does TIVO EVER offer discounts on that $499 lifetime fee?
300755
I just got a 199 offer on my roamio hd or 9.99 per month. keep in mind the lifetime is not transferrable; once your TiVo dies, it would cost you 149 to get a refurbed replacement.
300756
Yes I had a lifetime subscription to a series 2, so I get emails from them every so often. After years of passing up deals, I happend to open up an email from them with $199 for lifetime suscription so I bought 2 Premire XL DVR's. I'm happy with them and knocked $30 off my cable bill so they will pay themselvs off in less than 2 years.They sent me another deal the next month that was not nearly as good, so if you see a good deal on the lifetime subscription get it!One more thing is they are starting to offer promotions for FREE Tivo's with a 2 year service commitment. Typically this is the same price as you pay for the DVR service from cable so you can have Tivo for the same price if you want it. Yes I had a lifetime subscription to a series 2, so I get emails from them every so often. After years of passing up deals, I happend to open up an email from them with $199 for lifetime suscription so I bought 2 Premire XL DVR's. I'm happy with them and knocked $30 off my cable bill so they will pay themselvs off in less than 2 years.They sent me another deal the next month that was not nearly as good, so if you see a good deal on the lifetime subscription get it!One more thing is they are starting to offer promotions for FREE Tivo's with a 2 year service commitment. Typically... » Read More Yes I had a lifetime subscription to a series 2, so I get emails from them every so often. After years of passing up deals, I happend to open up an email from them with $199 for lifetime suscription so I bought 2 Premire XL DVR's. I'm happy with them and knocked $30 off my cable bill so they will pay themselvs off in less than 2 years.They sent me another deal the next month that was not nearly as good, so if you see a good deal on the lifetime subscription get it!One more thing is they are starting to offer promotions for FREE Tivo's with a 2 year service commitment. Typically this is the same price as you pay for the DVR service from cable so you can have Tivo for the same price if you want it. « Show Less
300757
Yes, every 6 months or so TiVo will run a special.We have purchased 3 separate lifetime services and the most we have paid for any of those was a one-time fee of $299.
300758
Yes, but don't hold your breath. About four months after buying my second TiVo (so my wife and I would both have our own for our own TVs) I got a casual email from TiVo offering lifetime service for $99, which I promptly snapped up. Also, they usually offer some hardware discounts on new TiVos after Thanksgiving, for the Christmas season, and these may also offer a discount on lifetime service. This last season the discount was $100, I believe - not nearly as generous as the one I mentioned above.
300759
Once you have paid it, subsequent offers are less, though some are only $100 less.
300760
I too have rarely seen any discounts on lifetime service. I suggest "liking" Tivo on Facebook and subscribing to their emails so you can catch the deals when they become available.
1602418
@Otis: Yes, you're paying for the right to use the device. Tivo refers to this as "DVR Service". Without DVR Service, you essentially have little more than just a tuner. It won't even function as a dumb VCR without the monthly fee. In part the monthly fee is used to subsidize the low up-front cost of the hardware, but if you own the Tivo for more than a couple years then you'll be paying far in excess of what was reasonably used to subsidize the hardware. In a practical sense, you are paying for program guide data and software updates. Since the box is cryptographically locked down, you don't have any alternate choice for guide data nor can you install alternate software. So, you pay Tivo to use the device, take it or leave it, it is what it is.
1496501
A TiVo will not operate without the subscription. Savings will depend on your cable provider. My provider charges $14.95 for the box. A $3 DVR fee and a $3 Electronic Guide fee for a total of $21/month for a DVR. TiVo is $14.99 / Month. So I save money and get the TiVo interface. The box from our cable company is 1/10 the experience and usability of our TiVo.
1639722
It pays for the hardware build cost, hardware development cost, and software development cost. You can opt to pay the lifetime subscription fee of $500 if you don't want the monthly fee. That pays off after 3+ years and is worth it if you can afford the higher upfront costs.
873053
I bought and own this box along with the tailgater dish and i am not charged the $7 monthly fee. It is for dish network.
1981476
Yes . There's a monthly charge. It's very low and to me worth every penny. I hope this helped you.
228640
you can pay monthly, i don't know the price, probably 15???? or you can pay upfront, for the life of the unit, which is what i did, 500 if you dont have an existing tivo or 400 if you do, i did so it was 400 for life of the unit subscription. i don't know the cost of the new tivo subscriptions, there is a new model, probably more expensive. i just got Western Digital dvr expander, and hooked it up to my premier tivo for more memory, 99 here on amazon, very happy with it.
1037433
Cable company will rent you an M-Card for about $1.99 per month and by FCC rules they must provide you a Tuning Adapter for free. Tuning adapter decrypts cable shows. M-Card allows Tivo to "see" all channels you pay for, HBO if youe are subscribed. Initial setup of M-Card and Tuning Adapter can be problematic but once "paired" correctly they should work without issue.
2277173
I called directv and set it up. Pretty minimal monthly charge- I think it's $10/mo or less.
228637
It is $14.99 a month and the TiVo Mini is $4.99 a month. You can also pay for a whole year up front. I'm not sure how much that is.
1543436
I bought. One from Amazon last week, and my TiVo account now show lifetime service for this new mini.
1147030
You must subscribe to the TiVo service. Go to www.tivo.com. It's reasonably priced.
1868776
I contacted Amazon Customer Service as well, and they insisted that I needed to contact TiVo. But since this is in regards to the rebate form THEY have on their site I refused to. After going several rounds with them and getting the same form letter response about the issue being TiVo's problem I said the heck with Amazon. Even after that they changed the wording on the item page but it was still linking to the wrong rebate form. But since I had found the correct rebate form on the TiVo site, I purchased the unit. I guess Amazon was not being shady... just stupid. And their "Customer Service" department can go lick themselves. I contacted Amazon Customer Service as well, and they insisted that I needed to contact TiVo. But since this is in regards to the rebate form THEY have on their site I refused to. After going several rounds with them and getting the same form letter response about the issue being TiVo's problem I said the heck with Amazon. Even after that they changed the wording on the item page but it was still linking to the wrong rebate form. But since I had found the correct rebate form on the TiVo site, I purchased the unit. I guess Amazon was not being shady... just stupid. And their "Customer... » Read More I contacted Amazon Customer Service as well, and they insisted that I needed to contact TiVo. But since this is in regards to the rebate form THEY have on their site I refused to. After going several rounds with them and getting the same form letter response about the issue being TiVo's problem I said the heck with Amazon. Even after that they changed the wording on the item page but it was still linking to the wrong rebate form. But since I had found the correct rebate form on the TiVo site, I purchased the unit. I guess Amazon was not being shady... just stupid. And their "Customer Service" department can go lick themselves. « Show Less
343107
The type of DVR your cable company offers does what it claims to do: record programs of your choosing. The remote control provided by your cable company also lets you play/pause/forward/rewind recorded content, with the added benefit of pausing live content. I have used my cable provider's (Comcast) DVR but switched to TiVo in 2006 because of its easy-to-use remote and its superior interface compared to the cable company's. The Roamio DVR is the newest style of DVRs from TiVo. With six tuners it is nearly impossible to have an overlapping conflict when setting up programs to record. BUT...TiVo is quite expensive. The basic Roamio itself will cost $200. The Roamio Plus goes for around $400 (but TiVo occasionally offers reduced pricing on the Roamio with Lifetime Service.) Your cable company rents their DVR to you for around $10/month. If it breaks, you get a replacement. If the TiVo breaks, you're out of luck unless you buy an extended warranty. TiVo's monthly service fee is around $15.00 unless you buy a Lifetime Service Plan for around $500. But be aware that this applies only to a specific DVR. If you buy a second TiVo, the monthly fee or Lifetime Service must be purchased for that DVR, too. I currently own three TiVo's and have Lifetime Service on all of them. OUCH!!! The Roamio works fast compared to my older TiVos. The remote controls are designed to work the same, so using the different TiVos are pretty much the same. My wife likes that. In summary, TiVo is an incredibly high quality DVR, but it is expensive compared to that offered by the cable company. Whether TiVo is worth it is a personal decision. I hope this helps with your decision.
2104763
It replaces the DVR box and cable box if you have one. You will need to pick up a cable card and tuner box from Comcast. You can either pay for the lifetime service or monthly for the TiVo. I got the cable card and tuner box for free but um with Cox Communications.
1794355
Yes you can get squaretrade warranties for tivo. For a tivo costing between $200 and $249, a 2 year extended warranty is $22.99 and 3 year extended warranty is $34.99. http://www.squaretrade.com/
890667
Hulu does have a fee. There are several you need to pay for, but also a few free ones. I got this for Amazon Prime