Comments on: TiVo Resurrects Lifetime Service

By: teevo sux

teevo sux — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:29:25 +0000

my three year tivo package is about to end. it was supposed to renew at the same monthly rate of $8.31/month, but tivo will not honor it. apparently tivo is known for their dishonesty for donig this. anyone interested in a class action law suit?

By: coyotewaits

coyotewaits — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:05:45 +0000

I just purchased 2 Philips S1 boxes from a thrift shop. 1 has the writing “lifetime” on the back in permaneant ink and “145 hours”. I had just started getting into tivo because of a tip I heard on the Leo Laporte – tech Guy Show. He literally wrote the book on hacking Series 1 tivo boxes. Turns out that the one with lifetime service has an awesome drive 120 GB Maxtor – that isn’t working. The other still works great, but the account is code 8 – cancelled. Had a heck of a time figuring out how to get it to dial out as I am in a new area code, and zip code than the previous owner. I may try to piece them together, and return the remnants for a store credit…btw – I watched, and recorded DTV today – no problem. Past channel 34…I did not experience any issues with DTV conversion. But, I don;t think you can record, and surf at the same time anymore because of tuner issues.

By: fooman

fooman — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:43:45 +0000

for trace,
can’t you just hook the output from those new digital converter box (for older analog TV) to your old tivo and still get the same functionality?
the old tivo tuner should work fine.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:35:45 +0000

I agree w/ Trace. After 5 years of being a loyal Tivo customer, I am ditching it. I have HDTV but a series 2 recorder with lifetime service. It is a real hassle to switch between my cable service and tivo, etc. so I have stopped using the Tivo all together. And, if I am going to have to buy another recorder, then also another subscription service (which I thought I had paid for with the “lifetime”), then it just isn’t economical. I can just use my cable company’s dvr service, even if it isn’t as good as Tivos. I’m very disappointed as I do love my Tivo, but it just doesn’t make economic sense. So much for a lifetime service….

By: Trace

Trace — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:45:57 +0000

******** BUYERS BEWARE OF TIVO’s *******
***** SO CALLED “LIFETIME SERVICE” *******

THERE SHOULD BE A CLASS ACTION SUIT

We bought a SVR-2000 series I Sony along with the lifetime sub thinking we would always have that service. After all lifetime should mean just that right? No way. It turns out our series I which we still love like a family member will be a white elephant on Feb 9 due to the fact it can not record DTV. Tivo offers a refurb unit for $99 bucks but to keep your so called “lifetime” sub you are slapped with a “transfer fee” of $299. What you know Joe? Let’s face it, they are giving it to you. So instead of calling it a new subscription they call it a transfer fee. You know that’s what Tivo wanted for you to have to buy in to another lifetime service agreement. They lied and deceived us. What’s new? I knew it was too good to be true. “Lifetime” doesn’t mean lifetime.

Because of the fact that even though our Tivo still works perfectly and we don’t need any more frills, we are forced to buy another Tive and another “Lifetime” sub. That stinks and once again America, they are doing it to you.

I guess I can’t blame them after all they are not making any more money from me but I did pay the $299. JUST DON’T LIE TO ME AND TELL ME LIFETIME!

We are giving Tivo up after eight years and going with another direction. There are many others ways of going at it now and it’s time to take one.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:04:30 +0000

We have two S2s and an unused S1 all with lifetime subscriptions. The S1 was bought in late 2000 and the S2s are from late 2001. I would say the lifetime subs have paid for themselves several times over. Two of the units have had their primary HDD replaced due to failure but in each case I had taken a backup of the drive so a cheap ATA drive later and it was up and running again since the subscription is tied to the device, not the hdd. Other than the HDDs these boxes should be very long-lived.

It’s similar to the debate over whether to lease or buy a car. If you replace your widget every 2-3 years you should lease it. If you keep it longer, you’re better off buying.

Now, let’s see if I can get Tivo to transfer the S1’s lifetime to the S3 or THD I have my eye on…

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:08:49 +0000

My Lifetime sub on the Series 2 I bought a couple years ago (I’ve lost track) has easily paid for itself by now…

I don’t see why you’d think a TiVo is the type of box you’d wanna upgrade so frequently, the dual tuner was tempting but I didn’t really feel like I -had- to upgrade ’till the HD versions came out…

I haven’t even done that just yet because the cable (-and- satellite) HD programming in Puerto Rico is still rather poor (we get every single channel anyone in the US does, but not in HD just yet /cry).

I guess the boxes dying and taking the Lifetime sub with them is another story altogether, though if it’s the HDD that’s failing (most likely) you can always back that up, or you could w/the S2 SD boxes…

I dunno if the S3 are any more complex to hook up to a PC and manipulate, since it has all that CableCard DRM rigmarole.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:38:20 +0000

Smart move. This is what hooked me almost 8 years ago. I bought 2 DirecTivo units at that time and signed up for the life time service because the break even point was just 2 years (I figured with the money I shelled out I would be with DirecTv/Tivo for at least that long). Even though DirecTv no longer sells a Tivo HD unit, they were smart enough to honor the lifetime service Tivo offer with their DVR as well (as long as I stay a DirecTv customer). I bought 4 DirecTivo units before I was finally forced to switch to DirecTv’s DVR when I went HD. The lifetime contract kept me coming back for more.