Thoughts on TiVo?

[jducoeur]

msmemory and I find ourselves pondering what we're going to do about the whole digital-TV switchover. Not that we're receiving signals over-the-air, mind -- the supposedly-government-subsidized converter boxes aren't relevant to us. No, our problem is that the cable industry is lying through its teeth about the "if you have cable, you don't have a problem" thing.

You see, we are on cable, and we pay a pretty penny for a fairly high-end package. But the reality is that the cables are *also* switching over to digital, for reasons related to those for the over-the-air change -- it's just lower-bandwidth, which lets them cram more channels in. And this means that any TV that is directly plugged into the cable (as opposed to through a cable box) is potentially screwed. Particularly to us, I am fairly sure that our trusty old Panasonic DVR, which has served us so well for many years, only has an analog receiver, so it's probably toast sometime fairly soon.

So we're pondering our options. We clearly want a functioning DVR -- it's how we watch all the TV we actually give a damn about. (Food Network is fine when we're simply looking for background noise, but we watch most of our series on the DVR.) Enough people have raved about TiVo for long enough that we're considering knuckling under and becoming part of the body.

In which case, the next question is *which* TiVo? The temptation is to go for way-high-end, but I'm taking my time and considering it carefully before spending that much money. The logic for it is that it's a good investment. We're clearly going to want HD capability within the next year or two, so it only makes sense to buy one of the HD models. Besides, the HD model accepts two CableCards, which is probably what we're going to want. (Not to mention the ability to download from Netflix, which is *very* appealing.)

And if we're going to do that, it may make the most sense to shell out the extra $250 for the insanely-large hard drive. The ordinary HD model has more than enough space for conventional-definition shows, but only about 20 hours of HD. Given that we routinely have 100 hours of stuff in our backlog on the Panasonic, this seems like it might become a problem if HD becomes common.

Related to this is the question of which plan to get. Again, there's an argument for going whole-hog: the "lifetime of the DVR" plan is pricey -- about $400 -- but that's the equivalent of about three years of service. If we expect to keep the device in service for a long time (and I'd certainly like to), then the lifetime plan might make sense. Moreover, it potentially increases the resale value of the device considerably if we decided to trade up to something else a few years down the line. So the question there is, how reliable have people found TiVos to be? Can we reasonably expect to get the 5+ years of service it'll take for the lifetime plan to be worthwhile?

Opinions welcomed. I don't have any idea what Comcast's timetable is, but I have no faith that the Panasonic will continue to work past mid-February, so this is gradually turning into a pressing question for us, and we'll have to act soon...

Comments

[jducoeur]

I think that if you buy a TiVo, it will probably last for 5 years or so, barring accidents.

Useful info -- thanks!

but also requires enough setup and ongoing maintenance that it is not suitable *yet* for people who don't live in a house with a sysadmin.

Yeah, that was my impression. I'm sure I *could* build a suitable MythTV box, but I doubt I'm sufficiently motivated.

This also potentially plays into the lifetime-subscription question. Since it improves the resale value of the TiVo, it may make it easier to sell the thing if and when I decide that MythTV is good enough to replace it...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

TiVos are just little linux boxen. They don't get turned on and off or moved a lot (primary cause of hardware failure), so they seem to last pretty well.

Mine did suffer a drive crash this year but $100 fixed that up and tripled our space. This was after..err...5-6 years of use?

However, TiVo's business plan is currently f*cked. I worry about their ability to survive another 5 years. This is too bad, because their GUI and UE is the best out there, and what makes the product great -- everything from the groundbreaking remote control design to the menu interface.

They got away from usability in the past 5 years in favor of trying to make money (by cramming ads into places that used to be interface) but even so they're still 3x better than every other DVR/On-Demand interface I've seen...

Lifetimes follow the machine, and I think always have -- as dsr says, his Series1 is as old as they come and even its license is mobo-specific.

[jducoeur]

Well, I'm actually encouraged by moves like their Netflix integration. They're showing a willingness to experiment with the business model, which is crucial for survival. Plus, with such a big installed base (*some* of whom are presumably still paying monthly), I have to suspect that they've got reasonably good recurring revenue for minimal recurring cost. So my guess is that they aren't going under soon.

Lifetimes follow the machine, and I think always have

Yeah -- far as I can tell, I got confused because of the transfers they briefly allowed from older lifetime subscriptions to the Series 3 when it came out...

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

I'm also not sure that MythTV solves the problem here, since (as far as I know) MythTV doesn't do the digital decoding in any way? The newer TiVos can have a Cable Card put into them, but there's no Cable Card for computers.

I think this means that you can use MythTV in the same situation that you can use your analog DVR -- on the other side of a cable box (which is how TiVo usually works, historically) or with analog (no longer possible in Cambridge: Comcast switched to all Digital in July). I don't know if the Digital converter boxes that you can get rebates for do the digital from the Cable people? I guess that could be an answer for you -- just getting a digital converter box, and using that?

FireWire

[metageek.livejournal.com]

The newer TiVos can have a Cable Card put into them, but there's no Cable Card for computers.

No, but you can get a cable box with a decrypted FireWire output. As I understand it, the cable companies are required to make such a box available.

Re: FireWire

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. I didn't see anything about this when I was researching a couple months back, and it is what caused me to abandon the MythTV route. (That, and the fact that I'm not much of a hardware tinkerer; I couldnt' find a way to make a MythTV that does what I want for any cheaper than a TiVo and a couple years of service.)