crosschekr

I am finally going to get TIVO...My question is do I go for the Lifetime fee of the product or the monthly payments. What has been the life expectancy of most TIVO's user's machines? What have you TIVO users gone with? Thanks for the input.

Chew

Go for Lifetime.

Static Cling

What is the price breakdown now? I think it's changed since I got my TiVo, but when I got it, it was $10/mo or $250 lifetime... I went with lifetime.

veloce

I have ReplayTV, but it works the same way. You get to try it for free for a couple of days, and then you have to decide how you want to pay the fee. I knew within a couple of hours I wanted to keep it for more than two years (or whatever the lifetime fee comes to), so I gladly paid it. Unless you really don't have the cash in hand, I don't think it's worth doing anything other than lifetime.

huzefa

I pay monthly because it's only $5/month. At that rate it would take me over 2 years of service to justify the lifetime fee. Plus who knows what they'll have in two years.

Venusian

i go with no service here so i can't be of much use

wildcatlh

I don't think you can do that anymore with the current Series 2 Tivos. Maybe I'm wrong though.

djbrown

That's with the DirecTivo's though, for which lifetime isn't even an option any more. "Regular" Tivos are $13/month I believe.

Venusian

yeah, i dont think you can go no service with series 2. however, some of the newest ones have a free service that does very little

BDB

I did not and I don't regret it, although I could have paid for it now. But when I bought the unit it was 400 and then 250 for the lifetime, so I was happy yo just pay the 400.

That was 3 years ago

Tsar Chasm

I have opted to go with monthly for my 2 series 2 tivos. High Definition is right around the corner and I plan on upgrading to a device that can record that signal.

Deftones

i went lifetime on my tivo when it first came out about 3 years ago. back then i think it was either $149 or $199 for lifetime service. i had the very first gen tivos, so i'd say the life expectancy is at least 3 years.

G. Noel Gross

Went lifetime a couple yers ago as well and they let me transfer it from my original unit to a Series2.

crosschekr

Thanks for all the input.

Rypro 525

one question, what happens if for some reason there is a schedualing conflict (you want to watch two programs on two channels but at the same time) what happens then? Also how long can we expect the commercial skipping feature to last? I want opinions on both versions.

Jadzia

On my DirecTivo, it records both.

Chew

If you have a DirecTiVo (which has two tuners), you don't have a conflict.

If you have a standalone (which has a single tuner), which ever has the higher priority in the season pass listing would be recorded.

theedge

I purchased a refurbished unit from ReplayTV. It was a 5040 which I upgraded to a 5160 (160 Hours baby! ) It only cost $340 delivered and includes a lifetime subscription. I turned around and sold my old 2000 series Panasonic showstopper for $300 so it was a great deal for me, considering I paid $199 for the showstopper!

They do have a 4504 40 hour unit for $349.99 including activation right now...and a 5040 for $399.99 after rebate with free shipping and activation.

These units are great, cause they are the last to have Commercial Advance, and possibly the 30 second skip feature plus many others..

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/sho...RTV.asp?cat=51

Oh, and they have Ethernet connections built in...

huzefa

theedge, what is Commercial Advance actually? How does it work? Does it just 'sense' that there is a commercial and automatically skip forward? Does it skip forward to the end of that commercial, 30 seconds, or to the end of the entire commercial break?