TiVo questions

[jducoeur]

So here's a question to the TiVo users in the audience (I know there are a bunch of you out there):

I've got a Panasonic DVR that I'm quite happy with -- the UI suits me, it's got a big hard drive, it makes it trivially easy to burn stuff to DVD, and it doesn't attempt to be smarter than I am. It has only one drawback, but that's a *big* drawback: it only deals with two-digit channel numbers. Given that my cable actually has tons of channels beyond 99 (including all of the premium stations), that's a real limitation on what I can record. This is particularly an issue as I contemplate the second season of Rome, which is going to happen eventually.

So I'm idly curious about whether a TiVo would do better. Specifically, while I think I'd leave the Panasonic in place, I'm thinking of replacing the seldom-used VCR with a TiVo. That would allow me to hard-drive multiple shows at once, which is occasionally necessary. I think it would be worth it *if* it deals with the things that the Panasonic doesn't.

So the questions are:

1) Does TiVo deal properly with three-digit channels? (I suspect the answer is yes.)
2) Will a TiVo control my cable box? This is nearly as important, because the premium channels have to go through the cable box to get decrypted. The VCR (and, indeed, the Panasonic) has a "cable mouse" attachment that will change the channels on the cable box when needed -- does the TiVo have something similar? (This, I'm less sure about.)

Information about these questions (or suggestions of alternative ways I could configure a system that does what I want, including some device other than a TiVo) is solicited from unimind...

Comments

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Also? We have an extra tivo with a life subscription (as in, no monthly payments to tivo, may have to pay monthly $5 or whatever to the cable provider to talk to the tivo). We had to get a new tivo to talk with our satellite system, and now that we don't seem to be leaving Directv, we might be interested in selling the series 2 tivo. :)

[dsrtao]

Note that until Dec 31, you can use an existing lifetime sub to acquire an otherwise unavailable lifetime sub on an S3 TiVo for $200.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

A Tivo with lifetime is worth quite a bit since they stopped offering lifetime subscriptions earlier this year. People have paid over $700 just for a lifetime gift card, and units with lifetime regularly clear $500 on eBay.

Since TiVo is allowing transfers from lifetimed S1 or S2 boxes to the S3, for a $199 fee, through the end of the year, a lot of people are searching for lifetime boxes to transfer from.

[jducoeur]

Hmm -- that's *very* interesting, especially in light of the ability to upgrade the lifetime license to a Series 3. I'll need to think about maybe buying that from you. (Need to crunch the numbers and decide if I think it really makes sense long-term.) If you *don't* wind up selling it to us, it sounds like you ought to eBay it before the end of the year, while the value is still especially high...