fees ever.

Can't imagine watching TV without TIVO anymore.

Too bad about them discontinuing the lifetime service - best deal ever.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

jennilouwho- how do you hook the dvr up to another set? we hooked up our own,on one set, i was wondering how to get around that"watch and tape" thing- any specifics? other than that- cost is $31 a month for our dishnetwork including the dvr box, so I'm happy!

I think this has something to do with how many "receivers" you have, or something like that.

 

[allboyz]

There is no charge up-front for the TiVo box. You just pay $16.95 per month for three years, for the box and for the service. After that the price drops to $12.95 per month.

There are alternatives to TiVo -- I've tried them all. They truly cannot compare to TiVo's superior user-interface. So much so that Comcast, which has up to now put out its own DVR, is getting TiVo to design their next-generation DVR.

The TiVo user-interface is key to skipping to commercials. It is so intuitive and you can get very skilled, very quickly, at skipping a set of commercials. I typically use the fastest fast-forward and make it through the commercials in about 8 seconds, and I almost never MISS stopping the fast-forward at exactly the correct time so that we don't see more than a half-second of the last commercial or miss more than a half-second of the show once it has returned. That's because TiVo knows that you cannot react to what you see on the screen fast enough, so when you stop a high-speed fast-forward, it backs the recording up to where it was when you first THOUGHT about clicking the play button!

Or you can pay $19.95 each month for 1 year. I already have one tivo unit that has a dvd burner (love it!). I got a great deal online. I paid cash for that one. I want a regular tivo unit (no burner) for my bedroom. I just found out about this new monthly payment packages today so I'm thinking about doing the one year one. Anyway, I absolutely LOVE tivo and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[allboyz]

My dh has built his own dvr which we have dubbed the "SIVO" - lol! He did a pretty good job.

That being said, we have 2 TIVOs in our house and bought another one for my parents. We originally bought it for my parents because our kids are over there all the time and they are spoiled by the TIVO at home. Well, now my dad is spoiled by the TIVO and wants us to buy another one for their home in Miami.

We only use the "SIVO" - homemade dvr - as a back up system when our 2 TIVOs are recording somthing else. Reason being that the TIVO is just so much easier to use and the "SIVO" is only hooked up to regular basic "free" tv like CBS, ABC, NBC, etc., whereas the TIVO is hooked up to the cable box.

One TIVO has the lifetime subscription and the other one (1st back up) we manually program with the date and time like the old vcrs (older model - newer ones won't let you do that).

My parent's TIVO has free lifetime basic service that came with the box. It has limited sevice such as only 3 days worth of programming data in advance and no season pass and extra features. TIVO has since discontinued this model but it is perfect for my parents because they don't need or know how to use all the bell and whistles and there are NO service fees ever.

Can't imagine watching TV without TIVO anymore.

Too bad about them discontinuing the lifetime service - best deal ever.

Toshiba makes a similar unit with the basic Tivo coverage (the one that you mentioned) but it is so expensive. I always check the price on Ebay. I guess it is worth it since you never have to pay for tivo service.

 

[DaisyD]

We have 3 lifetime boxes. We paid $249 each.

 

[hsmamato2]

This is a cool thread.... I thought our setups got a little complicated, but looking at some of yours, I don't think so now!
Anyway, I do think the dvr box depends on if it's a more than one receiver in the unit- we got the single tuner one, the double and more,they install,but it costed more(did I mention I'm cheap?)
And the vcr thing? I've heard of others being able to tape thru Dishnetwork, but I couldn't do it! i went online, printed out various configurations, tried them all, nothing! I wanted free first, when that didn't work, we got the next best thing, and i have to say, I LOVE IT! We watched American Inventor after dvr'ing it, and i was glad, b/c it was FULL of commercials, and the host made my skin crawl!

 

[bicker]

Yeah, for me, the main consideration is how much of the work does the DEVICE do versus how much of the work I have to do. If the device keeps track, daily, of changes to the network schedules, and fits my preferred programs together, delaying some that are repeated many times in a week in favor of those that aren't, even recording that extra minute of a favorite program so I don't miss the ending, in favor of the first minute of another program -- well that's gold to me.

 

[Lewisc]

I have tivo integrated with my Directv receiver.

I'd see what DVR your cable company offers. Whatever advantages a tivo unit gives you will probably be more than offset by the dual tuners most cable companies can supply. Nothing like being able to record two different shows while watching a third show you already recorded.

 

[bicker]

Of course, y'can't beat two Tivo's.

Or three.

 

[allboyz]

Of course, y'can't beat two Tivo's.

Or three.

I KNOW! I know my tivo is downstairs. Sometime I'm upstairs and I wish I could rewind something I did not hear or pause it for a second. That is why I'm getting another unit. My first one has a burner. I'm just going to get a regular one for the upstairs though. Oh and also many times my son and I want to record something at the same time! The other night I missed my show because I was too tired to stay up and he had his set to record. So I think an extra unit will really help us out.

 

[bicker]

For us, we watch television in one place only, the living room, so it would be great if we could put all our TiVo in that one place, but there's only room for two. So we put the third one in the bedroom, and just transfer the recordings to one of TiVos in the living room via wireless intranet. Gotta love the special features... utterly simple.

 

[staceyfe]

Ok, I need advice.

I was at Circuit City last night and am just now starting to learn about DVRs. I don't want Tivo, 'cause I don't want to pay a subscription fee. I want to be able to record a show here and there, nothing regular. I don't care about watching one show while recording another--we have 6 tv's. Yes, I know I could use a VCR, but I want to be able to watch shows in the Living room, and I don't think I have another coax for a VCR too (I basically want to replace my DVD player to a DVR). So, can I get by with just a DVR? I am not under the impression I need anything from my cable company for this. Also, what about the DVDs? I know they are pricy. The one I was looking at last night uses DVD-RAM. But would a DVD-R work? I can't keep up with all the technology!!

Oh.. and I have a mini-DV camcorder I'd like to be able to transfer to DVD also. Yes, I can do this on my computer, but I'd have to buy a $30 firewire cable.

 

[Gillian]

We have DirecTV and have had varied experiences with their DVR.

First we had 2 Tivo-branded DirecTV receivers (40 hours) that we LOVE! Great interface, easy to use, no problems except not enough space.

We recently got a new Directv DVR/reciever that is not Tivo and it, well, it sucks. It's so awful and there is a bug that causes it to record all episodes of some shows instead of just the first run (supposedly they're now aware of this and working on a fix). It doesn't stop fast forwarding when you tell it to, or plays without sound, so it's very difficult to skip commercials. Honestly, it's just awful.

We're thinking of sending it back. I spoke to three directv people today and that seems to be our only option.

We thought about getting a separate TiVo, but with the price changes it will cost us too much.

 

[bicker]

We recently got a new Directv DVR/reciever that is not Tivo and it, well, it sucks.

That's a very common realization for folks; they figure one DVR is just like aonther, and then they realize the difference....

 

[Nicolepa]

That's a very common realization for folks; they figure one DVR is just like aonther, and then they realize the difference....

Yes. We have a TIVO and then we have a computer that my dh made for an MCE machine. I love my TIVO, never a glitch. The DVR is complicated to figure out, doesn't always work, doesn't have some of the great features of Tivo etc. (Big one is the clipping. It will clip a few minutes off a show rather than cancel the entire thing. LOVE that feature. MCE doesn't have it.)

 

[SleepyatDVC]

Toshiba makes a similar unit with the basic Tivo coverage (the one that you mentioned) but it is so expensive. I always check the price on Ebay. I guess it is worth it since you never have to pay for tivo service.

Yes, I do believe it is a Toshiba. It comes with a DVD player and Tivo built into one unit. We bought it a few years ago from Circuit City when the model was being discontinued. It was on sale with a rebate too, I think. Great deal not even including the free lifetime basic service.

That model is like my DVC, I could probably re-sell it for more then I paid for it! Lol!