Is Tivo a Good Christmas/Birthday Gift for My DH? Costs and Where to Find It!

[J.Corley]

Any version that records TV. I am completely ignornant to Tivo. I want to get this for my DH for Chritsmas/Birthday.

How expensive is the equipment? How about the monthly service?

Any help where to look too!

TIA
Jennifer

 

[caynreth]

We have the DVR service through our cable company (comcast. ew.) so we didn't have to buy the equipment. I think between equipment rental and monthly service it's less than $20 per month added onto our cable bill. I don't know how we ever lived without it! I feel so FREEEEE now that I can watch things when I want to.With tivo, I think the boxes start around $200 and then the monthly service fee is $12 a month OR you can buy lifetime service if you can slap down several hundred dollars at once and then you don't have to worry about the monthly fees. We looked into that, but it didn't work for us because you need a landline phone and we don't have that. We use VOIP service and the Tivo box can't plug into that. The comcast box communicates through the cable line.

 

[J.Corley]

We also have comcast. I'll have to check into that with our local people. They now offer Tivo with no landline necessary.

 

[daniellemorgan]

i have DVR through time warner. it's an additional $6.95 a month. soooooo worth it. i don't even know how to watch live tv anymore

 

[sfdavis918]

We have it through comcast too. It's $11.95 per month. I have no idea how we lived without it either!!

 

[ahammons]

Before we moved, we had DVR service through dish network. Now we have it with direct tv - sorry, I'm drawing a blank on the prices right now. But I do know that w/ dish network we paid less than what we did for cable (w/out a dvr) b/c they had a special going on. Honestly, I liked dish network a little better - I think their DVR was a little easier to navigate than tivo, but that's just me... I was probably just too used to it! lol I just love the fact that I can wait until my kids are in bed to watch my shows!

 

[lkprescott]

Cool question... I'd wondered about this as well. DH got some brochures on TIVO and such but I'm still lost. LOL... Now the folks that have it through their cable company... do you have regular 'basic' cable or digital cable? I'm thinking DVR would require digital service but I just don't know.

 

[bsaxman]

DO NOT GET TIVO OR ANY OTHER DVR UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SERVICE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!

I am saying this because after you get used to having it, it becomes a necessity and totally takes over your life! p Just thought I'd give you fair warning. But if your budget allows, go for it! It's a great service and I love recording a show and fast-forwarding through all the commercials! Good stuff!

 

[lkprescott]

See, that's what I'm wondering... I've got old fashioned 'chipmunk powered' basic cable and we can afford that... course we also have broadband with it too cuz of our computer business we run out of the home (which now that I'm used to having broadband not sure I could ever live with out it - uh.. what's dialup again? LOL)... so if we had to get digital and it was more plus DVR fees per month.. i can see that crunching our budget in no time.. yet there are so many great shows we'd LOVE to be able to record and watch on our time and we keep forgetting to set the VCRS... :cry:

 

[caynreth]

We have the digital. Have to...they moved Sci Fi Channel to the digital only tier. And BBC America too. I need my Doctor Who/Torchwood fix!

 

[lkprescott]

I was miffed that I have no BBC... we still have Sci-fi with our basic... not sure that we're supposed to but I'm not going to call them on it, lest I end up with nothing more than what a set of rabbit-ears would pull in. LOL... and 'round here depending on where you are with the valleys, peaks and hills, might not be much LOL... I have to admit I did enjoy the 'new' Dr Who with Eccelstein or whatever his name was... sex, witty Dr Who, who knew? LOL... and I loved Rose's spunk! Would have like to have seen him carry on more than one season though... Hey... I think I've successfully hijacked my first thread here! LOL

 

[caynreth]

Congratulations on your Threadjack!Yes, it would have been nice if Eccelston had stayed for more than one season. But Tennant is brilliant as well! And my eldest son has such a crush on him.

 

[kspry]

tivo.com has the prices.

Also, they stopped offering the lifetime service. Only way to get that now, is to get an older unit that has it grandfathered into it. And from what I understand, a lot of those units didn't have dual tuners. Which means you can't record & watch another show from the same cable box.

 

[caynreth]

Yeah, you really want the dual tuner. I have the dual tuner on 2 televisions. My husband and I use one, and the kids use the other. Well...mostly my 14 year old son uses the other...it's full of Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs and American Chopper...plus the shows we all watch together as a family: Dr Who, Torchwood, Ghost Hunters, Heroes. Everybody happy!

 

[urbnk8]

Love, love, love DVR!!!!! But yes, it's definitely hard to go back once you have it!! It's SO worth it though!!

 

[jrstephens]

We have DVR with Dishnetwork. I could not live without it! I highly recommend it to everyone. It is great. I love that when our power goes off, I do not have to reset it like I did my VCR. And when a new season starts it records it without me resetting it too. And I love pausing live TV. It is great for a bathroom run or when Luke wants me to get him something.

We pay $5.00 a month for the service. We have a two room system. We did not buy the box. They wanted to charge me and I told them I would switch to Directv and get it free if they charged me and they gave me the box for free to keep my business. I always play that card if I am out of contract and want to make a change.

 

[kam]

I am definitely a TiVo gal. (I have 5)

I am completely unable to watch live TV. Besides, I always have a nice backlog of shows to choose from that I do not need to ever watch live TV.

You can buy an 80hr TiVo with dual tuner for around $99 (after rebate - always look for the rebate) and the monthly service on the first one will be $12.95 and each one after that should be $6.95/month (multi-discount).

I am not familiar with the HD TiVos or how they would work with cable, etc. (I have not had time to read up on it).

The basic TiVo's are standalone and work with your cable service. We have no cable box so I run cable right into the TiVo - and the dual tuner TiVo splits the signal for me.

We also have DirectTV and my husband has upgraded that to HD. Since you can't use Standalone TiVo's on DirectTV, we had to use DirectTV's brand of DVR. (I cry everytime I have to use it- not literally, but I want to. TiVo is SO much easier to use. I can't explain.)

Anyway, I know that various cable companies offer DVR service - and you probably have to get the digital service along with the DVR. We have Comcast and the last time I complained to them about taking channels away and putting them on Digital - it was quite pricey to get Digital - I don't know what it is now, though.

But, there is a rumor that TiVo is going to start being available through some cable companies - it is in test mode in some cities right now.

I love TiVo and will always choose TiVo over anything else, but check out what your cable company has to offer and see how it compares price wise.

With TiVo, I buy the box once ($99) and I get the monthly service that has not increased in over 4 years. Your cable company will most likely charge a monthly fee for "renting" the digital box and maybe an additional charge for the DVR service. And we know how cable increases their prices.

Anyway, ANY DVR IS BETTER THAN NONE!!