# Roamio is so over-priced (pushing ads is too much)



## rgat (Feb 11, 2014)

I'm okay with a high-priced item. I've been a Tivo subscriber for well over a decade now. But now that Tivo is pumping ads thru the interface and continuing to charge exorbitant fees for not only the primary box but also the Mini, it has gone way too far.

Having to pay a service fee for a Mini and also having to put up with ads in the interface is disgraceful on Tivo's part.

Even Amazon gives people the option of buying without adds. Tivo has really sunk to a low here.


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## WRX09MD (Aug 25, 2013)

Im not cool with all of the ads either.


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## c133roamioerrors (Dec 28, 2013)

A monopoly has been created and I blame the cable providers. Like most people, I started recording with a vcr and when Tivo was available, I opted for a Hard drive DVR. The programming was provided by the cable company along with the content so there was no monthly fee. When my cable provider, Comcast went 100% digital the programming went away. The choice then became a Comcast DVR or a Tivo. The DVRs provided by Comcast has insufficient space for a user who wants to record a lot. A few HD sporting events eat up most of the storage. The only true option is a higher end Tivo and there is no real competition.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

rgat said:


> I'm okay with a high-priced item. I've been a Tivo subscriber for well over a decade now. But now that Tivo is pumping ads thru the interface and continuing to charge exorbitant fees for not only the primary box but also the Mini, it has gone way too far.
> 
> Having to pay a service fee for a Mini and also having to put up with ads in the interface is disgraceful on Tivo's part.
> 
> Even Amazon gives people the option of buying without adds. Tivo has really sunk to a low here.


TiVo can only be charging exorbitant fees if another less expensive option existed, I don't see one for me (some PC DVRs may be less expensive but too much work for me). You must think of any TiVo DVR or Mini as a package, for a Mini it is $99 + $150 for lifetime or a monthly option if needed, TiVo could have put out the Mini at $250 retail but then would have a much bigger expense at the retail level as the discount to most retail outlets is about 30% to 40%, a discount TiVo does not have to give for the service part by not bundling the two together. Think the TiVo price is too high, don't purchase.* note: *Apple makes tones of money and TiVo has a loss so you should be complaining about the Apple pricing.


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## aristoBrat (Dec 30, 2002)

When I bought my first TiVo in 2001, the Lifetime Service "fee" cost $249.00.

Skip ahead 13 years (to 2014), and if you adjust that 2001 amount for inflation, it comes out to $327.72. Lifetime Service nowadays costs $399.

To each their own, but TiVo having increased their fee $72 over the last decade (plus three years) doesn't really seem exorbitant to me, especially when you compare the capabilities of a TiVo Series 1 to a TiVo Roamio.


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## jbaum (Jul 23, 2002)

aristoBrat said:


> When I bought my first TiVo in 2001, the Lifetime Service "fee" cost $249.00.
> 
> Skip ahead 13 years (to 2014), and if you adjust that 2001 amount for inflation, it comes out to $327.72. Lifetime Service nowadays costs $399.
> 
> To each their own, but TiVo having increased their fee $72 over the last decade (plus three years) doesn't really seem exorbitant to me, especially when you compare the capabilities of a TiVo Series 1 to a TiVo Roamio.


I agree with you, especially when you compare it to how much Time Warner has increased the cable bill.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I don't *LIKE* the ads, but
1) You get even more ads on cable boxes (at least the few times I've ever used a cable box they were FAR more plastered with ads)
2) The ads are ABOUT as unobtrusive as possible. The ones that show up at the top of the bar thing are the only ones that start to bug me..

and I HATE commercials(*). Basically, they're a FAR FAR lesser of evils compared to the rest.

(*) The Super Bowl, and the rare 'best super bowl commercials' or 'funniest commercials ever' specials are the few times I PURPOSELY watch commercials. The rest of the year, I skip them as fast as possible, and am annoyed when I'm at a friend's house and they FF instead of 30 second skipping!!


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Honestly, the pop-up ads on TiVo don't really bother me at all. I just completely ignore them and almost forget they are ever there.


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## CloudAtlas (Oct 29, 2013)

rgat said:


> I'm okay with a high-priced item. I've been a Tivo subscriber for well over a decade now. But now that Tivo is pumping ads thru the interface and continuing to charge exorbitant fees for not only the primary box but also the Mini, it has gone way too far.
> 
> Having to pay a service fee for a Mini and also having to put up with ads in the interface is disgraceful on Tivo's part.
> 
> Even Amazon gives people the option of buying without adds. Tivo has really sunk to a low here.


Since TiVo has lost money almost every year since the company started I don't think the prices are high enough. You are getting a DVR along with software updates and service for life.

How exactly is a TiVo overpriced compared to other premium luxury electronic items? I bought a $900 stereo system in 8th grade with money from a paper route so TiVo looks like a bargain comparatively.

The ads are minor. You should be so lucky that these are the type of problems you have.


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## alarson83 (Oct 27, 2009)

CloudAtlas said:


> Since TiVo has lost money almost every year since the company started I don't think the prices are high enough. You are getting a DVR along with software updates and service for life.


I don think that math necessarily works. Tivo probably loses a lot of potential customers with their high pricing.


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## DCIFRTHS (Jan 6, 2000)

aristoBrat said:


> When I bought my first TiVo in 2001, the Lifetime Service "fee" cost $249.00.
> 
> Skip ahead 13 years (to 2014), and if you adjust that 2001 amount for inflation, it comes out to $327.72. Lifetime Service nowadays costs $399.
> 
> To each their own, but TiVo having increased their fee $72 over the last decade (plus three years) doesn't really seem exorbitant to me, especially when you compare the capabilities of a TiVo Series 1 to a TiVo Roamio.


Unless I'm mistaken, lifetime service costs $499 for new subscribers.


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## DCIFRTHS (Jan 6, 2000)

CloudAtlas said:


> Since TiVo has lost money almost every year since the company started I don't think the prices are high enough. You are getting a DVR along with software updates and service for life.


Please be more specific with the details. You get lifetime service if you pay for lifetime service, otherwise it's monthly (after a yearly commitment is completed).

Software updates, are available for only as long as TiVo decides to support the hardware. There is no guarantee that updates will be available for as long as you own the device.



CloudAtlas said:


> How exactly is a TiVo overpriced compared to other premium luxury electronic items? I bought a $900 stereo system in 8th grade with money from a paper route so TiVo looks like a bargain
> comparatively.


I agree that TiVo is a luxury item...



CloudAtlas said:


> The ads are minor. You should be so lucky that these are the type of problems you have.


What do you mean by stating "You should be so lucky that these are the type of problems you have."?


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## dahacker (Jan 14, 2004)

rgat said:


> I'm okay with a high-priced item. I've been a Tivo subscriber for well over a decade now. But now that Tivo is pumping ads thru the interface and continuing to charge exorbitant fees for not only the primary box but also the Mini, it has gone way too far.
> 
> Having to pay a service fee for a Mini and also having to put up with ads in the interface is disgraceful on Tivo's part.
> 
> Even Amazon gives people the option of buying without adds. Tivo has really sunk to a low here.


I'm not a fan of the screen real estate used by the ads either, but there is no factual evidence that Tivo with lifetime service is more expensive than it's only real competition, the cable company DVR. In fact, time and time again it has been shown that Tivo is cheaper than everything else short of building your own WMC PC.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

I would like to pay less and not have ads on the menus but I haven't found anything close to this good for the same amount of money or less. I have seen no evidence TiVo makes excessive profits or that any other company can do as well for the price so I consider any claims the fees are exorbitant false. I accept the ads help pay for the TiVo service and products so I am happy to live with the ads.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

Having changed from another brand DVR (one tuner) which died, I think the hardware price of my Roamio Basic is a real bargain.

I will admit some heartburn over the $15/month for a guide, when Netflix or Amazon Prime (which Tivo doesn't even support) give me all the streaming I can eat for $7-8 a month. I think the guide service is "worth" $5 a month or $50 a year, but I admit I am pretty fond of season passes and reluctant to go back to scheduling manually. Separate subscriptions for each box also bother me/ If "lifetime" were my lifetime, not the Tivo's, and covered all the boxes on my network, I might put a Tivo on every TV. For me, it is now just on my main TV.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

aristoBrat said:


> When I bought my first TiVo in 2001, the Lifetime Service "fee" cost $249.00.
> 
> Skip ahead 13 years (to 2014), and if you adjust that 2001 amount for inflation, it comes out to $327.72. Lifetime Service nowadays costs $399.
> 
> To each their own, but TiVo having increased their fee $72 over the last decade (plus three years) doesn't really seem exorbitant to me, especially when you compare the capabilities of a TiVo Series 1 to a TiVo Roamio.


The $249 lifetime sub in 2001 did not include the home media options. That was an additional charge service when launched with the Series 2 boxes and now included in all subscriptions.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

rgat said:


> I'm okay with a high-priced item. I've been a Tivo subscriber for well over a decade now. But now that Tivo is pumping ads thru the interface and continuing to charge exorbitant fees for not only the primary box but also the Mini, it has gone way too far.


If you have been a subscriber for "well over a decade", then you are aware that ads have been a part of the tivo experience. Nothing new here with a Roamio.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I am fairly sure no one likes ads anywhere, but we do live in a country with a capitalistic economic system and for capitalism to work you have to having marketing (ads), so I am fairly sure they are here (and everywhere) to stay. 

I really don't find the ones TiVo uses intrusive at all. Given what most people pay for cable and given that I would find most channels unwatchable without a TiVo because of the adds on those channels, it doesn't seem like a bad trade off to me.

By the way if you really believe a Roamio is over priced why did you buy one?


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Oh, good. A thread about the ads. Surprised no one else has started one before now.


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## rgat (Feb 11, 2014)

jrtroo said:


> If you have been a subscriber for "well over a decade", then you are aware that ads have been a part of the tivo experience. Nothing new here with a Roamio.


Yup, as my OP says, the insult is that they continue with exorbitant pricing on top of ads (e.g., charging a service fee for a Mini).

I've never liked the ads Tivo pushes. But I've put up with them. I've reached my limit when the exorbitant cost of Roamio with a Mini becomes what Tivo is currently asking AND the box is running ads that popup when you hit pause (as an example). It's gone too far.

I could live with a cycling ad on the Central page, and I actually like having a "page" (accessible from Tivo Central) where I can see/browse ads. This is a demarcated area where I can choose to engage with ads at my choosing, yet the ads don't insert themselves anywhere. But having ads popup (e.g., when I hit pause) is unacceptable. I'm not going to pay the exorbitant price Tivo charges if they are also running ads like this. I've been a huge fan of Tivo for a long time. It's sad to see them degrade like this. Probably the beginning of the end of the PVR.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm not saying I like them, but the "popup" ads on pause have been there for a long time as well. My Premiere has them as does my THD. Nothing new, though your OP seems to claim that they are and you now indicate that you did know about them.


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## humbb (Jan 27, 2014)

If you use the S-P-S-Pause-S "fast disappear" backdoor, you'll barely notice the ads on pause. The only ads I am consciously aware of are the ones on the Tivo Central page.


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## whitmans77 (Mar 6, 2003)

I barely notice the ads.I really notice ads when I am over at a friends house and im forced to watch those dreaded things called commercials that some people sit through. Living with 3 Tivos and a cable company DVR, thr price for a Roamio is well worth it


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

DCIFRTHS said:


> Unless I'm mistaken, lifetime service costs $499 for new subscribers.


Technically true, but pretty much any new subscriber can get lifetime for $399 by just using the code "PLSR".


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## poppagene (Dec 29, 2001)

rgat said:


> I'm okay with a high-priced item. I've been a Tivo subscriber for well over a decade now. But now that Tivo is pumping ads thru the interface and continuing to charge exorbitant fees for not only the primary box but also the Mini, it has gone way too far.
> 
> Having to pay a service fee for a Mini and also having to put up with ads in the interface is disgraceful on Tivo's part.
> 
> Even Amazon gives people the option of buying without adds. Tivo has really sunk to a low here.


It's all about what you're willing to pay for. If TiVo is charging too much, then you wouldn't be subscribing to it because it is too expensive. Like you, I wish it were cheaper, but by definition, if it's over-priced relative to one's "demand", then one wouldn't purchase it.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

rgat said:


> ...I'm not going to pay the exorbitant price Tivo charges if they are also running ads like this. I've been a huge fan of Tivo for a long time. It's sad to see them degrade like this. Probably the beginning of the end of the PVR.


The Roamio or Roamio + Mini option is providing a whole home DVR solution at a cost that in most cases is lower than anything TiVo has offered in the past, if you compare it on a per tuner and/or multiple TV bases.

As an example my TiVo HD with lifetime cost $500 about the same for dual tuner Premiere, so to get to 4 tuners for 2 TVs that was $1000, plus renting 2 cable cards if you have cable. Now you can buy a 4 tuner Roamio for under $600 with lifetime and a Mini for $250 or $850 and only need to rent one cable card. Which is $150 less, plus the cost of one cable card.

For a 3 TV 6 tuner house hold 3 TiVo HDs/Premieres with lifetime would have cost $1500. Now you can buy a 6 tuner Roamio with lifetime for under $800 plus $500 for 2 minis or again $200 less and you will need to rent 2 less cable cards per month.

If you want to go back further my single tuner Humax Series 2 with lifetime cost $300. So $1200 to get 4 tuners or $1800 to get six tuners.

The reality is TiVos have never been cheap. If someone thinks they cost too much no problem don't buy one.


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## Grakthis (Oct 4, 2006)

I paid about $800 just for the S3 box at retail. It took two cable cards and had like a 250GB HD (not sure the actual size, cause I long since upgraded it). It came with a monthly fee I paid for 7 years.

I paid about $850 for a Roamio (6 tuners, 1 CC), 1 mini and lifetimes for both.

Don't tell me TiVo is charging too much in 2014 for their boxes/service.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Last November I bought:

Roamio Plus for $339+$399 lifetime w/PLSR=$738
2 Minis @$86+$150 lifetime=$472

Total TiVo cost=$1,210


Time Warner was charging me $8.99/month for the first cable box, $10.95 for the second, and $30.94 for their whole home DVR.

Total TWC cost=$50.88/month

TWC does charge a $2.50/month fee for a CableCard, but if I were renting their equipment I would have to pay service tax on $50.88, so that is basically a wash.


$1,210/$50.88=23.78 months until break even.


Conclusion: It's not cheap, but my Roamio Plus and 2 Minis pay for themselves in just under 2 years. That seems like a pretty good return on investment to me. Not to mention the TiVo equipment is much higher quality and works better than my old TWC equipment ever did. I'm happy with my choice and don't really consider it to be "overpriced" given the alternative.


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## Tico (Dec 10, 2002)

I will gladly deal with ads so I don;t have to use a cable co DVR!

Plus the ads pop up normally when you pause. I pause because I am not looking at my TV so it really doesn't bother me.

And if the Ads help them stay in business I really do not mind!


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## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

I can tune out the ads, but it bugs me that the UI shifts because they don't show up right away.


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## DCIFRTHS (Jan 6, 2000)

LoadStar said:


> Oh, good. A thread about the ads. Surprised no one else has started one before now.


Clever...


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

It does seem wrong that most people originally bought TiVo's to fast forward though commercials and now, TiVo's offer their own commercials that can't be avoided.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Be glad that TiVo doesn't run a 10 second video spot ad before playing a recorded show after you select it.

Wait, I better be quiet. I don't want to give TiVo any ideas.


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

eboydog said:


> It does seem wrong that most people originally bought TiVo's to fast forward though commercials and now, TiVo's offer their own commercials that can't be avoided.


It's been part of TiVo's plans from day one. What they were pushing to investors was targeted advertising (learn what the customer want from the shows the customer like). Revenue was supposed to be a tripod - subscriptions, targeted advertising, anonymized customer statistics. In all their own advertising of TiVos. they have never included avoiding commercials as a reason to buy a TiVo. There's been no change in TiVo's philosophy.


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## TScottTX (Feb 29, 2004)

TiVo gave us the 30 second skip to zip through ads, how about giving us a setting to turn off their own ads?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

TScottTX said:


> TiVo gave us the 30 second skip to zip through ads, how about giving us a setting to turn off their own ads?


Because you are not forced to watch any TiVo ad, try a website that streams a news story, you (many times) are forced to watch a 10 or 15 sec ad. with TiVo when you go to watch a program that you recorded you see NO TiVo ads when the program starts and no ads before it starts, (not talking about pause). I use TiVo to watch what I recorded, if there are ads getting to the program I want, so what, as long as it takes me no longer to get to my program. The other issue is that TiVo is not making gobs of money so if the other option is no TiVo ads and TiVo goes out of business, not a better solution IMHO. I pay for a newspaper and it is full of ads, so what TiVo is doing is not so unusual. If I demanded that my newspaper had no ads I would not get any newspaper, or have to pay a lot more for the newspaper.
I purchased an Amazon Kindel for less money that has ads when the Kindel is *off*, do I care, no and I saved some money, no ads when I turn the Kindel on and start to read. To me this is a good trade-off.


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## CloudAtlas (Oct 29, 2013)

alarson83 said:


> I don't think that math necessarily works. Tivo probably loses a lot of potential customers with their high pricing.


It's not profitable to go after every consumer as there is no margin. If what you were saying were true Apple would have come out with a lower margin iPhone as it's definitely losing a lot of potential customer with their high pricing. Same with the iPad.

Also note that when you buy a TiVo from retailors such as BestBuy or Amazon.com (to save $5) TiVo only gets the wholesale price. They already lose money on their hardware as it's subsidized but they lose even more from these retail sales. Factor in yearly costs of employee compensation, R&D costs, manufacturing, etc. and you are left with a company that only recently starting making any money after 15 years!

Probably doesn't help much that there is a large market for older hardware with lifetime subscriptions which prevents new TiVo sales.

TiVo loses sales due to the cable companies making sure that you have to be very technical and patient person to hook up a 3rd party DVR. While I'd recommend a TiVo Roamio with mini's to my friends there is NO WAY they could deal with CAbleCard pairing and Tuning Adapters. Seriously?

And unfortunately that really leaves techie guys as TiVo's core base who tend to be very... how should I put this ...CHEAP.


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## CloudAtlas (Oct 29, 2013)

DCIFRTHS said:


> What do you mean by stating "You should be so lucky that these are the type of problems you have."?


I live a block away from a Ronald McDonalds house and every weekend I see kids in my local Pizzeria with scarves on their head to hide the effects of their chemo treatments. Yet I never see these kids complain. They always seem so happy which is I guess the amazing part of being a kid.

That's a problem worth complaining about. Ads in TiVo? You should be so lucky that these are the type of problems you have.

That's what I meant. We all forget to NOT sweat the small stuff and things like that just reinforce that. YMMV.


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## CloudAtlas (Oct 29, 2013)

rgat said:


> Yup, as my OP says, the insult is that they continue with exorbitant pricing on top of ads (e.g., charging a service fee for a Mini).
> 
> I've never liked the ads Tivo pushes. But I've put up with them. I've reached my limit when the exorbitant cost of Roamio with a Mini becomes what Tivo is currently asking AND the box is running ads that popup when you hit pause (as an example). It's gone too far.
> 
> I could live with a cycling ad on the Central page, and I actually like having a "page" (accessible from Tivo Central) where I can see/browse ads. This is a demarcated area where I can choose to engage with ads at my choosing, yet the ads don't insert themselves anywhere. But having ads popup (e.g., when I hit pause) is unacceptable. I'm not going to pay the exorbitant price Tivo charges if they are also running ads like this. I've been a huge fan of Tivo for a long time. It's sad to see them degrade like this. Probably the beginning of the end of the PVR.


You post is just so silly in light of the facts:

TiVo Loses Less Money Than Predicted

*The DVR pioneer records a $10.3 million loss* on $82.6 million in revenue while adding an impressive number of subscribers.

TiVo reported a net loss of $10.3 million in its fiscal third quarter on service and technology revenue of $61.8 million, beating the expectations of analysts on the bottom line, though not on the top line.
OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

TiVo Revenue Rises 33 Percent

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers: Tech's Major Players Have Let TV Down
Overall, revenue rose to $82.6 million in the quarter from $67.8 million a year ago.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

CloudAtlas said:


> And unfortunately that really leaves techie guys as TiVo's core base who tend to be very... how should I put this ...CHEAP SMART.


FTFY.


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

LoadStar said:


> Oh, good. A thread about the ads. Surprised no one else has started one before now.


honestly hadnt noticed them. I watch TV on the tivo 99% of the time and no ads are on my screen. I spend 1 % of the time scheduling recordings and changing channels.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

As of others have said, I barely notice the ads. It's better than commercials.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, he attempts to hop out to survive.......Put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil and he never attempts to hop out and thus, dies.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

HarperVision said:


> Drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, he attempts to hop out to survive.......Put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil and he never attempts to hop out and thus, dies.


And this has what to do with the OP misplaced (my option) concern about TiVo pushing ADs


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## ncfoster (Jan 22, 2011)

lessd said:


> And this has what to do with the OP misplaced (my option) concern about TiVo pushing ADs


It seems that he is just saying that if you roll out ads in the interface in a slow enough fashion, eventually there become too many, but most people won't notice/care.

I would love to see them do something like let people pay an extra amount to disable ads, but I am guessing that their concerns include:

a) once they start changing the interface from a universal experience to something with any variation, it will make support more costly; and

b) if there is a way to disable the ads by paying, someone will likely find a way to hack it and hide the ads without paying.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

HarperVision said:


> Drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, he attempts to hop out to survive.......Put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil and he never attempts to hop out and thus, dies.





lessd said:


> And this has what to do with the OP misplaced (my option) concern about TiVo pushing ADs





ncfoster said:


> It seems that he is just saying that if you roll out ads in the interface in a slow enough fashion, eventually there become too many, but most people won't notice/care....


 Exactly, amongst other things us modern sheeple are getting "accustomed" to.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

HarperVision said:


> Drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, he attempts to hop out to survive.......Put a frog in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil and he never attempts to hop out and thus, dies.


You obviously have experience with neither frogs nor boiling water. When dropped into boiling water frogs will usually quickly die in the water; if they do escape they die in a few minutes from their burns. On the other hand, slowly heated frogs become frantic as the water becomes uncomfortable; if they are able to escape at that point they survive, if not they eventually become lethargic and then expire.

Amphibian behavior is a poor model for TiVo problem resolution.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Well I must not then!


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## ilkevinli (Jan 6, 2001)

You created an account to post that ?  



ej42137 said:


> You obviously have experience with neither frogs nor boiling water. When dropped into boiling water frogs will usually quickly die in the water; if they do escape they die in a few minutes from their burns. On the other hand, slowly heated frogs become frantic as the water becomes uncomfortable; if they are able to escape at that point they survive, if not they eventually become lethargic and then expire.
> 
> Amphibian behavior is a poor model for TiVo problem resolution.


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## talkdj (May 26, 2000)

I made a living thanks to advertising so I might not be the right person to comment on this topic. But, I do wish that Tivo/Major Networks would bring back the "Thumb" insert on shows being promoted. I notice it every once in a while (The Black List) but always liked the ability to use that feature.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

talkdj said:


> But, I do wish that Tivo/Major Networks would bring back the "Thumb" insert on shows being promoted. I notice it every once in a while (The Black List) but always liked the ability to use that feature.


I like this feature as well. Back when it was introduced, I set many a program to record that way. It's too bad the networks don't want to pay participate any longer.


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## tivohaydon (Mar 24, 2001)

What I don't get is why people keep defending the ads.

Things like (yeah, they're emphasized and not actual quotes):
"Don't complain about anything less serious than cancer!"
"TiVo's ads suck less than Hulu's ads!"
"Ads are making the TiVo service NEARLY FREE!"
"They're really easy to avoid. Just watch TV with a scarf over your eyes!"

I've never seen anyone point out a benefit to having the ads in TiVo and they sure piss a lot of people off by doing it. TiVo doesn't make any real money on them so... why piss people off?

I'm running Windows Media Center until it dies. However my father (who I recently set up TiVo for) called me and asked me, "What's going on with the ads?" And I just had to remind him that I told him beforehand and just said, "TiVo sucks that way, sorry."


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

tivohaydon said:


> What I don't get is why people keep defending the ads.
> 
> Things like (yeah, they're emphasized and not actual quotes):
> "Don't complain about anything less serious than cancer!"
> ...


I agree, the ads are getting out of hand on the TiVo. As I said before, the orginal reason for the Tivo was to escape the ads back when hard drives were less than 100mb and storage of TV shows weren't a big thing.

I tried Hulu+ but cancelled it due to commercials, why pay a premium price to get commercials? I would go back to a paid Hulu account if they removed the commercials, I use Kmttg to pull shows off the Tivo, strip the commercials and put them back on the TiVo!

I hate commercials esp when the commercial breaks get longer and the tv shows get shorter, it's rather sad when you take the commercials out of a hour long TV show and have a 40 minute (if not less!) show as a result. I love sci-fi but can't stand the sci-fi channel due to the five minute commercial breaks.

If commercials really worked we would all be using Tide, be driving the newest model car, be completely in shape and be eating out at restaurants 3 times a day not to mention every lady would be totally physically satisfied by her husband just to mention a few.

Might also mention my local cable company does something when they edit in local commercials, it totally screws up TiVo's fast forward and when you resume a fast forward, it drops you into the show were you have to back it up to get to the part were it resumed from the commercial break, that makes me mad as hell because their dvr box isn't effected by such, only TiVo's !


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## ncfoster (Jan 22, 2011)

I like a clean ad-free interface as much as the next guy, but I think comparing Tivo ads to Hulu Plus ads is a huge stretch.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

tivohaydon said:


> What I don't get is why people keep defending the ads.


Funny I watched at least 5 hours of recorded TV yesterday and I can not remember any TiVo ads other than I know there were some in the info bar in the HD Menu (still don't remember noticing them as I don't pay any attention to the info bar stuff) and also were likely some when I paused a show, so I wouldn't say I am defending TiVo ads more like defending that they should/could be irrelevant to a persons viewing experience.

Unless you lock yourself in a sealed padded cell ads/marketing are/is everywhere and are necessary for our economic system to function (capitalism). The concept that anything/everything you buy/pay for should be ad/marketing free is laughable.

You can get all worked up over it and have a stroke or you can figure out how to avoid the worst of it (hint buy a TiVo/DVR) and live with the rest by basically learning to ignore the ones that are of no value to you. So while I have no interest in defending any particular type of ad/marketing I will defend ads/marketing in general as necessary.


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## MScottC (Sep 11, 2004)

tivohaydon said:


> What I don't get is why people keep defending the ads.
> 
> Things like (yeah, they're emphasized and not actual quotes):
> "Don't complain about anything less serious than cancer!"
> ...


The benefit of the ads is quite simple, it subsidizes the cost of the the device and the service to keep the device working. Quite frankly, I've never once felt slowed down, or felt like I've had time taken away from me without my consent by a TiVo ad. Compare it to the time I've saved by using the TiVo to skip commercials, and all the other benefits that TiVo provides to me, I am coming out way ahead. There are far worse ads all over the place in modern society. Half the time I click on a link to a video on the web, and ad pops up and I can't get by them for at least a few seconds and in many cases I have to sit through the entire ad. Much of our clothing has some large corporate logo on it. Almost all of our mass transit is plastered with ads. Our city streets, roads and highways are littered with billboards. When I buy a new computer, it's loaded with advertising based software. I can go on and on. Society has deemed it acceptable that corporations can assist us in our desire to get things for less money by subsidizing costs in exchange for allowing them an advertisement to reach our eyeballs. Quite frankly, TiVo does it in a way that is not so awful.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

atmuscarella said:


> Funny I watched at least 5 hours of recorded TV yesterday and I can not remember any TiVo ads other than I know there were some in the info bar in the HD Menu (still don't remember noticing them as I don't pay any attention to the info bar stuff) and also were likely some when I paused a show, so I wouldn't say I am defending TiVo ads more like defending that they should/could be irrelevant to a persons viewing experience.


I'm with you, unless I pause a show and one of those ads pops up in the progress bar, I don't really notice any other ads.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

sangs said:


> I'm with you, unless I pause a show and one of those ads pops up in the progress bar, I don't really notice any other ads.


Same here...not even CLOSE to a big deal for me...


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

IMO, the major benefit of the ads is indirect: it convinces cable company managers that there are additional revenue benefits going forward if they switch over to using TiVo as their company's DVR.

TiVo's long-term survival depends on being adopted by cable companies.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

tivohaydon said:


> What I don't get is why people keep defending the ads.
> 
> Things like (yeah, they're emphasized and not actual quotes):
> "Don't complain about anything less serious than cancer!"
> ...


If TiVo was making money like Apple then a point about ADs may have some validity, but if the ADs now on the TiVo gives TiVo more staying power and they don't interfere with my watching a recorded show I don't understand your fuss about them, if you have say HBO that one pays for you still get ADs before most movies/shows, the ADs are for other HBO shows but they are still ADs and without a DVR you have to watch them. The TiVo ADs are the most unobtrusive ADs system I have seen, like highway billboards, one can still drive and not look at the billboards. You pay for your newspaper and get tons of ADs so the pay and get no ADs is not that common,* get use to it*.


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## tivohaydon (Mar 24, 2001)

MScottC said:


> The benefit of the ads is quite simple, it subsidizes the cost of the the device and the service to keep the device working.


But if you look at their financials this is simply not true. TiVo has very likely spent more money engineering, support and sales related to supporting advertising than they receive with advertising(*). At most it's a very small fraction of a dollar subsidy every month. TiVo is pricing themselves vs cable company boxes and has nothing to do with advertising revenue.

The most interesting possibility someone else mentioned is that they feel it gives them 'cover' ... Companies aren't as likely to out and out try and destroy their platform (with CableCard's issues that's a hard pill to swallow though) because it ALSO supports advertising.

edit: (*) Made it a bit more clear that the engineering, support and sales were related to engineering costs for advertising, supporting advertising related functions and overhead associated with selling spot sales to advertisers.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

tivohaydon said:


> But if you look at their financials this is simply not true. TiVo has very likely spent more money engineering, support and sales than they receive with advertising. At most it's a very small fraction of a dollar subsidy every month. TiVo is pricing themselves vs cable company boxes and has nothing to do with advertising revenue.
> 
> The most interesting possibility someone else mentioned is that they feel it gives them 'cover' ... Companies aren't as likely to out and out try and destroy their platform (with CableCard's issues that's a hard pill to swallow though) because it ALSO supports advertising.


It is questionable if TiVo has ever made any money selling stand alone DVRs either. However I am sure their intent is to make money selling stand alone DVRs and part of that strategy is ad revenue.


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## Nailz (Jan 24, 2014)

If the advertisements save me money, then show me the math!
I pay for the electricity, cable bill, hardware & service.

Put me on the "Do not send advertisements list":up:

If I want your product, I'll find you. It's not that I think that advertisements are truthful, so I don't trust them anyway.


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