OT: Tivo - worth the money?

[NapoleonDynamite]

I currently have a Xfinity/Comcast DVR but it sucks. The UI is absolutely terrible and many times, it only records 1 or 2 minutes of a program I've set up to record before mysteriously cutting off. It costs $16.95/mo for the DVR box.

I've seen a special offer of $99 for a Tivo box, plus $19.95 per month for 1-year agreement.

- Is it worth it?
- Is $19.95 the standard monthly rate (after 1 year)?
- Other ideas for DVR replacements?
- Thoughts? Comments? Beuhler...

Many thanks.

 

[jeremyrbrown]

but you might have to pay you cable provider for 2 cable cards.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

Are three of the things I will not do without if at all possible. But 20 bucks a month? I haven't looked at a summary of my Direct TV bill lately but I could swear that I'm not paying over 12 to 15 for the DVR service.

 

[PineGroveBulldog99]

I got a TiVO for Christmas & I think it's great. I can also stream Netflix, Pandora Radio, & YouTube. To me, it's worth the $20 a month. <div>
</div><div>Whenever you are watching TV & a commercial for another television show comes on, you can actually program your Tivo to record right from the commercial. Also, if you forget to record something, you can go online to tivo.com & set it to record. Unfortunately, there are not any good Tivo apps for Android & iPhone yet.</div><div>
</div><div>I did have to buy a signal amplifier to hook up to it because my cable signal wasn't that strong, but I have great HD tv. </div><div>
</div><div>I don't have a landline at the house, but you can buy a wireless adapter & it will connect to your home WiFi network at your house or you can connect it via ethernet cable too. </div>

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

I still think it's crappy to charge a monthly fee for that.

Cable companies didn't charge a fee for you to record things on your VCR back in the day. Onceyou've already paid for thehardware, why should they make you pay for the convenience of using it?

 

[weblow]

and slickest I have ever used. It is much better than Direct TV's and of course it is better than the guide and crap that Comcast has. Even after the recent upgrade from Comcast, it is still not as good as what we had when it was Time Warner.

Tivo has a great guide and it is very easy to set up series recordings. 20 a month seems pretty high to me though. I have not had one in the last year since lightning took mine out.

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

that's why tivo sued dishnetwork

 

[dawgstudent]

of course, this last guide update was supposed to take 6 months and 2 1/2 years later - we got the "new" guide.

 

[weblow]

soon. I hope I am wrong but, as you said, Comcast promised us a new update after they downgraded our system to a Windows 95 looking interface. They promised that it would just be a few months and it took forever. The most recent one is better, minus the advertisement at the bottom of the guide. I was also kind of pissed that only a few of my season program recordings transferred over with the new update.

 

[JimboDawgo]

Service is normally like $13 a month, but the boxes are ~$300 instead of $100. I pay by the year, and I think it's around $130 a year. I think they're trying to get new subscribers by lowering the initial cost. I'd recommend seeing if you can find a refurbished unit, for probably 100-150, then you get the box for cheap, and a lower monthly cost.

But yeah, TiVo is worth it. And if anyone tells you cable dvrs are just as good, you tell them to shut their ***** mouth!! Nothing comes close to TiVo, in my opinion.