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Anyone here use real TiVO? Use TiVO in place of a cable DVR?

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
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Radical plan proposed by someone to me on another forum...

Been trying to cut my TWC bill for a long time and they only find plans that manage to increase the cost to me.

Give back my 3 HD DVRs to Time Warner and instead get 1 cable card.

The cable card I can put in a TiVo Roamio Plus and the other two DVRs in the house I replace with TiVo Minis. In fact I can have as many TiVo Minis as I need and there is no monthly fee for them.

The cable card costs only $2.50 monthly, the Roamio will cost $14.99 a month or $500 for lifetime service from the box. (I would do monthly because what if the box doesn't last 3 years... plus there may eb something better by then.)

I would love Pay Per View (never use it) and On Demand (rarely use it) but otherwise everything else I'm used to would work, and better, as real TiVo has the 30 second slip where as the cable company DVRs disable that feature.

Yes it's an upfront investment and I have to check the numbers but I think this pays for itself in a year.
 

frank_c

lost in the jet stream
VIP

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
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I'm willing to pay $15 a month (less if paid annually) for a program guide and a track record of good development from TiVo. That's fair to me.
 
Have you considered dropping cable altogether and just using Hulu/Netflix/Amazon Prime/DroidTV? Throw in an antenna + Tablo/simple.tv and you're set.
 

frank_c

lost in the jet stream
VIP
People get dumbfounded when you tell them you don't pay for TV. Or, more accurately, that you don't have cable or a dish. It's almost funny. The questions I get, and then the blank stares when I answer...at first I get frustrated because I've had the same conversation with a lot of the same people over the last two years, but then it turns fun when they get the dumb look on their face.
 

GreenGeep

Timber Baron
VIP
Parents have an HD antenna in the attic and a Tivo hooked up in the living room with a 4tb external. They get like 12 channels. Don't know what model or if they pay for any tivo service, but it can be programmed to record over the air shows automagically. It also can get on the netflix/hulu/bunch of other online stuff via wiifii.
 

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
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Have you considered dropping cable altogether and just using Hulu/Netflix/Amazon Prime/DroidTV? Throw in an antenna + Tablo/simple.tv and you're set.
Not an option. I might be able to deal with no cable but Mom and her husband cannot.
 

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
It would seem Time Warner Cable New York does not offer the "2 way" cable cards so doing this definitely gives up on demand and ppv which I am fine with despite the fact people say you can retain most services with a cablecard.
 

John

Transplant
VIP
No. Apple TV. Works great with Netflix and Hulu plus access to ESPN and movie channel apps through friends' log ins
 

BrandonM7

MaMway Platinum Member
Staff member
Moderator
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Ultra-Premium
Dad has operated that way for years. Hell, decades maybe. TiVo is ****ing awesome. The first DVR I ever had was a DirecTiVo -- they had a partnership back then so the DirecTV DVR was made by TiVo but still acted as the satellite tuner. Best DVR I've had to date, and I've probably gone through half a dozen since then.
 

abqtj

I'm a damn delight!
Staff member
Administrator
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It would seem Time Warner Cable New York does not offer the "2 way" cable cards so doing this definitely gives up on demand and ppv which I am fine with despite the fact people say you can retain most services with a cablecard.

Never heard of these
 

Jays89YJ

Udaho
VIP
Yes. CableOne uses TiVo as their DVR so we had one for ~18 months. It was a huge improvement over their previous DVR. We switched to Direct TV and we were concerned that DTV's equipment wouldn't be as nice as the TiVo. What a waste of concern. DTV's Genie is better than TiVo. TiVo is old school by comparison.

TiVo is definitely an improvement over typical cable DVRs. We liked ours a lot. The only thing we didn't like about the TiVo setup was the remotes. They were weak signaled and chewed through batteries with the quickness.
 
Not an option. I might be able to deal with no cable but Mom and her husband cannot.
Did I miss the part where you mom and her husband live with you? I know your family is with you a lot, but I didn't know they permanently moved in.

I don't know what the current state of Tivo is, but I did have a Tivo DVR when I had DirecTV years ago. It was the upgrade from their standard DVR and it was a huge improvement.

Let's back up for a minute. Forget about cable vs streaming, Tivo vs. standard DVR. What are you actual requirements, what channels or shows do you want to watch, what live tv is actually required? What features and functionality are you really after?
 
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