TiVo unveil promo price-plans, resurrect lifetime subscription on SlashGear

I bought my Tivo Series 1 in 1999. Didn't know if it would last, so I hedged my bets with a 1 year service plan. Ditto the next year. Finally, made the switch to Lifetime in year 3. It's still alive and kicking.

The fine folks at Tivo have deemed me unqualified to get a lifetime if I buy a new HD Series 3, based on some of their fine print.

Guess I'll just have to roll my own MythTV and have Tivo shove it up their arses.

gamehendge2000

So does the fact that it's not transferable mean between accounts, or between TiVos? If I get a TiVoHD and lifetime, can I sell it down the road when my cable company turns on SDV as a lifetime unit? Or will I be out the $400 lifetime subscription.

shawngarringer

If you call and threaten to cancel, you can get your rate lowered as far as $6.95.

Eric J2: Electric Jewgaloo

How so? I just upgraded my box to Tivo HD. I'm TRANSFERRING my service agreement from my series 1 to my HD.

schrosa

Didn't the first generation of lifetime subscribers get screwed over HD, or whatever Tivo's definition of "is" is?

Mike from Boston

@MegaZone: Thanks man. I just updated. I knew about it, but I suppose in my utter lack of excitement about that particular aspect of the new plans, I forgot to elaborate.

Wilson Rothman

Giz: Important point, the lifetime is only available to *existing* customers who add a new box to their existing account. Someone buying their first TiVo cannot get lifetime.

MegaZone

@graviton: Yeah, a lot of people have said that - for the past 8 years.

MegaZone

Said it before, and I'll say it again. TiVo is going bye bye pretty soon.

graviton

I would love to get TIVO, but I'm not paying service fees for it.

BloggyMcBlogBlog

@Eric J2: Electric Jewgaloo: I was also able to get $.6.95/mo rate awhile back when my S2's hard drive failed (at least that's what I figured -- it'd record everything fine but playback would cause reboots 1-2 minutes into the video). Since I would have to buy a new unit, I politely told TiVo that they had a choice of either lowering my rate or losing me. In the end, I got a tricked out S2 DT unit from Weaknees.com and all was good :)

Rusdude

@draconis2941: Your right -"it's the software stupid!!" Use the market share of Comcast to leverage Tivo's services across multiple platforms and boxes, and let someone else fiddle with the constant cold war of escalating hardware issues and new tech. If Tivo wants to survive, it better diversify...

tamoko

@MegaZone: People have been saying it for 8 years, and Tivo's market share, for STB, has languished and shrank. They need to get out of the hardware and service biz and stick to develioping their software and licence the hell out of it.

draconis2941

I just switched from $16.95 to $12.95/mo, didn't have to argue at all. Just had to hold for 10m to reach someone.

Harlan

I hate to admit it, but my unnatural love for my ReplayTV boxes is holding me back from the HD experience because I simply don't want to part with them and their lifetime activations. I'm going on 8+ years now with them and simply won't consider anything new that requires a monthly payment. If that Tivo lifetime activation was $100 less and available to new purchasers, I might make the jump.

Limekiller

@gamehendge2000:

Why didn't you take them up on their $199 Series 1 lifetime transfer promotion that just ended?

That's what I did and I'm pretty happy with my decision.

RalphWiggum

@gamehendge2000: If you bought lifetime before October 1, 2003 then you're eligible for the $199 lifetime transfer to a TiVo HD. But that offer ends TODAY. You need to buy a TiVo HD *TODAY*, then you have until December 8 to transfer the lifetime service.

Or, since you're an existing customer, you're also eligible for the $399 lifetime offer that started today and runs through February 2, 2008.

MegaZone

And until they can get the charge for service down to the $9.95 a month that I pay to Time Warner and give me a free box, what reason do I have to switch?

I would still be renting the DVR box from the cable company PLUS upping my monthly fee by $3.00.

Don't they check what their competitors are doing?

klein3351f

@RalphWiggum: The Lifetime transfer ended back in Winter. I bought a S3 in Summer and they did not allow me to transfer my S1 Lifetime from 1999. Fortunately with the release of Tivo Desktop 2.5 and the HD program sharing I just bought a new S3 unit last week and can now activate it with the lifetime service and using the $200 rebate (but I am stuck with the 3 year pre-paid of my first S3).

@klein3351f: Until you spend a few days using a Tivo you do not at all know what you are missing. Most people think it is basically the same experience as on a DTV or Cable DVR and some even think it is basically a digital VCR and nothing more, so therein lies the problem for Tivo. The dozens or so people I have converted have been blown away with the difference in the Tivo experience and only one or two have every had the need to return (and even then only because Tivo fumbled the HD and 2-tuner transition). For me it is up there with the best consumer electronics introductions of the past 20 years (the fact that I have had the luxury of massive wins on Tivo stock 5 or 6 times now hasn't hurt my opinion one bit ).

Vagabum

Note that the Tivo web link only displays the Lifetime service option if you are signed in and presumably if you already have an activated Tivo service on your account (I do).

Vagabum