TiVo Premiere DVR

Deal Chatter Electronics
21

I find the box cost plus the subscription fees make the TIVO DVR’s not a good deal.

If you have Windows XP/Vista/7 on a home network and an Xbox360 you can use Windows Media Center for all your DVR and guide needs.

I purchased a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime 3 tuner http://sellout.woot.com/offers/silicondust-hdhomerun-prime-tuner-3 here about a month ago that does the tuning with a cable card.

I’m using Verizon FIOS and have absolutely no problems. My total monthly cost for FIOS now is $10/mo for basic channels and $4/mo for the cable card. That’s less than the subscription fee for this box!

I can use as much storage space as I want on my PC for recordiings, I have three tuners so I can record three channels at once and I can play any media I want from my PC i the living room where the Xbox360 is. I also put another Xbox360 in my bedroom. All is good! :-0

22

Ok I read all the comments, specs, went to the TiVO site and I am still a little unclear about whether this device can work for me.
I ditched cable, use roku for streaming. I do not have a cable box, and do not pay for cable. However, when I connect the cable to my TV I pick up digital broadcasts. I also have can hook up an indoor antenna instead of the cable hook up and pick up OTA programming. I would like to be able to record some of the programming that I can get over the air with my antenna (or with my cable hooked directly to the TV) . Would I be able to use either of these boxes to do this without additional tuners, cards etc? I do understand the monthy and lifetime TiVo charge. Thank you gang!

23

I am in the exact same situation. I am in for 1 if it would work at $15/month. few other questions…will the cable company sell me the cable card if I am not paying for any other service? Currently I am just getting local channels in HD OTA. Also, it has been a while since I had a DVR, is 45 hours enough for normal use. Not having cable I would really only use this for recording local channels and having ability to rewing. Not doing a TON of recording.

24

I’ve been a TiVo subscriber for about 8 years. I purchase lifetime subscriptions when I buy my boxes. My only complaint is this Premier box is crazy under-powered. TiVo software has quite a few bugs and their support seems unwilling to fix them. They’re well documented on various websites but updates just don’t happen. TiVo doesn’t seem to give a crap.
I have a CABLEcard with TWC and as long as there are no power glitches you’re ok. If there’s a glitch you spend forever getting it all sync’d back up.
The biggest pain in the neck is the wireless adapter. You have no setup through the Premier. You have to connect the adapter separately to your PC and configure it. I bought the 802.11n version and it doesn’t reliably connect to ‘n’ (blue). Sometimes it is and sometimes it’s connected to the ‘b’ (green) even though it has pegged signal strength.

25

Best price for the TiVo Wireless N Network Adapter?

These run anywhere from $65 and up - need it to connect… any better prices anywhere?

I have tivo and I love tivo and I love that the cable people can’t charge those outrageous fees for their HD box and their HD “outlet”…

but you do need the TiVo Wireless N Network Adapter…

26

You may want to hunt around for an owners manual online to confirm, but my old original TiVO and my series 2 could be used without a subscription. You would have to manually tell the unit when to start recording and on what channel. Of course figuring out what shows you recorded would be hard to decipher as the only thing the menu would display was a recording at such and such time. Maybe the new ones still let you do this? Might be worth your time to check.

For the record, I dumped TiVO because after buying 2 lifetime subscriptions for each unit, I got tired of having to keep buying new ones every time I’d buy a new unit. Sure, they offer a 20% discount, but that still equates to a lot of money for a long time customer to have to keep forking over. So far my TWC dvr is doing just fine. Not as cute as TiVo, but it does work.

27

Sorry. I meant 2Tb. It was early.

28

Listen, HTPC, people… You’re right. Tivo isn’t for you. BUT, not everyone wants to set up and maintain and use an HTPC.

This Tivo IS for people that want to replace their cable company’s awful HD DVR. With FIOS, the HD DVR will cost you $20/mo (PLUS a $40 “upgrade” fee if you want the latest one!), and is generally not very useful.

With the Tivo Premire you get a smarter DVR. Even if you have more than two shows you want to record, the Tivo will record the two it can, then figure out what episodes it missed of the other shows and record them at a later time… Big deal if you have 20+ season passes like our household! Plus, the season pass management is way easier to use than the FIOS DVR.

PLUS, you get access to all the online services… Your Netflix streaming, Hulu/Hulu Plus, Youtube, Amazon Rentals, etc. So it kind of crosses over into the Boxee/Roku arena…

Now, the down sides. Yes, there’s a monthly fee and a CableCard rental. But for me that actually ended up being $2 per month cheaper than the $20/mo rental fee for the FIOS HD DVR. Also, some cable companies use technology called Switched Digital Video which will make some channels not work on Tivo boxes. But all you need to do is request an SDV adapter from your cable company. They’re free. Also, you miss out on any of your cable company’s “On Demand” stuff. But to be honest, we never used it on the FIOS DVR so we don’t miss it.

Lastly…the setup. I have never had trouble getting my CableCard and Tivo to play nice. I go to my FIOS office, pick up a card, they activate it at the store, I take it home and put it in the Tivo. Then you go online and put in the activation code. Done. I’ve had more trouble with techs that have no idea what a CableCard is or have never seen a Tivo… So I follow the directions and do it myself. Once it’s set up there is no maintenance or anything. It upgrades itself and downloads the guide info automatically. You never have to touch it again unless you switch cable companies.

So yeah it’s not for everyone. But if you hate your cable company’s DVR and you want a set top box with some online services built in, this is your jam.

29

Not worth it for you, maybe. For those of us who like the remote, user interface, and features (like Wish lists) of a TiVo, it is worth the money.

If those things are not important, and they clearly aren’t to you, then it isn’t worth it.

Margarine tastes just as good as butter to people who have never had butter before.

30

I currently have two TiVos provided by my cable provider (charter).I would like to buy one of these just to play recorded shows from the other TiVos without a subscription on this unit. Does anyone know if this would work?

31

Maybe with your cable company, but not with mine. The cable goes straight from the wall to the TiVo Premiere with no converter. The cable card goes into the TiVo. They charge $1.99 "rental’ for the cable card because cable companies are greedy, but that’s less than the $5 a month they will want for their box after the first year.

32

If all you want is that basic functionality, then, sure. If all you want is basic transportation, then a used Ford Escort will work. Why would anyone want to buy a better car?

33

I bought this the last time it was up on Woot. When it problems, neither Woot nor TiVo were willing to take care of it. So not only was I out the price of the TiVo from Woot, I was out the cost of the subscription to TiVo. Best of luck to those who do buy this.

34

Tivo premier will work as a DVR with any video input. OTA and others will work fine. If you have an external tuner you will need an IR blaster configured unless you use a cablecard. I believe OTA will work fine and you should be able to configure a guide for that. Without service though all you can do is play previously recorded shows.

35

Those were the original series 1 boxes. Series 2 you could view previously recorded shows but no new recordings.

36

If you loved the original directTivo, you will like the new HD THR-22. It’s pretty much the same but with some new features like on demand downloads and built in ethernet. We love it and are so glad we don’t need to play with the diretv DVRs anymore.

37

But could you tell your VCR, “Please record all NEW episodes of (insert show name here), whether on their normal night and time or on a different night” and have it catch all the new shows (even when it’s on a different night and/or time) and skip the reruns?

For me, my only problem with TiVo as a company is that they don’t offer an upgrade on the service under normal circumstances. I have a Series 3 with 2 CableCARDs in it (which have worked flawlessly since Comcast put them in) which I get all the HD channels on, and a Series 2 Dual-Tuner on which I can only watch local channels. Both have lifetime service already, so I’m not going to pay for a third lifetime service to get a Premiere. I wish they’d let me pay them $100 or something to transfer my lifetime service to a new device.

38

45 hours seems like it should be enough to me. Anyone have an opinion on this?

39

While I haven’t experienced your power outage issues, I’m another who seems stuck at “b” instead of “n” for my Tivo wireless adapter. I haven’t noticed any speed issues, other than when using Netflix via Tivo it seems a bit slow to patch in and download.

Bought the $44.99 version off of Woot about 2 Woot-offs ago. I bought the lifetime membership and like not getting a monthly bill. I did a lot of research first and found out that the main thing that goes wrong with these (if anything) seems to be that the hard drive goes. There are plenty instructional sites (and Youtube videos) walking you through how to replace the hard drive, so I decided to make the purchase, knowing I could likely remedy the most common issue on my own for minimal cash. So far, I’m VERY satisfied. I’m hooked to Comcast and had previously relied on On Demand and my sad old VCR. This made an excellent upgrade for me. Set your season passes and forget about it! Much easier.

40

For the price I wouldn’t mind buying this just to use it as a streaming device like a roku. This way I have the option of upgrading later if I decide to get cable some day.

Can someone tell me if I can use this to stream netflix, amazon vod, and hulu without the subscription?

That’s all I need to know to make a decision.