If I were to buy a TiVo would I need to subscribe to the service to use it, or can the unit still timeshift without the subscription?

I'm a po' college student, so if it can be used with the subscription, it would take some burden of me .

Yes, but you won't get the program guide or beable to set season passes. So essentially, it'd be like a regular VCR.


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Oh, that sucks . Thanks for answering the question .

Series 2 boxes won't do anything without the subscription

Sony tivo's, even the series 1 svr2000 won't work if it shipped with a later software version. I think version 2.something

yeah, unless you get old tivos you can't do anything. the ones in the middle let you record but wont show you the time and channel you recroded. the oldest ones (like mine) show me date and time..i can figure out show in my head

You need a series 1 TiVo running TiVo software version 1.3 in order to record without a subscription.

OT but just saw this on yahoo. TiVo plans on selling your viewing habit data to the highest bidder
Tivo Yahoo Link

That's what hacks are for, my friend. You can set it so that no info about you is ever sent back to Tivo.

hey, it keeps them in business, I have no problem with it.

Or you can use your phone and call TiVo and ask to not have any data collected. It's been said you can opt-out of the anonymous data collection at any time.

Though I would like the advertisers to see what shows I am watching, so they don't do stupid things like give the idea to FOX to cancel them. I'm not sure it is a good idea for them to see whether or not I skip over commercials, so maybe a hack will mask that data out for the paranoid.

The data Tivo offers is also aggregated by zip code, they never identify single viewers.

Considering most of the viewers in my zip code are likely watching completely different shows than I do, I'm not sure what to think of that.

I wish they would use Tivo data instead of Nielson ratings. I bet some great shows would not be cancelled.