TiVo steal

[nrc]

The hard drive our DirecTV with TiVo went belly up the other day. I was hoping to hold out for the new HD units to come down to a reasonable price but we needed something to watch the race on today. Turns out that DirecTV with TiVo recorders are now just $79 at Best Buy. What a steal. If you don't have one you don't know what you're missing. :thumbup:

[Jag_Warrior]

The hard drive our DirecTV with TiVo went belly up the other day. I was hoping to hold out for the new HD units to come down to a reasonable price but we needed something to watch the race on today. Turns out that DirecTV with TiVo recorders are now just $79 at Best Buy. What a steal. If you don't have one you don't know what you're missing. :thumbup:

I'm a holdout with a VCR and a 10ft. stack of (unlabeled) tapes. How many hours/gigs does the one on sale have?

I've followed the conversations here about Tivo. It seems like a good way to go. But what about the rumors of Murdoch shutting them out? And why is the stock tanking? I know, for $79 I shouldn't be so concerned. I just wondered if I'd be buying something this month and dragging the VCR back out by Xmas.

Thanks.

[KobySon]

I'm a holdout with a VCR and a 10ft. stack of (unlabeled) tapes. How many hours/gigs does the one on sale have?

I've followed the conversations here about Tivo. It seems like a good way to go. But what about the rumors of Murdoch shutting them out? And why is the stock tanking? I know, for $79 I shouldn't be so concerned. I just wondered if I'd be buying something this month and dragging the VCR back out by Xmas.

Thanks.


I don't think tivo is good for archiving if that's what you're thinking about.

Comcast is rolling out HD dvr boxes in my system starting next month. They already started with a "soft launch" of lower end HD dvr boxes, but the good boxes are rolling out in august and september.

[XFT]

Question: I have Directv with a normal reciever. Can I just go and buy this box at bestbuy and hook it up and everything will work nicely? OR is there some kind of extra-crap I have to sign up for

[oddlycalm]

I'm a holdout with a VCR and a 10ft. stack of (unlabeled) tapes. How many hours/gigs does the one on sale have?

I've followed the conversations here about Tivo. It seems like a good way to go. But what about the rumors of Murdoch shutting them out? And why is the stock tanking? I know, for $79 I shouldn't be so concerned. I just wondered if I'd be buying something this month and dragging the VCR back out by Xmas.

For $80 there's not much risk. Once you have one you'll be pissed that you haven't had one all along. It's one of those devices that doesn't seem like a big deal until you live with it, then you can't imagine being without it. People have been predicting the death of PVR's since they were invented, but there are still here.

Long term, Murdoch will probably push Tivo out to save 10 cents on royalties, but that won't keep existing units from functioning. It won't do HDTV, so if you're going to HD next month that's certainly a consideration. Otherwise, it's cheap and PVR's are a must-have item for race fans IMO.

Broadly speaking, as every cable and satellite company comes out with it's on poorly concieved piece of junk PVR unit, Tivo will face a challenge growing their revenue stream, which is reflected in the stock price. They most likely will. Regardless, I would not want to be stuck with any of the dopey provider-supplied PVR's I've seen. Recording is only part of the equation, ease of use, automation of the recording process and ease of navigation are just as important. The provider-supplied units are made to a price, designed for the masses.


ReplayTV is in the same situation, however they are owned by the Japanese parent company to the Denon/Marantz/McIntosh audio equipment, and they will continue offer higher end PVR's and media servers under the Denon and Escient brand names. I've never regretted buying one, and I'm very glad I snagged one of the 320 hour units when they were being blown out. It will hold weeks of races, the entire Tour de France, as well as any regular shows I watch, and still have room for more.

oc

[JohnHKart]

Tivo sounds great, until I hear that it needs a land line to dial up the program listings. Well F that and land lines. I'm holding out till I can get a 700dollar Panasonic or Sony DVD recorder with an 80gB hard drive. I don't really need things to be recorded automatically anyway.

John

[nrc]

Going back through questions - the $79 unit only records DirecTV but it records up 35 hours in perfect digital quality and has two tuners. They have an Hi Def DirecTV Tivo available now by they're still hard to find in stock even at $999. :eek:

XFT - yes, just pull out your old receiver, put in the DirecTV w/TiVo combo unit, activate TiVo service ($5/mo with DirecTV) and you're good to go. You have to have a dual LNB dish with two lines to the receiver to enjoy two tuners at once but it will work with one.

For those without DirecTV (or those who have to get their locals over the air) Tivo is currently offering refurb TiVos for $49 or $99 through their web site (http:www.tivo.com). These are 40 hours and 80 hours capacity at low quality or 15 and 30 at high IIRC.

As for questions about TiVo's viability - TiVo stock has gone up and down as investers have wrung their hands over one competitive threat after another. I think the important thing is that TiVo has what many consider the best product on the market and over a million and a half subscribers. They're not going away. If they can't make a profit on their own someone will buy them just as someone bought Replay.

[nrc]

Oh, and btw I think on the latest stand-alone TiVos you can do away with the phone connection if you have broad band and connect it to your home network.

[Audi_A4]

do Tivos work on other systems?

[nrc]

do Tivos work on other systems?

On other systems like what? Standalone TiVos work with almost anything. They record off the air or they can record off satellite or cable by controling the receiver with an IR blaster. It's not as seemless as the DirecTV combo, but it's still leaps and bounds beyond any VCR.

For those who want to archive their stuff there are now even DVD recorders with TiVo built in. :)