Yes, if you don’t have Tivo service it’s $500. If you already have another active Tivo, they discount it to $400. The product lifetime service is a good choice if you plan to keep the Tivo for 3+ years.
The Roamio series 5 hasn’t been around long enough to have much failure data. For earlier Tivo models, the most common failures tended to be either the hard drive or power supply, both of which are relatively simple to replace to get your DVR back up and running.
I like the Roamio Plus because everything is built-in (wifi, streaming support, MoCA, etc.) and it has enough tuners to use for multi-room viewing, if you want to add Tivo minis. Note that you can expand a Roamio Plus into a Roamio Pro simply by removing the cover and swapping in a larger hard drive.
If your cable provider keeps increasing the rental fee for DVRs, the payback period for switching to Tivo (with a lifetime subscription) may be even shorter.
So we bought a Roamio a couple of weeks ago and have it installed in the living room. Other than the hassle of pairing it with TWC, it’s been great so far. Now I’m thinking about getting the Tivo Mini for my bedroom and link it to the Roamio in the living room. My question: Since this Roamio($99) is cheaper than a mini($149), can I buy this and link it to the existing Roamio? Thanks!
DUUUDE … you win
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You have just personally saved me $300.
I got a Roamio Plus from your link.
Then a Tivo Mini from ebay for $90
I bought 2 regular Tivo Premiers 3yrs back, from Woot.
The first ever experience I’ve ever had with Tivo, aside from reading numerous reviews about how much better they are than Cable DVR’s.
I got them setup with Verizon Fios and I immediately didn’t care that it was more expensive per month with the Tivo fee and cablecard fee.
Not having to wait 45sec inbetween button presses on the Verizon DVR is worth it.
When the Roamio’s first came out last year, my techno-lust reared up, but my bank account balance kept me from that.
Since these Roamios came up on Woot last week, I’ve been agonizing about it, but with my income, paying $330 (I live near Woot HQ, yay sales tax) is a world of difference than the $50 I paid for those Premiers.
Then Brian1976 comes in with that link …
Dude, you just helped fulfill the dreams of this Tivo lover, while also removing the guilt of blowing all of my monthly budget.
Sorry Woot.com, but $99 from Tivo beats $330 on Woot
And yes, I realize I’ll pay $399 more over the course of 2yrs (paying $20 tivo fee as oppose to $12 monthly), but I don’t mind spacing that out over 2yrs.
OTA-only info…
The $50 Roamio OTA’s at BestBuy & Amazon do NOT offer lifetime, or even discounted monthly fee. You will pay $14.99/mo.
I saw on deal site that owners of a TiVo for 10+ years qualify for a $99 lifetime special they are running (was until 1/28, then extended to 3/15 according to deal site posts).
You will need to call in to activate and ask for the special - YMMV.
We LOVE our TiVo’s - and have had several of them since April 2004! In that time, only 1 unit failed (elderly mom put it on a piece of foam inside her armoire to quiet it… heat built up and killed the HD.) I replaced the HD with InstantCake and got it working again.