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Please Help
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Posted by: JaxGator1978

I am in the market for Tivo. I am tired of taping and feel it is time. But I do not know where to start. Please help. Whatwill my expenses be? What should I look at? Any info is greatly appreciated.

Posted by: nmiller855

Do you have DirecTv, cable, or over the air programming? If you have DirecTv, I would recommend that you wait a couple of weeks to buy the Series 2 combination unit that should be out before the end of the year. They should be around $200 plus $5 per month for the TiVo subscription unless you go with the Total Choice Premier package that includes the TiVo subscription. If you have cable, your choices are the different standalone brands, Philips, Hughes, Sony, etc. with prices varying according to the number of recording hours available. Some Circuit City or Best Buy stores may have salespeople with a little knowledge.

Posted by: Crrink

Your expenses depend on what you want. You can buy a used unit from someplace like Ebay - check there for current pricing.
If you buy a new unit, your most available choice will be one of the new Series 2 units. They come in varying sizes and prices - 40 hour $299, 60 hour $349, and 80 hour $399, plus there's currently a $50 rebate available on each.
You might be able to get a unit for a bit cheaper if you wait for an Internet store to have some sort of discount. I bought my 80 hour unit from www.goodguys.com while they had a 10% off promotion - net price to me was $360 since they don't charge tax in any U.S. state. Big savings over what I could've gotten at a regular retailer considering the sales tax in my part of California is 8.25% :rolleyes:

Once you have the unit, then you have to purchase service to use it. TiVo allows you to do this two ways - $12.95 a month for as long as you want the service (subject to price increases in the future), or $249 for lifetime service - and do keep in mind that they mean the lifetime of the unit, not of you - which also means that if you sell your TiVo the lifetime service goes along with it - no way to transfer it to a new unit after the 30 day trial period.
I personally opted for the lifetime subscription - now I don't have to bother sending them money every month....time will tell if I've made the right choice or not! :D

Anyway, hope that isn't too confusing.
I'm sure some members here will advocate you using the search function before asking questions - I'm relatively new here, but this topic has probably been covered lots of times...plus all the info is available on TiVo's website, but hey, I'm a nice guy - what are ya gonna do :)

Good luck. I'm sure once you get yours up and running you'll enjoy the heck out of it.

Posted by: phone1

Crrink said it all if you want stand alone. A lot depends on how you intend to get your signal. DTV TiVos are undoubtedly advantageous if DTV (not Dish - you use a standalone with Dish) works for you. Do NOT depend on ANY sales people for TiVo information. They are clueless and will mislead you, even if unintentionally.