# Transfer of Lifetime from Series 2 or Series 3 TiVo for $99, with purchase of new Bolt



## Mikeguy

Just received this email offer from TiVo:

*The Once in a lifetime deal you've been waiting for.*

For a limited time, transfer lifetime service from your TiVo Series 2 or Series 3 DVR for only $99 with a purchase of any new TiVo BOLT™1. Seriously, we've never offered a deal like this before! TiVo BOLT is the best TiVo ever! You get:

• Streaming apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime with all your live TV and recorded content.
• SkipMode which lets you skip over entire commercial breaks at the touch of a button.
• Jaw dropping 4K quality.

The TiVo all-in service plan is regularly $550. You save $450 when you buy a new TiVo BOLT and Transfer your lifetime service for just $99! Stay on the couch, but act now!*Offer ends April 10th.*

1 _Only TiVo Series2/Series3, HD and HDXL DVRs with Product Lifetime service that have connected to the TiVo service between 3/28/16 and 3/28/17 qualify. Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service._​
Wow!


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## doopstr

I'm here for the upgrade. Looks like it's time to trade in my Tivo HD for a Bolt and Mini.


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## Mikeguy

As best I can tell, this offer cannot be combined with the today/tomorrow TiVo offer of 20% off a new Bolt (Bolt or Bolt+; not including subscription) (code MAROFF20), at least on-line. But if others find otherwise, please let us know.


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## lynncosbm

I'm considering this deal. I have a Humax brand TiVo with Lifetime I'm still using. Does this qualify as a Series 2 for this deal?


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## Mikeguy

lynncosbm said:


> I'm considering this deal. I have a Humax brand TiVo with Lifetime I'm still using. Does this qualify as a Series 2 for this deal?


I'm guessing, yes, esp. if you personally received the email (unless it was a general email blast, which I'm guessing it wasn't, as it could upset other box owners). I likewise have a Toshiba Series 2 box and received the offer, and am assuming I'm covered. But it should be verified with TiVo customer sales support.

A related query: my Toshiba Series 2 came with a free "TiVo Basic" subscription, an "abbreviated" form of a TiVo lifetime subscription (no season passes, Guide limited to 3 days, no TiVo networking, and other limitations). If the lifetime is transferred to a new Bolt, will the Series 2 be reverted to its original state with TiVo Basic, or will it be totally deactivated?

Some calls to TiVo are in order. 

edit: Tried telephoning TiVo just now, for questions--closed for the day. Open tomorrow at 7 a.m. PDT. 1-877-289-8486.


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## jafi

I have 3 series 3 boxes - does anyone know how it selects which one to deactivate? (I'm only going to buy 1 Bolt). I don't want more than one to deactivate and it's not clear to me if the transfer process asks for the TIVO service number of a particular box....?


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## bvm42

Mikeguy said:


> Only TiVo Series2/Series3, HD and HDXL DVRs with Product Lifetime service that have connected to the TiVo service between 3/28/16 and 3/28/17 qualify.


How do I find out whether mine has phoned home in that period? I disconnected a while ago, but don't remember just when.


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## jafi

bvm42 said:


> How do I find out whether mine has phoned home in that period? I disconnected a while ago, but don't remember just when.


Settings and Message - Settings - Phone & Network - it will show last attempted connection and last successful connection


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## Mikeguy

jafi said:


> I have 3 series 3 boxes - does anyone know how it selects which one to deactivate? (I'm only going to buy 1 Bolt). I don't want more than one to deactivate and it's not clear to me if the transfer process asks for the TIVO service number of a particular box....?


I would call TiVo customer sales support to work it out. I would assume that you can choose which of your Series 3 boxes to be deactivated, and that deactivation only affects that box. But it should be verified with TiVo.

Of course, you could buy multiple Bolts, so as not to have to choose.


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## Mikeguy

bvm42 said:


> How do I find out whether mine has phoned home in that period? I disconnected a while ago, but don't remember just when.





jafi said:


> Settings and Message - Settings - Phone & Network - it will show last attempted connection and last successful connection


Good point. TiVo also should have a record. Keep in mind that the covered connection period begins March 28, 2016 (to March 28, 2017)--over a year ago.


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## jafi

Mikeguy said:


> I would call TiVo customer sales support to work it out. I would assume that you can choose which of your Series 3 boxes to be deactivated, and that deactivation only affects that box. But it should be verified with TiVo.
> 
> Of course, you could buy multiple Bolts, so as not to have to choose.


Still really like the series 3 with the OLED display better than the newer ones. Find the menus on the Roamio hard to read. The writing is on the wall though with the removal of series 3 features such as moving season passes /OnePasses online. The only thing the Bolt has that is enticing is the streaming to mobile. I'm certainly not buying one because of the Rovi guide info!!


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## atmuscarella

I just got the email also. I have a Humax Series 2, Series 3, & TiVo HD with lifetime that have all called in during the required time period. However I also have a base Roamio & Bolt with lifetime and even though this is a great deal will not be buying another Bolt. 

Anyone who has one of these older units and doesn't also have newer ones really needs to take advantage of this. $300 for the base Bolt with lifetime is a great deal. 

Nice that they are leaving the old TiVo active for 10 days give people a chance to move shows off their old units if they want to.


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## cooper243

I am very tempted. I will have to research what a TiVO mini is, but sounds like a very good deal. I have a 2 and a 3, so I will call to see if my 2 can be deactivated. Does the Bolt have built in wi-fi?


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## jafi

cooper243 said:


> I am very tempted. I will have to research what a TiVO mini is, but sounds like a very good deal. I have a 2 and a 3, so I will call to see if my 2 can be deactivated. Does the Bolt have built in wi-fi?


yes wi-fi is integrated no dongle required.


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## ryan87500

Do you have to buy the bolt from TIVO? It is much cheaper on Amazon. If so then the lifetime is really more like $170.


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## Mikeguy

jafi said:


> Still really like the series 3 with the OLED display better than the newer ones. Find the menus on the Roamio hard to read. The writing is on the wall though with the removal of series 3 features such as moving season passes /OnePasses online. The only thing the Bolt has that is enticing is the streaming to mobile. I'm certainly not buying one because of the Rovi guide info!!


The Series 3 OLED always has been my favorite, as a tech. geek type--it has that super display, all that nice info. (my Toshiba Series 2 has a display as well, albeit a "regular" LCD--and even control buttons), and just exudes class.  But it was _*so*_ expensive.

I agree with you, though--many years have passed, and even the early models have a finite lifetime. And truth be told, I rarely look at my Series 2's display or use the box's controls (apart from the DVD open/close button, and sometimes play button).

It's funny, I just posted in the last week or 2 that I wished that TiVo would do a buy-out of the earlier models, as it did with the Series 1 boxes--I guess TiVo (or its Russian friends?) monitors my posts and ideas? LOL.


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## Resist

Mikeguy said:


> 1 _Only TiVo Series2/Series3, HD and HDXL DVRs with Product Lifetime service that have connected to the TiVo service between 3/28/16 and 3/28/17 qualify. Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service._


I don't understand this requirement. I have a working Lifetime Service Series2 that has been unplugged and stored in a closet for years. I'd love to be able to transfer its lifetime to a new box, but this requirement says I can't. I don't get it.


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## advocate2

ryan87500 said:


> Do you have to buy the bolt from TIVO? It is much cheaper on Amazon. If so then the lifetime is really more like $170.


I have one Series 3 left that I bought when it came out. I am tempted to get the 1TB version of the Bolt but noticed it is $85 cheaper on Amazon. I'd like to know if I have to buy the unit from TIVO in order to qualify for the transfer.


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## mlsnyc

advocate2 said:


> I have one Series 3 left that I bought when it came out. I am tempted to get the 1TB version of the Bolt but noticed it is $85 cheaper on Amazon. I'd like to know if I have to buy the unit from TIVO in order to qualify for the transfer.


You'd need to confirm with TiVo but I'm pretty sure it is. This offer looks to me as a way for them to sell Bolts by throwing in a steep discount for lifetime service.


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## cherry ghost

ryan87500 said:


> Do you have to buy the bolt from TIVO? It is much cheaper on Amazon. If so then the lifetime is really more like $170.


There's a promo code in the email that you have to use and it probably won't work without a Bolt in your cart.

Still a great deal and I feel like I have to take advantage.

My only question is whether or not I'll keep my grandfathered monthly price on my Roamio that I get because of my active Seroies 3.


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## Mikeguy

ryan87500 said:


> Do you have to buy the bolt from TIVO? It is much cheaper on Amazon. If so then the lifetime is really more like $170.


That's an excellent question and point. I'm guessing that you need to purchase the box from TiVo (I received a somewhat similar offer from TiVo on the 10-year anniversary of my Series 2, and needed to purchase a Roamio under the offer directly from TiVo, also at a regular retail price), but I'd call TiVo--you never know. (And let us know here!  ) Also, the link in the TiVo email goes to a landing page for the purchase of the box plus subscription--I didn't see an option for the subscription alone.

But a clue there: do any of your credit cards offer you "price protection"? If you have a card that does, you could use that card for your TiVo box/subscription purchase and then file a claim with the credit card company (actually, with the card benefits company that administers the claims) for the box price difference. That worked for me the last time and saved me $75 or so off the Roamio's price.


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## Mikeguy

Resist said:


> I don't understand this requirement. I have a working Lifetime Service Series2 that has been unplugged and stored in a closet for years. I'd love to be able to transfer its lifetime to a new box, but this requirement says I can't. I don't get it.


Personally, I'd call TiVo and nicely schmooze them and escalate to a supervisor, if necessary--you never know. In my experience, TiVo can be generous, at times (I think it helps to be nice on the phone). And you may have an explanation for things, such as you had moved and things were in storage and you just hadn't set things up, yet (albeit, TiVo is looking back an entire year . . .) or something else.

I had thought of this possibility (a TiVo "buy-out" of older boxes similar to what it had done with Series 1 owners earlier) a while ago, and thought, given what I saw had happened with that last offer, that if I ever disconnected my Series 2, I would try to remember to dial in once a month.

TiVo's limitation to "active" boxes may be its attempt to avoid redemptions for attic or garage boxes no longer being used and not intended to be used again, figuring that those people will pay full price at this point for a box. (As vs. me, lol!)


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## bvm42

Resist said:


> I don't understand this requirement. I have a working Lifetime Service Series2 that has been unplugged and stored in a closet for years. I'd love to be able to transfer its lifetime to a new box, but this requirement says I can't. I don't get it.


Yeah, I'm in the same boat, and I bet lots of others are, too. I'm guessing they're trying to limit their exposure. Though you might think it would be to their advantage to include us -- some of these people might have abandoned Tivo and this would be a way to bring them back to the fold.


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## Mikeguy

atmuscarella said:


> I just got the email also. I have a Humax Series 2, Series 3, & TiVo HD with lifetime that have all called in during the required time period. However I also have a base Roamio & Bolt with lifetime and even though this is a great deal will not be buying another Bolt.
> 
> Anyone who has one of these older units and doesn't also have newer ones really needs to take advantage of this. $300 for the base Bolt with lifetime is a great deal.


TiVo box fatigue/saturation, huh? I hear ya'. But, this deal is _so_ nice, it's tempting, and there's always another room in the house . . . .


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## Mikeguy

advocate2 said:


> I have one Series 3 left that I bought when it came out. I am tempted to get the 1TB version of the Bolt but noticed it is $85 cheaper on Amazon. I'd like to know if I have to buy the unit from TIVO in order to qualify for the transfer.


Credit card purchase price protection reimbusement?


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## BrianHutchison

bvm42 said:


> Yeah, I'm in the same boat, and I bet lots of others are, too. I'm guessing they're trying to limit their exposure. Though you might think it would be to their advantage to include us -- some of these people might have abandoned Tivo and this would be a way to bring them back to the fold.


I'm in that boat too.

EDIT: looks like my Tivo was on during at least some of the required timeframe.


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## arw01

anyone know if the code is unique to each user or not. Parents have a lifetime series 2 in use and they want to move to a 4 tuner asap with this deal. But not looking like they got the same email. (yet)


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## InFromTheCold

atmuscarella said:


> I just got the email also. I have a Humax Series 2, Series 3, & TiVo HD with lifetime that have all called in during the required time period. However I also have a base Roamio & Bolt with lifetime and even though this is a great deal will not be buying another Bolt.
> 
> Anyone who has one of these older units and doesn't also have newer ones really needs to take advantage of this. $300 for the base Bolt with lifetime is a great deal.
> 
> Nice that they are leaving the old TiVo active for 10 days give people a chance to move shows off their old units if they want to.


I'm considering trading in my THD for this deal. If I do, I will be one of those people needing to move a load of old shows. Can anyone point me in the right direction for info on the best way to do this? I used to have Tivo software on my old PC, but it seemed like most shows I transferred to the computer had flags indicating that they were restricted, and basically were not available to me. I confess I didn't keep researching. I don't suppose I can still watch them on the TiVo, after it's been deactivated?

Edit: Can one move shows to the computer using Desktop, and then move them to a different TiVo (for example, to a new Bolt)?


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## Riblet2000

Considering that my beloved 13 year old Humax 800 isn't worth half this it's probably time to let it go. I also have a Series 3 HD with lifetime which is similarly not worth much so I may go ahead and get two and sell one if TiVo will transfer the "all in" to a buyer.


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## Mikeguy

cooper243 said:


> I am very tempted. I will have to research what a TiVO mini is, but sounds like a very good deal. I have a 2 and a 3, so I will call to see if my 2 can be deactivated. Does the Bolt have built in wi-fi?


TiVo Mini: basically, an extension of your TiVo box, to another room and TV without having to buy a whole new, full (and more expensive) TiVo box. Does not require a separate TiVo subscription (it comes with that), so there is considerable $ savings. But it wants an Ethernet, or coax. cable (via a "MoCA network"), connection to your TiVo box (although some people have been able to get it to work with a good wireless network or Powerline adapters).


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## TivoRocks193

Mikeguy said:


> As best I can tell, this offer cannot be combined with the today/tomorrow TiVo offer of 20% off a new Bolt (Bolt or Bolt+; not including subscription) (code MAROFF20), at least on-line. But if others find otherwise, please let us know.


Yeah, the website does not let you use both. I'm assuming the lifetime has to be purchased ar the time the Bolt is purchased for $99 discount. Might call tomorrow and see if I can use both over the phone.


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## Tweak42

Resist said:


> I don't understand this requirement. I have a working Lifetime Service Series2 that has been unplugged and stored in a closet for years. I'd love to be able to transfer its lifetime to a new box, but this requirement says I can't. I don't get it.


It makes sense if Tivo wants to reward loyal customers that are still using their old units to upgrade so they can sunset the old units.

Because of the Series 1 sunset last year, I was in the process of updating a pair of dust gathering lifetime Series 2 units to the Rovi guide so I could loan them to relatives that have never used a dvr before. The external digital tuner requirement and single source recording make them clunky to use so it looks like time to cash these things out.


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## Mikeguy

TivoRocks193 said:


> Yeah, the website does not let you use both. I'm assuming the lifetime has to be purchased ar the time the Bolt is purchased for $99 discount. Might call tomorrow and see if I can use both over the phone.


If I'm remembering correctly, when I purchased my Roamio under a similar sort of deal, I had called TiVo and was told that, yes, both aspects needed to be purchased from TiVo. And that's when I thought to go via a credit card price protection benefit refund.


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## Mikeguy

Time to go onto eBay or Craigslist and purchase a lifetime'd Series 2 for under $100?  I wonder if that would work, or if you would have to be the owner prior to this offer.


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## krkaufman

cooper243 said:


> I am very tempted. I will have to research what a TiVO mini is, but sounds like a very good deal. I have a 2 and a 3, so I will call to see if my 2 can be deactivated. Does the Bolt have built in wi-fi?


Yes, as is MoCA 2.0 bridging functionality, to help with networking that new Mini.


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## cwerdna

I also received this email. I'm tempted as I'm still using a TiVo HD w/lifetime.

My only hesitations are that I'm not clear how committed Rovi... err TiVo is committed to at least keeping the Bolt software in decent shape in terms of bugs and few/no regressions and improving their somewhat crappy guide data.

I did have a lifetimed Series 2 standalone that I sold long ago that still shows up on my account. It's no longer in my possession and I'm not clear if it has connected during that time and whether the buyer still uses it. If it meets the requirements but they're not using it, I'd rather the sub be transferred from that.

Bolts still work ok w/kmttg, right? From a few searches, it looks like they were working fine last year. I sometimes transfer shows from my Tivo HD to a PC via kmttg. I don't usually transfer shows the other way, but occasionally do.


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## TivoRocks193

Mikeguy said:


> Time to go onto eBay or Craigslist and purchase a lifetime'd Series 2 for under $100?  I wonder if that would work, or if you would have to be the owner prior to this offer.


That won't work. The offer says *you* have to have a TiVo with an active account that connected between 3/28 of this year and last. In other words, if you didn't get the email, you probably can't redeem it. Even if you have an old one in a closet, unless it connected during this time period, it is not eligible.


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## Mikeguy

TivoRocks193 said:


> That won't work. The offer says *you* have to have a TiVo with an active account that connected between 3/28 of this year and last. In other words, if you didn't get the email, you probably can't redeem it. Even if you have an old one in a closet, unless it connected during this time period, it is not eligible.


I wouldn't be the sort who would try it, but I still wonder if it would get through. This assumes that the box connected up in the past year, and that the code in the emails isn't unique to a user/box. Just the evil side of me wondering.


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## Mikeguy

cwerdna said:


> I also received this email. I'm tempted as I'm still using a TiVo HD w/lifetime.
> 
> My only hesitations are that I'm not clear how committed Rovi... err TiVo is committed to at least keeping the Bolt software in decent shape in terms of bugs and few/no regressions and improving their somewhat crappy guide data.
> 
> I did have a lifetimed Series 2 standalone that I sold long ago that still shows up on my account. It's no longer in my possession and I'm not clear if it has connected during that time and whether the buyer still uses it. If it meets the requirements but they're not using it, I'd rather the sub be transferred from that.
> 
> Bolts still work ok w/kmttg, right? From a few searches, it looks like they were working fine last year. I sometimes transfer shows from my Tivo HD to a PC via kmttg. I don't usually transfer shows the other way, but occasionally do.


As to the future, I'm kinda thinking, the software/Guide probably won't regress, at least, will it? Providing some security in that regard. But I know that some people feel otherwise.

I always wonder how long the company will be here. But I also felt that way when I purchased my Series 2. And the price lessens the exposure.

Be interesting how you could finesse matters with the Series 2 you no longer have--maybe the purchaser just wouldn't care.


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## cwerdna

Mikeguy said:


> As to the future, I'm kinda thinking, the software/Guide probably won't regress, at least, will it? Providing some security in that regard. But I know that some people feel otherwise.


It most definitely can. I do software testing for a living and have done so for over 1.5 decades. The software itself could be unchanged for years (unlikely) but whatever it depends on upstream could get worse. Code paths that were previously unexercised and not well-tested could but put into use.

They could make code changes for whatever reason (e.g. bug fixes, enhancements, A/B testing, supporting something, re-architecture or refactoring code, etc.) and new bugs could be introduced for whatever reason (e.g. insufficient staff, not very good staff, management not caring, loss of knowledge due to turnover, etc.) and not fixed promptly or ever.


Mikeguy said:


> I always wonder how long the company will be here. But I also felt that way when I purchased my Series 2. And the price lessens the exposure.


Yeah. Ditto but I started with Series 1 in 2001.


Mikeguy said:


> Be interesting how you could finesse matters with the Series 2 you no longer have--maybe the purchaser just wouldn't care.


I'm going to email the buyer. If he wants to take advantage of the deal, I'd be more than willing to contact TiVo to transfer ownership to him, since it looks like he didn't take it (from the account side).


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## spocko

InFromTheCold said:


> I'm considering trading in my THD for this deal. If I do, I will be one of those people needing to move a load of old shows. Can anyone point me in the right direction for info on the best way to do this? I used to have Tivo software on my old PC, but it seemed like most shows I transferred to the computer had flags indicating that they were restricted, and basically were not available to me. I confess I didn't keep researching. I don't suppose I can still watch them on the TiVo, after it's been deactivated?


You would be able to transfer recordings only from channels that do not have copy protection. See here for more info:
https://support.tivo.com/articles/FAQ/Copy-Protection-FAQ

Some cable providers put copy protection on all channels except the local broadcast channels (i.e. ABC, NBC, PBS, etc.), while others only put it on premium channels. If you are on Cox or Time Warner, then you probably have copy protection on most channels.

Any recordings which are not copy protected can be transferred directly from one tivo to another. There is no need to transfer them to a computer as an intermediary.

Edit:
You can watch existing recordings on the old Tivo even after it has been deactivated.


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## ryannel

Tweak42 said:


> It makes sense if Tivo wants to reward loyal customers that are still using their old units to upgrade so they can sunset the old units.
> 
> Because of the Series 1 sunset last year, I was in the process of updating a pair of dust gathering lifetime Series 2 units to the Rovi guide so I could loan them to relatives that have never used a dvr before. The external digital tuner requirement and single source recording make them clunky to use so it looks like time to cash these things out.


Just hook the equipment up, let it make a few connections, wait 24 hours, then call. They can see it made a connection, and who knows, maybe you'll learn whether the equipment in fact still works or not.


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## InFromTheCold

spocko said:


> You would be able to transfer recordings only from channels that do not have copy protection. See here for more info:
> https://support.tivo.com/articles/FAQ/Copy-Protection-FAQ
> 
> Some cable providers put copy protection on all channels except the local broadcast channels (i.e. ABC, NBC, PBS, etc.), while others only put it on premium channels. If you are on Cox or Time Warner, then you probably have copy protection on most channels.
> 
> Any recordings which are not copy protected can be transferred directly from one tivo to another. There is no need to transfer them to a computer as an intermediary.


Thanks. Any of the programs worth saving are copy-protected, thanks to TWC.

So, once the box is deactivated, have I lost access to all of that?


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## mae

advocate2 said:


> I have one Series 3 left that I bought when it came out. I am tempted to get the 1TB version of the Bolt but noticed it is $85 cheaper on Amazon. I'd like to know if I have to buy the unit from TIVO in order to qualify for the transfer.


If you have a credit card that offers price protection like Discover or some Citi cards, you can buy it from TiVo and submit a claim for the difference. I did this when they had a loyalty offer on Roamios with lifetime a few years ago. I filled out an online form, scanned my receipt and submitted it with an Amazon screen shot. Discover sent me the ~$80.


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## HerronScott

InFromTheCold said:


> Thanks. Any of the programs worth saving are copy-protected, thanks to TWC.
> 
> So, once the box is deactivated, have I lost access to all of that?


No you should be able to still watch them without service but the TiVo will nag you that it doesn't have service or guide data.

Scott


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## aimeedmiked

I AM GOING TO DO IT!!!

Any differences between Bolt vs Bolt plus? I know about the 6 tuners, larger drive and no HD antena. Any thing else? If they are the same I might just go with the regular Bolt. 6 Tuners and 3TB drive seems like over kill for how we watch tv now. If I can save the $200 bucks then I might go with the 1TB model


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## InFromTheCold

HerronScott said:


> No you should be able to still watch them without service but the TiVo will nag you that it doesn't have service or guide data.
> 
> Scott


OK, thanks, I don't mind nagging, if that's the price to keep my Now Playing List accessible.


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## timckelley

I have 3 S2 lifetimes, but two have been broken a long time - I have a feeling for more than the one year timeframe they're talking about, but I should double check how long it's been since they connected. But I do have an active lifetimed S2 (single tuner) that we've been using continuously for years, so I'll have to think if I should convert that over to a Bolt. I did get the personal email about this.


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## Mikeguy

cwerdna said:


> It most definitely can.


Certainly--I simply was opining on, what seems most likely, to me. But then, I don't run Rovi.


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## Mikeguy

ryannel said:


> Just hook the equipment up, let it make a few connections, wait 24 hours, then call. They can see it made a connection, and who knows, maybe you'll learn whether the equipment in fact still works or not.


But note that the connection period for the offer is March 28, 2016-March 28, 2017.


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## Mad Hobbit

yes I have a series 2 that i bought in 2001,and a hd in 2010. over the years I have replaced the hd 2 times in the series 2. time to put it into pasture.


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## ryannel

Mikeguy said:


> But note that the connection period for the offer is March 28, 2016-March 28, 2017.


Yes, but the worst they can say is no. A sale is a sale. 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## rjspring

I'm on the fence as I also got the offer and the price seems right everything considered, however the future of TV is on the internet and that is how I'm watching for everything other than daily news and live sports (so the question I have to answer is if $599 is worth the time shifting convenience). The movie industry is now starting to understand this as box office released movies will start hitting streaming services less than 45 days after theater release.


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## Mikeguy

ryannel said:


> Yes, but the worst they can say is no. A sale is a sale.


I absolutely agree, esp. with TiVo which can be generous at times. And a phone call is cheap!


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## fcfc2

rjspring said:


> I'm on the fence as I also got the offer and the price seems right everything considered, however the future of TV is on the internet and that is how I'm watching for everything other than daily news and live sports (so the question I have to answer is if $599 is worth the time shifting convenience). The movie industry is now starting to understand this as box office released movies will start hitting streaming services less than 45 days after theater release.


The "value" purchase is the standard 500GB Bolt for $200, add the $99 lifetime and you have $300 Bolt with lifetime service. This gives you the option of upgrading the HD, the 3TB Toshiba goes for about $140 or less if you want to keep it, or just hold it for a month or so and sell it. If you want a Tivo this is a gigantic step up from those older series boxes, and gives you the option of adding a mini or two.
The Bolt+ for $600 is a good price but not as good as the standard Bolt in terms of value.
If all you are interested in is streaming then get a Roku and forget about Tivo entirely, or go the PS VUE route.


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## timckelley

So, I wonder if this $200 Bolt will also allow streaming and/or copyingrecorded shows to my iPad. I currently have some S2s, a Premier, and a Roamio, but my Roamio is one of the cheap ones that doesn't include this streaming option. (So none of my boxes do.) I could buy whatever standalone box TiVo sells for that (I think it's called the TiVo Stream? Or something like that), but if the Bolt includes it as a standard feature, that'd be a bonus in my eyes.


----------



## brueger

If I get the Bolt, can I just swap my cablecard from the old Tivo?


----------



## Paw Paw

brueger said:


> If I get the Bolt, can I just swap my cablecard from the old Tivo?


The CableCard will have to be paired to the new TiVo by your cable provider to be able to receive copy protected content. This can be done but is frequently difficult and frustrating as most reps do not have a clue as to how to do it correctly.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> So, I wonder if this $200 Bolt will also allow streaming and/or copyingrecorded shows to my iPad. I currently have some S2s, a Premier, and a Roamio, but my Roamio is one of the cheap ones that doesn't include this streaming option. (So none of my boxes do.) I could buy whatever standalone box TiVo sells for that (I think it's called the TiVo Stream? Or something like that), but if the Bolt includes it as a standard feature, that'd be a bonus in my eyes.


Good point. Includes both MoCA (built-in) and streaming capabilities.


----------



## lynncosbm

I have a TiVo HD which I gave to my daughter a couple years ago which she has in her apt. but I never bothered to change out of my account. I was thinking I might get her a new Bolt as a birthday present but if I do, would I be able to get it put into her account or would I have to keep it in mine?


----------



## spocko

timckelley said:


> So, I wonder if this $200 Bolt will also allow streaming and/or copyingrecorded shows to my iPad. I currently have some S2s, a Premier, and a Roamio, but my Roamio is one of the cheap ones that doesn't include this streaming option. (So none of my boxes do.) I could buy whatever standalone box TiVo sells for that (I think it's called the TiVo Stream? Or something like that), but if the Bolt includes it as a standard feature, that'd be a bonus in my eyes.


Yes the Bolt includes streaming as a standard feature, and it would be able to stream or copy recordings to your iPad.


----------



## ryan87500

Amazing was on hold for 20 minutes to talk to someone to make a purchase. The lady was rude and seemed overwhelmed. 

I asked about buying it elsewhere because of the price difference they said no, and they don't pricematch. They said the reason it is more expensive is because it becomes preactivated compared to if you buy from Amazon you have to activate and it is more work me as the consumer.

What a joke...


----------



## Mikeguy

lynncosbm said:


> I have a TiVo HD which I gave to my daughter a couple years ago which she has in her apt. but I never bothered to change out of my account. I was thinking I might get her a new Bolt as a birthday present but if I do, would I be able to get it put into her account or would I have to keep it in mine?


I'm not sure of the mechanics, but I think that at the very least, you could get the Bolt and then after transfer it to your daughter, just like with any TiVo box re-sale.

And, what a nice dad.


----------



## timckelley

spocko said:


> Yes the Bolt includes streaming as a standard feature, and it would be able to stream or copy recordings to your iPad.


That's nice. I seriously considered buying a TiVo Stream last Xmas, but never got around to it. If I get this Bolt, it sounds like I won't care about a TiVo Stream (since it's built in), plus transferring a single tuner S2 lifetime for $99? That sounds like a good deal. Sometimes we lose recordings on our S2 because the IR activated digital to analog tuner I'm using stops tuning and I have to power cycle it manually. Plus the overall features available on a Bolt is light years ahead of a single tuner S2. That'd be a mighty significant upgrade.


----------



## Mikeguy

ryan87500 said:


> Amazing was on hold for 20 minutes to talk to someone to make a purchase. The lady was rude and seemed overwhelmed.
> 
> I asked about buying it elsewhere because of the price difference they said no, and they don't pricematch. *They said the reason it is more expensive is because it becomes preactivated compared to if you buy from Amazon you have to activate and it is more work me as the consumer.*
> 
> What a joke...


LOL, that's funny. Thanks for posting the results, as many have asked about this.

But I can't fault TiVo's requirement that one purchase the box from it (TiVo wants to make as much as it can for itself in the deal--understandable) and the deal is great, regardless. The "consumer solution," if possible: purchase with a credit card that offers price protection and then make a claim.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> Sometimes we lose recordings on our S2 because the IR activated digital to analog tuner I'm using stops tuning and I have to power cycle it manually.


Likewise have had some occasional glitches between the Series 2 and the converter box--nice to avoid them, along with all the other advantages.


----------



## timckelley

I must have missed this tip earlier: price protection? That's a brilliant idea, assuming the way they process the claim is by refunding the price difference, and not making you return the item, and rebuy it from the other guy. My hat's off to whoever came up with this work-around.


----------



## George Cifranci

timckelley said:


> That's nice. I seriously considered buying a TiVo Stream last Xmas, but never got around to it. If I get this Bolt, it sounds like I won't care about a TiVo Stream (since it's built in), plus transferring a single tuner S2 lifetime for $99? That sounds like a good deal. Sometimes we lose recordings on our S2 because the IR activated digital to analog tuner I'm using stops tuning and I have to power cycle it manually. Plus the overall features available on a Bolt is light years ahead of a single tuner S2. That'd be a mighty significant upgrade.


 Here are the details of the TiVo mobile streaming features. They seem pretty cool. I'm thinking about getting a Bolt (upgrading from a 10 year old TiVo Series 3)

TiVo BOLT


----------



## reneg

I wound up ordering two 500GB Bolts though I only needed one. One of the upgrades was from a Tivo HD that I tried to use as an OTA box three months ago, but it had tuner issues so I put it back in the closet. The other upgrade was from a Series-2 that I remember connecting to Tivo service at some point in time just to see if it still worked. It did. I can't remember when I connected it to Tivo service, but I guess it was within the last year. Now I'll have to see if anyone in my family needs a Bolt.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> I must have missed this tip earlier: price protection? That's a brilliant idea, assuming the way they process the claim is by refunding the price difference, and not making you return the item, and rebuy it from the other guy. My hat's off to whoever came up with this work-around.


It worked for me when I had a TiVo offer for a Roamio plus subscription before.


----------



## klgood1

I asked @tivo on twitter, and they said the offer is only good for boxes bought through their site.


----------



## cooper243

I jumped the gun and got the 1 TB version. I will submit the amazon price to my credit card company. I am giving up my Series 2 and keeping my Tivo HD.


----------



## lynncosbm

Mikeguy said:


> I'm not sure of the mechanics, but I think that at the very least, you could get the Bolt and then after transfer it to your daughter, just like with any TiVo box re-sale.
> 
> And, what a nice dad.


Thanks. Mom, actually! ;^)


----------



## Wil

Thread hijacking a bit.

This offer may have motivated you to take a look at that old lifetimed model HD, and you found it unfortunately misses the dates for this offer. If you decide you'd like to get rid of it but would like to see it put to use rather than landfilled, we are at this time still finding homes for a few more HDs. Paying actual shipping or will pick up.

PM me (or what's called conversation now under the new software).

EDITED TO ADD: Please mention your zip code. Thanks.


----------



## jhhyde

Has anybody done this on Tivo.com yet? WHen i select a Bolt it adds in the monthly service charge and then when I put in my promo code it says accepted, but it does not change anything as far as the monthly service charge still showing and nothing about transferring lifetime for $99. I am reluctant to go past this point where it says CHECKOUT.


----------



## shannon94188

Has anyone jumped on this from the web site only (and not called in)? I'm wondering when/how the web site allows you to select which box to deactivate (I have several). Thanks!


----------



## Mikeguy

Confirmed with TiVo via phone this a.m. as well, that the box and subscription need to be purchased directly from TiVo. Also, that this deal cannot be combined with the yesterday/today TiVo Bolt 20%-off discount offer.

Additionally, confirmed that a Toshiba Series 2 TiVo qualifies for this offer. (Sorry, I forgot to ask about a Humax Series 2, but my guess is, then, that it qualifies as well.) And if there are any other Series 2 box owners out there who have a box that came with TiVo Basic: with the offer, the Series 2 box will be deactivated fully--the box will not be reverted back to TiVo Basic. It still will work to view previously-recorded shows, but will not be able to record new ones, even manually. Also, the rep. checked and the Toshiba Series 2's DVD player still will work to watch DVDs.


----------



## rjspring

Well, this story may have put on the breaks for me upgrading - Verizon Said to Plan Online TV Package for Summer Launch. Hard to make both TV service and the cost of an upgrade (even with this deal) pencil out long term if Verizon start offering Sling TV like pricing.


----------



## Mikeguy

lynncosbm said:


> Thanks. Mom, actually! ;^)


*I so apologize!!* I thought I had read "Dad" somewhere--perhaps I was confused with a separate post (was looking at a lot of new posts). Again, I am so sorry.

And, yes, a nice mom!


----------



## Mikeguy

Btw, about a 15-minute wait to get through to a TiVo sales rep., but she was entirely pleasant and informed, patient with my questions, and looked into a more obscure matter for me. Like the old TiVo.


----------



## Trey Dio

I have an HD XL and am considering the offer. After a Tivo box is deactivated, can manual record by time and channel recordings still be made? I understand program information won't be available but the box would still be usable as a backup. Other than program information not being downloaded what else happens when the box is deactivated?


----------



## wtherrell

Paw Paw said:


> The CableCard will have to be paired to the new TiVo by your cable provider to be able to receive copy protected content. This can be done but is frequently difficult and frustrating as most reps do not have a clue as to how to do it correctly.


TWC (sorry, Spectrum) lets you pair it yourself online.


----------



## reneg

jhhyde said:


> Has anybody done this on Tivo.com yet? WHen i select a Bolt it adds in the monthly service charge and then when I put in my promo code it says accepted, but it does not change anything as far as the monthly service charge still showing and nothing about transferring lifetime for $99. I am reluctant to go past this point where it says CHECKOUT.


When I went to the Tivo site from the link in the email, the pricing came out correct, however I ordered over the phone because I wanted to make sure they deactivated the right Tivos


----------



## advocate2

shannon94188 said:


> Has anyone jumped on this from the web site only (and not called in)? I'm wondering when/how the web site allows you to select which box to deactivate (I have several). Thanks!


When I went to the site yesterday night hitting the link in the email the page didn't have this discount. This morning the email link sent me to a different page with the appropriate discount. My order was placed without called Customer Support and I already have an email confirmation showing the appropriate price for the lifetime activation.


----------



## reneg

reneg said:


> When I went to the Tivo site from the link in the email, the pricing came out correct, however I ordered over the phone because I wanted to make sure they deactivated the right Tivos


For a variety of reasons, I have 12 Tivos on my account. I didn't leave it to chance, I called.


----------



## wtherrell

OK, I pulled the trigger on the Bolt plus. 
Now only 2 issues. 
1. Which Tivo to deactivate. Original series 2, Pioneer series 2 57h with DVD burner. Or THD. 
2. How to keep the Tuning Adapter from sliding off the top of the Bolt.


----------



## bobrt6676

jhhyde said:


> Has anybody done this on Tivo.com yet? WHen i select a Bolt it adds in the monthly service charge and then when I put in my promo code it says accepted, but it does not change anything as far as the monthly service charge still showing and nothing about transferring lifetime for $99. I am reluctant to go past this point where it says CHECKOUT.


If you received the E-Mail, click on the link. it takes you to the sale page. I selected, put in cart, put in the promo code and the price was right.


----------



## Papageno

I don't understand why I never get these marketing emails from TiVo anymore. My email of record on the account is current, and I'm pretty sure I've told them it's OK to send them to me.

Anyway, that sure is a tempting offer, depending on what these Bolts cost. Not too crazy about the weird shape though. I have an old Series 2 with lifetime that's just gathering dust.


----------



## kkoh

Beware... I just got off the phone and the rep told me that my HD would be useless after the transfer... as in they would not sell a guide subscription to a new owner... as in take it to a recycling center...


----------



## reneg

Papageno said:


> I don't understand why I never get these marketing emails from TiVo anymore. My email of record on the account is current, and I'm pretty sure I've told them it's OK to send them to me.
> 
> Anyway, that sure is a tempting offer, depending on what these Bolts cost. Not too crazy about the weird shape though. I have an old Series 2 with lifetime that's just gathering dust.


For whatever it's worth, I looked at my email from Tivo and they didn't send it to my current email of record, they sent it to my old email address which is now auto-forwarded. I changed my email of record on Tivo.com about four months ago.


----------



## BobCamp1

wtherrell said:


> OK, I pulled the trigger on the Bolt plus.
> Now only 2 issues.
> 1. Which Tivo to deactivate. Original series 2, Pioneer series 2 57h with DVD burner. Or THD.
> 2. How to keep the Tuning Adapter from sliding off the top of the Bolt.


I can help you with one of those questions. I use a small monitor stand.


----------



## lpwcomp

kkoh said:


> Beware... I just got off the phone and the rep told me that my HD would be useless after the transfer... as in they would not sell a guide subscription to a new owner... as in take it to a recycling center...


Why would you think otherwise? They haven't allowed activation of a pre-S4 TiVo for a while.


----------



## kkoh

lpwcomp said:


> Why would you think otherwise? They haven't allowed activation of a pre-S4 TiVo for a while.


I've been out of the TiVo game for a while... our HD has been working without fail for so long (touch wood) that I haven't even thought about upgrading. It seems sad to trash it when it is still a solidly working device. I still have my original series 1 from 99 or 2000 down in my storage room. I hacked that thing so much back in the day...

Anyhow, sorry for making what is apparently an irrelevant post. I guess I'll spend the weekend looking for hacks for the HD before I pull the trigger in the upgrade.

Can anyone speak to the quality and ease of using a fire stick in another room in my house (on my network) to stream live and/or saved programs from the Bolt? Do I even need to consider a mini if I've got a fire stick on my 2nd tv?

Thanks!


----------



## jhhyde

bobrt6676 said:


> If you received the E-Mail, click on the link. it takes you to the sale page. I selected, put in cart, put in the promo code and the price was right.


ok, thanks for that hint. i just went shopping on tivo.com. tried the link from the email and it comes up correct. is there an option to specify which Tivo you want to transfer the lifetime from?


----------



## nyjklein

jhhyde said:


> ok, thanks for that hint. i just went shopping on tivo.com. tried the link from the email and it comes up correct. is there an option to specify which Tivo you want to transfer the lifetime from?


No. I ordered online as well and there's nowhere to select which TiVo will be deactivated. I'm guessing you'll need to do that when you receive the new box and have to activate it.

Jeff


----------



## lpwcomp

nyjklein said:


> No. I ordered online as well and there's nowhere to select which TiVo will be deactivated. I'm guessing you'll need to do that when you receive the new box and have to activate it.
> 
> Jeff


TiVos purchased from TiVo,inc. are usually activated on the day of purchase.


----------



## timckelley

I pulled the trigger, but they told me the guide data will be activated on the day it gets shipped (which admittedly could be different than the day it shows up at my house.)


----------



## Ira Bahr

Glad you guys are liking this. Took a long time to make a case for it.


----------



## Trey Dio

Ira Bahr said:


> Glad you guys are liking this. Took a long time to make a case for it.


Is the expiration date 4/10 or 4/28? Email says 4/10 but the web page says 4/28.


----------



## innocentfreak

No email here either. Looks like last email I received was from Tivo was 11/2016.


----------



## Ira Bahr

Trey Dio said:


> Is the expiration date 4/10 or 4/28? Email says 4/10 but the web page says 4/28.


I'm sure it goes until 4/28.


----------



## lpwcomp

Ira Bahr said:


> I'm sure it goes until 4/28.


Or supplies are exhausted, whichever comes first.


----------



## JYoung

wtherrell said:


> TWC (sorry, Spectrum) lets you pair it yourself online.


They do?

I don't suppose you have the link for that?
Because if I do this (I got the email and I think my Series 2 is eligible), I would plan to move the cablecard from TiVo HD to a Bolt.


----------



## timckelley

I'm actually considering using my new Bolt as an OTA only DVR, and allowing our TiVo Premier and Roamio to continue receiving Spectrum Cable content. I have a fair number of OTA SPs.


----------



## Resist

> 1 _Only TiVo Series2/Series3, HD and HDXL DVRs with Product Lifetime service that have connected to the TiVo service between 3/28/16 and 3/28/17 qualify._


It was nice of TiVo to send me the email yesterday (the 30th), so I had no time to even get my old Series2 connected to the TiVo service in time. Grrrrr!


----------



## InFromTheCold

Resist said:


> It was nice of TiVo to send me the email yesterday (the 30th), so I had no time to even get my old Series2 connected to the TiVo service in time. Grrrrr!


So you asked, and were rebuffed? (I'm referring to the suggestion someone gave you yesterday, further up the thread.)


----------



## mlsnyc

Resist said:


> It was nice of TiVo to send me the email yesterday (the 30th), so I had no time to even get my old Series2 connected to the TiVo service in time. Grrrrr!


If you received the email then I'm sure you're eligible for the offer. Did you try to purchase and were told you weren't eligible? Or do you mean you were able to upgrade one but there's another one you have that hasn't been connected that you can't upgrade?


----------



## timckelley

InFromTheCold said:


> So you asked, and were rebuffed? (I'm referring to the suggestion someone gave you yesterday, further up the thread.)


I actually told the TiVo people about my other 2 lifetimed S2s I have that haven't connected in the last year (besides the 3rd S2 that we use regularly), but he confirmed that only my 3rd S2 is eligible for the offer. Oh well; it's still worth it, as the features of the Bolt will be so much better than my old S2.


----------



## InFromTheCold

mlsnyc said:


> If you received the email then I'm sure you're eligible for the offer. Did you try to purchase and were told you weren't eligible? Or do you mean you were able to upgrade one but there's another one you have that hasn't been connected that you can't upgrade?


They were saying last night that they had a disused box that hadn't been connected in a long time. Someone suggested that they call Tivo and see if the upgrade would go through anyway.

The complaint in the email you replied to, as far as I can tell, is in reference to the way Tivo rolled it out, past the last date that the box needed to have called in. So when we got the email, it was already too late.


----------



## Doug M

This is an interesting offer for me. I bought a refurbished HD from TiVo in 2009 along with lifetime service, after my Series 1 died. That was a good deal at the time as I recall, and it's certainly paid off since then.

The HD has been humming along for over 8 years without issue, but sooner or later the drive is going to cough a hairball. Will the Bolt last that long too? Who knows of course, so for me this is really a roll of the dice in terms of failure and reliability as frankly, I'm fine with how the HD performs--there's nothing on the Bolt that I gotta have.


----------



## pdhenry

Ugh. This week I upgraded my router and a day later the monitor on my desktop PC went belly up so I had to replace that. DW is starting to make noises about me being a spendthrift as it is. But my S2 isn't justifying the electricity to keep the hard drive spinning...

Anyone knows what a used Premiere with Lifetime sells for? I could probably retire one with this deal as well...

Edit: Looks like $180-$230. I could make a case for that (hehehe).


----------



## lpwcomp

I am amazed, although I guess I shouldn't be, by the people who are mad that they couldn't reconnect their old TiVos that hadn't been used in more than a year and get them qualified for this offer.


----------



## juddev

My Toshiba SD-H400 in system info says account closed even though it has been running in the spare bedroom for years.
It says last successfully connected 9/17 and it did do a successful connect and guide download last night. and today
I call and tivo says that it doesnt have basic lifetime and won't work for this promo because the last 4 numbers of the service code are 68A3
if it doesn't have basic lifetime why am I able to download the guide?


----------



## lpwcomp

juddev said:


> My Toshiba SD-H400 in system info says account closed even though it has been running in the spare bedroom for years.
> It says last successfully connected 9/17 and it did do a successful connect and guide download last night. and today
> I call and tivo says that it doesnt have basic lifetime and won't work for this promo because the last 4 numbers of the service code are 68A3
> if it doesn't have basic lifetime why am I able to download the guide?


I think it probable either you misunderstood or what you were told is backwards. What your unit has is the free lifetime basic included with some models, which doesn't qualify.


----------



## jgolden

JYoung said:


> They do?
> 
> I don't suppose you have the link for that?
> Because if I do this (I got the email and I think my Series 2 is eligible), I would plan to move the cablecard from TiVo HD to a Bolt.


These are the numbers I have for TWC (before the Spectrum change): 
Time Warner CableCARD Technical Support Desk: 1-866-606-5889
Cable card install 866-532-2598


----------



## phox_mulder

My still in use OLED S3 has Lifetime that I transferred from my original S2 Tivo way back when.
I think it was the same deal, buy a new TiVo from TiVo and transfer lifetime for $99.
I transferred lifetime in January 2007 (I think), but that's as far back as TiVo.com will show billing for.
(although they say Lifetime has been in effect since 10-2004, which must have been the date I got it for the S2)

If I jump on this, I will have had 2 TiVo's with lifetime for under $200, 3 if you count the original S2 plus whatever I paid for lifetime back then, which I'm sure had to have been considerably less then they are charging now.


phox


----------



## Johncv

innocentfreak said:


> No email here either. Looks like last email I received was from Tivo was 11/2016.


I did not receive the email either.


----------



## HerronScott

lpwcomp said:


> I am amazed, although I guess I shouldn't be, by the people who are mad that they couldn't reconnect their old TiVos that hadn't been used in more than a year and get them qualified for this offer.


Considering the number of complaints when this happened for the S1, I'm not surprised.


----------



## HerronScott

Ira Bahr said:


> Glad you guys are liking this. Took a long time to make a case for it.


Thanks Ira (and thanks for dropping by)! 

Scott


----------



## Mikeguy

innocentfreak said:


> No email here either. Looks like last email I received was from Tivo was 11/2016.





Johncv said:


> I did not receive the email either.





Papageno said:


> I don't understand why I never get these marketing emails from TiVo anymore. My email of record on the account is current, and I'm pretty sure I've told them it's OK to send them to me.


If you didn't receive the email but would like to partake, I would just telephone TiVo sales--they can check (as they did for me) and see if you are eligible, and sell to you on the spot. 


Resist said:


> It was nice of TiVo to send me the email yesterday (the 30th), so I had no time to even get my old Series2 connected to the TiVo service in time. Grrrrr!


I assume that TiVo did this purposefully, so that people would not get their old, unused TiVo's out of the garage and attic, make a connection, and then claim the deal. For whatever the fiscal or loyalty reason, TiVo wanted to limit this offer to (at least kinda/sorta) current early TiVo box users.


----------



## Mikeguy

wtherrell said:


> OK, I pulled the trigger on the Bolt plus.
> Now only 2 issues.
> 1. Which Tivo to deactivate. Original series 2, Pioneer series 2 57h with DVD burner. Or THD.


Everything else being equal, I would do it with the original series 2, as the most limited in function.


----------



## Mikeguy

Trey Dio said:


> I have an HD XL and am considering the offer. After a Tivo box is deactivated, can manual record by time and channel recordings still be made? I understand program information won't be available but the box would still be usable as a backup. Other than program information not being downloaded what else happens when the box is deactivated?


I asked a phone rep. about that this morning, vis-à-vis my Toshiba Series 2 TiVo. Already-recorded shows still will be playable, but nothing will be recordable, even manually--I specifically asked about that. (In fact, my Toshiba Series 2 originally came out-of-the-box with something called TiVo Basic, a basic, free subscription for the box, which I then upgraded to Lifetime--I had hoped that with this deal, the box would be reverted back to TiVo Basic, but a no-go, I was told.)

Also, I was told that shows will not be capable of being transferred to another TiVo after the 10-day "grace period," which is there to allow shows to be transferred. I did not think to ask if shows still could be transferred to a PC.

Finally, a Series 2 with a DVD player still will play DVDs.


----------



## Mikeguy

Ira Bahr said:


> Glad you guys are liking this. Took a long time to make a case for it.


I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall to understand the considerations and motivations behind and for this. 

Thank you for the program. It feels like the old TiVo (that's a compliment).

P.S. Good to have you visit and to hear your existence.


----------



## wtherrell

BobCamp1 said:


> I can help you with one of those questions. I use a small monitor stand.


They still make those little metal shelf thingies?


----------



## Quaro

I have two Tivo Series 2s in the house. I already purchased one Bolt via the online program. I am considering calling customer service and getting the second upgraded as well. 

I would very much appreciate feedback on what tradeoffs there to having two bolts in the house versus a Bolt and one mini? We 100% don't need 8 tuners. But for only 150 dollars more than the Mini, I can get a full on Bolt for the other TV. Is this just adding complexity or it strictly better? The Bolt is much snappier, I gather, which I do value highly.


----------



## wtherrell

JYoung said:


> They do?
> 
> I don't suppose you have the link for that?
> Because if I do this (I got the email and I think my Series 2 is eligible), I would plan to move the cablecard from TiVo HD to a Bolt.


Don't have it at the moment but there was a link on my Time Warner account page. Maybe under support? 
Also, Tivo will send you an email, after you order, about setting up a Bolt with cable card. In that email is a list of cable card help #'s including one for Time Warner. I have used this number several times and it was always quick and easy to get set up. Don't call your local TWC office. They don't do a good job. When I set up my Roamio I picked up the M-card and Tuning adapter at the local office (you can also have them shipped you, depending on your local office) put in the card, hooked up the TA & called the Cable Card phone number and it was quick and easy. I was very pleased with their knowledge and help.


----------



## wtherrell

Mikeguy said:


> Everything else being equal, I would do it with the original series 2, as the most limited in function.


Thanks. I think you are right. Only one tuner and 86 hours sd. The others have much more to offer.


----------



## wtherrell

jgolden said:


> These are the numbers I have for TWC (before the Spectrum change):
> Time Warner CableCARD Technical Support Desk: 1-866-606-5889
> Cable card install 866-532-2598


^^^^^^^^^^^^This


----------



## pdhenry

Quaro said:


> I would very much appreciate feedback on what tradeoffs there to having two bolts in the house versus a Bolt and one mini? We 100% don't need 8 tuners. But for only 150 dollars more than the Mini, I can get a full on Bolt for the other TV. Is this just adding complexity or it strictly better? The Bolt is much snappier, I gather, which I do value highly.


Monthly fees (~$7.50) for the Cablecard in the second Bolt.


----------



## Quaro

pdhenry said:


> Monthly fees (~$7.50) for the Cablecard in the second Bolt.


Is it possible to use the Bolt as a beefed up Mini, if you don't put in a cablecard? Can the Bolt watch live TV from another Bolt in the household like the Mini can?


----------



## Mikeguy

Quaro said:


> I have two Tivo Series 2s in the house. I already purchased one Bolt via the online program. I am considering calling customer service and getting the second upgraded as well.
> 
> I would very much appreciate feedback on what tradeoffs there to having two bolts in the house versus a Bolt and one mini? We 100% don't need 8 tuners. But for only 150 dollars more than the Mini, I can get a full on Bolt for the other TV. Is this just adding complexity or it strictly better? The Bolt is much snappier, I gather, which I do value highly.


I know that you don't need all those tuners. But there could come a time . . . . (I "needed" 5 last evening--I never thought that I would see that day. And this was with OTA.)

Also, extra storage. Storage space is nice.

With 2 boxes, you have 2 independent universes, for if/when you might want that. If one box is down, the other is still working. If you have networking issues at your place, the 2 boxes still can operate independently.


Quaro said:


> Is it possible to use the Bolt as a beefed up Mini, if you don't put in a cablecard? Can the Bolt watch live TV from another Bolt in the household like the Mini can?


Others will know better, but when I had asked this as a Roamio Basic owner contemplating last Fall's White Sale on Roamio OTA's (and whether to get an OTA or a Mini), I believe that the answer was yes, but with the proviso that you would do it by recording the show on the master box first and then streaming it to the slave box once the recording starts, if I'm recalling correctly.

And, of course, even without the cablecard, your slave Bolt also separately could get its own OTA. Try that with a Mini.


----------



## lpwcomp

Quaro said:


> Is it possible to use the Bolt as a beefed up Mini, if you don't put in a cablecard? Can the Bolt watch live TV from another Bolt in the household like the Mini can?


No, only recordings. You could just start recording whatever you want to watch and stream it. Channel surfing would be difficult.

You could also use an Antenna with the second Bolt.

Edit: One additional piece of info - an S4 or later can control a lot of things on another S4 or later on the same account & network - schedule recordings, create and remove 1Ps, delete recordings and recover from recently deleted.


----------



## Quaro

lpwcomp said:


> No, only recordings. You could just start recording whatever you want to watch and stream it. Channel surfing would be difficult.
> 
> You could also use an Antenna with the second Bolt.
> 
> Edit: One additional piece of info - an S4 or later can control a lot of things on another S4 or later on the same account & network - schedule recordings, create and remove 1Ps, delete recordings and recover from recently deleted.


So is it possible to start a recording on one Bolt without a cablecard, from a different Bolt with a cablecard? And then stream that recording in progress? If so that sounds acceptable.

Considering some of the users in the household, there may in fact be a benefit to having two separate universes of recordings. I can imagine one person in particular getting annoyed at seeing the My Recording list full of other people's stuff all the time. Leaning that way for now.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!


----------



## lpwcomp

Quaro said:


> So is it possible to start a recording on one Bolt without a cablecard, from a different Bolt with a cablecard? And then stream that recording in progress? If so that sounds acceptable.


Well, it is possible but the Bolt actually doing the recording has to be able to record the channel. Mostly, you would use the non-CableCARD Bolt to start recordings on the one with the CableCARD. Basically, you're using it as a Mini except it can't grab a tuner and access "live" TV. But also unlike a Mini, it can download recordings from your PC.


----------



## mattc1170

Okay, so this offer has come along at an interesting time for me. Looking for advice...

I own:
TiVo Roamio Plus with Lifetime
2 TiVo Minis
TiVo Series 3 with Lifetime that died about 5 months ago.

I was in the midst of trying to resurrect the dead Series 3 with a power supply from Weaknees with plans to sell it. Then this offer appeared. But now I'm thinking the move is to just forget about the S3, return the power supply, take advantage of the $99 Bolt lifetime service offer, and sell either the new Bolt or the Roamio Plus

But what's the best course of action?
1. Keep the Bolt and sell the Roamio? I would probably want the 6 tuner Bolt+ to replace the 6 tuner Roamio since we're streaming to 2 Minis from it. How much would a Roamio Plus w/ Lifetime fetch?
2. Keep the Roamio and just turn around and sell the Bolt w/ Lifetime in a sealed box? Which Bolt model would fetch the best premium?

I'm thinking I'll just buy the Bolt+ for $600 w/ Lifetime, play around with it for a bit to see if I like it better than the Roamio Plus, figure out which one I'll keep, and let the resale chips fall where they may.


----------



## lpwcomp

mattc1170 said:


> Okay, so this offer has come along at an interesting time for me. Looking for advice...
> 
> I own:
> TiVo Roamio Plus with Lifetime
> 2 TiVo Minis
> TiVo Series 3 with Lifetime that died about 5 months ago.
> 
> I was in the midst of trying to resurrect the dead Series 3 with a power supply from Weaknees with plans to sell it. Then this offer appeared. But now I'm thinking the move is to just forget about the S3, return the power supply, take advantage of the $99 Bolt lifetime service offer, and sell either the new Bolt or the Roamio Plus
> 
> But what's the best course of action?
> 1. Keep the Bolt and sell the Roamio? I would probably want the 6 tuner Bolt+ to replace the 6 tuner Roamio since we're streaming to 2 Minis from it. How much would a Roamio Plus w/ Lifetime fetch?
> 2. Keep the Roamio and just turn around and sell the Bolt w/ Lifetime in a sealed box? Which Bolt model would fetch the best premium?
> 
> I'm thinking I'll just buy the Bolt+ for $600 w/ Lifetime, play around with it for a bit to see if I like it better than the Roamio Plus, figure out which one I'll keep, and let the resale chips fall where they may.


In order to test it, you'd have to acquire another CableCaRD, thus incurring the Comcast OAD charge.


----------



## mattc1170

lpwcomp said:


> In order to test it, you'd have to acquire another CableCaRD, thus incurring the Comcast OAD charge.


I'm a Verizon FiOS customer. Last I knew, the only charge I would incur is the monthly CableCARD rental fee.


----------



## bittmann

I don't think I'll risk getting crossed up by this, but I did notice something on TiVo's shopping site (don't know if this has been noted before):

I have 1 old Series 2 that's still active, a Bolt, and a Roamio. So, only 1 device should qualify for this $99 lifetime upgrade. I put a new Bolt in the cart, applied my promo code (which should come from having the Series 2), and got the new price - a 1T Bolt for $400. On a whim, I clicked up to a quantity 2, and TiVo *seems* to be offering to sell me 2 Lifetimed 1T Bolts for $800. (??!!!)

I wonder how well that would work out?


----------



## pdhenry

lpwcomp said:


> In order to test it, you'd have to acquire another CableCaRD, thus incurring the Comcast OAD charge.


You could swap the one card back & forth as long as you're just evaluating.


----------



## cogx

Figures, my beloved original Series3 OLED (with a replacement 500GB drive) gave it up in September and given how old it was (still not sure if it is the drive or bad caps) and only being two tuners which had been getting on my nerves for the past couple of years, I switched to a refurb Roamio for a couple months until the Thanksgiving White Sale and paid $349 for a refurb Bolt 500GB. On top of that, I did pay the $99 for 3 years of extended warranty. Do folks here never do that, no one seems to ever mentioned paying that.
Anyway, had I been able to wait, I could have now got a Bolt 500GB for $299 instead of $349 (or in reality I would have probably done the $399 for the 1TB). Instead, I've still got this non-working Series3 just sitting on the shelf with lifetime service that seems like I should be doing something with it. Given the glut of used TiVo devices already on eBay, not sure it is really worth my time and hassle to buy one and then try to sell and transfer ownership to make probably at most $50?
I started out with a Series2 and a decade with my beloved Series3, but now (after the guide data transition fiasco and that I'm still not completely satisfied with the current UI glitches, although the most recent 20.7.1.RC2 software update seems to be the most stable version I've used since moving from a S3) I'm only a begrudging customer given how horrifically awful those Motorola pieces of junk are that would be what my cable company offers as an alternative.


----------



## shawn_bowen

mattc1170 said:


> Okay, so this offer has come along at an interesting time for me. Looking for advice...
> 
> I own:
> TiVo Roamio Plus with Lifetime
> 2 TiVo Minis
> TiVo Series 3 with Lifetime that died about 5 months ago.
> 
> I was in the midst of trying to resurrect the dead Series 3 with a power supply from Weaknees with plans to sell it. Then this offer appeared. But now I'm thinking the move is to just forget about the S3, return the power supply, take advantage of the $99 Bolt lifetime service offer, and sell either the new Bolt or the Roamio Plus
> 
> But what's the best course of action?
> 1. Keep the Bolt and sell the Roamio? I would probably want the 6 tuner Bolt+ to replace the 6 tuner Roamio since we're streaming to 2 Minis from it. How much would a Roamio Plus w/ Lifetime fetch?
> 2. Keep the Roamio and just turn around and sell the Bolt w/ Lifetime in a sealed box? Which Bolt model would fetch the best premium?
> 
> I'm thinking I'll just buy the Bolt+ for $600 w/ Lifetime, play around with it for a bit to see if I like it better than the Roamio Plus, figure out which one I'll keep, and let the resale chips fall where they may.


Hello,
*Series5 TiVo Roamio*
CPU: Broadcom BCM7241 3000 Dhrystone MIPS
Transcoder: NXP (Freescale / Zenverge) ZN200 (Roamio Plus and Pro only)
*Series6 TiVo Bolt*
CPU: Broadcom BCM7449 21000 Dhrystone MIPS

Bolt has 3x more memory than roamio so id sell roamio and and get BOLT+
Thats what I did got 2 x BOLT+ 
Now I dont have to hear my wife complain about her slow Premiere XL4 it is going to EBAY & Roamio Pro vs BOLT+ 4k which in my opinion is meh but faster cpu and upgraded mocha from 1.1 to 2.0 is a plus =)


----------



## shawn_bowen

Resist said:


> It was nice of TiVo to send me the email yesterday (the 30th), so I had no time to even get my old Series2 connected to the TiVo service in time. Grrrrr!


I luckily had mine connected last year but didnt get e-mail call customer support and say you would like to get offer from e-mail but you deleted e-mail.


----------



## shawn_bowen

jgolden said:


> These are the numbers I have for TWC (before the Spectrum change):
> Time Warner CableCARD Technical Support Desk: 1-866-606-5889
> Cable card install 866-532-2598


I use 2nd number for TWC Cable Cards 866-532-2598 boy are they about to get busy. =+)


----------



## shawn_bowen

Order Summary
-------------
Product Description Qty Item Price Tax* Total
S00050 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee 1 $ 99.00 $ 0.00 $ 99.00
R84930 TiVo BOLT+ 1 $ 499.99 $ 33.75 $ 533.74
EXWTP3 3-year extended warranty 1 $ 39.99 $ 2.70 $ 42.69
S00050 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee 1 $ 99.00 $ 0.00 $ 99.00
R84930 TiVo BOLT+ 1 $ 499.99 $ 33.75 $ 533.74
EXWTP3 3-year extended warranty 1 $ 39.99 $ 2.70 $ 42.69

--------------------------------
Order Sub Total: $ 1,277.96
Shipping: $ 0.00
Tax: $ 72.90
Order Total: $ 1,350.86

Never been so happy to spend $1350 =)


----------



## Mikeguy

mattc1170 said:


> I'm thinking I'll just buy the Bolt+ for $600 w/ Lifetime, play around with it for a bit to see if I like it better than the Roamio Plus, figure out which one I'll keep, and let the resale chips fall where they may.


The good news is, the first step is there, to make the purchase. And then one way or another, the other chips will settle where they may.

The TiVo heaven was smiling on you for this one.


----------



## 1rickey

I'm getting free HBO on my TiVo HD. Will moving that cable card to a new Bolt cancel that out?


----------



## Mikeguy

cogx said:


> Figures, my beloved original Series3 OLED (with a replacement 500GB drive) gave it up in September and given how old it was (still not sure if it is the drive or bad caps) and only being two tuners which had been getting on my nerves for the past couple of years, I switched to a refurb Roamio for a couple months until the Thanksgiving White Sale and paid $349 for a refurb Bolt 500GB. On top of that, I did pay the $99 for 3 years of extended warranty. Do folks here never do that, no one seems to ever mentioned paying that.


It's been discussed here--you can do a search to find the threads. The opinions have gone both ways; the scale seems to have been tipping a bit on the no-extended-warranty side (at least, in postings). But it really depends on one's comfort level in playing the odds (and ability to replace, if there's no warranty). I do think that the current high price of a lifetime subscription can be a major factor here (although, if I remember correctly, TiVo sometimes has cut some slack on that, for post-warranty boxes).


> Anyway, had I been able to wait, I could have now got a Bolt 500GB for $299 instead of $349 (or in reality I would have probably done the $399 for the 1TB).


Except that, if you had waited, you know that the deal never would have come about. 


> Instead, I've still got this non-working Series3 just sitting on the shelf with lifetime service that seems like I should be doing something with it. Given the glut of used TiVo devices already on eBay, not sure it is really worth my time and hassle to buy one and then try to sell and transfer ownership to make probably at most $50?


Why only $50? While you're paying full retail for the box, you're saving $450 on the lifetime under the deal--I would think that you could make a few hundred dollars on re-sale.


----------



## Rolow

Does anyone have an Amazon link to the currently recommended upgrade hard drive for the bolt? It's been a while since I went through the bolt hd thread.


----------



## aimeedmiked

Went back and forth but settled on the Bolt+! This is a great deal and I am super excited. Price was a factor but ultimately having two extra tuners outweighed the HD antenna option on the Bolt model. 

The Bolt+ will replace my Tivo HD. The Tivo Premiere will be replaced with a Tivo mini at some point in time.


----------



## cogx

Mikeguy said:


> Why only $50? While you're paying full retail for the box, you're saving $450 on the lifetime under the deal--I would think that you could make a few hundred dollars on re-sale.


Sorry, I meant ~$50 profit. On the other hand, if I can convince myself to do this, I'll probably go whole hog and upgrade myself to the Bolt+ 3TB and then do whatever I do with my current 500GB Bolt with All-In. I'm pretty sure, though, that the extended warranty I paid does *not* transfer to a new owner, I seem to recall some fine print, but someone can please correct me if I'm wrong on that point?


----------



## RSW

Thinking about upgrading with the $99 upgrade as well. Which unit should I retire Series 3 (2002) or my HD (2000) I have two other Premiere's a XL and XL4 as well with Lifetime. Thinking about going Bolt + Also does anyone know do we have to purchase the Bolt through TIVO or can I buy it Through Amazon?


----------



## V7Goose

RSW said:


> Which unit should I retire Series 3 (2002) or my HD (2000)


Something is wrong with your calculation here - the HD box was made AFTER the original Series 3 OLED unit, and neither of them existed in 200o, or even 2002.

Personally, I'd opt to get rid of the oldest unit - especially since I think there are more parts boxes left bouncing around for the HD models if you intend to keep one operating for longer (heck, I'll be parting out the power supplies and other stuff from two THD-652 boxes in a few days!).


----------



## catperson

RSW said:


> Thinking about upgrading with the $99 upgrade as well. Which unit should I retire Series 3 (2002) or my HD (2000) I have two other Premiere's a XL and XL4 as well with Lifetime. Thinking about going Bolt + Also does anyone know do we have to purchase the Bolt through TIVO or can I buy it Through Amazon?


Has to be through Tivo, but the price for the + is the same from Tivo or Amazon (500). The big price difference is with the Bolt (300 vs 215 or so from Amazon).

k.


----------



## rawlic

I'm ready to jump on this to replace my 12 year old Humax Series 2 with Lifetime. Trying to decide whether to do with the base Bolt or the Bolt+. My desired end state is a Bolt combined with 3 minis to cover all my TVs. How does the Mini give up a tuner connection to the Bolt?

Sorry for the basic question, but it's been a LONG time since I've shopped for a TiVo.  I'd like to evaluate how likely it is that I'd run out of tuners as TVs get turned on and off.


----------



## Mikeguy

cogx said:


> Sorry, I meant ~$50 profit.


Closer to ~$200-250 profit, unless I'm missing something. (E.g. $200 for the 500GB Bolt + $99 lifetime under the deal, otherwise around $130 (Amazon.com) + $550 => $380 difference.) 


> I'm pretty sure, though, that the extended warranty I paid does *not* transfer to a new owner, I seem to recall some fine print, but someone can please correct me if I'm wrong on that point?





> *11. TRANSFERABILITY*
> You may transfer this Agreement to any person by contacting TiVo at 1-877-367-8486.


Note that you also simply can cancel the remaining time under the warranty, should you have reconsidered your extended warranty purchase, and get a prorated refund. 


> *9. CANCELLATION AND REFUND*
> You may cancel this contract at any time for any reason if You have not had a claim. If You cancel this Contract within sixty (60) days of the date purchased and have not filed a claim You will receive a refund of the full purchase price. If You cancel this Contract thereafter and have not filed a claim, You will be refunded the remaining days of coverage on a monthly prorated basis. You nor the Dealer nor We are obligated to renew this Contract beyond the Expiration Date.


Extended Warranty Service Agreement


----------



## Mikeguy

RSW said:


> Thinking about upgrading with the $99 upgrade as well. Which unit should I retire Series 3 (2002) or my HD (2000) I have two other Premiere's a XL and XL4 as well with Lifetime. Thinking about going Bolt + Also does anyone know do we have to purchase the Bolt through TIVO or can I buy it Through Amazon?





catperson said:


> Has to be through Tivo, but the price for the + is the same from Tivo or Amazon (500). The big price difference is with the Bolt (300 vs 215 or so from Amazon).


Again, keep in mind: if you have a credit card that offers purchase price protection, you can purchase the deal through TiVo and then try making a price protection claim for any price difference. An extra step, but can save you $70-$85 on the Bolt (non-plus) models.


----------



## Wil

RSW said:


> Thinking about upgrading with the $99 upgrade as well. Which unit should I retire Series 3 (2002) or my HD (2000)


If you're handy, the s3 can have a virtually unlimited lifetime (surviving even motherboard failure) as you can transplant the chip that holds the lifetime info to a non-lifetimed s3 that you can pick up for free. OTOH if you also ever want to be handy with the unit to modify it for unlimited TTG benefits, the HD will handle mpeg4 recording while the s3 will not, at this time. Some premium channels from some providers are mpeg4 (I live in two different provider areas, one has zero mpeg4 channels and the other has four; YMMV).

All in all I would keep the HD.


----------



## skaggs

I received the email for the $99 transfer.

I have a Series2 and two HD's (all with lifetime) listed on my account that I sold on eBay many years ago.

I purchased a new Bolt with the promo code on TiVo.com.

During the order process on TiVo.com, I was never prompted to select which old TiVo DVR to discontinue service.

How will TiVo decide which DVR gets discontinued service?


----------



## Mikeguy

skaggs said:


> I received the email for the $99 transfer.
> 
> I have a Series2 and two HD's (all with lifetime) listed on my account that I sold on eBay many years ago.
> 
> I purchased a new Bolt with the promo code on TiVo.com.
> 
> During the order process on TiVo.com, I was never prompted to select which old TiVo DVR to discontinue service.
> 
> How will TiVo decide which DVR gets discontinued service?


I wasn't sure from your post: had you sold all of them earlier, or do you still have the Series 2?


----------



## skaggs

Mikeguy said:


> Do you still have the Series 2?


No.


----------



## catperson

Wow. It sounds like some stranger's Tivo might be disabled in a couple of weeks. He/she will be very annoyed.


----------



## Dan203

We had an old S2 DVD unit with lifetime sitting in a closet for years. Just last month my wife asked me to hook it up in her office so she could watch DVDs in there. For the heck of it I also connected it to the network, even though it's not even connected to the cable. Lucky timing on my part because now it qualifies for this deal and I just ordered a new Bolt+ for nearly 1/2 off. The plan is to keep the Bolt+ for myself, give my Roamio Pro to my Sister, and sell her Premiere Elite. Might even be able to break even on the upgrade.


----------



## Mikeguy

catperson said:


> Wow. It sounds like some stranger's Tivo might be disabled in a couple of weeks. He/she will be very annoyed.


That's what I'm wondering as well about this, with TiVo seemingly operating off of its records not reflecting current states/ownerships. (Ulp, possible legal issues?)


----------



## Mikeguy

Dan203 said:


> We had an old S2 DVD unit with lifetime sitting in a closet for years. Just last month my wife asked me to hook it up in her office so she could watch DVDs in there. For the heck of it I also connected it to the network, even though it's not even connected to the cable. Lucky timing on my part because now it qualifies for this deal and I just ordered a new Bolt+ for nearly 1/2 off. The plan is to keep the Bolt+ for myself, give my Roamio Pro to my Sister, and sell her Premiere Elite. Might even be able to break even on the upgrade.


Dang lucky, indeed!

And so, I guess that means that TiVo doesn't send its latest equipment gratis to TCF moderators, as it does to USA Today columnists.


----------



## George Cifranci

I took the deal. I currently have a TiVo Series 3 (with the OLED display) which I bought in late 2006 and at the time had transferred the Lifetime service from my Series 1 (2001). I just went with a 500GB Bolt since I am only using an Antenna at the moment (I dropped cable last year). My Series 3 had a pretty good 10 year and 4 month run. The only issues I had with the S3 over the past 10 years (besides that bizarre green screen of death when I turned my Sony SXRD HDTV on that was fixed by using a USB ethernet adapter) were 2 hard drive failures. The last hard drive that went was a loaded 2TB drive which was pretty painful to lose. :-( I am now using the 250GB drive that originally came with my Series 3 that I had replaced with a larger drive before I had even powered it on. It was fun to see the old TiVo Shannon videos that it originally came with.  Anyway, this will be my 4th TiVo (Series 1, Series 2, Series 3 and now a Bolt). I am looking forward to all the new features and speed that the Bolt has.


----------



## timckelley

Mikeguy said:


> Closer to ~$200-250 profit, unless I'm missing something. (E.g. $200 for the 500GB Bolt + $99 lifetime under the deal, otherwise around $130 (Amazon.com) + $550 => $380 difference.)


Yes I checked and Amazon is $69 cheaper. My plan, as suggested in this thread is to make a claim against my purchase protection and get a check for that $69, making my net Bolt cost = 199 + 99 (for lifetime) - 69 = $229 + tax. I was careful to use a credit card that offers purchase protection. The fact that the Bolt has built in streaming makes me very happy, because I'd been considering buying a TiVo Stream, and now I don't have to.

(One thing I like about the streaming is that I'll be able to use the iPad TiVo app to operate the Bolt from my bed, including watching shows on my iPad.)


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> Yes I checked and Amazon is $69 cheaper. My plan, as suggested in this thread is to make a claim against my purchase protection and get a check for that $69, making my net Bolt cost = 199 + 99 (for lifetime) - 69 = $229 + tax. I was careful to use a credit card that offers purchase protection. The fact that the Bolt has built in streaming makes me very happy, because I'd been considering buying a TiVo Stream, and now I don't have to.
> 
> (One thing I like about the streaming is that I'll be able to use the iPad TiVo app to operate the Bolt from my bed, including watching shows on my iPad.)


Likewise all my current considerations, including the Stream angle--a very nice bonus, that. As well as, the Bolt adds MoCA capability to one's network, if you don't already have a TiVo MoCA-included box or MoCA adapter--another $ savings, effectively "lowering" the cost if you were looking to add a MoCA adapter (or Stream).


----------



## Bill Wynne

Run from this corrupt company - Have a series 3 with lifetime service and had a second series 3 with $99 yearly service. I contacted Tivo in September to cancel the yearly service series 3. I contacted Tivo at Christmas 2016 about a tivo Bolt. I was told that if I purchased one I would get the service at $99 per year. I waited because I thought wife would get it for me for Christmas. She did. I contacted Tivo on 1/3/17 to activate but was told that they wouldn't honor the $99 price and would have to pay $149 yearly. I reluctantly did. On 2/10/17 I contacted Tivo about an error on the Tivo. It would state a cable card was inserted most times turned on and would have to be recycled. The told me that it was a known error. I told support that I would wait a couple of months for them to correct but if not corrected by 4/10/17, I wanted to return it. A supervisor had to approve it and stated he would allow the exchange up till that date if Tivo had not found a fix. On 3/17/17 I got an email that my case was closed and the problem has been fixed. Today I contacted Tivo about the Lifetime Transfer. They told me that they couldn't do anything for me. They said I had my Tivo too long. I explained that I only had a properly working unit since 3/17/17. They still wouldn't budge. I offered to Purchase a Bolt + and transfer the lifetime to that if they credited the service off the existing Bolt (I would sell). They said no. I also offered to keep current Bolt until contract was up 1/3/18 and then purchase a new Bolt + if they would let me switch my lifetime service from my series 3 then and they said no. I worked with them when they sold me a defective Bolt with a known defect. I have sent an email to Tivo requesting a return call from an upper level supervisor. If I don't get satisfaction, I will contact NYS Department of Consumer Protection. I have had Tivo since they became a company and have purchased and given as gifts Tivo. This is the loyalty they show us. Run from this corrupt company.


----------



## cogx

I'm getting closer to making a decision, but I'm still not clear on how the warranty works for units that have All-In service. That's why I paid for the extended warranty for my current Bolt 500GB. It would appear that if you are paying monthly or yearly, you are only out $49 to get a refurb replacement when needed, but I assume with All-In service you are on your own to figure out if it is just a failed HDD in which case you decide what to do like just buying one from Weaknees, but if it turns out to be a failed power supply or case fan or the caps on the board go pop you send it in and pay ... whatever they decide to charge for parts and labor?


----------



## Mikeguy

Bill Wynne said:


> Run from this corrupt company - Have a series 3 with lifetime service and had a second series 3 with $99 yearly service. I contacted Tivo in September to cancel the yearly service series 3. I contacted Tivo at Christmas 2016 about a tivo Bolt. I was told that if I purchased one I would get the service at $99 per year. I waited because I thought wife would get it for me for Christmas. She did. I contacted Tivo on 1/3/17 to activate but was told that they wouldn't honor the $99 price and would have to pay $149 yearly. I reluctantly did. On 2/10/17 I contacted Tivo about an error on the Tivo. It would state a cable card was inserted most times turned on and would have to be recycled. The told me that it was a known error. I told support that I would wait a couple of months for them to correct but if not corrected by 4/10/17, I wanted to return it. A supervisor had to approve it and stated he would allow the exchange up till that date if Tivo had not found a fix. On 3/17/17 I got an email that my case was closed and the problem has been fixed. Today I contacted Tivo about the Lifetime Transfer. They told me that they couldn't do anything for me. They said I had my Tivo too long. I explained that I only had a properly working unit since 3/17/17. They still wouldn't budge. I offered to Purchase a Bolt + and transfer the lifetime to that if they credited the service off the existing Bolt (I would sell). They said no. I also offered to keep current Bolt until contract was up 1/3/18 and then purchase a new Bolt + if they would let me switch my lifetime service from my series 3 then and they said no. I worked with them when they sold me a defective Bolt with a known defect. I have sent an email to Tivo requesting a return call from an upper level supervisor. If I don't get satisfaction, I will contact NYS Department of Consumer Protection. I have had Tivo since they became a company and have purchased and given as gifts Tivo. This is the loyalty they show us. Run from this corrupt company.


I'm not sure I follow all the above, but you might try, first, TiVo's dispute resolution process--it has worked for some users here (you can search for their posts) and forced issues up to the correct TiVo people, for positive resolution. (The pertinent info. is midway through the below linked agreement.)

TiVo Corp. Legal Center

It sounds like there potentially are 2 separate matters here. As to the Bolt return issue, do you have the extension of the return period in writing, and whether the return extension was qualified in any way? That would help convince matters. (If the return extension was qualified on TiVo not having been able to fix the issue, you may be out of luck, as you wrote that TiVo fixed the issue mid-March.) Regardless, the dispute resolution process exists, and you do have a point.

As to the current deal, that's a separate matter and it seems like you separately can opt in for it with your Series 3, as long as you qualify for the deal (Series 3 having connected between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017)--in case there's been confusion, you might want to deal with TiVo separately on that, or make clear that this is a separate transaction.


----------



## JYoung

jgolden said:


> These are the numbers I have for TWC (before the Spectrum change):
> Time Warner CableCARD Technical Support Desk: 1-866-606-5889
> Cable card install 866-532-2598





wtherrell said:


> Don't have it at the moment but there was a link on my Time Warner account page. Maybe under support?
> Also, Tivo will send you an email, after you order, about setting up a Bolt with cable card. In that email is a list of cable card help #'s including one for Time Warner. I have used this number several times and it was always quick and easy to get set up. Don't call your local TWC office. They don't do a good job. When I set up my Roamio I picked up the M-card and Tuning adapter at the local office (you can also have them shipped you, depending on your local office) put in the card, hooked up the TA & called the Cable Card phone number and it was quick and easy. I was very pleased with their knowledge and help.


Can we clarify here?
jgolden said that it could be done online, which to me says from the Time-Warner/Spectrum website.

I've done (and posted in length) the Time Warner cablecard phone install (short story, first tech screwed it up) but I've always felt that you should be able to activate a cablecard online.

I'll check the TW site later but if I can repair the Cablecard via their website, so much the better.


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## Mikeguy

cogx said:


> I'm getting closer to making a decision, but I'm still not clear on how the warranty works for units that have All-In service. That's why I paid for the extended warranty for my current Bolt 500GB. It would appear that if you are paying monthly or yearly, you are only out $49 to get a refurb replacement when needed, but I assume with All-In service you are on your own to figure out if it is just a failed HDD in which case you decide what to do like just buying one from Weaknees, but if it turns out to be a failed power supply or case fan or the caps on the board go pop you send it in and pay ... whatever they decide to charge for parts and labor?


Pretty much yep as to TiVo's "Continual Care" policy for non-lifetime subscription boxes, but you also potentially are on the hook for shipping/taxes, and TiVo has some discretion as to the replacement box. The actual language:


> With respect solely to any TiVo BOLT or TiVo DVR which is eligible for, and on which you have obtained, either an annual service plan or a monthly service plan (but not an All-In Plan): your service plan includes, at no additional charge, an enhanced limited warranty (known as "Continual Care") for the full, uninterrupted duration of your annual or monthly TiVo service subscription. With Continual Care, and for a cost of $49.00 (plus shipping and any applicable taxes) after ninety (90) days from your purchase date, you can exchange a defective or inoperative TiVo BOLT or TiVo DVR for a repaired, renewed or comparable product (at TiVo's discretion). The exchange exclusions and restrictions contained in the TiVo DVR Limited Warranty continue to apply; please visit Limited Warranty Info for details.


https://www.tivo.com/buytivo/popups/popup_servicePlans.html

For _all_ boxes and subscriptions, during the first 90 days:


> For ninety (90) days from the purchase date, the TiVo DVR will be replaced with a repaired, renewed or comparable product (whichever is deemed appropriate by TiVo) if the DVR becomes defective or inoperative. This exchange is done without charge to you for parts and labor (except applicable taxes, if any). For exchanges permitted during this initial ninety (90)-day period, you will be responsible for the payment of all shipping costs.


I may be mis-recalling matters (so many permutations), but I seem to recall that TiVo typically has taken care of the shipping charges itself (I don't recall if this was both ways--I seem to recall it was, but I may be wrong).

And for lifetimed boxes more than 90 days after purchase:


> From ninety-one (91) days to one (1) year after the purchase date, the DVR will be replaced with a repaired, renewed, or comparable product (whichever is deemed appropriate by TiVo) if the DVR becomes defective or inoperative. During this period, however, you will be responsible for the payment of all labor and shipping costs.
> 
> If (for any reason) you desire to exchange your TiVo DVR more than one (1) year after the purchase date, then you will be responsible for the payment of (i) the replacement product, (ii) all labor costs, and (iii) all shipping costs.


TiVo® DVR Limited Warranty

Again, I may be mis-recalling, but I seem to recall that for this first year period beyond the first 90 days, TiVo simply has been charging $49 for a replacement box (TiVo doesn't seem to do repairs--it just replaces). This presumably covers all sorts of failures, including the hard disk. I don't recall if there also was a shipping charge (either way). Beyond 1 year for lifetimed boxes, TiVo has been known to cut deals, even though not required to do so.

Hope this helps, if even somewhat.


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## Dan203

Mikeguy said:


> And so, I guess that means that TiVo doesn't send its latest equipment gratis to TCF moderators, as it does to USA Today columnists.


They actually did give me a 4 tuner Bolt back when those came out, with lifetime, so I'm not complaining.


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## NCARalph

Be careful with ordering online. I tried twice and both times, after going through the whole process, got a message saying they were having technical difficulties, try again later. That's not so bad, but they put a pending charge on my credit card both times!

I tried calling sales and support and was told to call back later, so I sent them a support email. We'll see.


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## lpwcomp

One of the things that is making me hesitate is that due to how I would be utilizing this, 10 days is a very tight window.

I would be replacing a lifetimed OTA Premiere at a remote location with the Bolt, then replacing the local S2 currently hooked to a Comcast box with the Premiere.


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## Mikeguy

lpwcomp said:


> One of the things that is making me hesitate is that due to how I would be utilizing this, 10 days is a very tight window.
> 
> I would be replacing a lifetimed OTA Premiere at a remote location with the Bolt, then replacing the local S2 currently hooked to a Comcast box with the Premiere.


I guess, get the Bolt and transfer the local S2's shows to it in the 10 days; and then, in your time-frame, go to the remote location and swap the Bolt and Premiere (transferring the shows to the Premiere as you like), and then return home with the Premiere. Would that work? I'm assuming no copyright flag issues (I'm OTA).

You also could transfer the S2's shows to a PC, and then transfer back to whatever boxes as it works for you.


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## krkaufman

Mikeguy said:


> ... so, I guess that means that TiVo doesn't send its latest equipment gratis to TCF moderators, as it does to USA Today columnists.


Then again...

Though given Dan's current manifest, it sounds like it may not have been a Lifetime'd unit. edit: ... then again.


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## jdesq09

What are the implications if someone has 1 S2 Tivo, but purchases more than 1 Bolt with this offer?


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## Hank

So say I have a Series 3 HD Tivo (non-OLED version) that has PLS and has been online during the time period.

Say I take Tivo up on the offer to upgrade. Say I then want to sell the Bolt+PLS -- what is the current market price for such a configuration?

Thanks.


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## pdhenry

jdesq09 said:


> What are the implications if someone has 1 S2 Tivo, but purchases more than 1 Bolt with this offer?


I'll bet you can buy all the Bolts you want at that price. The question will be how many $99 lifetime subs you'll be able to buy.


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## Filafero

I just purchased a new house and bought the TiVo BOLT 500 for my TV. the tv box is so great with lifetime, it is worth to get one like this at your home! I searched on google, and compared some types of TV boxes, at the end, I decided to take the TiVo bolt, I think its features are more worth than other TV boxes... you may want to check the review of the TiVo at the link below, I found it on google... it lists the pros and cons of it and makes a overview...
Best TV Boxes 2017: Buyer's Guide - 10 Best Trumps Reviews


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## jcthorne

Has anyone gotten Tivo to agree to this deal from a Premiere?


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## RSW

Mikeguy said:


> Again, keep in mind: if you have a credit card that offers purchase price protection, you can purchase the deal through TiVo and then try making a price protection claim for any price difference. An extra step, but can save you $70-$85 on the Bolt (non-plus) models.


Thx Great idea on the Credit Match Pricing Idea


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## RSW

V7Goose said:


> Something is wrong with your calculation here - the HD box was made AFTER the original Series 3 OLED unit, and neither of them existed in 200o, or even 2002.
> 
> Personally, I'd opt to get rid of the oldest unit - especially since I think there are more parts boxes left bouncing around for the HD models if you intend to keep one operating for longer (heck, I'll be parting out the power supplies and other stuff from two THD-652 boxes in a few days!).


Thx for the information I took the info from my account. So I should keep the HD box in service and retire me series 3 while adding my Bolt+ Thank you


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## cptlapcat

Just called Tivo and much to my surprise was able to purchase a Tivo Bolt 1000 GB with lifetime for $399 plus tax. I had an old S2 that my daughter threw in the trash can years ago but the lifetime apparently was still active so I was able to use it to get $99 lifetime. I have a Tivo premier with lifetime that I am not using but she said that did not qualify for the $99 lifetime program. The whole process took less then 10 minutes to complete.

I did not get an email from Tivo and only learned of this great deal yesterday when I got a notification from my Google app on my smartphone.


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## Mikeguy

cptlapcat said:


> Just called Tivo and much to my surprise was able to purchase a Tivo Bolt 1000 GB with lifetime for $399 plus tax. I had an old S2 that my daughter threw in the trash can years ago but the lifetime apparently was still active so I was able to use it to get $99 lifetime. I have a Tivo premier with lifetime that I am not using but she said that did not qualify for the $99 lifetime program. The whole process took less then 10 minutes to complete.
> 
> I did not get an email from Tivo and only learned of this great deal yesterday when I got a notification from my Google app on my smartphone.


Great to hear, and sounds like TiVo was being generous, as the offer was supposed to be premised on an S2 or S3 connection between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017.

*Perhaps might give others hope to try, and see what happens. *


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## pdhenry

RSW said:


> Thx Great idea on the Credit Match Pricing Idea


I'm having trouble finding an credit card with precisely the terms that would help here. My CapOne Mastercard protects against a "lower advertised price" and requires a dated advertisement showing the lower price. The corresponding Visa card doesn't offer price protection. My Costco Visa ("Citi Price Rewind") has a limited database of protected items that includes the 1 TB Bolt but not the 500 GB model (for which there's more evidence of a price difference between TiVo Inc and other vendors). I have a couple of other cards but none seem to offer any sort of price protection.


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## gthassell

Discover Card also offers the price protection - you just have to submit a screenshot of the lower price (Amazon is a great source for this) - and currently has the 1TB at ~ 215. 500 GB is at $131.


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## lpwcomp

You have to hope that the CC people don't look too closely at the deal since the package price (Bolt w/All-in) is lower from TiVo.


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## lpwcomp

Mikeguy said:


> Great to hear, and sounds like TiVo was being generous, as the offer was supposed to be premised on an S2 or S3 connection between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017.
> 
> *Perhaps might give others hope to try, and see what happens. *


This gives me hope that I can use my dead S2 to get this deal, giving me more time to do the switch.


----------



## gthassell

lpwcomp said:


> You have to hope that the CC people don't look too closely at the deal since the package price (Bolt w/All-in) is lower from TiVo.


Since the service is a separate line item, and technically is tied to the old box, it shouldn't be an issue. AND, the box is (I am told) a separate line item on the invoice. You are price matching the box, not the service.


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## lpwcomp

gthassell said:


> Since the service is a separate line item, and technically is tied to the old box, it shouldn't be an issue. AND, the box is (I am told) a separate line item on the invoice. You are price matching the box, not the service.


Well, a CR with any brains (not that you are likely to encounter one) might ask why you didn't get it from Amazon in the first place.


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## pdhenry

lpwcomp said:


> Well, a CR with any brains (not that you are likely to encounter one) might ask why you didn't get it from Amazon in the first place.


Buyer's remorse. "I bought it then saw the lower price on Amazon."


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## pdhenry

gthassell said:


> Discover Card also offers the price protection - you just have to submit a screenshot of the lower price (Amazon is a great source for this) - and currently has the 1TB at ~ 215. 500 GB is at $131.


That'll work. Thanks!


----------



## aaronwt

skaggs said:


> I received the email for the $99 transfer.
> 
> I have a Series2 and two HD's (all with lifetime) listed on my account that I sold on eBay many years ago.
> 
> I purchased a new Bolt with the promo code on TiVo.com.
> 
> During the order process on TiVo.com, I was never prompted to select which old TiVo DVR to discontinue service.
> 
> How will TiVo decide which DVR gets discontinued service?


This is what I'm wondering. I got the email and purchased two of the $99 lifetime 500GB Bolts to replace the two 2015 Bolts I have on yearly at $130 each.

But I originally had three S3 boxes and sold one ages ago. But the one that was sold is still listed on my account page. I assumed that they would use the TiVos that are actually on your account. The ones that you can actually change the preferences for. But I need to make sure they don't do anything with the S3 I sold.

I guess I'll try calling them again next week about it. Hopefully the wait times won't be so long then,.


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## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> I guess I'll try calling them again next week about it. Hopefully the wait times won't be so long then,.


Absolutely--a quick call to make sure it's all set up as it should be.


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## Mikeguy

lpwcomp said:


> You have to hope that the CC people don't look too closely at the deal since the package price (Bolt w/All-in) is lower from TiVo.





gthassell said:


> Since the service is a separate line item, and technically is tied to the old box, it shouldn't be an issue. AND, the box is (I am told) a separate line item on the invoice. You are price matching the box, not the service.


It worked for me a couple of years ago, on a Roamio offer. As noted above, the service and the box were separate line items on the TiVo invoice, and so there didn't seem to be any issue or confusion.


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## leiff

sorry in advance of this has already been asked:
What if I bought a cheap series 2 or series 3 TiVo off eBay or Craigslist so I can take advantage of this?


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## gthassell

leiff said:


> sorry in advance of this has already been asked:
> What if I bought a cheap series 2 or series 3 TiVo off eBay or Craigslist so I can take advantage of this?


Just need to be sure they have connected in the specified time period. I just had to spend an hour on the phone getting my order taken care of, and when one of the units I was attempting to use didn't meet the dates, I was told (by a supervisor) - that in some cases, they are going back to people who used units that did not meet the dates and cancelling the transaction. See my next note, however, for a much bigger concern.


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## gthassell

Just got off the phone with TiVo, and while I had a complicated order (using two units on my mother's account), the foreign call center agent was nice, but clueless. Took OVER AN HOUR to do what should have taken five minutes, and in the end, had to request a supervisor. In addition to the delay, I had to provide my credit card info multiple times because "there was some sort of issue" according to the (outsourced) call center agent. Here's the REAL CONCERN: She told me she needed me to repeat the information because there was an error and it didn't process - and she *"Forgot to write down my security code with the rest of the credit card info on her notepad"* - needless to say, as soon as I reached a supervisor (US Based) I raised this as a HUGE concern. Foreign call center, writing down credit card info, exp dates, and security code info ON PAPER - ripe opportunity for fraud. Of course the Supervisor said he'd be following up on it immediately after our call, that this was TOTALLY against a number of policies, etc - and would be dealt with - but you can be sure I'll be keeping a VERY CLOSE EYE on all charges on that account for quite some time.


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## leiff

I feel like I should call Tivo to make sure they honour offer if I buy my TiVo from someone else. Hopefully I can get a Series 2 with Lifetime on eBay for $50 if I tell them they don't need to mail me the hardware instead just call TiVo to transfer ownership. Still good deal right?


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## prospect60

timckelley said:


> I actually told the TiVo people about my other 2 lifetimed S2s I have that haven't connected in the last year (besides the 3rd S2 that we use regularly), but he confirmed that only my 3rd S2 is eligible for the offer. Oh well; it's still worth it, as the features of the Bolt will be so much better than my old S2.


I'd be tempted to get the old units out and let them connect and repeat every 3-4 months (ASSUMING they continue to not allow you an exception). What are the chances of this being a one and done deal if it's successful? I could easily see this as a yearly or couple time a year deal


----------



## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> sorry in advance of this has already been asked:
> What if I bought a cheap series 2 or series 3 TiVo off eBay or Craigslist so I can take advantage of this?


I think that's why the offer terms were what they were: the box being used for the deal must have made a connection to TiVo between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017. And TiVo did not announce the promotion until March 30. Thereby helping to prevent profiteering, presumably.


----------



## Mikeguy

prospect60 said:


> I'd be tempted to get the old units out and let them connect and repeat every 3-4 months (ASSUMING they continue to not allow you an exception). What are the chances of this being a one and done deal if it's successful? I could easily see this as a yearly or couple time a year deal


TiVo had a similar connection requirement for it Series 1 retirement deal from last Fall, and I remember thinking at the time that if I put my Series 2 out of service, I should make a monthly connection to TiVo HQ, "just in case." But I really didn't seriously think that anything would come about.


----------



## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> I feel like I should call Tivo to make sure they honour offer if I buy my TiVo from someone else. Hopefully I can get a Series 2 with Lifetime on eBay for $50 if I tell them they don't need to mail me the hardware instead just call TiVo to transfer ownership. Still good deal right?


Who knows. TiVo also could look at the records and deny the promotion, understanding what is going on and feeling that the promotion is limited to the owner at the time of the promotion connection period. And you might even feel that you should mention the promotion to the seller and see if the seller still wishes to sell (and, under what conditions--perhaps, a higher sales price).


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## pdhenry

I get the feeling that the offer is targeted. The discount code is long enough that it seems to be a unique code per eligible person. Probably you wouldn't be able to use another person's code/unit for your own purposes (but you could make a deal with someone who had a unit and the offer to buy the bolt from him after he does the offer for the Bolt).


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## jgolden

> These are the numbers I have for TWC (before the Spectrum change):
> Time Warner CableCARD Technical Support Desk: 1-866-606-5889
> Cable card install 866-532-2598





JYoung said:


> Can we clarify here?
> jgolden said that it could be done online, which to me says from the Time-Warner/Spectrum website.


I only offered the telephone numbers to call Time-Warner for cable card support for activation not to do it online.


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## JYoung

jgolden said:


> I only offered the telephone numbers to call Time-Warner for cable card support for activation not to do it online.


Apologies, I meant wtherrell.


----------



## lafos

I thought about this long and hard. I have an S2 from 2002 that didn't qualify as I had moved to an all-digital area, and an S3-OLED unit. But I also have three Premieres, all five are PLS, and one Premiere is sitting in a closet since I didn't want to get a cablecard for it. 

With new options for streaming coming along, including local stations, I don't think buying a Bolt, even heavily discounted, is worthwhile. If I need more tuners, I can ge a cablecard for $4/mo, so the Bolt's extra tuners have a long payback in my case.

But I will have all the inactive units connect quarterly just in case...


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## pdhenry

I plan to retire the older and slower of my two Premieres and sell it to help recoup the cost of the Bolt.

Offloading my 2005 Humax and the monthly fee for the digital converter for it is gravy.


----------



## Tweak42

gthassell said:


> Just got off the phone with TiVo, and while I had a complicated order (using two units on my mother's account), the foreign call center agent was nice, but clueless. Took OVER AN HOUR to do what should have taken five minutes, and in the end, had to request a supervisor. In addition to the delay, I had to provide my credit card info multiple times because "there was some sort of issue" according to the (outsourced) call center agent. Here's the REAL CONCERN: She told me she needed me to repeat the information because there was an error and it didn't process - and she *"Forgot to write down my security code with the rest of the credit card info on her notepad"* - needless to say, as soon as I reached a supervisor (US Based) I raised this as a HUGE concern. Foreign call center, writing down credit card info, exp dates, and security code info ON PAPER - ripe opportunity for fraud. Of course the Supervisor said he'd be following up on it immediately after our call, that this was TOTALLY against a number of policies, etc - and would be dealt with - but you can be sure I'll be keeping a VERY CLOSE EYE on all charges on that account for quite some time.


I just placed my order. Call center I got was in Colorado. The CSR had to ask for security code a second time because system timed out. Says the system has been slow today because they have been swamped with orders, "at least a 1000 today alone".


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## leiff

So I still have to buy a bolt to take advantage of this offer right? what is the cheapest price for a bolt right now? And where


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## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> So I still have to buy a bolt to take advantage of this offer right? what is the cheapest price for a bolt right now? And where


Yep. Try tiVo.com. From TiVo.


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## leiff

$200 from TiVo and $100 from eBay little over 300 for basic Bolt with lifetime good deal right


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## pdhenry

You need an offer code for the $99 lifetime from TiVo and I think the code is unique per subscriber.

If you have a valid $100 Lifetime offer from eBay you can buy a 500GB Bolt for less than $200 ($130 or so) from somewhere like Amazon.

I just looked quickly and I don't see any offers for Lifetime subscriptions on eBay that aren't already attached to a device.


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## leiff

I called Tivo to ask if I could transfer someone elses box to me to take advantage of this I was told I could so I just got one for under $100 on eBay to take advantage of this. I had the buyer revise his eBay listing to include free local pickup and I told him I didn't want the hardware he could keep it. I already checked his TSN with tivo


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## Popasmurf

That actually is not true. I never received the e-mail but found out from a friend the promotion was going on. I called TiVo and they verified I had 2 units that DID qualify so I took advantage of my S2 unit and kept the HD as it was. I never had a unique code... I also asked about my mother at the same time but she was monthly under the old MSD rate. They sold her a Bolt and transferred the monthly service.



pdhenry said:


> You need an offer code for the $99 lifetime from TiVo and I think the code is unique per subscriber.
> 
> If you have a valid $100 Lifetime offer from eBay you can buy a 500GB Bolt for less than $200 ($130 or so) from somewhere like Amazon.
> 
> I just looked quickly and I don't see any offers for Lifetime subscriptions on eBay that aren't already attached to a device.


----------



## Resist

mlsnyc said:


> If you received the email then I'm sure you're eligible for the offer. Did you try to purchase and were told you weren't eligible? Or do you mean you were able to upgrade one but there's another one you have that hasn't been connected that you can't upgrade?


As I stated, my Series2 has been stored for years. So because I didn't get the email until "after" the eligible connect date, it doesn't qualify. Most of us don't keep a non HD Series2 running anymore, so why would I take it out of storage and connect it? Tivo purposely sent out the email after the eligible connect date so many people wouldn't quality. So much for customer loyalty.


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## leiff

What's the best price these have been available for with lifetime? I presume my price for $300 with my $100 Series 2 eBay purchase and $200 for the bolt is best yet?


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## lpwcomp

leiff said:


> What's the best price these have been available for with lifetime? I presume my price for $300 with my $100 Series 2 eBay purchase and $200 for the bolt is best yet?


+$99 for the transfer of lifetime.


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## leiff

I don't even have a 4K TV but it seems like this price was too good to pass up . I'll enjoy having faster menus than my roamio basic and as well as moca and streaming ability. I won't miss the larger capacity of my Romeo harddrive because Comcast picture quality went to hell so I'm now only subscribe to Comcast local channels won't be recording as much.


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## lpwcomp

I'm betting supplies will run out before I pull the trigger.


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## Mikeguy

Resist said:


> As I stated, my Series2 has been stored for years. So because I didn't get the email until "after" the eligible connect date, it doesn't qualify. Most of us don't keep a non HD Series2 running anymore, so why would I take it out of storage and connect it? Tivo purposely sent out the email after the eligible connect date so many people wouldn't quality. So much for customer loyalty.


Well, it depends on how far TiVo wanted to extend the promotion, to meet its goals. As with its Series 1 box offer last Fall, apparently TiVo wanted to limit this offer to active boxes (perhaps including to avoid people reviving long-abandoned units simply for purposes of the offer).

And apparently, there certainly is a whole group of people out there still running Series 2 boxes.

Just to double-check: did you actually call TiVo and try to make the purchase? It appears that TiVo sometimes has stretched (or ignored) the connection dates requirement. If you haven't yet done so, you might try it (or try it again, in the customer rep. "roulette game")--just a thought.


----------



## leiff

Mikeguy said:


> Again, keep in mind: if you have a credit card that offers purchase price protection, you can purchase the deal through TiVo and then try making a price protection claim for any price difference. An extra step, but can save you $70-$85 on the Bolt (non-plus) models.


Great idea does anyone know if discover price protection would work for this?


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## pdhenry

gthassell said:


> Discover Card also offers the price protection - you just have to submit a screenshot of the lower price (Amazon is a great source for this) - and currently has the 1TB at ~ 215. 500 GB is at $131.


I was looking at the details for the Discover Card price protection. Here's some terms:

Any purchases made after August 1, 2016 will be subject to the updated terms, which contain an Exclusion and Limitation for computer components including but not limited to external and internal hard drives, CPUs, power supplies, batteries, DVDs, video cassettes, CDs, audio cassettes, printed materials, or any other informational and recreational media.​Gray area at best. Has anyone filed for a TiVo since August?


----------



## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> Great idea does anyone know if discover price protection would work for this?


You can call them and ask for the program particulars if you're not familiar with them, but I believe someone else said yes. (Keep in mind, tho: there are many different Discover card variations and so programs could be different between cards. Personally, I'd call and check--and they're always so nice on the phone!)


----------



## leiff

If price protection goes through With my $60 eBay S2 purchase I'm getting a new bolt with lifetime for a little over $300 after tax without sacrificing anything in return. I imagine I could get that much from my Romeo basic if I wanted.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> I was looking at the details for the Discover Card price protection. Here's some terms:
> 
> Any purchases made after August 1, 2016 will be subject to the updated terms, which contain an Exclusion and Limitation for computer components including but not limited to external and internal hard drives, CPUs, power supplies, batteries, DVDs, video cassettes, CDs, audio cassettes, printed materials, or any other informational and recreational media.​Gray area at best. Has anyone filed for a TiVo since August?


I don't mean to sound like a picky lawyer, but I don't see an exclusion there for DVR's.


----------



## pdhenry

It depends on their understanding (or not) of the TiVo as essentially a Linux computer.

OTOH, most home entertainment electronics noawadays is essentially a computer, and I think taking that position in general for home electronics would be overkill.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> It depends on their understanding (or not) of the TiVo as essentially a Linux computer.
> 
> OTOH, most home entertainment electronics noawadays is essentially a computer, and I think taking that position in general for home electronics would be overkill.


You must be an engineer. 

I'm feeling pretty comfortable that the exclusion doesn't apply here: (1) the term "DVR" is a pretty well-known one, and although the exclusion refers to other products by name, it doesn't include DVR's; and (2) I just noticed that the exclusion doesn't include computers themselves, only computer _components _plus media. I think it would be hard for Discover to say that a DVR is a computer component.

Get a glass of wine--I think you're fine.


----------



## Mikeguy

By the way, I applied under Discover's benefits for extended warranty coverage on a tablet keyboard and case a year ago. The benefits people were very easy to work with and, unlike with another card I have, Discover did not require me to buy a replacement product and submit the purchase receipt (although I think I was required to submit proof of the cost of the replacement)--very nice.


----------



## V7Goose

Resist said:


> As I stated, my Series2 has been stored for years. So because I didn't get the email until "after" the eligible connect date, it doesn't qualify. Most of us don't keep a non HD Series2 running anymore, so why would I take it out of storage and connect it? Tivo purposely sent out the email after the eligible connect date so many people wouldn't quality. So much for customer loyalty.


Well, you can be sour about that if you want, but I personally don't see the point. I think TiVo was SMART to only send out the notification after the cutoff point. There could be 1,000 (or any number) of old S2/S3 boxes sitting in attics that will NEVER be used again, and another 1,000 sitting unsold in thrift shops. Why should they "pay" to remove those boxes from service? If their real desire is to begin pushing the phase-out of this old equipment so they can cut support costs (as I believe is the case), then it is a very wise business move to try to limit the offer ONLY to those customers/boxes that are still actively being used.

Personally, I threw my S2 boxes away after HD came along, and I am not the slightest bit upset that I cannot "upgrade" one of those today. And a friend gave me a Lifetime S2 box about 4 years ago, but I never bothered to transfer it to my account because I knew I would never use it. It does not bother me in the slightest that I cannot use that old box for an "upgrade" today. And I think TiVo would be extraordinarily stupid if they let me do so.


----------



## pdhenry

Until a year ago my S2 was the qualifying sub for MSD on an TiVo S3 that I never bothered to Lifetime. I replaced the S3 with a secondhand Premiere with Lifetime but since the S2 was connected and occasionally recording a show I've kept it in service. But it is time, I think. It just passed 12 years of continuous use with no failures.


----------



## timckelley

prospect60 said:


> I'd be tempted to get the old units out and let them connect and repeat every 3-4 months (ASSUMING they continue to not allow you an exception). What are the chances of this being a one and done deal if it's successful? I could easily see this as a yearly or couple time a year deal


One of my other lifetimed S2s seems to be unrepairable, as I've tried swapping hard drives, and it still won't startup. But I think my other one still works, and I'm actually considering putting it back into service, maybe transferring the SPs from other the other S2 whose lifetime service has been subsumed by my new Bolt.

The amusing thing is, I'm guessing that TiVo is doing this offer in hopes to get people to stop using these old models of TiVos, but if I do the above, it will have no impact on my net usage of S2 technology, and yet I get the cheap lifetime sub on my Bolt out of the deal.


----------



## sjsaleem

Do we have to purchase Tivo Bolt from Tivo.com only to avail the promotion or can it also be bought from amazon site?


----------



## wtherrell

sjsaleem said:


> Do we have to purchase Tivo Bolt from Tivo.com only to avail the promotion or can it also be bought from amazon site?


Appears that you need to purchase from Tivo.


----------



## rjspring

Not to be a downer, but I'm reading some interesting information over in a rumor thread about Comcast moving to all IP for their future television delivery, this makes me that much more weary on throwing more $$$ at Tivo for a device that may not work (or pay for itself) over the next couple of years Rumor: Comcast may go all-IP for new subs by year-end


----------



## Tweak42

sjsaleem said:


> Do we have to purchase Tivo Bolt from Tivo.com only to avail the promotion or can it also be bought from amazon site?


You have to buy from Tivo, though there is the possibility of using price protection from certain credit cards.


----------



## sjsaleem

wtherrell said:


> Appears that you need to purchase from Tivo.


Thank you


----------



## sjsaleem

Tweak42 said:


> You have to buy from Tivo, though there is the possibility of using price protection from certain credit cards.


Thank you


----------



## leiff

rjspring said:


> Not to be a downer, but I'm reading some interesting information over in a rumor thread about Comcast moving to all IP for their future television delivery, this makes me that much more weary on throwing more $$$ at Tivo for a device that may not work (or pay for itself) over the next couple of years Rumor: Comcast may go all-IP for new subs by year-end


 I droped Comcast since a couple of months ago picture quality went to hell. As long as I can get my locals I'm happy. I just bought the base bolt with OTA.


----------



## leiff

How does software run on these bolts compared to Romeo? Any significant differences or new features? In order to use the bolts MoCA networking I need to buy a mocha network adapter if my modem doesn't support mocha right? Am i correct most modems don't? Is tivo price for MoCA adapter still a competitive price?


----------



## timckelley

rjspring said:


> Not to be a downer, but I'm reading some interesting information over in a rumor thread about Comcast moving to all IP for their future television delivery, this makes me that much more weary on throwing more $$$ at Tivo for a device that may not work (or pay for itself) over the next couple of years Rumor: Comcast may go all-IP for new subs by year-end


Fortunately I have Spectrum (formerly Time Warner), but if Spectrum ever goes this route, maybe this will be the impetus my wife needs to take my advice and cut the cord (i.e. go OTA plus miscellaneous internet based content). All our TiVos support OTA.


----------



## 1rickey

I'm enticed by this deal, but just can't justify paying $300(box & lifetime) while my TivoHD is still getting the job done.


----------



## timckelley

1rickey said:


> I'm enticed by this deal, but just can't justify paying $300(box & lifetime) while my TivoHD is still getting the job done.


Yes, I know a lot of people want to replace their TiVoHD (which are eligible), and I even see people in this thread who'd like to replace their TiVo Premier (not eligible), but if I were in your position, I likely would agree with you, and keep a TiVoHD that's already getting the job done as you say. (In my case, I'm replacing an S2, which doesn't get the job done nearly as well as a TiVo HD would: I have to have a separate, not always reliable IR controlled tuning converter to provide an analog signal to my S2, plus the picture quality is really subpar compared to a TiVo HD. And it's just a single tuner, but I bet your TiVoHD has at least 2 tuners.)


----------



## lpwcomp

Mikeguy said:


> I guess, get the Bolt and transfer the local S2's shows to it in the 10 days; and then, in your time-frame, go to the remote location and swap the Bolt and Premiere (transferring the shows to the Premiere as you like), and then return home with the Premiere. Would that work? I'm assuming no copyright flag issues (I'm OTA).
> 
> You also could transfer the S2's shows to a PC, and then transfer back to whatever boxes as it works for you.


The problem is that is not the transferring of shows, it's losing service on the S2 and what I have to do to replace it.

In order:

I would have to take the Bolt to the location of the Premiere and do what needs to be done there. Due to circumstances beyond my control, this can only be done on a Sunday. Again, due to circumstances beyond my control, there's really no practicable way to xfer the Premiere content to a computer and it is unlikely that I could transfer all of it TiVo-Tivo in the limited time I would have that day, so I would have to leave both there until the *following *Sunday.

Then I have to go back and get the Premiere.

Then go to Comcast the next day and exchange the cable box for a CableCARD, install it and set-up the Premiere in place of the S2.

Then transfer everything from the S2 to the Premiere.

Supposedly, the 10-day clock doesn't start until the Bolt is actually connected, so it might be doable but as I said, tight. And yes, I realize I could start the transfer before the box-CableCARD exchange.

I could also get the CableCARD before hand but I'd rather reduce the possibility as much as possible that I will have to fight Comcast for the next 6-months about how many ADO fees I should be paying and how many COE credits I should be receiving. Theoretically, I should see a *reduction* of $2.50/mo since I will be replacing a Comcast box with a customer owned box.

There's one other problem. A few years ago, I tried to replace the S2 with my THD, (which has since died). I had major cable reception problems.


----------



## rjspring

1rickey said:


> I'm enticed by this deal, but just can't justify paying $300(box & lifetime) while my TivoHD is still getting the job done.


I agree, I just got a new TV back before the super bowl and it really is a testament to the build quality of these old Tivo HD boxes that they can last this long and keep on ticking. Picture quality on "regular" TV is still awesome for me, the only 4K I have available is via online streaming anyway (which I'm getting via casting directly through the TV itself).


----------



## aaronwt

Has any had their Bolts ship yet?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


----------



## InFromTheCold

On hold with Tivo right now, waiting to finalize my purchase. The rep informed me that the 1T model is all gone. He also told me that my old S2 was not eligible, as it hadn't called in during the window. This contradicts what another rep (possibly overseas) told me earlier today. I wonder what would happen if I had ordered an S2 replacement from her?


----------



## rawlic

I just placed my order online for a 500GB Bolt to replace a Humax Series 2 that I activated in November 2004. In 12 years, I did have to replace the hard drive twice and it's getting more cranky every day. The offer was to good to pass up.


----------



## JSearfoss

aaronwt said:


> Has any had their Bolts ship yet?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


I ordered a Bolt+ Saturday. Received the tracking number today. Says I'll have it Thursday.


----------



## tvmaster2

Just to confirm one thing... the Series 2 were the last boxes that could be used with satellite receivers, correct, because they didn't rely on cable cards? As much as I'd like to bag this deal, I have a Lifetime Series 2 that is being used with a Canadian cable/satellite (depending on the month) system, as no Canadian systems use cable cards (save for one in Quebec I think). So even though it's SD, the Series 2 is the only way to go there, right?


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> Just to confirm one thing... the Series 2 were the last boxes that could be used with satellite receivers, correct, because they didn't rely on cable cards? As much as I'd like to bag this deal, I have a Lifetime Series 2 that is being used with a Canadian cable/satellite (depending on the month) system, as no Canadian systems use cable cards (save for one in Quebec I think). So even though it's SD, the Series 2 is the only way to go there, right?


Yes, but it's not so much that they rely on CableCARDs since most could/can also be used for OTA. The S3s and 2-tuner Premieres could also do analog cable.

The problem is that the S2s were the last model that had the ability to control a cable or satellite box. They also were the last models to have A/V input jacks.


----------



## wtherrell

aaronwt said:


> Has any had their Bolts ship yet?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


Mine is on the way. Will be here Wednesday.


----------



## timckelley

aaronwt said:


> Has any had their Bolts ship yet?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


Amazingly, mine showed up yesterday, and I had just ordered it the previous day. Wow, free shipping took just one day.


----------



## tvmaster2

And now the fine print: "Units must have been connected to the Tivo service between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017"

I keep our Series 2 in a guest room, and we haven't had guests in just over a year, aka March 5, 2016 was the last service connect (I power down when not in use). Has Anyone had any difficulty with this clause being iron-clad, aka are Tivo showing some humanity for long time, multiple unit customers? I'd hate to lose out by 16 days due to being green....


----------



## pdhenry

InFromTheCold said:


> On hold with Tivo right now, waiting to finalize my purchase. The rep informed me that the 1T model is all gone.


1T models are still available on the website.

_EDIT_: Interestingly, I just went back to the order page and it only shows a 500 GB Bolt and the Bolt+. I know the 1 TB Bolt was there because supposedly I bought one!

Are people calling in because they didn't get the email? My online order took about two minutes...


JSearfoss said:


> I ordered a Bolt+ Saturday. Received the tracking number today. Says I'll have it Thursday.


I just ordered tonight and with standard shipping I have an estimated delivery day of Friday.


----------



## pdhenry

For people considering a price match, the order confirmation just showed one price for the bundle, but the confirmation email and the order history page at tivo.com both list the device price and the Lifetime subscription on separate lines.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> 1T models are still available on the website.
> 
> _EDIT_: Interestingly, I just went back to the order page and it only shows a 500 GB Bolt and the Bolt+. I know the 1 TB Bolt was there because supposedly I bought one!
> 
> Are people calling in because they didn't get the email? My online order took about two minutes...
> I just ordered tonight and with standard shipping I have an estimated delivery day of Friday.


Did you have more than one Series 2 or HD to choose from as the unit that would be killed?


----------



## tvmaster2

lpwcomp said:


> Yes, but it's not so much that they rely on CableCARDs since most could/can also be used for OTA. The S3s and 2-tuner Premieres could also do analog cable.
> 
> The problem is that the S2s were the last model that had the ability to control a cable or satellite box. They also were the last models to have A/V input jacks.


Why do you think that was? Did it have something to do with HDTV, and Hollywood not allowing anything but a cable card for those recordings? I still record HD content from satellite/cable boxes via component outputs using Hauppauge HD PVR's. I always wondered why Tivo wouldn't allow this


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> Why do you think that was? Did it have something to do with HDTV, and Hollywood not allowing anything but a cable card for those recordings? I still record HD content from satellite/cable boxes via component outputs using Hauppauge HD PVR's. I always wondered why Tivo wouldn't allow this


What would be the point?


----------



## Mikeguy

1rickey said:


> I'm enticed by this deal, but just can't justify paying $300(box & lifetime) while my TivoHD is still getting the job done.


Much easier to rationalize with an 11-year-old Series 2.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> And now the fine print: "Units must have been connected to the Tivo service between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017"
> 
> I keep our Series 2 in a guest room, and we haven't had guests in just over a year, aka March 5, 2016 was the last service connect (I power down when not in use). Has Anyone had any difficulty with this clause being iron-clad, aka are Tivo showing some humanity for long time, multiple unit customers? I'd hate to lose out by 16 days due to being green....


I would call and see if you are eligible--there seems to have been some flexibility, at times.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> I would call and see if you are eligible--there seems to have been some flexibility, at times.


will do - just tried but they're closed for the day. Is that new? Did they always shut down at 6pm PDT?


----------



## tvmaster2

lpwcomp said:


> What would be the point?


The point would be to record HD material from cable and satellite receivers which don't use cable cards.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> will do - just tried but they're closed for the day. Is that new? Did they always shut down at 6pm PDT?


I don't know. But the website lists 6 p.m. PT.


----------



## Quaro

tvmaster2 said:


> And now the fine print: "Units must have been connected to the Tivo service between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017"
> 
> I keep our Series 2 in a guest room, and we haven't had guests in just over a year, aka March 5, 2016 was the last service connect (I power down when not in use). Has Anyone had any difficulty with this clause being iron-clad, aka are Tivo showing some humanity for long time, multiple unit customers? I'd hate to lose out by 16 days due to being green....


Some people have said that when they called, the rep asked them to connect the old tivo now, and then they approved it. So go head and connect the old device and try to call.


----------



## aaronwt

pdhenry said:


> 1T models are still available on the website.
> 
> _EDIT_: Interestingly, I just went back to the order page and it only shows a 500 GB Bolt and the Bolt+. I know the 1 TB Bolt was there because supposedly I bought one!
> 
> Are people calling in because they didn't get the email? My online order took about two minutes...
> I just ordered tonight and with standard shipping I have an estimated delivery day of Friday.


Hmm.. I ordered online Friday night and I still have not received any shipping info.


----------



## jlin

Did anyone who ordered on Sat got their tracking or shipping notice today?


----------



## catperson

jlin said:


> Did anyone who ordered on Sat got their tracking or shipping notice today?


I ordered by phone about 1 pm (East Coast) on Saturday. Got my shipping notice early this evening. FedEx delivery expected on Thursday.


----------



## aaronwt

Maybe online orders are put at the back of the list?

But I guess they are also extremely busy. The last TiVo I ordered, a refurb OTA only model, last fall during the special, shipped the next business day.

EDIT: whoops. I just checked and was wrong. It actually shipped the same day I ordered it last year. And that was the day before Thanksgiving.


----------



## pdhenry

tvmaster2 said:


> Did you have more than one Series 2 or HD to choose from as the unit that would be killed?


No, just a Humax Series 2.


----------



## pdhenry

aaronwt said:


> Hmm.. I ordered online Friday night and I still have not received any shipping info.


Note that I didn't get a shipping notification yet, they just said on the acknowledgement page that I should get it Friday. They may actually be backed up more than that.


----------



## bearcat2000

If there is someone on here that decides they will not be using their email code, would you please send it my way. It would be my only way I could afford a Bolt now. Thanks in advance.


----------



## timckelley

bearcat2000 said:


> If there is someone on here that decides they will not be using their email code, would you please send it my way. It would be my only way I could afford a Bolt now. Thanks in advance.


Would this even work? TiVo is going to check your account to verify you have a qualifying account to take the lifetime service from.


----------



## RTOlson

I was excited to make this deal because my family's S2 TiVo simply won't work with the Cox mini-box despite my experimentation with remote codes. I went with the 500 GB unit because it's nice to have OTA as an option and it's expandable.

Has anyone noticed how glitchy the TiVo website is? When I submitted the order, it said it had failed and to try again later with the TiVo unit and deal in the cart. HOWEVER, my bank had a hold for the purchase price. When I revisited the confirmation screen on TiVo, it acknowledged that the order HAD gone through. Needless to say, I'm going to keep a close eye on the order until it ships.

Also, it pops up a dumb error message when the city and the ZIP code don't match in the order form. It's goofy all through the site.

---------------------------

I'm very happy that TiVo and its benevolent overlords are making this offer. It was exactly what I had hoped for because of the move to digital signals and HD.

I know TiVo didn't _have_ to make any offer to transfer lifetime service to a newer unit, but they had a pretty good track record of making some sort of offer every once in a while.

I dug through my emails for the last offer that I was eligible for (never had a Series 1). Here's the one from August 2015 -



> - Save $300 on Roamio w/service for a $399.98 one-time payment
> - Save $400 on Roamio Plus w/service for a $499.98 one-time payment
> - Save $400 on Roamio Pro w/service for a $699.98 one-time payment


I found it interesting - it seems we're getting a slightly better deal with Bolt upgrade.


----------



## ej42137

tvmaster2 said:


> will do - just tried but they're closed for the day. Is that new? Did they always shut down at 6pm PDT?


No. During the winter they shut down an hour earlier.


----------



## atmuscarella

bearcat2000 said:


> If there is someone on here that decides they will not be using their email code, would you please send it my way. It would be my only way I could afford a Bolt now. Thanks in advance.


Someone's code isn't going to do you any good unless they are also willing to give you the TiVo it is attached to. If you have a qualifying TiVo just call TiVo and they should give you the deal.


----------



## skaggs

jlin said:


> Did anyone who ordered on Sat got their tracking or shipping notice today?


I ordered online on Saturday 4/1/17 at 2pm and have not received shipping/tracking information as of Tuesday 4/4/17 at 9am.


----------



## aaronwt

I just looked at my order and I noticed they changed something. Previously it listed the Bolts separately for $200 and then the $99 to transfer lifetime. But now it's been changed to show 


> Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee TiVo BOLT 500 GB---$298.99


So I guess with the change there is no way to get price matching from a credit card? Still a great deal though


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> The point would be to record HD material from cable and satellite receivers which don't use cable cards.


Which would be a silly use for a multi-tuner DVR.


----------



## skaggs

aaronwt said:


> I just looked at my order and I noticed they changed something. Previously it listed the Bolts separately for $200 and then the $99 to transfer lifetime. But now it's been changed to show
> 
> So I guess with the change there is no way to get price matching from a credit card? Still a great deal though


My emailed order confirmation from TiVo lists them separately.

Order Summary
-------------
Product Description Qty Item Price Tax* Total

S00050 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee 1 $99.00 $7.92 $106.92

R84950 TiVo BOLT 500 GB. 1 $ 199.99 $ 16.00 $ 215.99

--------------------------------
Order Sub Total: $ 298.99
Shipping: $ 0.00
Tax: $ 23.92
Order Total: $ 322.91


----------



## aaronwt

skaggs said:


> My emailed order confirmation from TiVo lists them separately.
> 
> Order Summary
> -------------
> Product Description Qty Item Price Tax* Total
> 
> S00050 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee 1 $99.00 $7.92 $106.92
> 
> R84950 TiVo BOLT 500 GB. 1 $ 199.99 $ 16.00 $ 215.99
> 
> --------------------------------
> Order Sub Total: $ 298.99
> Shipping: $ 0.00
> Tax: $ 23.92
> Order Total: $ 322.91


My original email shows the same thing. And up until last night, my order online showed them separately as well. But when I checked this morning online, it had been changed.

EDIT: Although I did not get charged any tax on the $99. Only on the price of the Bolt. I guess my state doesn't require it? I don't recall any taxes on that stuff in the past either. Only on the hardware.


----------



## jstanton

1rickey said:


> I'm enticed by this deal, but just can't justify paying $300(box & lifetime) while my TivoHD is still getting the job done.


I get it and certainly appreciate your position but I do not feel the same way. I have 2 TiVoHD boxes and one Bolt I got about 6 months ago. While the HDs technically still work I find them incredibly frustrating and slow. Everything including show transfers just go so much faster on the Bolt. A $99 transfer deal was enough to push me to get replacements.


----------



## aaronwt

Yes. the S3 boxes are extremely slow by todays standards.


----------



## DrewTivo

lpwcomp said:


> Well, a CR with any brains (not that you are likely to encounter one) might ask why you didn't get it from Amazon in the first place.


If that question allowed CC's with price guarantee offers to avoid compensation, the benefit would be totally useless - they could always ask that question. (One solution is to wait a couple of days to print out the lower advertised price).


----------



## George Cifranci

lpwcomp said:


> I'm betting supplies will run out before I pull the trigger.


I notice they only have the 500GB Bolt and the 3TB Bolt+ on the page now. I wonder if they sold out of the 1TB model?

TiVo Once in a Lifetime Offer Link


----------



## lpwcomp

George Cifranci said:


> I notice they only have the 500GB Bolt and the 3TB Bolt+ on the page now. I wonder if they sold out of the 1TB model?


Probably, since that is the model I would have gotten. The other two are really useless for my purposes.


----------



## justen_m

lpwcomp said:


> Probably, since that is the model I would have gotten. The other two are really useless for my purposes.


Why? I'm thinking of the 500GB model, as I've got a spare 1TB 2.5" drive from a laptop. Can't I just pop this in for an easy upgrade? That's what I did with my Roamio Plus (replaced 1TB with a 3TB).

In any case, even without a drive upgrade, the networking is fast enough that I can store stuff on my 3TB Roamio or on one of my computers. Heck, I'll pull the 1TB drive from my TiVoHD and pop it into a spare drive bay.

Even though my 1TB TiVoHD still works, it is super slow... and I am afraid TiVo is offering this because they plan to brick it at some point. I got a good 9(?) years out of it.


----------



## George Cifranci

lpwcomp said:


> Probably, since that is the model I would have gotten. The other two are really useless for my purposes.


I would suggest getting the 500GB Bolt and just buy a 3TB drive (around $130) to replace the 500GB drive that it comes with. Paying $100 for just 500GB more storage is a waste of money. Especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the internal drive.


----------



## dgb99

Can someone walk me through how/if I can sell a box bought using this deal?
I have a S3 HD Tivo that has died multiple times over the past 10 years. I have replaced the hard drive at least once and replaced various capacitors on the power supply board at least twice. When it died again this past January I reluctantly bought a 1TB Bolt with lifetime. I've been fairly happy with it but obviously overpaid the $549 for lifetime service.

I do have price protection on the credit card I used but it appears I'm just outside the 60 day window and I'm not sure it would even apply since it's a discounted service fee and not the actual box.

Is it as simple as just buying a box with lifetime using the email code I received and then selling it on Ebay/Craigslist? Will the new box still be tied to my account somehow?


----------



## timckelley

George Cifranci said:


> I would suggest getting the 500GB Bolt and just buy a 3TB drive (around $130) to replace the 500GB drive that it comes with. Paying $100 for just 500GB more storage is a waste of money. Especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the internal drive.


Yes, I've upgraded the HDs in pretty much all our TiVos, so I've done exactly what you said: purchased the 500GB Bolt.


----------



## pdhenry

George Cifranci said:


> I notice they only have the 500GB Bolt and the 3TB Bolt+ on the page now. I wonder if they sold out of the 1TB model?


I ordered the 1 TB last night and very soon after it had disappeared from the webpage. Maybe they'll have to upgrade me to the Bolt+?


----------



## lpwcomp

George Cifranci said:


> I would suggest getting the 500GB Bolt and just buy a 3TB drive (around $130) to replace the 500GB drive that it comes with. Paying $100 for just 500GB more storage is a waste of money. Especially considering how easy it is to upgrade the internal drive.


For a number of reasons, that is not really a viable option.


----------



## pdhenry

dgb99 said:


> Is it as simple as just buying a box with lifetime using the email code I received and then selling it on Ebay/Craigslist? Will the new box still be tied to my account somehow?


When you sell the unit you initiate a transfer with TiVo and the buyer completes the transfer. The new owner would want to have it on their account to take advantage of the online features.

But it should be as easy as buying the device and offering it for sale wherever. Check prices on eBay so you know what they're selling for before initiating the purchase.


----------



## Rolow

Am I the only one why bought a bolt for ota only?

I ordered online and still haven't figured out what tivo they will mothballed


----------



## justen_m

Thanks for the quick replies. Just ordered the 500GB Bolt before they're gone. I've upgraded the drive in every TiVo I've owned.

I plan on using the Bolt for OTA only replacing my TiVoHD which is currently OTA only. My 6-tuner Roamio Plus has enough tuners to deal with cable. If I start using streaming, that will definitely be the Bolt.


----------



## dgb99

pdhenry said:


> When you sell the unit you initiate a transfer with TiVo and the buyer completes the transfer. The new owner would want to have it on their account to take advantage of the online features.
> 
> But it should be as easy as buying the device and offering it for sale wherever. Check prices on eBay so you know what they're selling for before initiating the purchase.


Thanks! I'll probably just let the deal go. I've been holding on to the S3 until I have time to debug what's wrong with it but it may end up just getting junked. I've never been very good at selling off old electronics...I think I still have a DirectTivo in a closet somewhere...


----------



## timckelley

Rolow said:


> Am I the only one why bought a bolt for ota only?
> 
> I ordered online and still haven't figured out what tivo they will mothballed


No, my plans are to use my Bolt for OTA only. They do have the option for us to change our mind though, and put a cable card in it later, but for now, my plans are OTA only for it. I have a nice attic antenna I installed a few years ago, and I ran a coax down to our box on the side of the house, and from there I can choose which rooms get the antenna, and which rooms get the Spectrum cable signal. I actually have two coax ports in the room with the Bolt, so I have both types of signals available in that room.


----------



## V7Goose

tvmaster2 said:


> Why do you think that was? Did it have something to do with HDTV, and Hollywood not allowing anything but a cable card for those recordings? I still record HD content from satellite/cable boxes via component outputs using Hauppauge HD PVR's. I always wondered why Tivo wouldn't allow this


Not sure what you think the TiVos cannot do (other than work with worthless satellite). I have been recording HD programs from TiVo S3 component outputs with a Hauppauge 1212 for over 10 years, and I now have well over 10,000 movies and TV series on a broad collection of DVD, Blue-ray and HDD storage to watch at my convenience. That is one of the reasons I have never been interested in a newer TiVo - no component output (but there ARE HDMI to component converters you can buy). However, I have a Mini coming today, and I notice the specs say it also has component outputs, so I will be seeing if those work just as well as the S3 does for recording.


----------



## lpwcomp

pdhenry said:


> I ordered the 1 TB last night and very soon after it had disappeared from the webpage. Maybe they'll have to upgrade me to the Bolt+?


I wouldn't think so.


V7Goose said:


> Not sure what you think the TiVos cannot do (other than work with worthless satellite). I have been recording HD programs from TiVo S3 component outputs with a Hauppauge 1212 for over 10 years, and I now have well over 10,000 movies and TV series on a broad collection of DVD, Blue-ray and HDD storage to watch at my convenience. That is one of the reasons I have never been interested in a newer TiVo - no component output (but there ARE HDMI to component converters you can buy). However, I have a Mini coming today, and I notice the specs say it also has component outputs, so I will be seeing if those work just as well as the S3 does for recording.


He wants to record from a sat receiver.


----------



## leiff

pdhenry said:


> When you sell the unit you initiate a transfer with TiVo and the buyer completes the transfer. The new owner would want to have it on their account to take advantage of the online features.
> 
> But it should be as easy as buying the device and offering it for sale wherever. Check prices on eBay so you know what they're selling for before initiating the purchase.


In case you're not terribly familiar with eBay the best way to do this is to click on advanced search and click on already completed listings to get an accurate result of actual sale prices


----------



## George Cifranci

Rolow said:


> Am I the only one why bought a bolt for ota only?
> 
> I ordered online and still haven't figured out what tivo they will mothballed


I also bought a Bolt (500GB) for OTA only with the $99 deal. I used my TiVo Series 3 with cable for over 9 years, but I decided to drop cable last year, so I am just OTA with my Series 3. I only have 1 Lifetime TiVo on my account.


----------



## leiff

dgb99 said:


> Thanks! I'll probably just let the deal go. I've been holding on to the S3 until I have time to debug what's wrong with it but it may end up just getting junked. I've never been very good at selling off old electronics...I think I still have a DirectTivo in a closet somewhere...


You could put your Series 3 on eBay and list it as a viable candidate for this offer and someone may pay you $100 or so for it. Put a free local pickup as an option in your listing that way someone would let you keep the hardware if they want this promotion. I just bought a $60 Series 2 Box off a bay that same way free local pickup and I told him he could keep the equipment. Buyer called TiVo to transfer ownership for me and I was able to call Tivo the next day to get this offer. All I needed was the TSN from the seller.


----------



## bantar

I just contacted support via chat and was given the cold shoulder. Asked about 1 TB. Says OOS. I asked if the offer could be extended or the order placed and nothing. Said to call via phone for more help. I did try calling, but call volume is crazy right now.

I don't want the other sizes? Anyone else call in yet and get an answer? Strange that their premiere product is sold out with no plans to replenish.


----------



## stonewallers

I had to send an email to support today. I tried to order online (the 500GB version) but every time I clicked the place order button it went to a page that said something like unauthorized, order did not complete.

I also asked in the email how do you specify which tivo will be replaced. I have two series 2 and one tivoHD (yes, all have connected within the past year). I don't want them to deactivate the tivoHD. Does anyone know how to do this on-line? And is anyone else having trouble ordering on-line?


----------



## worachj

I never got the Email, but I just ordered the 500GB version without any problems. I was on hold for only 1 minute.

They are out of stock now with a back order comming on 4/21.


----------



## aaronwt

worachj said:


> I never got the Email, but I just ordered the 500GB version without any problems. I was on hold for only 1 minute.
> 
> They are out of stock now with a back order comming on 4/21.


Did you get an estimate for shipping?

I'm still waiting for the two 500 GB Bolts I ordered on Friday to ship.


----------



## worachj

aaronwt said:


> Did you get an estimate for shipping?
> 
> I'm still waiting for the two 500 GB Bolts I ordered on Friday to ship.


She made it sound like they would ship the same day once the back order comes in on 4/21. 3 to 4 days once shipped.


----------



## aaronwt

worachj said:


> She made it sound like they would ship the same day once the back order comes in on 4/21. 3 to 4 days once shipped.


So I wonder then if mine won't be shipping out for several weeks now too?


----------



## worachj

aaronwt said:


> So I wonder then if mine won't be shipping out for several weeks now too?


They should've checked for available stock before excepting your order. I think you're ok if they didn't tell you they were out of stock.


----------



## reneg

Ordered two 500GB Bolts on Saturday and both units arrived today. They both show up under my Tivo account as "Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee".


----------



## justen_m

re: shipping. I ordered a 500GB this morning, 4/4. It said with standard shipping I should expect it on Friday, 4/7. It said my order is confirmed, I've got a confirmation number and all, the order is in my account history... but I haven't gotten any email confirmation. There is a 298.99 charge from TiVo pending on my CC, so that's a good sign... but it hasn't posted yet. If aaronwt's haven't shipped yet... I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I've survived a few years with just my Roamio and HD, so another few weeks without a Bolt won't kill me.


----------



## stonewallers

Just an update. I noticed that I was getting an unsafe scripts blocked message on my browser. I allowed them to load and the tivo order went through. much like above, I got a confirmation number, the order is listed in my account history and I have an estimated delivery date of Saturday April 8th but I have not received an email confirmation.*

*update on the update, just got the confirmation email. Notes an estimated delivery of 4 to 6 business days. Will notify when shipped


----------



## skaggs

I called Discover to take advantage of their Price Protection policy.

However, since the transaction for the Bolt I ordered on Saturday is still "pending" on my account, they can't start the process to file a claim.

My previous purchases from TiVo have never taken this long to ship.


----------



## tvmaster2

lpwcomp said:


> Which would be a silly use for a multi-tuner DVR.


I don't know about you, but I can only watch one show at a time


----------



## HenryFarpolo

I don't really need another Tivo. My S3 is rarely used. Hard to resist this offer so I ordered the 500 Bolt. I have a 1TB expander sitting idle so I will use it to upgrade the capacity of the Bolt.Who knows when we may see an offer like this again.


----------



## aaronwt

I'm on the phone now. The CSR says everything looks right with the order but doesn't know why a 3/31 order hasn't shipped. So he is checking now. He also said that current 500GB Bolt orders aren't being shipped until 4/21 or so. So it sounds like something may have slipped through the cracks. I've had pending charge on my CC since a few seconds after I placed the order. But I guess the pending charge will drop off if TiVo doesn't follow through with the charge soon.


----------



## tvmaster2

Quaro said:


> Some people have said that when they called, the rep asked them to connect the old tivo now, and then they approved it. So go head and connect the old device and try to call.


I just was given the complete cold-shoulder by Danny the CSR. Wouldn't even consider giving me a break on the fact I was outside the window by 23 days. No rain-checks on sold-out items, and wouldn't confirm if and when they'd restock the 1tb Bolts. So, if you get Danny, and are hoping for an out-of-window break, just hang up before they flag the unit.

However, if you buy the unit ONLINE, how is it determined WHICH of your units is going to be used as the sacrifice - I have three that COULD apply to this promotion.
I'm at the credit card stage now, and there's been no mention of which machine is the trade-in unit.
Anyone else done this online who had multiple, possible exchange units?


----------



## timckelley

tvmaster2 said:


> I don't know about you, but I can only watch one show at a time


By BIL often watches multiple football games at the same time.


----------



## aaronwt

I just got off the phone with the CSR and he said they had to manually push my order through the warehouse, or something like that.(They had no idea why there was an issue though) So hopefully they ship out today or tomorrow. And he did say that I should just call when I receive them to verify the boxes where service is being transferred from.

So I'm hopeful they actually get shipped out this week and not in three weeks.
Since I would prefer to get the boxes online and cable cards swapped into them before the May Sweeps start.


----------



## tvmaster2

stonewallers said:


> I also asked in the email how do you specify which tivo will be replaced. I have two series 2 and one tivoHD (yes, all have connected within the past year). I don't want them to deactivate the tivoHD. Does anyone know how to do this on-line? And is anyone else having trouble ordering on-line?


Yes, I would like to know this as well, as I have three qualifying machines (well, maybe three, depending on how the system works).


----------



## pdhenry

The pricing of my purchase in the TiVo.com order history has changed to a single line for the bundle price. I still have the confirmation email showing separate line items for the box and the service.


----------



## jlin

aaronwt said:


> I just looked at my order and I noticed they changed something. Previously it listed the Bolts separately for $200 and then the $99 to transfer lifetime. But now it's been changed to show
> 
> So I guess with the change there is no way to get price matching from a credit card? Still a great deal though


The confirmation email still has 2 items listed separately. You can use that to get the price protection.


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> I don't know about you, but I can only watch one show at a time


But a multi-tuner TiVo can _*record*_ more than one show at a time. It makes absolutely no sense to use an S3 or later in this matter and it would increase the cost of the hardware for them to include a capability that would be used by very few people, very possibly just you.


----------



## skaggs

I started a chat session with TiVo and asked why my Bolt order from Saturday, April 1st hasn't shipped yet. Their response:

_I apologize, but we are experiencing shipping delays due to the volume of orders for our new promotion. Your order should ship tomorrow, 4/5/17. We apologize for the inconvenience. _​
Also, regarding my previous post concerning how I have several Series2's with lifetime on my account that I previously sold via eBay and was worried that TiVo would deactivate one of them, the TiVo CSR stated they will deactivate the HD unit I still have in my possession. Apparently, none of the Series 2 units I sold have connected to the TiVo service within the specified time restriction.


----------



## V7Goose

Just adding my experience to date with this order - 

Placed an order for two 500GB units online Saturday morning 4/1 about 0930. The order confirmation while online said to expect delivery by Wednesday, 4/5. BUT, while I received the email order confirmation almost immediately, I have NOT received any email confirming that the items have shipped. In addition, the online status shows only that the order has been placed, not that it has shipped. So I really have no idea at all when to expect delivery.


----------



## tvmaster2

lpwcomp said:


> But a multi-tuner TiVo can _*record*_ more than one show at a time. It makes absolutely no sense to use an S3 or later in this matter and it would increase the cost of the hardware for them to include a capability that would be used by very few people, very possibly just you.


That's why I use an S2 for this purpose.


----------



## skaggs

You are in the same situation as me, except with 2 Bolts.

I asked the CSR in my chat session (described in post 326 above) when I should expect delivery. Here's what they said:

_*3-5 business days after shipping. So the 8th or 10th. *_​


----------



## skaggs

Just ordered the Toshiba 3TB drive from Amazon to drop into my new Bolt for $135 (no tax, free Prime shipping). Amazon says there is only 13 left at this price.

Will arrive Thursday, before my Bolt.


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> That's why I use an S2 for this purpose.


Yes, but you were asking why the newer TiVos didn't include this capability.


----------



## bobrt6676

aaronwt said:


> Did you get an estimate for shipping?
> 
> I'm still waiting for the two 500 GB Bolts I ordered on Friday to ship.


I ordered Bolt+ (online) this AM and it says it has shipped.


----------



## tvmaster2

lpwcomp said:


> Yes, but you were asking why the newer TiVos didn't include this capability.


right, as an aside. Wouldn't it be great if they had a HD satellite box. Obviously that will never happen, now that Trump put Ajit Pai in control.


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> right, as an aside. Wouldn't it be great if they had a HD satellite box. Obviously that will never happen, now that Trump put Ajit Pai in control.


DIRECTV TiVO THR22 High Definition MPEG-4 HD-DVR THR-22


----------



## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> My original email shows the same thing. And up until last night, my order online showed them separately as well. But when I checked this morning online, it had been changed.
> 
> EDIT: Although I did not get charged any tax on the $99. Only on the price of the Bolt. I guess my state doesn't require it? I don't recall any taxes on that stuff in the past either. Only on the hardware.


And so, use the email for the price match. I believe that's what I did 2 years ago, and it worked fine.


----------



## Mikeguy

lpwcomp said:


> Probably, since that is the model I would have gotten. The other two are really useless for my purposes.


I guess it depends on one's purposes. It seems to me that the 500GB is a great deal, pricewise but also if one might want more space, as a 2TB replacement drive is less expensive, I understand, than the price difference between the 500GB and 1TB versions, and a 3TB replacement drive just a bit more.


----------



## Mikeguy

George Cifranci said:


> I notice they only have the 500GB Bolt and the 3TB Bolt+ on the page now. I wonder if they sold out of the 1TB model?
> 
> TiVo Once in a Lifetime Offer Link


I was told early this morning that the 1TB model is sold out, and the rep. did not know if more will come.


----------



## Mikeguy

DrewTivo said:


> If that question allowed CC's with price guarantee offers to avoid compensation, the benefit would be totally useless - they could always ask that question. (One solution is to wait a couple of days to print out the lower advertised price).


Also, do note the terms of your credit card program--mine will reimburse for a lower price for the next 60 or 90 days post-purchase (I forget which). Watch those ads . . . .


----------



## Mikeguy

Rolow said:


> Am I the only one why bought a bolt for ota only?
> 
> I ordered online and still haven't figured out what tivo they will mothballed


Nope--many others for OTA, including in the post right after yours!


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> I ordered the 1 TB last night and very soon after it had disappeared from the webpage. Maybe they'll have to upgrade me to the Bolt+?


Or, to the new HydraBox!


----------



## schmegs

I'm sure this has been discussed in other threads before (because I've seen it!), but I can't find the list of capabilities that a TiVo retains without service. I know I've seen one in the past, but I just can't find it. I just want to know what my Series 2 DT and HD will be able to do if they're deactivated...


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> I just was given the complete cold-shoulder by Danny the CSR. Wouldn't even consider giving me a break on the fact I was outside the window by 23 days. No rain-checks on sold-out items, and wouldn't confirm if and when they'd restock the 1tb Bolts. So, if you get Danny, and are hoping for an out-of-window break, just hang up before they flag the unit.
> 
> However, if you buy the unit ONLINE, how is it determined WHICH of your units is going to be used as the sacrifice - I have three that COULD apply to this promotion.
> I'm at the credit card stage now, and there's been no mention of which machine is the trade-in unit.
> Anyone else done this online who had multiple, possible exchange units?


There are a few posts answering this issue, in the last few pages of posts. (Sorry, I don't have them at hand right now--you'll find them easily.)


----------



## Mikeguy

worachj said:


> I never got the Email, but I just ordered the 500GB version without any problems. I was on hold for only 1 minute.
> 
> They are out of stock now with a back order comming on 4/21.


Thanks for the update--that explains the delay. Good to know that TiVo still is selling them!


----------



## pdhenry

schmegs said:


> I'm sure this has been discussed in other threads before (because I've seen it!), but I can't find the list of capabilities that a TiVo retains without service. I know I've seen one in the past, but I just can't find it. I just want to know what my Series 2 DT and HD will be able to do if they're deactivated...


You can play the content on that box. Possibly you can record by time and channel after the program data runs out. No other network based functions.


----------



## smpowell

With this $99 deal, what happens if the old Tivo doesn’t connect to the internet after the new Bolt is activated? Does the old Tivo still think it has lifetime service?

My sacrificial Series 2 has a lot of programs on it; more than I could transfer in 10 days. So I was thinking, if the old Series 2 never connects to the Internet after the Bolt is activated, would it still transfer programs to my Tivo HD or new Bolt through a router that wasn’t connected to the Internet?

Could someone who has activated a Bolt under the $99 deal check system information their old Tivo to see if it still shows lifetime service, or perhaps when the old Tivo phones home they change the service date to 10 days after the Bolt was activated.

My new Bolt should be here tomorrow (April 5th), so I’d really like to know.


----------



## tvmaster2

lpwcomp said:


> DIRECTV TiVO THR22 High Definition MPEG-4 HD-DVR THR-22


Sorry, Shaw Direct


----------



## phox_mulder

I ordered the 500GB bolt online this morning, as they were sold out of the 1TB versions, and the Bolt+ is useless to me since I only have OTA.
Ordered a 3GB drive on Amazon at the same time, wanted to just get a 1 or 2TB, but for the price, the 3GB was a no-brainer, and the popular drive according to the upgrade threads.

I haven't even loaded up my 2TB Roamio OTA more than 20%, and my 1TB Roamio Basic more than 40%, so 3GB may be overkill.

My OLED S3 has served me well for over 10 years, but the slowness and lack of streaming ability is getting more and more noticeable
I think I may miss its rock solid tuners though, based on discussions about the Bolt's tuners.

phox


----------



## Mikeguy

schmegs said:


> I'm sure this has been discussed in other threads before (because I've seen it!), but I can't find the list of capabilities that a TiVo retains without service. I know I've seen one in the past, but I just can't find it. I just want to know what my Series 2 DT and HD will be able to do if they're deactivated...





pdhenry said:


> You can play the content on that box. Possibly you can record by time and channel after the program data runs out. No other network based functions.


I asked TiVo about this for my Toshiba Series 2, and was told that, after it's been deactivated under this promotion, the box will continue to be able to play what's there. That's it. No manual recording ability (I specifically asked about that), no ability to transfer (I think that was meant as to other TiVo boxes; I don't know about transfers to a PC). Oh, and for my Toshiba box which has a DVD player/recorder in it, it will continue to be able to play DVD's.

I've read separately, however, that if you disconnect the box from networking ability prior to deactivation, so that the box isn't in communication with TiVo, you will be able to continue using the box for manual recording. With the caveat that you won't be able to adjust the clock, for Daylight Saving Time or the reverse, or for clock drift. But I don't have personal knowledge as to this.


----------



## krkaufman

Ira Bahr said:


> I'm sure it goes until 4/28.


I'm not sure if the sale can last until the 28th if they've already run out of stock on the 1TB BOLT model... and the following footnote from the web page certainly contradicts Ira's statement, which was already undercut by the exhaustion of the 1TB BOLT option:

1 TiVo reserves the right to terminate this promotion at any time without notice. *Offer ends April 10, 2017, or while supplies last.* Certain restrictions apply. Only TiVo Series 2, Series 3, HD and HDXL DVR users who have connected to the TiVo network between 3/28/16 and 3/28/17 qualify. Offer valid with TiVo BOLT purchase on TiVo.com or with TiVo Sales Support (877) BUY-TIVO or (877) 289-8486.​


----------



## Mikeguy

smpowell said:


> With this $99 deal, what happens if the old Tivo doesn't connect to the internet after the new Bolt is activated? Does the old Tivo still think it has lifetime service?
> 
> My sacrificial Series 2 has a lot of programs on it; more than I could transfer in 10 days. So I was thinking, if the old Series 2 never connects to the Internet after the Bolt is activated, would it still transfer programs to my Tivo HD or new Bolt through a router that wasn't connected to the Internet?
> 
> Could someone who has activated a Bolt under the $99 deal check system information their old Tivo to see if it still shows lifetime service, or perhaps when the old Tivo phones home they change the service date to 10 days after the Bolt was activated.
> 
> My new Bolt should be here tomorrow (April 5th), so I'd really like to know.


See my comment above--there may be a saving grace along the lines you mentioned. But then, note that your Guide data will run out within 2 weeks. Also, I might be concerned if the Series 2 box reaches out to another box on one's network, that something on the Series 2 box could happen as to its status (but I don't know).

If you find out, could you let others know as well? That would be helpful.

As to the 10-day grace period: I asked about that today and was told that it starts when you set your box up, not when the box ships or is received. Helpful if one is away when the box arrives or is too busy to deal with it right away.


----------



## lpwcomp

tvmaster2 said:


> Sorry, Shaw Direct


Oh. Wow, they sure are primitive. Separate receiver and PVR. I wonder if TiVo or Shaw ever approached the other about a "partnership"?

There's just not enough of a market to justify TiVos costs to develop and support a standalone HD DVR.

Even the first TiVos were supposed to mostly _*replace *_the STB. The only thing you needed a box for was premium channels, OD, and PPV. The move to digital and CableCARDs reduced that to OD and PPV and even OD is supported on some systems.


----------



## bantar

I smell something rotten in Tivo HQ. The 1 TB models are "sold out" and not available for order and the salesperson did quote "While supplies last". The 500 GB models are sold out (supplies didn't last), yet ARE available for order. It'll be interesting to see when the 1 TB models return. The 500 GB models won't ship until around April 25. I ordered a 500 GB model, knowing that I can upgrade the storage later if needed.


----------



## brettatk

Jumped on this offer just now. My THD died a few months ago although I do have a TiVo Roamio I use as my primary DVR. Was thinking about replacing hard drive in it to get it working again since it had lifetime. Instead I'll buy a new 500GB Bolt (already ordered 3TB replacement drive) and will have my THD lifetime transferred for the $99. It'll be even nicer when I upgrade to a 4K TV.


----------



## catperson

bantar said:


> The 500 GB models are sold out (supplies didn't last), yet ARE available for order. ... The 500 GB models won't ship until around April 25.


After several days of deliberation I decided to take advantage of the offer for a second time. (I have both an HD and a Series3 that are eligible.) I ordered a 500 gig Bolt last night via the web site with an expected delivery date of Sat. 4/8. I got a confirmation email but no shipping notice yet. I am wondering why others are being told their unit won't ship for a few weeks. Curious ...


----------



## bantar

catperson said:


> After several days of deliberation I decided to take advantage of the offer for a second time. (I have both an HD and a Series3 that are eligible.) I ordered a 500 gig Bolt last night via the web site with an expected delivery date of Sat. 4/8. I got a confirmation email but no shipping notice yet. I am wondering why others are being told their unit won't ship for a few weeks. Curious ...


Online ordering is not reflecting the backorder status. I had to call in due to the online ordering throwing an error. The salesperson informed me of the back order status. Others have also noted this previously in this thread. Yours will likely be delayed as well.


----------



## brettatk

catperson said:


> After several days of deliberation I decided to take advantage of the offer for a second time. (I have both an HD and a Series3 that are eligible.) I ordered a 500 gig Bolt last night via the web site with an expected delivery date of Sat. 4/8. I got a confirmation email but no shipping notice yet. I am wondering why others are being told their unit won't ship for a few weeks. Curious ...


I just ordered and it said my expected delivery was Friday, April 7th. I can wait until April 25th if I had to but hopefully I'll get it on Friday as it said.


----------



## Mikeguy

bantar said:


> I smell something rotten in Tivo HQ. The 1 TB models are "sold out" and not available for order and the salesperson did quote "While supplies last". The 500 GB models are sold out (supplies didn't last), yet ARE available for order. It'll be interesting to see when the 1 TB models return. The 500 GB models won't ship until around April 25. I ordered a 500 GB model, knowing that I can upgrade the storage later if needed.


Perhaps a current shortage of 1TB drives?


----------



## catperson

bantar said:


> Online ordering is not reflecting the backorder status. ... Yours will likely be delayed as well.


I don't have a problem with waiting for this second unit, if it comes to that. It is for our winter place in FL and I am in PA right now. I was just wondering why I was told something different from others. The web site should be giving out accurate dates, though, because most people ordering a unit will expect to get it right away (and be understandably upset with a 3 week delay that wasn't mentioned when they ordered).


----------



## skaggs

Mikeguy said:


> Perhaps a current shortage of 1TB drives?


I'm not understanding the high interest in the 1TB Bolt.

Why would someone pay an extra $100 for the 1TB version of the Bolt, as compared to the 500GB version? You can upgrade the 500GB to 3TB for $135, which is only $35 more than the 1TB version from TiVo.


----------



## catperson

skaggs said:


> I'm not understanding the high interest in the 1TB Bolt.
> 
> Why would someone pay an extra $100 for the 1TB version of the Bolt, as compared to the 500GB version? You can upgrade the 500GB to 3TB for $135, which is only $35 more than the 1TB version from TiVo.


Some people are not comfortable opening up a device and replacing a hard drive. I have done it many times but I have friends and relatives who would never consider doing it.

kathy


----------



## Hank

So it looks like a white 500gb Bolt is $199. Plus the $99 PLS transfer=$300 total.

Can you really turn around and sell these for $700 ($50 off Tivo all-in price)?


----------



## V7Goose

skaggs said:


> I'm not understanding the high interest in the 1TB Bolt.
> 
> Why would someone pay an extra $100 for the 1TB version of the Bolt, as compared to the 500GB version? You can upgrade the 500GB to 3TB for $135, which is only $35 more than the 1TB version from TiVo.


Yup. And a 2TB drive is only $112, in case that extra $20 for the 3TB hurts too much!

I had recently sold an old S3 to a friend, so I called him and asked if he wanted in on this deal. He said yeah, get me a 1TB Bolt, and I had to tactfully try about three times to get him to think about that, and tact is NOT my strong suit! I finally got through to him by just saying "You are willing to pay $100 more to get the 1TB unit, but you do not want to pay just $112 to get a 2TB unit?"


----------



## V7Goose

Hank said:


> So it looks like a white 500gb Bolt is $199. Plus the $99 PLS transfer=$300 total.
> 
> Can you really turn around and sell these for $700 ($50 off Tivo all-in price)?


My bet is that $700 is too much - you can buy the same thing through Amazon for a bit less. But I do think $500 - $600 might be realistic. It all depends on how many of these boxes hit the resale market at the same time.


----------



## timckelley

catperson said:


> Some people are not comfortable opening up a device and replacing a hard drive. I have done it many times but I have friends and relatives who would never consider doing it.
> 
> kathy


For how many times over the years I've upgraded TiVo hard drives, educating myself on the procedures for doing that has been a very worthwhile investment in knowledge.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> There are a few posts answering this issue, in the last few pages of posts. (Sorry, I don't have them at hand right now--you'll find them easily.)


Thanks - did a search on the word "which", that turned up at least one comment stating there's no way to pick which Tivo gets deactivated when ordering online - only a CSR or their automated bot makes the decision


----------



## tvmaster2

Regarding the timeline factor of this promotion, i.e. units that showed activity in the last 12 months - what would be the purpose of this? I have two, LIFETIME Series 2's, only one of which stays continually plugged in, mainly because I don't use the second one unless guests are staying (it's in the guest-room, obviously). Why would Tivo discriminate?


----------



## pdhenry

Guys, I just studied the law applicable to Cable Cards and there's an exception written into the law. If the cable company supports receiving of programming over retail devices that can be bought through distribution channels not affiliated with that cable company they don't have to supply or support cable cards.

We've heard about Comcast switching to IP-based distribution for new accounts this year, and we also know about the Beta testing of the Xfinity app for the Roku. The Roku app satisfies the exception for Comcast not to support Cable Cards at some point going forward. I think the end of QAM programming from Comcast may be closer than we think...


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> Guys, I just studied the law applicable to Cable Cards and there's an exception written into the law. If the cable company supports receiving of programming over retail devices that can be bought through distribution channels not affiliated with that cable company they don't have to supply or support cable cards.
> 
> We've heard about Comcast switching to IP-based distribution for new accounts this year, and we also know about the Beta testing of the Xfinity app for the Roku. The Roku app satisfies the exception for Comcast not to support Cable Cards at some point going forward. I think the end of QAM programming from Comcast may be closer than we think...


So anyone in a Comcast area couldn't use a Tivo with cable cards?


----------



## atmuscarella

tvmaster2 said:


> So anyone in a Comcast area couldn't use a Tivo with cable cards?


That is a future* possibility*. It is also a future possibility for any cable provider. It's just that Comcast is clearly in the process of setting up an IPTV delivery system and of course there is lots of speculation that Comcast will be moving off their QAM delivery system and not support TiVos on the IPTV delivery system. All *speculation*. However the speculation is based on pretty good intel.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Regarding the timeline factor of this promotion, i.e. units that showed activity in the last 12 months - what would be the purpose of this? I have two, LIFETIME Series 2's, only one of which stays continually plugged in, mainly because I don't use the second one unless guests are staying (it's in the guest-room, obviously). Why would Tivo discriminate?


My assumption has been, to prevent/limit people from cashing in on this deal with boxes that already effectively have been trashed, shoved away in a garage/basement/attic. (And, in fact, the old boxes could indeed be in a landfill but the deal still would be honored, as TiVo doesn't require proof of possession.) And to prevent/limit cannibalizing re-sells.

You'll see both occurrences in the posts above, even with TiVo's limitations.

Note: as has been posted here, if you have a box that does not currently qualify timewise, you could make some connections now and then try for the promotion--this sometimes has worked.


----------



## pdhenry

tvmaster2 said:


> So anyone in a Comcast area couldn't use a Tivo with cable cards?


Rolling out app-based programming access to one or more devices appears to give Comcast the freedom to discontinue distribution via Cable Cards. When this might occur is speculation, but the pieces begin to fall into place when you consider their efforts as a whole.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> My assumption has been, to prevent/limit people from cashing in on this deal with boxes that already effectively have been trashed, shoved away in a garage/basement/attic. (And, in fact, the old boxes could indeed be in a landfill but the deal still would be honored, as TiVo doesn't require proof of possession.) And to prevent/limit cannibalizing re-sells.
> 
> You'll see both occurrences in the posts above, even with TiVo's limitations.
> 
> Note: as has been posted here, if you have a box that does not currently qualify timewise, you could make some connections now and then try for the promotion--this sometimes has worked.


I keep my second one turned off mainly to preserve it, since there's no point using both electricity and power supply life for it to sit unwatched in a guest room. Lifetime was expensive, even back in 2004, so it bothers me that Tivo wants to dictate to me HOW I'm allowed to use my machine. But that's essentially what they're doing. In all my years of scouring thrift stores, Craiglist, garage sales, I've only found ONE Lifetime Tivo for sale that was way undervalued. One. I just can't believe there are closets full of these units waiting to be hauled out for a lousy promotion. But you're likely right, since Tivo has never been a leader in thinking...


----------



## Mikeguy

> I just can't believe there are closets full of these units waiting to be hauled out for a lousy promotion.


I don't think they're waiting to be brought out for a promotion. But I bet that a lot are in garages, waiting to be thrown away one day/brought to a recycler.

Also, it did occur to me, without the time limitation, how would TiVo even know that a consumer should be given the offer? A box could have been thrown away 5 years ago but still will be listed on the consumer's TiVo account. (In fact, that's still occurring here, regardless.)


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Thanks - did a search on the word "which", that turned up at least one comment stating there's no way to pick which Tivo gets deactivated when ordering online - only a CSR or their automated bot makes the decision


Found what I had read in the alternate thread on this deal, under the Bolt sub-forum (sorry for my mis-recollection as to where they were). Personally, I would just call TiVo up and let them know.


Kimo said:


> The invitation email (the one with the code) states the following:
> _Only TiVo Series2/Series3, HD and HDXL DVRs with Product Lifetime service that have connected to the TiVo service between 3/28/16 and 3/28/17 qualify. Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service._​I was informed by a sales rep that investigated this specific question for me that the client must call TiVo during that 10 day period and inform them which unit to deactivate on day 10. This was an important query for me as I do not want to deactivate my main Theater-room Series 3 HD until I'm satisfied that the Bolt that will replace the Bedroom Series 3 HD box meets my expectations.
> Recall also that you have a 30 day satisfaction window, so they can REVERSE the lifetime swap within that period if you want to take a mulligan.
> And I get the feeling that even if they were to errantly swap a lifetime service that you did not want them to swap, you could call them and have them re-do it the way you want - provided you get a decent rep.
> FWIW, I'd call the sales number (vs. tech support) as all of the 15 or so sales reps are English-speaking, US-based employees who seem to know what is going on. With the tech support crew, you take your chances with both competence and understandability.
> I'm upgrading one Series 2 and three Series 3 HDs to Bolts, and am puckered pretty tightly about the pending transition. It's not a matter of "IF" it will go badly, but "HOW" badly it will go.
> I hope it's worth it in the end.





real_goose said:


> I ordered a Bolt on-line April 1. I called sales support today and was put on hold as she investigated how I select which HD to deactivate. She told me I would receive an email asking me to pick which HD to deactivate. Once the Bolt actually ships, I should have a serial number show up in my account. Then I will try calling technical support to try to specify which HD I will deactivate.





JoeTaxpayer said:


> Thanks! The deed is done. The 500GB will ship by 4/24. The agent on line asked which TiVo I'd be deleting, and I was able to identify it by name and model for her. I forgot when I first posted, I had a Series 2 that was connected until I bought the Roamio, 6 months ago. It was a single tuner, and needed a DTA. The series 3 the Roamio replaced went to my home office to replace the 2, which went into the trash. It was $25 on eBay, and worth every cent for the few years I used it.


Transfer your Lifetime service for only $99


----------



## DrewTivo

tvmaster2 said:


> Lifetime was expensive, even back in 2004, so it bothers me that Tivo wants to dictate to me HOW I'm allowed to use my machine. But that's essentially what they're doing.


They're not dictating at all how you use it. They're just determining eligibility for a certain offer on how you used it (or didn't).

Have you called in to see if you're eligible anyway? I didn't get the email, but am thinking about calling. I have an S3 that called in last Sept., before something in it died.


----------



## sbedelman

My online account has two Series 3 units on it. Both are lifetime. Does anyone know how to tell Tivo which one to transfer from and which one to leave alone?

Does anyone know when the actual transfer of service happens? When I purchase the Bolt? When I go to activate it?

I don't want them to mess up and use the wrong Series 3. One is my daily driver. The other is a backup. Both have logged in during the time period required.


----------



## justen_m

Just got an email from TiVo about my 500GB Bolt that I ordered the morning of 4/4 and was told would arrive 4/7.


> Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response to this promotion, our inventory levels have run low and we are not able to ship as quickly as we'd like. We truly apologize for the inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to get you your TiVo BOLT as soon as possible and now expect to ship your new system on April 10, 2017 or sooner.


~week late. Could be worse. I chose free standard shipping. I wonder if those who paid for expedited shipping will get a refund? Or maybe they will actually get theirs first, on time?


----------



## Mikeguy

sbedelman said:


> My online account has two Series 3 units on it. Both are lifetime. Does anyone know how to tell Tivo which one to transfer from and which one to leave alone?
> 
> Does anyone know when the actual transfer of service happens? When I purchase the Bolt? When I go to activate it?
> 
> I don't want them to mess up and use the wrong Series 3. One is my daily driver. The other is a backup. Both have logged in during the time period required.


As to which box: some buyers have had TiVo ask during the telephone purchase process; others reps. have said that TiVo will send an email inquiring; and still other reps. have said that the customer needs to call in during the 10-day transition period.  If it was me, I just would do it as part of the purchase process (doing it by phone) or call in as soon as possible to set it up.

TiVo told me that the 10-day period starts when you first set the Bolt up (not when you purchase the Bolt or it ships/is received). As opposed to the 30-day satisfaction-guaranteed period, which starts either when TiVo ships or you receive (I wasn't sure which).


----------



## sbedelman

Mikeguy said:


> As to which box: some buyers have had TiVo ask during the telephone purchase process; others reps. have said that TiVo will send an email inquiring; and still other reps. have said that the customer needs to call in during the 10-day transition period.  If it was me, I just would do it as part of the purchase process (doing it by phone) or call in as soon as possible to set it up.
> 
> TiVo told me that the 10-day period starts when you first set the Bolt up (not when you purchase the Bolt or it ships/is received). As opposed to the 30-day satisfaction-guaranteed period, which starts either when TiVo ships or you receive (I wasn't sure which).


I ordered online (easier than the hour people have reported when trying to order over the phone) so I'll wait to see if I get an email. If not I'll call in once I see the unit has shipped and see how that goes. Hopefully they won't unilaterally go ahead and just switch one of my existing S3 over without instructions.

Thanks for the info.


----------



## pdhenry

justen_m said:


> Just got an email from TiVo about my 500GB Bolt that I ordered the morning of 4/4 and was told would arrive 4/7.


Then I guess that not yet hearing anything about the 1T Bolt that sold out online right after I ordered it is a good thing?

The order acknowledgement page had some promise about receiving it this week but I knew they'd be swamped.


----------



## skaggs

justen_m said:


> Just got an email from TiVo about my 500GB Bolt that I ordered the morning of 4/4 and was told would arrive 4/7.
> 
> ~week late. Could be worse. I chose free standard shipping. I wonder if those who paid for expedited shipping will get a refund? Or maybe they will actually get theirs first, on time?


Ordered my 500GB Bolt on Saturday April 1st. A TiVo CSR told me yesterday in a chat session that my Bolt would ship today.

I received the same email as above this afternoon.


----------



## Mikeguy

justen_m said:


> Just got an email from TiVo about my 500GB Bolt that I ordered the morning of 4/4 and was told would arrive 4/7.
> 
> ~week late. Could be worse. I chose free standard shipping. I wonder if those who paid for expedited shipping will get a refund? Or maybe they will actually get theirs first, on time?


Understandable (although seeming inventory control deficiency).

It's already been a decade with the Series 2, what's another week, lol. And it gives more time to archive shows off the Series 2 to a hard drive.


----------



## leiff

I ordered 500 gigabit bolt yesterday April 4th at 9 a.m pst. Just now i got email from TiVo they plan to ship by the 10th or sooner. The 500 gigabit bolt only comes in white right?


----------



## Mikeguy

skaggs said:


> Ordered my 500GB Bolt on Saturday April 1st. A TiVo CSR told me yesterday in a chat session that my Bolt would ship today.
> 
> I received the same email as above this afternoon.


Now that's somewhat surprising--a delay from early on. Perhaps TiVo was awaiting a shipment for the promotion, which was delayed.


----------



## Rolow

sbedelman said:


> My online account has two Series 3 units on it. Both are lifetime. Does anyone know how to tell Tivo which one to transfer from and which one to leave alone?
> 
> Does anyone know when the actual transfer of service happens? When I purchase the Bolt? When I go to activate it?
> 
> I don't want them to mess up and use the wrong Series 3. One is my daily driver. The other is a backup. Both have logged in during the time period required.


I ordered online Friday and received my bolt on Tuesday. I have not heard anything from TiVo about which box will be killed my series 2 or my HD both quality for this offer. Unfortunately my new bolt will spend its first few weeks in a box till I have time to deal with it.


----------



## Mikeguy

Rolow said:


> I ordered online Friday and received my bolt on Tuesday. I have not heard anything from TiVo about which box will be killed my series 2 or my HD both quality for this offer. Unfortunately my new bolt will spend its first few weeks in a box till I have time to deal with it.


I would call TiVo to specify which box.


----------



## worachj

I ordered my 500GB Tuesday afternoon and was told by the CS that it wouldn't be delivered until the backorders came in on 4/21.

But I got the same delayed shipping email today as others have been getting.



> Dear John,
> Thank you for ordering a new TiVo BOLT with our Once in a Lifetime promotion. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response to this promotion, our inventory levels have run low and we are not able to ship as quickly as we'd like. We truly apologize for the inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to get you your TiVo BOLT as soon as possible and now expect to ship your new system on April 10, 2017 or sooner.
> We know this new date will not work for everyone, and so, if you wish to cancel your order, you may do so by logging into your account at tivo.com or by calling our service center at 1(877)367-8486. Honestly, we would hate to see you miss this offer but we cannot promise that this promotion will be repeated.
> Thank you very much for your patience!
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nicola Mattis
> Sr. Promotions Manager
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ©2017 TiVo Corporation. All rights reserved. TiVo, the TiVo logo and the TiVo silhouette logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Corporation or its subsidiaries worldwide. TiVo Corporation, 2160 Gold St., San Jose, CA 95002. Please review our Privacy Policy. This is an administrative email sent to: xxxxxxxxx as a courtesy to our customers affected. If you have chosen not to receive promotional emails from TiVo Corporation, you will remain in that status unless and until you notify us otherwise. You may update your email preferences at any time. To ensure receipt of our emails, please add [email protected] to your address book.


----------



## rawlic

I got the following email. I ordered online on April 3.

Thank you for ordering a new TiVo BOLT with our Once in a Lifetime promotion. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response to this promotion, our inventory levels have run low and we are not able to ship as quickly as we’d like. We truly apologize for the inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to get you your TiVo BOLT as soon as possible and now expect to ship your new system on April 10, 2017 or sooner.
We know this new date will not work for everyone, and so, if you wish to cancel your order, you may do so by logging into your account at tivo.com or by calling our service center at 1(877)367-8486. Honestly, we would hate to see you miss this offer but we cannot promise that this promotion will be repeated.
Thank you very much for your patience!


----------



## krkaufman

tvmaster2 said:


> Regarding the timeline factor of this promotion, i.e. units that showed activity in the last 12 months ... I have two, LIFETIME Series 2's, only one of which stays continually plugged in, mainly because I don't use the second one unless guests are staying (it's in the guest-room, obviously).


Note that the upgrade promotion doesn't require the qualified box be plugged-in all the time or continually connecting to TiVo.... just a connection to the TiVo service within the timeframe specified. So if your 2nd box has connected at least once within the specified window, it should be eligible.


----------



## krkaufman

Mikeguy said:


> (And, in fact, the old boxes could indeed be in a landfill but the deal still would be honored, as TiVo doesn't require proof of possession.)


Excellent point.


----------



## lynncosbm

justen_m said:


> Just got an email from TiVo about my 500GB Bolt that I ordered the morning of 4/4 and was told would arrive 4/7.
> 
> ~week late. Could be worse. I chose free standard shipping. I wonder if those who paid for expedited shipping will get a refund? Or maybe they will actually get theirs first, on time?


I just got the same email, I ordered two 500 GB Bolts on Monday, I chose free standard shipping too. I'm ok with April 10.


----------



## scandia101

justen_m said:


> Just got an email from TiVo about my 500GB Bolt that I ordered the morning of 4/4 and was told would arrive 4/7.
> _
> 
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response to this promotion, our inventory levels have run low and we are not able to ship as quickly as we'd like. We truly apologize for the inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to get you your TiVo BOLT as soon as possible and now expect to ship your new system on April 10, 2017 or sooner.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> _~week late. Could be worse. I chose free standard shipping. I wonder if those who paid for expedited shipping will get a refund? Or maybe they will actually get theirs first, on time?


I got the same email. Because of what I've read here, I was already planning on not getting it until much closer to the end of the month, so the email is actually good news as far as I'm concerned.


----------



## wtherrell

Got my Bolt + today. There's an HDMI cable included in the box. Picked up cable card and TA from local Spectrum office. Need to shop tomorrow for a couple of splitters and couple of short lengths of coax to get it all working with my existing Moca system.


----------



## tvmaster2

DrewTivo said:


> They're not dictating at all how you use it. They're just determining eligibility for a certain offer on how you used it (or didn't).
> 
> Have you called in to see if you're eligible anyway? I didn't get the email, but am thinking about calling. I have an S3 that called in last Sept., before something in it died.


Yes, I called in, and even though the unit was continually in use up Mar 5, 2016, and is currently updated to the Rivo changes, they won't give me the 23 day benefit of the doubt, and yes, Tivo sent me the email announcing the promo. I'll try one last time in hopes I get a sensible CSR, but I'm not hopeful.


----------



## tvmaster2

krkaufman said:


> Excellent point.


The deal won't be honored if they were in landfill before Mar 28, 2016


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Yes, I called in, and even though the unit was continually in use up Mar 5, 2016, and is currently updated to the Rivo changes, they won't give me the 23 day benefit of the doubt, and yes, Tivo sent me the email announcing the promo. I'll try one last time in hopes I get a sensible CSR, but I'm not hopeful.


I don't recall where you are in your attempts, but have you tried connecting _now_ a few times, and then calling later (such as, the next day)? That worked for one person posting here.

(Note, however, that another person has posted that TiVo is aware that some errors are getting through and said that it is talking with its legal dept. as to what can be done/if a deal allowed erroneously can be cancelled after-the-fact.) 


tvmaster2 said:


> The deal won't be honored if they were in landfill before Mar 28, 2016


Exactly--TiVo attempting to limit its exposure as to unused or disposed-of boxes, to just the last year. If it had wanted to more aggressively protect itself in that regard, it could have limited the offer to actively, currently-used boxes only--e.g. those that have made a connection in the past month.


----------



## krkaufman

tvmaster2 said:


> The deal won't be honored if they were in landfill before Mar 28, 2016


No, the current, actual deal is still "honored" because devices in the landfill prior to that date aren't within the scope of TiVo's offer. Their honoring the terms of the offer. _(My post was in reply to a hypothetical offer from TiVo that lacked the "connected within last year" requirement.)_


----------



## ksemeh

wtherrell said:


> Got my Bolt + today. There's an HDMI cable included in the box. Picked up cable card and TA from local Spectrum office. Need to shop tomorrow for a couple of splitters and couple of short lengths of coax to get it all working with my existing Moca system.


I am confused. I thought we only need multi-stream CableCARD to work with Bolt. Can you tell me what the tuning adaptor is for?


----------



## krkaufman

ksemeh said:


> Can you tell me what the tuning adaptor is for?


Google

Tuning Adapter Wizard


----------



## tvmaster2

DrewTivo said:


> They're not dictating at all how you use it. They're just determining eligibility for a certain offer on how you used it (or didn't).
> 
> Have you called in to see if you're eligible anyway? I didn't get the email, but am thinking about calling. I have an S3 that called in last Sept., before something in it died.


I kinda disagree. Tivo is saying if you leave your unit plugged in and connected to a network, it's AOK. But if I choose to save it for certain events (guests), and not spend $7 a month powering it, then it doesn't exist to them. Oddly, my machine is up and running, yours is dead, but you get to take advantage of the upgrade.
Whether they're dictating or determining eligibility, we, the owners, aren't the ones in control. It's apparent to me what they want is to see as many Series 2 units retired, or not. By refusing my owned-by-me since 2004 Series 2, they'll just have to keep supporting it, which is stupid.


----------



## krkaufman

tvmaster2 said:


> Tivo is saying if you leave your unit plugged in and connected to a network, it's AOK. But if I choose to save it for certain events (guests), and not spend $7 a month powering it, then it doesn't exist to them.


They're not saying any of that. They're simply offering an upgrade for qualifying devices that connected within the last year, period.


----------



## pdhenry

Wait, it costs $7 per month to power your TiVo?


----------



## wtherrell

ksemeh said:


> I am confused. I thought we only need multi-stream CableCARD to work with Bolt. Can you tell me what the tuning adaptor is for?


Switched Digital Video.


----------



## brettatk

I ordered yesterday morning and called later in the day and was told mine would ship April 21st. Just checked the website and no update to shipping and no email yet so I guess I'll wait and see when exactly I'll get it.

I also have two qualified TiVo's active on my account right now. I don't think the Series 2 has been plugged in for awhile so I'm assuming my THD will be the one that lifetime is transferred from. It really doesn't matter to me which one it is though. My THD died several months ago so it's just sitting there. It'll be an easy swap out once my Bolt gets here.


----------



## blacknoi

Ordered 1 500GB bolt last Friday through this deal and got it yesterday in the mail.

So less than 5 business days, not bad.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> Wait, it costs $7 per month to power your TiVo?


yup. plugged it into the Kill A Watt. AC is expensive in SoCal.


----------



## pdhenry

I was thinking Hawaii.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 24-25 cents per kWh? I guess Hawaii is about double that, though.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> I was thinking Hawaii.
> 
> Somewhere in the neighborhood of 24-25 cents per kWh? I guess Hawaii is about double that, though.


our top tier is either .37 or .40 cents, depending on time of year


----------



## atmuscarella

tvmaster2 said:


> our top tier is either .37 or .40 cents, depending on time of year


That's just crazy - why hasn't everyone installed Solar? In my area of NY it is only about .11 cents and Solar even make sense here.


----------



## JoeKustra

tvmaster2 said:


> our top tier is either .37 or .40 cents, depending on time of year


It's the price you pay for living in paradise. Everything is expensive in CA. (My rate is .07 for the generation and .08 for the transmission). But I get a discount since I bought stock in my electric company and it pays over 4% in dividends.

OK, not wine. I miss CA.


----------



## scottopus

It appears they have plenty of the Bolt pluses. Bought mine online yesterday (Apr 5) at 7:45 AM. Got the “Your TiVo Order Has Shipped” that same afternoon (Apr 5) at 2:21 PM. The tracking number provided showed that it was picked up 7:10 pm yesterday and is expected to be here by Saturday (Apr 8). That is the same date that was shown when I ordered online.


----------



## tvmaster2

JoeKustra said:


> It's the price you pay for living in paradise. Everything is expensive in CA. (My rate is .07 for the generation and .08 for the transmission). But I get a discount since I bought stock in my electric company and it pays over 4% in dividends.
> 
> OK, not wine. I miss CA.


we do pay less to heat the house than we would in the N.E., especially between Oct - May


----------



## tvmaster2

atmuscarella said:


> That's just crazy - why hasn't everyone installed Solar? In my area of NY it is only about .11 cents and Solar even make sense here.


lots of my neighbors have, but they have more money than me 
it would cost between $15 to $20k, and SDGE is always looking at ways to change the rules in their favor. Last year, they wanted to implement a $100 month charge to solar customers, for not using enough electricity!
They got shot down by ca.gov, but they'll be back. Our neighbor has 22 panels, and it cuts his bill in half.


----------



## George Cifranci

rawlic said:


> I got the following email. I ordered online on April 3.
> 
> Thank you for ordering a new TiVo BOLT with our Once in a Lifetime promotion. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming response to this promotion, our inventory levels have run low and we are not able to ship as quickly as we'd like. We truly apologize for the inconvenience. We are doing everything we can to get you your TiVo BOLT as soon as possible and now expect to ship your new system on April 10, 2017 or sooner.
> We know this new date will not work for everyone, and so, if you wish to cancel your order, you may do so by logging into your account at tivo.com or by calling our service center at 1(877)367-8486. Honestly, we would hate to see you miss this offer but we cannot promise that this promotion will be repeated.
> Thank you very much for your patience!


That is the same email I got yesterday as well. I bought a 500GB Bolt on April 1st. That's fine with me. I can live with my beloved 10 year old Series 3 for a little while longer.


----------



## Mikeguy

blacknoi said:


> Ordered 1 500GB bolt last Friday through this deal and got it yesterday in the mail.
> 
> So less than 5 business days, not bad.


Sounds to me like Fri./Sat. was the stock cut-off: order on Friday and they had stock; by some point on Saturday, stock already exhausted. Wow--stock exhausted in 2 days.

(Odd, though, that TiVo's inventory reporting/control system didn't reflect this at the time, with TiVo telling customers as late as Tuesday morning that their boxes were shipping out immediately, rather than a week later. I always find it amusing when tech. companies can't figure out their inventory real-time--Fry's Computers being a humorous case in point.)


----------



## Mikeguy

brettatk said:


> I ordered yesterday morning and called later in the day and was told mine would ship April 21st. Just checked the website and no update to shipping and no email yet so I guess I'll wait and see when exactly I'll get it.
> 
> I also have two qualified TiVo's active on my account right now. I don't think the Series 2 has been plugged in for awhile so I'm assuming my THD will be the one that lifetime is transferred from. It really doesn't matter to me which one it is though. My THD died several months ago so it's just sitting there. It'll be an easy swap out once my Bolt gets here.


There have been contradictory reports as to how TiVo will determine which box to deactivate (TiVo's reps. seem to be saying different things to different people). But seems that if you have a preference, just call TiVo and give them instructions.


----------



## pdhenry

scottopus said:


> It appears they have plenty of the Bolt pluses.


Six tuners was tempting but $$$...


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> I kinda disagree. Tivo is saying if you leave your unit plugged in and connected to a network, it's AOK. But if I choose to save it for certain events (guests), and not spend $7 a month powering it, then it doesn't exist to them. Oddly, my machine is up and running, yours is dead, but you get to take advantage of the upgrade.
> Whether they're dictating or determining eligibility, we, the owners, aren't the ones in control. It's apparent to me what they want is to see as many Series 2 units retired, or not. By refusing my owned-by-me since 2004 Series 2, they'll just have to keep supporting it, which is stupid.


You do point up a sad anomaly: someone with a dead (or even disposed-of) box that had connected up during the eligibility period can get the deal, while someone with a live box that hadn't connected up, for whatever the reason, can't. But I also can see matters from TiVo's point: wanting to avoid old, never-to-be-used-again boxes being brought out of garages simply to get the deal.

Perhaps TiVo should have added some checks-and-balances: to get the deal, eligible boxes have to connect up once more, now, before the deal will be allowed; and for box owners who haven't connected their boxes up in the last year, a customer service number to call, to explain the circumstances and seek an "exemption" (would many people trying to abuse the system really want to speak to a customer service rep. live?).


----------



## krkaufman

Mikeguy said:


> But I also can see matters from TiVo's point: wanting to avoid old, never-to-be-used-again boxes being brought out of garages simply to get the deal.


It could be as simple as TiVo using their current records for the number of qualifying boxes that had connected in the last year as a means to estimate the cost of their promotion. If customers could grab a long-unused unit, connect and then call for the upgrade, estimating the number of upgrades and the associated cost would be difficult -- and I doubt the finance side of the house was open to a "blank check" approach.


----------



## bobrt6676

scottopus said:


> It appears they have plenty of the Bolt pluses. Bought mine online yesterday (Apr 5) at 7:45 AM. Got the "Your TiVo Order Has Shipped" that same afternoon (Apr 5) at 2:21 PM. The tracking number provided showed that it was picked up 7:10 pm yesterday and is expected to be here by Saturday (Apr 8). That is the same date that was shown when I ordered online.


Yes I ordered my Bolt+ Monday and it is being delivered tomorrow


----------



## 10_pearljam

I ordered the 1TB on Sunday and was supposed to be delivered today...won't ship until 04/10.


----------



## pdhenry

TiVo had already established limits on how often a device has to connect in order to be considered "active." If you have a monthly box with MSD the qualifying box has to connect every 90 days for the MSD to remain active. Giving this promotion to every box that had connected once over the course of a year is quite generous.


----------



## wtherrell

bobrt6676 said:


> Yes I ordered my Bolt+ Monday and it is being delivered tomorrow


Got mine all set up with the cable card, TA, and Moca adapter today. Working great! 
Now to see how to deactivate the right S2.


----------



## cherry ghost

pdhenry said:


> TiVo had already established limits on how often a device has to connect in order to be considered "active." If you have a monthly box with MSD the qualifying box has to connect every 90 days for the MSD to remain active. Giving this promotion to every box that had connected once over the course of a year is quite generous.


I only connect my qualifying box(S3 w/lifetime) every six months to keep the MSD on my Roamio.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> TiVo had already established limits on how often a device has to connect in order to be considered "active." If you have a monthly box with MSD the qualifying box has to connect every 90 days for the MSD to remain active. Giving this promotion to every box that had connected once over the course of a year is quite generous.


MSD?


----------



## krkaufman

tvmaster2 said:


> MSD?


Their grandfathered *Multi-Service Discount* (a discount on service subscriptions for add'l boxes, no longer offered by TiVo)


----------



## Mikeguy

10_pearljam said:


> I ordered the 1TB on Sunday and was supposed to be delivered today...won't ship until 04/10.


But, it's the last one in existence.


----------



## Mikeguy

wtherrell said:


> Got mine all set up with the cable card, TA, and Moca adapter today. Working great!
> Now to see how to deactivate the right S2.


Will be interesting to hear how that goes, and transferring content from the S2 to the Bolt.


----------



## ABI

10_pearljam said:


> I ordered the 1TB on Sunday and was supposed to be delivered today...won't ship until 04/10.


I ordered the 1TB online Sunday night. Got the email confirming my order, estimated shipping on 4/6, and haven't heard anything since. The charge is still pending on my CC so I guess I just wait. It would be nice to at least get the email acknowledging it will ship late and giving some idea when it might be.


----------



## scandia101

pdhenry said:


> TiVo had already established limits on how often a device has to connect in order to be considered "active." If you have a monthly box with MSD the qualifying box has to connect every 90 days for the MSD to remain active. Giving this promotion to every box that had connected once over the course of a year is quite generous.


If you have a monthly box with MSD the qualifying box has to connect every *180 days* for the MSD to remain active.


----------



## justen_m

atmuscarella said:


> That's just crazy - why hasn't everyone installed Solar? In my area of NY it is only about .11 cents and Solar even make sense here.


I live in a freakin' desert. Everybody should have solar, but almost nobody does. 'Cause electricity is so cheap. Hydropower here in the northwest.


----------



## lpwcomp

justen_m said:


> I live in a freakin' desert. Everybody should have solar, but almost nobody does. 'Cause electricity is so cheap. Hydropower here in the northwest.


Southern California would be a desert if they weren't using massive amounts of power to pump water from the Colorado river over the mountains.


----------



## pdhenry

scandia101 said:


> If you have a monthly box with MSD the qualifying box has to connect every *180 days* for the MSD to remain active.


Thanks for the correction. My main point remains, although the subscription never disappears from the unit, at some point less than a year it's considered non qualifying for other perks.


----------



## jcrandall

Did anyone purchase a used S2/S3 and transfer ownership, then use the coupon code to order a new Bolt?

I was looking at this option, when the owner called about transferring ownership they said the coupon was not transferable.
Now I'm thinking of the owner buying the new one on his account and then transferring ownership of the Bolt.

Just curious if anyone else has gone down this road?


----------



## pdhenry

There should be no problem transferring ownership of the Bolt after the trade is done, assuming the owner knows the donor device can't be reactivated.


----------



## Mikeguy

jcrandall said:


> Did anyone purchase a used S2/S3 and transfer ownership, then use the coupon code to order a new Bolt?
> 
> I was looking at this option, when the owner called about transferring ownership they said the coupon was not transferable.
> Now I'm thinking of the owner buying the new one on his account and then transferring ownership of the Bolt.
> 
> Just curious if anyone else has gone down this road?


Also, the code seems irrelevant--TiVo seems to be looking at whether the S2/3 qualifies and then going from there. Another poster here did a similar thing.


----------



## jcrandall

Do you think if we placed the Bolt order under his account using my shipping address and credit card that it would take the order and ship to me? Then once it is here he just needs to do the ownership transfer of the Bolt (since they ship pre-activated)?


----------



## jrtroo

jcrandall said:


> Did anyone purchase a used S2/S3 and transfer ownership, then use the coupon code to order a new Bolt?


Yes, but i was never even asked to provide my code. My buyer never used the box, however, and so I'm very much the exception to the rules.


----------



## timckelley

I'm trying to submit a price protection claim online through my credit card, and they require a copy of the Amazon page that advertises the $131 price. I'm trying to save it as a PDF file using the Chrome Print command, but the picture of the Bolt in the upper left overlays critical parts of the text of the ad. When viewing online in Chrome, it's fine, but when printing to PDF, it's not fine. Does anybody by chance have tips on how to handle this? I suppose I could use a screen snipping tool, but that only allows me to snip what's visible on the screen. The Amazon ad is much longer than one page.


----------



## justen_m

Will you thieves just stop! I thought this forum disallowed criminal activity! Defrauding a credit card is a FEDERAL OFFENSE.


----------



## pdhenry

justen_m said:


> Will you thieves just stop! I thought this forum disallowed criminal activity! Defrauding a credit card is a FEDERAL OFFENSE.


You're joking, right?


----------



## pdhenry

timckelley said:


> I'm trying to save it as a PDF file using the Chrome Print command, but the picture of the Bolt in the upper left overlays critical parts of the text of the ad. When viewing online in Chrome, it's fine, but when printing to PDF, it's not fine. Does anybody by chance have tips on how to handle this?


Can you print from a mobile device? It seems to print properly from my phone, both the mobile page and using "request desktop site."


----------



## jcrandall

Use your browser to zoom out to get more on the screen and then do a screen capture. For printing you may just need to try another browser.


----------



## timckelley

Thank you; I also discovered a free chrome extension called "print friendly" that strips out the pictures. It does rearrange the web page in the process, which is probably okay with the claims people, but I'll try your tricks too. Worst case scenario I use use this "print friendly".


----------



## jcrandall

justen_m said:


> Will you thieves just stop! I thought this forum disallowed criminal activity! Defrauding a credit card is a FEDERAL OFFENSE.


I agree there is no fraud here. The credit card company offers the benefit of price protection.

The cardholder buys an item, finds a lower price, and submits a claim.

It doesn't matter that the buyer found a lower price before purchase. The buyer simply chose to purchase from the manufacturer instead of the reseller, based on the option to purchase the service at a discount. The price protection is tied to the hardware only. The concern of service tied to devices is why most of these benefit plans exclude mobile phones, for example.

Anyway, is it a bit of a gray area, sure, but it certainly isn't fraud.


----------



## timckelley

It's possible it could fall through, because the TiVo receipt says (sorry about the spacing problems):

Product Description Qty Item Price Tax* Total
S00050 Bundle, All-in onetime TiVo service fee 1 $ 99.00 $ 6.53 $ 105.53
R84950 TiVo BOLT 500 GB 1 $ 199.99 $ 16.50 $ 216.49

The word "Bundle" might make the claims examiners balk and say that the price is discounted, because it's a bundle. Oh well, the worst thing they can do is deny the claim. Also, my credit card won't price protect the sales tax; only the actual item price, so if they approve I'll get exactly $199.99 - $134.01 refunded to me.

One thing that works in my favor is that the amazon page I sent them also shows $199.99 as the retail list price, and that they are offering this $131.04 as a sale price, so it's not like TiVo's "bundling" is why I "only paid" $199.99 for it. It's the normal list price, so I have a feeling this claim will be approved.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> It's possible it could fall through, because the TiVo receipt says (sorry about the spacing problems):
> 
> Product Description Qty Item Price Tax* Total
> S00050 Bundle, All-in onetime TiVo service fee 1 $ 99.00 $ 6.53 $ 105.53
> R84950 TiVo BOLT 500 GB 1 $ 199.99 $ 16.50 $ 216.49
> 
> The word "Bundle" might make the claims examiners balk and say that the price is discounted, because it's a bundle. Oh well, the worst thing they can do is deny the claim. Also, my credit card won't price protect the sales tax; only the actual item price, so if they approve I'll get exactly $199.99 - $134.01 refunded to me.
> 
> One thing that works in my favor is that the amazon page I sent them also shows $199.99 as the retail list price, and that they are offering this $131.04 as a sale price, so it's not like TiVo's "bundling" is why I "only paid" $199.99 for it. It's the normal list price, so I have a feeling this claim will be approved.


Worked for me in similar circumstances, under a Roamio deal a couple of years ago.


----------



## jlin

timckelley said:


> I'm trying to submit a price protection claim online through my credit card, and they require a copy of the Amazon page that advertises the $131 price. I'm trying to save it as a PDF file using the Chrome Print command, but the picture of the Bolt in the upper left overlays critical parts of the text of the ad. When viewing online in Chrome, it's fine, but when printing to PDF, it's not fine. Does anybody by chance have tips on how to handle this? I suppose I could use a screen snipping tool, but that only allows me to snip what's visible on the screen. The Amazon ad is much longer than one page.


I used Snipping tool to save into a jpg... my claim was approved within 48 hours.


----------



## Mikeguy

jcrandall said:


> Do you think if we placed the Bolt order under his account using my shipping address and credit card that it would take the order and ship to me? Then once it is here he just needs to do the ownership transfer of the Bolt (since they ship pre-activated)?


The box can be shipped elsewhere, no issue. But if you call to do this, they're going to look up his account to verify the deal, and so you'll need his info. And then there will be a credit card under your name and address. Starting to sound complicated? But I guess you could try this online, perhaps, and see if it works.

I wonder if it's easier to: complete your transaction with him, have the box transferred to you under TiVo's records, and then you do the deal. They never asked me for my code, they just verified that the box qualified. But you also could have the code, as backup. Just my thought.


----------



## Saturn

How do we tell TiVo which DVR we want the lifetime service transferred from? I have 3 eligible TiVos on my account...


----------



## Mikeguy

Surest, from what I've seen (different info. here): call customer service and give your instructions.


----------



## timckelley

jlin said:


> I used Snipping tool to save into a jpg... my claim was approved within 48 hours.


I would have done that, but the ad was several screens long, and my snipping tool will only work if it fits in one screen. I wound up using the printer-friendly extension. I now await the claims people's decision.


----------



## phox_mulder

Ordered the 500GB Bolt Tuesday morning around 11am, 1TB was not available online, but 500GB was showing as still available.
Ordered the favored 3TB Toshiba hard drive from Amazon around 11:30am.

Got the email from TiVo this morning saying they were out of stock and would probably ship around 4-10.
The hard drive was delivered this afternoon.

phox


----------



## timckelley

Well even though my wife sort of took over the Roamio (mostly my fault for letting her), and it's upgraded with a large drive, for now I'm going to try to just live with 500 GB on the Bolt, because the Bolt is supposed to be my TiVo, and I generally don't get much of a backlog, so me 500 GB seems like enough. But who knows; one day I may upgrade it.


----------



## tvmaster2

timckelley said:


> Well even though my wife sort of took over the Roamio (mostly my fault for letting her), and it's upgraded with a large drive, for now I'm going to try to just live with 500 GB on the Bolt, because the Bolt is supposed to be my TiVo, and I generally don't get much of a backlog, so me 500 GB seems like enough. But who knows; one day I may upgrade it.


Let us know how your claim works out.


----------



## wtherrell

Mikeguy said:


> Will be interesting to hear how that goes, and transferring content from the S2 to the Bolt.


Transferring S2 content to the new Bolt+ now. 
Had minor issues with connection of Bolt to see the S2 for transfer but turned out I had connected Bolt ethernet cable to the cable modem port instead of the wireless router. A little inconvenience is that one has to select the recordings individually for transfer but the Bolt ques them up so you don't have to wait for one transfer to complete before selecting the next. Should complete this morning and then I will try whether Tivo lets me choose which unit to deactivate.


----------



## Hank

How long does it take to transfer a box from one account to another? My parents gave me their old PLS Series 3 HD box since they upgraded to a Bolt 6 months ago. Even though I don't need a Bolt (my S3 OLED is chugging along just fine), I'm thinking of doing this deal, but want to transfer the box to my account first. Is there time to do that before 4/10 and get this deal?


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> How long does it take to transfer a box from one account to another? My parents gave me their old PLS Series 3 HD box since they upgraded to a Bolt 6 months ago. Even though I don't need a Bolt (my S3 OLED is chugging along just fine), I'm thinking of doing this deal, but want to transfer the box to my account first. Is there time to do that before 4/10 and get this deal?


Doing the transfer might risk the deal, I'd think, since the box would NOT have made the necessary connection during the qualifying time period while on YOUR account. What about just doing the upgrade through your parents' account, then transferring the BOLT after-the-fact?


----------



## Hank

krkaufman said:


> Doing the transfer might risk the deal, I'd think, since the box would NOT have made the necessary connection during the qualifying time period while on YOUR account. What about just doing the upgrade through your parents' account, then transferring the BOLT after-the-fact?


Yeah, I thought about that... I just don't want to get my parents involved.. they're old. It would be easier to not involve them at all. The box definitely made the connection during the time period, though.


----------



## krkaufman

jcrandall said:


> I agree there is no fraud here. The credit card company offers the benefit of price protection....
> Anyway, is it a bit of a gray area, sure, but it certainly isn't fraud.


I'm thinking if I tried submitting a price protection claim with a credit card having the following terms...

Advertisements Not Covered ... Advertisements for flea markets, fire sales, *limited quantity promotions*, seasonal sales or auctions​
... knowing that the promotion was "while supplies last," I'd be intending to defraud the credit card company, hoping they wouldn't catch the limited quantity aspect of the promotion.


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> I'm thinking if I tried submitting a price protection claim with a credit card having the following terms...
> 
> Advertisements Not Covered ... Advertisements for flea markets, fire sales, *limited quantity promotions*, seasonal sales or auctions​
> ... knowing that the promotion was "while supplies last," I'd be intending to defraud the credit card company, hoping they wouldn't catch the limited quantity aspect of the promotion.


_later edit: Please ignore the original, caffeine-deprived, logic-challenged comment below. _

I don't think that the "limited quantity promotions" language was intended for matters like the deal here. In fact, TiVo still is selling 2 of the 3 models, and virtually all store sales could be said to be "while supplies last." Rather, I think that the limited-quantity restriction is directed at matters such as Black Friday sales which state, "30 items available at this price."


----------



## hdeditor

I have 2 Series3 Models, a Tivo Series3 with the OLED display and a TiVo HD. Both are near full with upgraded 1TB drives. I don't think I've seen the following explained.

I got the upgrade offer. I read about these machines becoming "doorstops" if I use the $99 email offer for both. I'm inclined to take advantage and upgrade to the latest hardware, but I want to know more about "doorstop" mode.

I know that program guide service will not be available. Will the units boot up? Will the units play back what's already recorded? Can the units still be seen on my home network to access for Tivo Desktop?


----------



## Mikeguy

hdeditor said:


> I have 2 Series3 Models, a Tivo Series3 with the OLED display and a TiVo HD. Both are near full with upgraded 1TB drives. I don't think I've seen the following explained.
> 
> I got the upgrade offer. I read about these machines becoming "doorstops" if I use the $99 email offer for both. I'm inclined to take advantage and upgrade to the latest hardware, but I want to know more about "doorstop" mode.
> 
> I know that program guide service will not be available. Will the units boot up? Will the units play back what's already recorded? Can the units still be seen on my home network to access for Tivo Desktop?


Per my inquiry with TiVo as to my Series 2: yes; yes; I don't know--the TiVo rep. told me something along the lines of, the deactivated box will not be able to network with other boxes, but I didn't think to ask about networking with a PC for show transfer. Also, no further recording capability, either through the Guide or manual programming.


----------



## krkaufman

Mikeguy said:


> Per my inquiry with TiVo as to my Series 2: yes; yes; I don't know--the TiVo rep. told me something along the lines of, the deactivated box will not be able to network with other boxes, but I didn't think to ask about networking with a PC for show transfer. Also, no further recording capability, either through the Guide or manual programming.


I'd think PC transfers would be similarly hobbled since the account's MAK wouldn't be valid for a deactivated device. Speculating...


----------



## sfhub

hdeditor said:


> I have 2 Series3 Models, a Tivo Series3 with the OLED display and a TiVo HD. Both are near full with upgraded 1TB drives. I don't think I've seen the following explained.
> 
> I got the upgrade offer. I read about these machines becoming "doorstops" if I use the $99 email offer for both. I'm inclined to take advantage and upgrade to the latest hardware, but I want to know more about "doorstop" mode.
> 
> I know that program guide service will not be available. Will the units boot up? Will the units play back what's already recorded? Can the units still be seen on my home network to access for Tivo Desktop?


I have a S3 OLED that "forgets" activation about twice a year. It has lifetime, just the unit forgets and behaves like it isn't activated. In this mode, no guide, no season pass menu, no recordings, no MRV to other units.

Basically it brings up the Now Playing List and allows you to playback previously recorded shows. That is it. I imagine PC transfers is the same as MRV.


----------



## pdhenry

Mikeguy said:


> I don't think that the "limited quantity promotions" language was intended for matters like the deal here. In fact, TiVo still is selling 2 of the 3 models, and virtually all store sales could be said to be "while supplies last." Rather, I think that the limited-quantity restriction is directed at matters such as Black Friday sales which state, "30 items available at this price."


The price that's obviously non-qualifying is when the *lower* price you're trying to claim for is a limited a quantity deal.

It would take pretzel logic to disqualify the price you paid, since you paid list price.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> The price that's obviously non-qualifying is when the *lower* price you're trying to claim for is a limited a quantity deal.
> 
> It would take pretzel logic to disqualify the price you paid, since you paid list price.


Doh, of course you're right. Must get coffee - must get Egg McMuffin . . . .  Sorry for my caffeine-deprived confusion.


----------



## Hank

Tivo --- what the AF does this mean?

It refuses to log into my parent's account.

No, I'm not "forgetting something". your website is ****ED. How about an error message that actually means something??


----------



## DrewTivo

krkaufman said:


> I'm thinking if I tried submitting a price protection claim with a credit card having the following terms...
> 
> Advertisements Not Covered ... Advertisements for flea markets, fire sales, *limited quantity promotions*, seasonal sales or auctions​
> ... knowing that the promotion was "while supplies last," I'd be intending to defraud the credit card company, hoping they wouldn't catch the limited quantity aspect of the promotion.


It's not clear Tivo is adhering to the "while supplies last" provision, given they're finding ones to send out that aren't currently in stock.

Seems to me the poster is submitting a claim in good faith compliance with the price protection terms, with a recognition the CC may decide it doesn't qualify. It's well short of fraud - there's no intention to deceive among other things.


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> Tivo --- what the AF does this mean?
> 
> It refuses to log into my parent's account.
> 
> No, I'm not "forgetting something".


I received the same, vague "Forgetting something?" error prompt when I tried both a non-existing email address, as well as a bad password with a known-good email address.


----------



## Hank

krkaufman said:


> I received the same, vague "Forgetting something?" error prompt when I tried both a non-existing email address, as well as a bad password with a known-good email address.


yeah, it's a braindead error message for _any error_. And what's worse, if you change the email or password and try again, the error message does NOT disappear and re-appear or shake or change to show that it tried again and failed again. Who develops this ****crap.


----------



## Hank

So now I don't know what's going on-- I tried to hook up my parents old S3HD, but it won't power up. It's d-e-a-d. I've already replaced the hard drive AND the power supply caps. So I open it up, and give it power, and there is a very slight ticking sound coming from the PS. I try to locate it as best I can, and it sounds like it's coming from that one large cap on the PS... of course, that's the one cap that was totally unavailable a year+ ago when I fixed the PS -- I replaced all the other caps EXCEPT that big one -- it wasn't bulging either, so it seemed OK, and the Tivo worked great for another 2 years. But now I suspect this one big cap is bad and it won't power up. So I can't tell if it has PLS on it or not until my parents log into Tivo.com to see what the deal is. They bought a Roamio Pro to replace it, but I'm not sure they transferred the PLS from this box to it (believe it or not, my parents prefer to pay the annual fee). So I assumed this S3HD still has/had PLS. I now know for sure if it does have PLS, I'll be getting them to jump on the Bolt deal.


----------



## jefny

I just ordered my Bolt upgrade for an old TIVOHD that I have had for 9 years! It works fine but somewhere along the road something is going to happen to it. It took me about 10 minutes to get through. I talked to a friendly agent based in the Phillippines no less. After a few questions that I had I put in my order for the 500GB bolt (I currently have an externally hard drive that I will transfer to the new TIVO. I was informed that shipping date will be about April 21st. I was asked which TIVO to deactivate (my choice as I have 2 that qualifies). Maybe I should have replaced both.

One question he couldn't answer is the warranty. Free exchange for 90 days but after that?


----------



## aaronwt

Hank said:


> Tivo --- what the AF does this mean?
> 
> It refuses to log into my parent's account.
> 
> No, I'm not "forgetting something". your website is ****ED. How about an error message that actually means something??
> 
> View attachment 28681


It's been like that for awhile. Just give it 30 seconds or so and refresh and you will be logged in. AT least this has been the case with me for the last few weeks when I've run into this.


----------



## aaronwt

Hank said:


> So now I don't know what's going on-- I tried to hook up my parents old S3HD, but it won't power up. It's d-e-a-d. I've already replaced the hard drive AND the power supply caps. So I open it up, and give it power, and there is a very slight ticking sound coming from the PS. I try to locate it as best I can, and it sounds like it's coming from that one large cap on the PS... of course, that's the one cap that was totally unavailable a year+ ago when I fixed the PS -- I replaced all the other caps EXCEPT that big one -- it wasn't bulging either, so it seemed OK, and the Tivo worked great for another 2 years. But now I suspect this one big cap is bad and it won't power up. So I can't tell if it has PLS on it or not until my parents log into Tivo.com to see what the deal is. They bought a Roamio Pro to replace it, but I'm not sure they transferred the PLS from this box to it (believe it or not, my parents prefer to pay the annual fee). So I assumed this S3HD still has/had PLS. I now know for sure if it does have PLS, I'll be getting them to jump on the Bolt deal.


This is what one of the S3 units I have does. It takes five to ten tries of plugging it in, before everything spins up. And once it spins up it will stay running, until power is removed from the unit. And then it will take another 5 to 10 tries before it will power up.

No idea what he exact issue is but it's the power supply. I initially thought my hard drive had died, but it was the power supply and the hard drive had been corrupted at some point when it lost power.

Hopefully it will be going in the trash soon. SInce my Bolts are supposed to be delivered on Saturday, from the $99 Lifetime Transfer sale.


----------



## tluxon

So with this deactivating the old unit 10 days after activation of the new one - does anyone know if that means I won't be able to transfer recordings from the old unit after deactivation?

I'm asking because I'm considering upgrading 2 TiVoHD's with the offer and between them that's 3TB (2TB in one 1TB in the other) of shows I'd need to transfer over our network in a relatively compressed time if it has to be done within 10 days of activation (some of those days gobbled up by shipping).


----------



## krkaufman

tluxon said:


> So with this deactivating the old unit 10 days after activation of the new one - does anyone know if that means I won't be able to transfer recordings from the old unit after deactivation?


Correct. You'd need to get the shows transferred before deactivation, either directly to the new BOLT or offloaded via third party tools.


----------



## tluxon

krkaufman said:


> Correct. You'd need to get the shows transferred before deactivation, either directly to the new BOLT or offloaded via third party tools.


Yikes, that could be a problem because when I bought a Bolt just over a month ago it was activated prior to shipping and by the time I got it had already been activated about 7 days. It's conceivable I would have only a few days to transfer or download 3TB of shows, and HDs have notoriously slow download speeds. In fact, approx 320 hours of recordings would take about 13 days of 24x7 downloading, so it's already too late.

Any other way to get that done?


----------



## krkaufman

tluxon said:


> Yikes, that could be a problem because when I bought a Bolt just over a month ago it was activated prior to shipping...


Ah, the terms of the upgrade deal are different... the 10-day timer on the original, qualifying device's deactivation only begins once the new BOLT has connected to the TiVo service.

(sale link) _Your current box will be deactivated 10 days after you connect to the TiVo service. _​


----------



## krkaufman

tluxon said:


> ... approx 320 hours of recordings would take about 13 days of 24x7 downloading, so it's already too late.
> 
> Any other way to get that done?


Download using (TiVo Desktop, KMTTG, pyTivo, Archivo) ... and optionally upload to BOLT using TiVo Desktop or pyTivo. Though you could download most/all using these utilities, then direct transfer during the 10-day windows whatever you can... only restoring from your PC those programs you weren't able to direct transfer in time.


----------



## Mikeguy

jefny said:


> I just ordered my Bolt upgrade for an old TIVOHD that I have had for 9 years! It works fine but somewhere along the road something is going to happen to it. It took me about 10 minutes to get through. I talked to a friendly agent based in the Phillippines no less. After a few questions that I had I put in my order for the 500GB bolt (I currently have an externally hard drive that I will transfer to the new TIVO. I was informed that shipping date will be about April 21st. I was asked which TIVO to deactivate (my choice as I have 2 that qualifies). Maybe I should have replaced both.
> 
> One question he couldn't answer is the warranty. Free exchange for 90 days but after that?


Same warranty as always: 90 days, parts and labor (which typically has worked out to, product replacement, with a refurb'ed box); 1 year, parts (which typically translates to, TiVo sends you a refurb'ed box for $49). The policy states that the consumer pays the shipping, but I thought that TiVo was covering that for at least part of the time (I may be mis-recalling)--perhaps some owners who have gone through the process can post their experience.

TiVo® DVR Limited Warranty


----------



## tluxon

krkaufman said:


> Download using (TiVo Desktop, KMTTG, pyTivo, Archivo) ... and optionally upload to BOLT using TiVo Desktop or pyTivo. Though you could download most/all using these utilities, then direct transfer during the 10-day windows whatever you can... only restoring from your PC those programs you weren't able to direct transfer in time.


Yes, I guess I could try using all of the above simultaneously in hopes that the HD can let them go at a higher cumulative rate than the 6GB/hr I normally see as a top speed.

I believe there are also methods that we're not able to discuss here with the removed drive, but i 'm pretty sure it'd be more work than it's worth to handle that way.


----------



## Mikeguy

tluxon said:


> Yes, I guess I could try using all of the above simultaneously in hopes that the HD can let them go at a higher cumulative rate than the 6GB/hr I normally see as a top speed.
> 
> I believe there are also methods that we're not able to discuss here with the removed drive, but i 'm pretty sure it'd be more work than it's worth to handle that way.


A saving grace is, if you have a lot to get off your old box, start this weekend to/via a PC and just don't start the Bolt up once you receive it until you are done--that's what starts the 10-day period.


----------



## jlin

tluxon said:


> So with this deactivating the old unit 10 days after activation of the new one - does anyone know if that means I won't be able to transfer recordings from the old unit after deactivation?
> 
> I'm asking because I'm considering upgrading 2 TiVoHD's with the offer and between them that's 3TB (2TB in one 1TB in the other) of shows I'd need to transfer over our network in a relatively compressed time if it has to be done within 10 days of activation (some of those days gobbled up by shipping).


Why not simply disconnect the S3 from the network so that it will remain Lifetime forever?


----------



## HerronScott

jlin said:


> Why not simply disconnect the S3 from the network so that it will remain Lifetime forever?


Kind of hard to transfer shows across the network to the new TiVo if the TiVo is disconnected from the network. 

Depending on his router, he might be able to block it from the Internet versus the local network.

Scott


----------



## HerronScott

tluxon said:


> Yes, I guess I could try using all of the above simultaneously in hopes that the HD can let them go at a higher cumulative rate than the 6GB/hr I normally see as a top speed.


You can just leave the old TiVos connected to the TV and watch anything on them that you don't get transferred until they are all gone.

Scott


----------



## Hank

Ok, got into my parent's account. My father swore up and down that the dead S3HD didn't have PLS... but lo and behold, it does!

Now off to Tivo to try and get them to transfer then upgrade, or upgrade then xfer.


----------



## Riblet2000

jefny said:


> I put in my order for the 500GB bolt (I currently have an externally hard drive that I will transfer to the new TIVO. I was informed that shipping date will be about April 21st.


Shipping data point for you all: Pulled the trigger on the 500 GB Bolt to replace my 8 year old S3HD this afternoon and was given an April 21 ship date. FedEx says that it is already on its way.


----------



## juddev

After my OLED is turned off, can I take the 2tb hd out of it and put it in my mothers OLED model without any modifications, so all the shows recorded will still be viewable?


----------



## tluxon

Mikeguy said:


> A saving grace is, if you have a lot to get off your old box, start this weekend to/via a PC and just don't start the Bolt up once you receive it until you are done--that's what starts the 10-day period.


I just ordered 2 Bolts with lifetime from the link in their email, entered the Promo Code and selected standard free shipping. The delivery date is 4/21, so I've got at least till May 1 to get everything I want off the HDs if I connect them as soon as I get them, but I think I'll take your approach and hold off on connecting the second one until I've gotten most of the shows I want to keep off the 2TB drive to a PC drive. I believe I'll be able to transfer all the files we want to keep from the 1TB HD directly to the first Bolt I connect (after putting a 2TB drive in it).


----------



## HerronScott

juddev said:


> After my OLED is turned off, can I take the 2tb hd out of it and put it in my mothers OLED model without any modifications, so all the shows recorded will still be viewable?


No, they will not be accessible that way.

Scott


----------



## tluxon

Riblet2000 said:


> Shipping data point for you all: Pulled the trigger on the 500 GB Bolt to replace my 8 year old S3HD this afternoon and was given an April 21 ship date. FedEx says that it is already on its way.


That's fast. I ordered 2 of them online 30 minutes ago and was given a 4/21 "delivery" date. Haven't looked for FedEx tracking yet. Status on Tivo.com still says "Order Placed".


----------



## juddev

HerronScott said:


> No, they will not be accessible that way.
> 
> Scott


Why not? I would just be replacing one drive for the other, both the same models. What am I forgetting?
Thanks


----------



## HerronScott

juddev said:


> Why not? I would just be replacing one drive for the other, both the same models. What am I forgetting?
> Thanks


The recordings are tied to the TSN of the TiVo that they are recorded on. Plus you have to do a C&DE when you move a TiVo drive between TiVo's (or use an image from another TiVo).

Scott


----------



## NowPlaying

I've been wanting a Bolt but wasn't about to pay $550 for lifetime service. This $99 deal was made for me. I didn't get the email so I just called Tivo and asked for the offer. No problem. You do need to order through Tivo for the deal.

The first Tivo I tried to transfer had been out of service for 18 months so they wouldn't do it. The second Tivo I tried is currently in service so they let me transfer that one. From now on I'll plug my old Tivo's in a couple times a year.

Was told the response to this offer has been overwhelming and they won't be able to ship my new box for 2 weeks. Thanks for the heads up. Glad I checked this forum when I did.


----------



## juddev

HerronScott said:


> The recordings are tied to the TSN of the TiVo that they are recorded on. Plus you have to do a C&DE when you move a TiVo drive between TiVo's (or use an image from another TiVo).
> 
> Scott


Thanks for the info, it's been awhile since I had to do anything to my Tivo except replacing Cap's


----------



## Hank

Can someone pm me the promo link and code, or is they tied to your account?

Thx


----------



## jwbelcher

I was able to get the 99 transfer on a TivoHD that hasn't connected in a while due to a bad PS. I told the rep of the hardware problem up front, he told me the promo dates that it needed to connect, then looked up my last connect, then said it was last June and that I was eligible. Not to question what happened, I was happy to quickly finish up the transaction. 

Shipping April 21, said it had something to do with changes with their shipping warehouse.


----------



## Mikeguy

Hank said:


> Can someone pm me the promo link and code, or is they tied to your account?
> 
> Thx


Tied to your account--no code needed, all you need to do is call TiVo and they will confirm if you qualify. See the first post on p. 1 of this thread for the qualifying terms.


----------



## Mikeguy

jlin said:


> Why not simply disconnect the S3 from the network so that it will remain Lifetime forever?


Ah, well, the Guide data will run out within 2 weeks. At that point, you will be left solely with setting manual recordings (assuming that works), and will not be able to adjust your box's clock with respect to Daylight Saving Time or inevitable clock drift. But this is an approach I've seen mentioned elsewhere.


----------



## Mikeguy

jwbelcher said:


> Shipping April 21, said it had something to do with changes with their shipping warehouse.


Yeah, not currently having enough product to ship, due to the positive response to this promotion.


----------



## krkaufman

jlin said:


> Why not simply disconnect the S3 from the network so that it will remain Lifetime forever?


Even if the S3 were somehow firewalled from connecting to the Internet, I expect the new BOLT will eventually be updated with the list of active devices on the account and the S3 would then be flagged as inactive, likely blocking any further interaction. (Much like a Mini can't connect to a host DVR until the host DVR has been made aware of the Mini's activated status.)


----------



## MichaelCoffin

This is a great deal if you want to get some value out of your older Series 3 boxes. I have two HD and one HD-XL, all with lifetime service. I'd love to get some value out of them, but here's the thing - I HATE the design of the Bolt, specifically the fact that it looks like a truck ran over it! I wish they offered Bolt in a "flat" version that could sit in a rack with my other equipment.


----------



## Hank

I agree... I wish it was stackable. It's an odd design decision forA/V equipment.


----------



## Hank

krkaufman said:


> I expect the new BOLT will eventually be updated with the list of active devices on the account and the S3 would then be flagged as inactive,


I don't think Tivo would do that or could. You'd need to update the software on all these 10 year old devices (which they are no longer doing) to act as part of a local BOLT network instead of just calling the mothership. It would need code to somehow look for a BOLT on the local network to authenticate, and then if not found, look to the mothership. I doubt that code exists now, it would have to be added.

The software development work (for both machines) involved to have a BOLT authorize/de-authorize 10 year old Tivos just isn't worth the few extra dollars a very small group of people who would be stealing services by blocking an S3 from being de-activated.

And at that point, it wouldn't even be getting guide data unless you hacked it. So what are you getting by blocking the de-authorization of an old S3? Manual recording? MRV? Seems like a lot of trouble for both Tivo and the users just to avoid buying a more current box and subscription.


----------



## wtherrell

MichaelCoffin said:


> This is a great deal if you want to get some value out of your older Series 3 boxes. I have two HD and one HD-XL, all with lifetime service. I'd love to get some value out of them, but here's the thing - I HATE the design of the Bolt, specifically the fact that it looks like a truck ran over it! I wish they offered Bolt in a "flat" version that could sit in a rack with my other equipment.


I had the same hangup. But the deal! This thing is unbelievably small compared to previous boxes. I ordered an inexpensive monitor stand (curved metal legs, Basics, I think) from Amazon and got a satisfactory solution to my stacking problem.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


----------



## Mikeguy

MichaelCoffin said:


> This is a great deal if you want to get some value out of your older Series 3 boxes. I have two HD and one HD-XL, all with lifetime service. I'd love to get some value out of them, but here's the thing - I HATE the design of the Bolt, specifically the fact that it looks like a truck ran over it! I wish they offered Bolt in a "flat" version that could sit in a rack with my other equipment.


My impression is, TiVo was going the Apple/Steve Jobs route, trying to make a "statement" piece that could sit in one's entertainment center or living room as if a piece of design art--and hence the white color. One only can imagine the TiVo development meetings . . . . And the design forces one to put the Bolt on top of all the other devices--a metaphorical statement, on TiVo's part? 


wtherrell said:


> I had the same hangup. But the deal! This thing is unbelievably small compared to previous boxes. I ordered an inexpensive monitor stand (curved metal legs, Basics, I think) from Amazon and got a satisfactory solution to my stacking problem.


Great idea and solution. Also, as recently posted by krkaufman, a mount for the Bolt, for placement behind the television:

Wall Mount for TiVo® Bolt™ | HIDEit Bolt

Amazon.com: NEW HIDEit Bolt Wall Mount (White) | Bracket for TiVo Bolt Unified Entertainment System, VESA Compatible | Made in the USA by the Leaders in Component Mounting Solutions: Kitchen & Dining

Mount Bolt in wall behind tv?


----------



## Mikeguy

Here's the Amazon monitor stand, by the way (or, at least one of them). Even comes in silver (in addition to a black version), to go with the Bolt white. 

Amazon.com: AmazonBasics Metal Monitor Stand - Silver: Computers & Accessories


----------



## catperson

Mikeguy said:


> My impression is, TiVo was going the Apple/Steve Jobs route, trying to make a "statement" piece that could sit in one's entertainment center or living room as if a piece of design art--and hence the white color. One only can imagine the TiVo development meetings . . . . And the design forces one to put the Bolt on top of all the other devices--a metaphorical statement, on TiVo's part?


I think it's cute. Maybe it's a chick thing. (And I am an Apple girl ... )   

kathy


----------



## wtherrell

Mikeguy said:


> Here's the Amazon monitor stand, by the way (or, at least one of them). Even comes in silver (in addition to a black version), to go with the Bolt white.
> 
> Amazon.com: AmazonBasics Metal Monitor Stand - Silver: Computers & Accessories


Yes, that's the one. Black goes with the Bolt+ and Cisco TA.


----------



## tvmaster2

It was a tough decision, two Series 2's and one Tivo HD. Considering I have a Roamio and a Premiere already, the Tivo HD was the unit to sacrifice to the Bolt promotion. Reasoning: one, I found it at a thrift shop, Lifetime included, for $15, under a year ago. That alone makes it some kind of sign. I decided to keep the Series 2's as they still do one thing no other Tivo does - externally control a cable or satellite set-top box. Sure, they're only SD, but they owe me nothing (2004) and still fill a strange function no other Tivo does.
Now - time so start transferring 55 episodes of 'The Avengers' recorded OTA from Cozi.


----------



## pdhenry

How does the Bolt mount attach to the back of the TV? My 2010 era Samsung has four holes with bolts on the back for attaching the set to a mount but they look further apart than the size of the Bolt at first glance. I saw something about VESA mount compatibility but that doesn't mean much to me.


----------



## Hank

Ok. this is now really messed up. I can't even make heads/tails of it. 

I was 100% sure that the Tivo HD machine my parents gave me had lifetime service. 

I called Tivo this morning to transfer that box to my account, and sign up for the BOLT deal. They were happy to do both. We did a three-way call with my parents to approve the xfer. During the xfer, I was logged into both my Tivo account and my parent's (two different browsers) when I noticed something very strange. The TSN of the Tivo HD box was already on my account! In fact, it was listed on both my parent's account and my account at the same time. Both with lifetime service. So I guess they didn't need to transfer the service after all. So we then did the BOLT upgrade and got email confirmation. 

But then I looked back at my account, and I couldn't find my own S3 OLED box listed anywhere. It just wasn't listed, so the CSR thought maybe it was assigned to another account or unassigned, which we can recover once I get the TSN of my S3 OLED box (which is at my home office house). 

So I get to my office this afternoon, and go to my S3 OLED and look at "Info and Settings" to get the TSN to go find it and put it on my account. Guess what??? The TSN of my S3 OLED box *is* the TSN of the HD box on my parents account that I just upgraded. What??? How the hell can that be? I bought this OLED box back in 2006 or earlier(?) when it first came out, and bought lifetime service for it. I have no freaking clue how it got listed on my parent's Tivo account. But I didn't want to upgrade my OLED box, I wanted to upgrade the SD HD box.. so where's that? I get the TSN off the back of the dead HD box, and it's listed on my parent's account under "Inactive Tivo Devices": 

Living Room Tivo
652-0001-****-****
HD 20hr 10/26/2006 
Service Only, Annual 
Cancelled: 10/25/2016 
The box you are trying to reactivate is no longer supported. Please visit tivo.com today to shop for TiVo's latest products.

So WTAF? The HD does not have PLS, it appears that it had annual service all this time. My parents had this box for years, how could it not have PLS? I guess it had annual all along. I'm still pretty confused over this part. I'm thinking maybe they transferred it to a Roamio box in 2015? I didn't think that was a deal back then, but I guess it's possible. 

So I don't have their PLS box to upgrade, I only have my own OLED to upgrade, which I guess I already did, even though I love my S3 OLED and didn't really want to give it up. But for $300 to extend PLS onto a new box for another bunch of years I guess is a pretty good deal.


----------



## aaronwt

I just got my two 500 Bolts from the $99 Lifetime transfer deal. They both have a manufacture date of April 1st, 2017.


----------



## JoeKustra

aaronwt said:


> I just got my two 500 Bolts from the $99 Lifetime transfer deal. They both have a manufacture date of April 1st, 2017.


Wow, I hope the paint is dry!


----------



## Mikeguy

JoeKustra said:


> Wow, I hope the paint is dry!


(It _would_ be kinda funny to smudge the top of the box only to find that it is black underneath.  )


----------



## aaronwt

Wow!! The hold times were crazy at TiVo. I was on hold for 55 minutes until I hung up. Then I was on hold 30 minutes until I hung up. Then I called back ten minutes ago and only had a 2 minute hold time. I wouldn't normally wait on hold like that. But I was rewiring things and getting an OTA signal to where I was setting up the two new Bolts to test them. So I just kept the phone on speaker.

At least when I did finally talk to a CSR, they did confirm that the lifetime service being transferred is from the two S3 boxes on my account that I actually have access to. And that the third S3 that shows up. That I sold back in 2010 or so, will not be touched. At least that is what I was told.

But the Bolts are up and working now. I'll run them on OTA for a week or so before I deal with moving the 4TB drives from my yearly subscription Bolts, to the new Lifetime Bolts. And also dealing with moving the FiOS cable cards. Then I also might pick up a quieter fan. These fans are a little noisier than my 2015 Bolts. But not enough that it's an issue. I would just rather replace the fan while I have the box open for the hard drive, than have to shut it off and open it again.


----------



## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> Wow!! The hold times were crazy at TiVo. I was on hold for 55 minutes until I hung up. Then I was on hold 30 minutes until I hung up. Then I called back ten minutes ago and only had a 2 minute hold time. I wouldn't normally wait on hold like that. But I was rewiring things and getting an OTA signal to where I was setting up the two new Bolts to test them. So I just kept the phone on speaker.
> 
> At least when I did finally talk to a CSR, they did confirm that the lifetime service being transferred is from the two S3 boxes on my account that I actually have access to. And that the third S3 that shows up. That I sold back in 2010 or so, will not be touched. At least that is what I was told.
> 
> But the Bolts are up and working now. I'll run them on OTA for a week or so before I deal with moving the 4TB drives from my yearly subscription Bolts, to the new Lifetime Bolts. And also dealing with moving the FiOS cable cards. Then I also might pick up a quieter fan. These fans are a little noisier than my 2015 Bolts. But not enough that it's an issue. I would just rather replace the fan while I have the box open for the hard drive, than have to shut it off and open it again.


Thanks for the report. Some of the busiest I've heard of, for calling TiVo--perhaps because the end of the promotion is coming? (Plus, people like you, now with boxes, perhaps calling in.)

And thanks for the fan report. If you could, keep us advised as to that? And, if you end up putting new fans in, which ones and the process? I'm sure that others would like hearing if it's easy enough, and the process to do so.


----------



## rarceneaux

I have a Series 2 with lifetime that i turn on 3 times a year just to keep the $6.95 I have on my 2 Roamio. If I take the $99 upgrade do the other 2 still grandfathered to $6.95?


----------



## pdhenry

rarceneaux said:


> I have a Series 2 with lifetime that i turn on 3 times a year just to keep the $6.95 I have on my 2 Roamio. If I take the $99 upgrade do the other 2 still grandfathered to $6.95?


TiVo has rules about "qualifying subscriptions" for multi-subscription discounts. In a nutshell I think you may lose the discounted price on one or both units. Ordinarily the oldest remaining box would become the qualifying subscription and it would go to full price. Then the question is whether that voids the grandfather status on the other $6.95 box...

Better call for clarification (and then try to get it in writing...).


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## Mikeguy

rarceneaux said:


> I have a Series 2 with lifetime that i turn on 3 times a year just to keep the $6.95 I have on my 2 Roamio. If I take the $99 upgrade do the other 2 still grandfathered to $6.95?


Boy, I'd check directly with TiVo and have them annotate your account as to this, if it's a yes (and/or do a chat and keep a copy).


----------



## cherry ghost

rarceneaux said:


> I have a Series 2 with lifetime that i turn on 3 times a year just to keep the $6.95 I have on my 2 Roamio. If I take the $99 upgrade do the other 2 still grandfathered to $6.95?


I'm in the same situation with an S3 that I only connect a few times a year to keep a $6.95 price on a Roamio. My S3 has an activation date from 2001 because I transferred lifetime to it from an S1 that was activated in 2001. If they handle this transfer the same way, my Bolt will have that 2001 activation date. I'm hopeful.


----------



## aaronwt

cherry ghost said:


> I'm in the same situation with an S3 that I only connect a few times a year to keep a $6.95 price on a Roamio. My S3 has an activation date from 2001 because I transferred lifetime to it from an S1 that was activated in 2001. If they handle this transfer the same way, my Bolt will have that 2001 activation date. I'm hopeful.


Hmmm...I wonder if I'm in the same situation? If I lose the $6.95 price I have on a Roamio Basic, then TiVo will stop getting that money from me. Because the only reason I keep it around is because of the low monthly price. Originally it was on an S3. Then got transferred to a Premiere, and then transferred to a Roamio.

I only use it to take with me when I need to bring some shows to watch. I don't want to lose it, but I'm also not going to pay more than 6.95 a month for it.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


----------



## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> Hmmm...I wonder if I'm in the same situation? If I lose the $6.95 price I have on a Roamio Basic, then TiVo will stop getting that money from me. Because the only reason I keep it around is because of the low monthly price. Originally it was on an S3. Then got transferred to a Premiere, and then transferred to a Roamio.
> 
> I only use it to take with me when I need to bring some shows to watch. I don't want to lose it, but I'm also not going to pay more than 6.95 a month for it.


If TiVo does another Roamio OTA refurb deal, you may want to consider that: the $6.95/month subscription would pay for a Roamio OTA refurb. at $250 after around 3 years (and if you're a cable person, you can purchase and mod/add a cablecard adapter to the box for around $20). The one thing you lose, though, TiVo's Continual Care. Just a thought. (The break-even point for a new Roamio OTA at Amazon.com's current $347 price would be around 4 years 2 months.)


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## Shooter99

Ordered Bolt, can I activate it online or do they force you to call to activate it?


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## Mikeguy

Shooter99 said:


> Ordered Bolt, can I activate it online or do they force you to call to activate it?


I assume you purchased directly from TiVo, under the S2/S3 upgrade deal? When I purchased a second TiVo directly from TiVo, it already was on my TiVo account when it arrived and I simply needed to turn the box on and go through guided setup.


----------



## pdhenry

I no longer have the pending charge from TiVo on my credit card but the order still shows as an open order on the TiVo account page. I hope that's normal.


----------



## opus123

pdhenry said:


> I no longer have the pending charge from TiVo on my credit card but the order still shows as an open order on the TiVo account page. I hope that's normal.


same thing happened to me. not sure if that's a concern. i was told my order would ship 4/21, then got that general email stating all would ship 4/11 or sooner, but I haven't received formal confirmation that anything shipped yet.


----------



## scandia101

Shooter99 said:


> Ordered Bolt, can I activate it online or do they force you to call to activate it?


When you buy any tivo directly from tivo.com, it will be activated for you at the time of shipping.


----------



## Trey Dio

opus123 said:


> same thing happened to me. not sure if that's a concern. i was told my order would ship 4/21, then got that general email stating all would ship 4/11 or sooner, but I haven't received formal confirmation that anything shipped yet.


I just hope they don't rush the manufacturing, assembly or testing process and end up sending out defective units.


----------



## tvmaster2

Trey Dio said:


> I just hope they don't rush the manufacturing, assembly or testing process and end up sending out defective units.


Or refurbished units - is there anything in the small print that says these Bolts are NEW units?


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> I no longer have the pending charge from TiVo on my credit card but the order still shows as an open order on the TiVo account page. I hope that's normal.


Mine too shows as an open order with no delivery date noted, and nothing more.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Or refurbished units - is there anything in the small print that says these Bolts are NEW units?


I don't recall seeing that (do most product ads state that a product is new?). However, I didn't see anything saying that the Bolt might be a refurb., and I think that it likely could be a violation of the law to deliver a refurb. in that circumstance.


----------



## slowride

pdhenry said:


> I no longer have the pending charge from TiVo on my credit card but the order still shows as an open order on the TiVo account page. I hope that's normal.


I did an online order for 4 tivo 500gb units 04/06 and the temporary charge showed up on my visa card but, disappeared on 04/07. The temporary charged reappeared on 04/08.


----------



## Haywood

I am interested in obtaining a TiVo Bolt from someone who has a transfer they weren't sure they wanted to use. Many thanks! PM me.


----------



## aaronwt

Mikeguy said:


> If TiVo does another Roamio OTA refurb deal, you may want to consider that: the $6.95/month subscription would pay for a Roamio OTA refurb. at $250 after around 3 years (and if you're a cable person, you can purchase and mod/add a cablecard adapter to the box for around $20). The one thing you lose, though, TiVo's Continual Care. Just a thought. (The break-even point for a new Roamio OTA at Amazon.com's current $347 price would be around 4 years 2 months.)


I got my lifetime Romaio OTA for $200 last year and got a different Romaio BAsic for $300 in 2015. Which I gave to my GF. But I like having the Romaio BAsic around because it can also be used with cable cards. So in an Emergency, I can throw a cable card in it. So worst case I would need to throw a 3TB drive in the Romaio OTA and trade with my GF the Lifetime Roamio BAsic she has. Since she only uses OTA and her house isn't even wired for cable.


----------



## krkaufman

aaronwt said:


> So worst case I would need to throw a 3TB drive in the Romaio OTA and trade with my GF the Lifetime Roamio BAsic she has. Since she only uses OTA and her house isn't even wired for cable.


Or just transplant the CableCARD bracket from one to the other, and install a CableCARD, to unleash the CableCARD functionality of the Roamio OTA?


----------



## aaronwt

Shooter99 said:


> Ordered Bolt, can I activate it online or do they force you to call to activate it?





scandia101 said:


> When you buy any tivo directly from tivo.com, it will be activated for you at the time of shipping.


Yes. Both of my Bolts were already activated. When they booted up they both showed as having lifetime service and were already on my account. I just needed to rename them.


----------



## aaronwt

tvmaster2 said:


> Or refurbished units - is there anything in the small print that says these Bolts are NEW units?


Mine were new. and the boxes were sealed in shrink/plastic wrap. None of the Bolts I purchased in 2015 came in shrink wrap. And then the boxes also had seals on them to break to be able to pull the top off of the box.


----------



## pdhenry

aaronwt said:


> Yes. Both of my Bolts were already activated.


I wonder how far in advance of shipping they activate the device? Would I see the new device on my account before I get the email saying that it's shipped?


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> Or just transplant the CableCARD bracket from one to the other, and install a CableCARD, to unleash the CableCARD functionality of the Roamio OTA?


Or do the inexpensive/minimal cablecard adapter mod.


----------



## Adam1115

So can you buy a used Series 2 with lifetime and get the deal?


----------



## tvmaster2

Adam1115 said:


> So can you buy a used Series 2 with lifetime and get the deal?


If you can do it within the next 30 hours


----------



## atmuscarella

aaronwt said:


> I got my lifetime Romaio OTA for $200 last year and got a different Romaio BAsic for $300 in 2015. Which I gave to my GF. But I like having the Romaio BAsic around because it can also be used with cable cards. So in an Emergency, I can throw a cable card in it. So worst case I would need to throw a 3TB drive in the Romaio OTA and trade with my GF the Lifetime Roamio BAsic she has. Since she only uses OTA and her house isn't even wired for cable.


I believe the cable card brackets in your dead only good for parts ebay Bolts will also work in a Roamio OTA.


----------



## aaronwt

pdhenry said:


> I wonder how far in advance of shipping they activate the device? Would I see the new device on my account before I get the email saying that it's shipped?


Yes. Mine showed up on my account before I received them.


----------



## cwerdna

krkaufman said:


> I'd think PC transfers would be similarly hobbled since the account's MAK wouldn't be valid for a deactivated device. Speculating...


Has anyone confirmed this?

I have a TiVo HD w/lifetime and am thinking of going w/this offer. If so, I'll need to transfer off everything that I ever plan on transferring before the TiVo HD gets deactivated...


----------



## phox_mulder

cwerdna said:


> Has anyone confirmed this?
> 
> I have a TiVo HD w/lifetime and am thinking of going w/this offer. If so, I'll need to transfer off everything that I ever plan on transferring before the TiVo HD gets deactivated...


Either the email, or TiVo.com said the transferred device would be active for 10 days after receiving the new Bolt, plenty of time to transfer recordings.

I have plenty of space on my Roamio's so was going transfer everything from the S3 now, but after reading/seeing that I figured I'd wait till the bolt gets here, as there will be things still recording between now and then, and I don't want to set up SP's on the Roamios, just to re-set them up on the Bolt.

phox


----------



## 1rickey

phox_mulder said:


> Either the email, or TiVo.com said the transferred device would be active for 10 days after receiving the new Bolt, plenty of time to transfer recordings.
> 
> I have plenty of space on my Roamio's so was going transfer everything from the S3 now, but after reading/seeing that I figured I'd wait till the bolt gets here, as there will be things still recording between now and then, and I don't want to set up SP's on the Roamios, just to re-set them up on the Bolt.
> 
> phox


You mean 10 days after connecting(not receiving)the Bolt


----------



## krkaufman

Mikeguy said:


> Or do the inexpensive/minimal cablecard adapter mod.


Sure, but it's tough to get more inexpensive than free. N'est-ce pas?


aaronwt said:


> ... and got a different Romaio BAsic for $300 in 2015. Which I gave to my GF. But I like having the Romaio BAsic around because it can also be used with cable cards. So in an Emergency, I can throw a cable card in it. So worst case I would need to throw a 3TB drive in the Romaio OTA and trade with my GF the Lifetime Roamio BAsic she has. Since *she only uses OTA and her house isn't even wired for cable.*


I'm in the same situation. The first Roamio I bought was a basic for my parents, before an OTA-only model ever existed; and all they'll ever do with it is OTA, what with Comcast being evil incarnate. But I have a Roamio OTA, courtesy some past sale, and would like the flexibility of switching to cable. My 4-tuner Roamio can now do CableCARD thanks to the bracket transplanted from my parents' DVR. $0.


----------



## krkaufman

atmuscarella said:


> I believe the cable card brackets in your dead only good for parts ebay Bolts will also work in a Roamio OTA.


Concur. CableCARD brackets are interchangeable between the BOLT/BOLT+ and 4-tuner Roamios. (edit: I'm regularly scanning eBay for "not working or for parts only" listings for basic Roamios and BOLTs.)


----------



## SnakeEyes

Just learned of this. Don't suppose anyone has an unused code they don't use do they?


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> Sure, but it's tough to get more inexpensive than free. N'est-ce pas?
> ​I'm in the same situation. The first Roamio I bought was a basic for my parents, before an OTA-only model ever existed; and all they'll ever do with it is OTA, what with Comcast being evil incarnate. But I have a Roamio OTA, courtesy some past sale, and would like the flexibility of switching to cable. My 4-tuner Roamio can now do CableCARD thanks to the bracket transplanted from my parents' DVR. $0.


Agreed, but it also depends if one's girlfriend objects to the plundering of her TiVo or not.  People can get awfully possessive when push comes to shove, and their TiVo. Unless you do it when she's out at Pilates.


----------



## Mikeguy

SnakeEyes said:


> Just learned of this. Don't suppose anyone has an unused code they don't use do they?


It's not the code that's important, it's the underlying qualifications: do you have a lifetimed Series 2 or 3 TiVo that called in to TiVo between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017? If so, call TiVo and they'll give you the deal, regardless of code. And, as part of that, pull up your TiVo account to verify--as part of the deal, they'll need to set your old box to be deactivated, once you have the new (well, actually, 10 days after your new Bolt sets up).


----------



## 1rickey

I'm sure Tivo will offer a deal like this soon enough if you don't get in on it today


----------



## krkaufman

1rickey said:


> I'm sure Tivo will offer a deal like this soon enough if you don't get in on it today


Though the title of the imminently expiring promo *is* "Once in a lifetime."


----------



## Mikeguy

1rickey said:


> I'm sure Tivo will offer a deal like this soon enough if you don't get in on it today


You're right, another sale of some kind could. TiVo had its White Sale on the refurb. Roamio OTA last November, and then a flash sale on it last week--at $50 more.

On the other hand, until recently, sales like these have tended to be more than a year apart, and on different devices. Maybe this one will never come back again.

One just never knows. And if this fits your needs, a bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush.


----------



## Saturn

krkaufman said:


> Though the title of the imminently expiring promo *is* "Once in a lifetime."


Interestingly, this is the second time I've been able to "take advantage of" such a "once-in-a-lifetime" TiVo offering. The first was when 1) TiVo had done away with lifetime subscriptions entirely, but allowed (for a one-time fee of, $200, IIRC) transfer a S1 (or maybe S2) lifetime subscription to the brand-new, $900 Series 3...

Yes, I paid > $1000 for my Series 3 with its lifetime. That's why it has a subscription date of 2001 on the TiVo site...


----------



## danm628

Saturn said:


> Interestingly, this is the second time I've been able to "take advantage of" such a "once-in-a-lifetime" TiVo offering. The first was when 1) TiVo had done away with lifetime subscriptions entirely, but allowed (for a one-time fee of, $200, IIRC) transfer a S1 (or maybe S2) lifetime subscription to the brand-new, $900 Series 3...
> 
> Yes, I paid > $1000 for my Series 3 with its lifetime. That's why it has a subscription date of 2001 on the TiVo site...


That's what my S3 shows. I moved my lifetime from my S1 to the S3 when it was offered. Now I'm moving that lifetime to a new Bolt. I'm wondering if it will show the Bolt with an activation date in 2001.


----------



## Mikeguy

Saturn said:


> Interestingly, this is the second time I've been able to "take advantage of" such a "once-in-a-lifetime" TiVo offering. The first was when 1) TiVo had done away with lifetime subscriptions entirely, but allowed (for a one-time fee of, $200, IIRC) transfer a S1 (or maybe S2) lifetime subscription to the brand-new, $900 Series 3...
> 
> Yes, I paid > $1000 for my Series 3 with its lifetime. That's why it has a subscription date of 2001 on the TiVo site...


Well, that was to a Series 3, this is to a Series 6.  And that was $900 + $200, and this is $200 + $99. 

And that was, 10-11 years ago?


----------



## Mikeguy

danm628 said:


> That's what my S3 shows. I moved my lifetime from my S1 to the S3 when it was offered. Now I'm moving that lifetime to a new Bolt. I'm wondering if it will show the Bolt with an activation date in 2001.


Your history with these lifetime transfer offers seems incredibly incestuous.  And so, you've had a single lifetime with TiVo over the company's entire existence, spanning its original box to its most recent--wow! I hope that they threw in a complimentary Slide Pro remote for you.


----------



## danm628

Mikeguy said:


> Your history with these lifetime transfer offers seems incredibly incestuous.  And so, you've had a single lifetime with TiVo over the company's entire existence, spanning its original box to its most recent--wow! I hope that they threw in a complimentary Slide Pro remote for you.


I wish there had been a free remote. 

I was keeping the S3 as an OTA option for when I finally cut the cord. My primary TiVo is now a Roamio. I went with the 4 tuner Bolt since that still has OTA for when I give up on Comcast. It also has 4K support and I'm planning on buying a 4K TV sometime this year.


----------



## bradleys

Saturn said:


> Interestingly, this is the second time I've been able to "take advantage of" such a "once-in-a-lifetime" TiVo offering. The first was when 1) TiVo had done away with lifetime subscriptions entirely, but allowed (for a one-time fee of, $200, IIRC) transfer a S1 (or maybe S2) lifetime subscription to the brand-new, $900 Series 3...
> 
> Yes, I paid > $1000 for my Series 3 with its lifetime. That's why it has a subscription date of 2001 on the TiVo site...


I did exactly the same thing....


----------



## tvmaster2

two hours until end of promo - anyone get any weird emails to make them think Tivo will back-out of the arrangement? Still waiting for a shipping date myself....


----------



## timckelley

I'm still waiting for the price protection decision by my credit card. They said to give them up to 5 business days, and the clock started last Thursday, so I guess I might have a decision by this Thursday.

By the way, when I made the claim, the credit card people said they were happy I was able to find a cheaper price. You'd think they would be unhappy, because I'm costing them almost $70, but on the other hand, they may pass that expense on to some insurance company, so it's the insurance company that might be unhappy. On the gripping hand, the more claims, the higher the premiums the credit card people have to pay, so they should be unhappy. 

Oh well, I'm happy at least (even though they lie and say that they're happy too. )


----------



## leiff

looks like Amazon raised the price to $146 for the bolt. Darn me for not already submitting discover price protection


----------



## brett09

So basically, for S3 owners who upgrade to a BOLT they exchange easy use of kmttg with all types of programs for the newer model. As I understand, BOLT won’t allow you to download to a PC anything with a copy protected flag? If you’re on a Comcast and they are using MPEG4 now, you’re out-of-luck. If you have a BOLT and Comcast is still doing MPEG2 and the copy flag is set, you still can’t archive your programs, correct? And for me, archive is for network tv and sports. Or am I little bit (or a lot) wrong/misinformed here?


----------



## aaronwt

No issue with H.264 channels here with my Bolts. You can transfer the H.264 recordings to a PC, just like the MPEG2 recordings. As long as it isn't restricted from transferring. Here on FioS only Fox owned channels, HBO and Cinemax channels are restricted from transferring.


----------



## HerronScott

brett09 said:


> So basically, for S3 owners who upgrade to a BOLT they exchange easy use of kmttg with all types of programs for the newer model. As I understand, BOLT won't allow you to download to a PC anything with a copy protected flag? If you're on a Comcast and they are using MPEG4 now, you're out-of-luck. If you have a BOLT and Comcast is still doing MPEG2 and the copy flag is set, you still can't archive your programs, correct? And for me, archive is for network tv and sports. Or am I little bit (or a lot) wrong/misinformed here


Sounds like you are misinformed. None of the TiVo's will allow you to download to your PC anything that's copy-protected (excluding hacked ones). You seem to think that Comcast's MPEG4 channels are copy-protected but they aren't other than the pay movie channels that were copy-protected when they were MPEG2.

Scott


----------



## HerronScott

Saturn said:


> Interestingly, this is the second time I've been able to "take advantage of" such a "once-in-a-lifetime" TiVo offering. The first was when 1) TiVo had done away with lifetime subscriptions entirely, but allowed (for a one-time fee of, $200, IIRC) transfer a S1 (or maybe S2) lifetime subscription to the brand-new, $900 Series 3...
> 
> Yes, I paid > $1000 for my Series 3 with its lifetime. That's why it has a subscription date of 2001 on the TiVo site...


I took advantage of the S1 to S3 OLED lifetime transfer (twice!) although by December and January when we bought our S3's they were down to $600 so we only paid $800 total each. So our S3's show June 2000 and May 2002 for their activation dates.

They have been great boxes (and still are) and I wouldn't have upgraded to the Roamio Pro except for the loyalty deal and Comcast's plan to move to MPEG4 (and the increase in cost for lifetime service).

Scott


----------



## HerronScott

Has anyone that ordered their deal via the website gone through the process of picking which existing TiVo you want to use? We've got 2 S3's and 2 HD's with lifetime and there is definitely a specific HD that I want to us for this deal. Unfortunately, I waited until the phone lines were closed today to try and call and place the order so I had to do it via the website. 

Scott


----------



## by-tor

Well crap... My Series 3 HD that I put at my in-laws house last connected to Tivo in Feb or 2016... That was about the time Comcast changed to MPEG4 and made it unusable for a time. I never had it hooked back up and I missed the boat on the transfer. I called and escalated saying I've been a customer for 17 years, and I wanted to spend $600 today (Bolt Plus + transfer fee) but they wouldn't budge.

I did find out that at some point they made the Tivo HD's compatible with MPEG4 though, so at least it can go back into service... Oh well, I guess Tivo doesn't get $600 from me tonight.


----------



## tvmaster2

by-tor said:


> Well crap... My Series 3 HD that I put at my in-laws house last connected to Tivo in Feb or 2016... That was about the time Comcast changed to MPEG4 and made it unusable for a time. I never had it hooked back up and I missed the boat on the transfer. I called and escalated saying I've been a customer for 17 years, and I wanted to spend $600 today (Bolt Plus + transfer fee) but they wouldn't budge.
> 
> I did find out that at some point they made the Tivo HD's compatible with MPEG4 though, so at least it can go back into service... Oh well, I guess Tivo doesn't get $600 from me tonight.


Same here. Missed the window by 23 days, 15 year customer, but they weren't going to budge. Couldn't figure it out for the life of me, since they'd be getting a Series 2 off the market, which is what I thought they wanted. Weird.


----------



## cwerdna

HerronScott said:


> Has anyone that ordered their deal via the website gone through the process of picking which existing TiVo you want to use? We've got 2 S3's and 2 HD's with lifetime and there is definitely a specific HD that I want to us for this deal.


I ended up pulling the trigger on a Bolt+ last night and got no choice. But I really only had 1 qualifying unit, the TiVo HD I'm still using now.

Apparently, the Series 2 that I sold years ago which still showed up under My Account page, But from contacting the buyer, it hasn't connected since 2011. Long story... So, it shouldn't be qualified anyway. He said actually hasn't been using it and said it wouldn't bother him if I took advantage of this offer and deactivated his Series 2.


----------



## wtherrell

HerronScott said:


> Has anyone that ordered their deal via the website gone through the process of picking which existing TiVo you want to use? We've got 2 S3's and 2 HD's with lifetime and there is definitely a specific HD that I want to us for this deal. Unfortunately, I waited until the phone lines were closed today to try and call and place the order so I had to do it via the website.
> 
> Scott


I ended up doing it by phone. I have 3 qualifying units and TiVo had incorrect activation dates for two of them. I gave the CSR the service number of the one I wanted to deactivate and I was told that my preference would be honored. We'll see in a few days.


----------



## pdhenry

tvmaster2 said:


> Couldn't figure it out for the life of me, since they'd be getting a Series 2 off the market, which is what I thought they wanted. Weird.


By not using it for a year you've already pulled it. You've demonstrated it that they can EOL it like they did the S1s and it won't affect you day-to-day.


----------



## danm628

by-tor said:


> I did find out that at some point they made the Tivo HD's compatible with MPEG4 though, so at least it can go back into service...


The switch to Rovi guide data updated the TiVoHD to support MPEG 4. The original Series 3 with OLED display still does not support MPEG 4 since it uses a slightly different chipset.


----------



## Mikeguy

cwerdna said:


> I ended up pulling the trigger on a Bolt+ last night and got no choice. But I really only had 1 qualifying unit, the TiVo HD I'm still using now.
> 
> Apparently, the Series 2 that I sold years ago which still showed up under My Account page, But from contacting the buyer, it hasn't connected since 2011. Long story... So, it shouldn't be qualified anyway. He said actually hasn't been using it and said it wouldn't bother him if I took advantage of this offer and deactivated his Series 2.


Bravo to you: both for getting the offer, and for actually checking with the earlier purchaser.


----------



## Mikeguy

I'm sorry for anyone who did not qualify for the offer, especially long-term, loyal customers and if it was an issue of missing the promotion qualifying period by only a few days.

Part of me can't but wonder, though: TiVo did provide a 1-year qualifying window--it instead could have made it a 3 or 6-month period. Also, at least part of TiVo's seeming goal already was met: those greater-than-1-year boxes already seemingly had been retired.

The part that still concerns me is the long-term, loyal customer aspect of it. But I wonder what TiVo should have done there--such as, have a separate qualifying provision that if one has purchased 3 TiVo boxes in 10 years, one also can retire the oldest that still is in operation and get the deal? (Should the purchase of a single box long ago qualify?) Do other consumer electronics manufacturers do promotions like this? But, I guess, that's a different promotion. Or consider matters ad hoc, as customers with older (unused) boxes call in? That certainly meets a goodwill aspect, but not a goal of retiring older boxes (which already has been met). My assumption is that TiVo considered the various permutations and determined what met its ultimate goals (whatever those might have been--seemingly, the retirement of older boxes was the motivator) as well as what it could sell within the company to get authorization for the promotion.


----------



## bradleys

We go over this every time... TiVo has to set some type of limit, otherwise people will be dragging these out of closets. Not long ago TiVo broadcast the EOL for Series 3 and older machines by not allowing you to purchase a new service contract for them. Mike is correct, they could have set the time period at a much smaller window - a year is pretty generous.


----------



## timckelley

Well, they could have set it to two weeks, and my S2 still would have qualified; we were actively using it on a daily basis.


----------



## Hank

Same here.. My S3 OLED is in daily active service, until I get the Bolt. Just last year I finally transferred PLS from my grandfathered S1 to a Roamio. My Roamio has a service activation date of 2000. 

If anything this promotion has taught people to fire up old PLS boxes at least once every six months.


----------



## waynomo

So I took advantage of this offer yesterday and purchased 2 Bolts. Other than the long hold time it was a very pleasant experience. The sales rep knew what she was doing. She did it quick. She even speed read (sped read?) through the legalese so that I only caught every third word or so which was great as far as I was concerned.

But here's the kicker:

I have two TiVoHDs. Both are in working order, but had been sidelined for various reasons. However, I did plan on using them again and I had actually meant to plug them in and do some stuff with them a couple of weeks ago, but procrastinated. One unit definitely qualified, but just squeaked in under the wire. It had last connected on April 4, 2016. The other unit had last connected to TiVo in January of 2016. (Until I plugged it in several days ago.) However, the rep looked at my account. Read the January date and then proceeded to say that she could still do it. I didn't ask any further questions.*

The TiVoHD that last connected in January of 2016 was my original TiVoHD that I purchased with Lifetime back in January of 2008. So I payed the full ticket price on that one. However, I do feel I got my money's worth out of it and I'm thrilled to be able to transfer my lifetime to a new bolt.

The TiVoHD that last connected in April of 2016 was a used unit that I purchased for basically the cost of shipping. I paid TiVo for a one month of service and was offered lifetime for $99 when I attempted to cancel. it was basically used much like a TiVo Mini for a good part of it's life with me so saved me money on needing a cable box for that TV. (I did eventually get a Mini for that TV and then it did duty working in my office hooked up to my computer monitor) So I definitely got my money's worth out of this guy!!

FWIW, this is extra money for TiVo that they probably would not have seen otherwise as I've been very content using my Roamio and several Minis.

All in all I am a very pleased customer!

*ETA: That type of thing never happens for me!


----------



## leiff

I Ordered early morning on for 4/4 and received an email saying would Ship by 4/10. That being yesterday and still no shipping notice. Just did a TiVo chat and they said anything ordered after April 1st won't ship out till the 21st now


----------



## waynomo

Yeah, April 21st is the shipping date they gave me on the 500 GB Bolt. (Ordered yesterday)

They said they were all sold out of the 1TB Bolt.

The Bolt Plus should ship soon as it was in stock.


----------



## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> I Ordered early morning on for 4/4 and received an email saying would Ship by 4/10. That being yesterday and still no shipping notice. Just did a TiVo chat and they said anything ordered after April 1st won't ship out till the 21st now




(And part of me thinks, an individual rep. just doesn't know--a moving target.)


----------



## Mikeguy

waynomo said:


> So I took advantage of this offer yesterday and purchased 2 Bolts. Other than the long hold time it was a very pleasant experience. The sales rep knew what she was doing. She did it quick. She even speed read (sped read?) through the legalese so that I only caught every third word or so which was great as far as I was concerned.
> 
> But here's the kicker:
> 
> I have two TiVoHDs. Both are in working order, but had been sidelined for various reasons. However, I did plan on using them again and I had actually meant to plug them in and do some stuff with them a couple of weeks ago, but procrastinated. One unit definitely qualified, but just squeaked in under the wire. It had last connected on April 4, 2016. The other unit had last connected to TiVo in January of 2016. (Until I plugged it in several days ago.) However, the rep looked at my account. Read the January date and then proceeded to say that she could still do it. I didn't ask any further questions.*
> 
> The TiVoHD that last connected in January of 2016 was my original TiVoHD that I purchased with Lifetime back in January of 2008. So I payed the full ticket price on that one. However, I do feel I got my money's worth out of it and I'm thrilled to be able to transfer my lifetime to a new bolt.
> 
> The TiVoHD that last connected in April of 2016 was a used unit that I purchased for basically the cost of shipping. I paid TiVo for a one month of service and was offered lifetime for $99 when I attempted to cancel. it was basically used much like a TiVo Mini for a good part of it's life with me so saved me money on needing a cable box for that TV. (I did eventually get a Mini for that TV and then it did duty working in my office hooked up to my computer monitor) So I definitely got my money's worth out of this guy!!
> 
> FWIW, this is extra money for TiVo that they probably would not have seen otherwise as I've been very content using my Roamio and several Minis.
> 
> All in all I am a very pleased customer!
> 
> *ETA: That type of thing never happens for me!


And so, there's discretion and then there's discretion? I guess it's the 2 boxes that did it, with your foot already in the door showing that you're more an "active" customer/user (which kinda, sorta barely makes sense in the circumstances)?


----------



## leiff

hopefully amazon or elsewhere price on bolt goes back down in price a little between now and the 21st for price protection. I'm not sure of my discovers exact policy but if price continues to fall then i can always price match later I'm guessing up to a certain point


----------



## Mikeguy

Hank said:


> Just last year I finally transferred PLS from my grandfathered S1 to a Roamio.


That is pretty awesome, dude--wow!


----------



## Mikeguy

bradleys said:


> Not long ago TiVo *broadcast the EOL *for Series 3 and older machines by not allowing you to purchase a new service contract for them.


Was that what that was? I really had no idea.


----------



## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> hopefully amazon or elsewhere price on bolt goes back down in price a little between now and the 21st for price protection. I'm not sure of my discovers exact policy but if price continues to fall then i can always price match later I'm guessing up to a certain point


You might want to check your policy/call about that. The last time I used price protection with one of my cards, it covered lower prices for up to 60 or 90 days (I forget which) post-purchase--I waited to the end of the period, to see if the price would fall further (collecting the ads that I saw in the meanwhile).


----------



## waynomo

Mikeguy said:


> Was that what that was? I really had no idea.


EOL might be a bit of an overstatement. 18 months ago you could no longer activate a series 3. So if you let your monthly/yearly service lapse your box could not be reactivated.

If you didn't take advantage of this special there's no reason as of now that your box won't continue to work.

(although the handwriting might be on the wall)

Is there any technical reason why a Series 3 shouldn't continue to work?

(as opposed to Series 1 that wouldn't work)


----------



## bradleys

waynomo said:


> EOL might be a bit of an overstatement. 18 months ago you could no longer activate a series 3. So if you let your monthly/yearly service lapse your box could not be reactivated.
> 
> If you didn't take advantage of this special there's no reason as of now that your box won't continue to work.
> 
> (although the handwriting might be on the wall)
> 
> Is there any technical reason why a Series 3 shouldn't continue to work?
> 
> (as opposed to Series 1 that wouldn't work)


Correct - TiVo is aggressively trying to reduce the number of active S3 (and earlier) units from inventory. The first step was restricting reactivation of non-lifetime units and now they are offering a lifetime transfer scheme. These decisions cost TiVo money, so a projected savings has to be calculated into the strategy.

No indication that TiVo is going to stop supporting the S3's in the near future, but don't say you were never warned when the do...


----------



## ABI

Mikeguy said:


> You might want to check your policy/call about that. The last time I used price protection with one of my cards, it covered lower prices for up to 60 or 90 days (I forget which) post-purchase--I waited to the end of the period, to see if the price would fall further (collecting the ads that I saw in the meanwhile).


Then there is the question of when does the post-purchase period begin. When you order the item or when the charge actually goes through? It sounds like many purchases will be "pending" until at least April 21.


----------



## Mikeguy

waynomo said:


> EOL might be a bit of an overstatement. 18 months ago you could no longer activate a series 3. So if you let your monthly/yearly service lapse your box could not be reactivated.
> 
> If you didn't take advantage of this special there's no reason as of now that your box won't continue to work.
> 
> (although the handwriting might be on the wall)
> 
> Is there any technical reason why a Series 3 shouldn't continue to work?
> 
> (as opposed to Series 1 that wouldn't work)





bradleys said:


> Correct - TiVo is aggressively trying to reduce the number of active S3 (and earlier) units from inventory. The first step was restricting reactivation of non-lifetime units and now they are offering a lifetime transfer scheme. These decisions cost TiVo money, so a projected savings has to be calculated into the strategy.
> 
> No indication that TiVo is going to stop supporting the S3's in the near future, but don't say you were never warned when the do...


Interesting. I just never put 2 and 2 together to see the handwriting--flew right over my head. (I'm kinda dense at times and can get set in my ways, and think that TiVo should be supporting my boxes under lifetime through the time of my leaving them to family and friends in my will.)


----------



## Mikeguy

ABI said:


> Then there is the question of when does the post-purchase period begin. When you order the item or when the charge actually goes through? It sounds like many purchases will be "pending" until at least April 21.


I didn't have that issue with my prior purchase protection claims, the purchases were made and charged the same day--you're right, there could be competing dates (the receipt/email date, and the credit card charge date). One could check the specific policy, or might just want to play it safe and use the earliest.


----------



## bradleys

Mikeguy said:


> Interesting. I just never put 2 and 2 together to see the handwriting--flew right over my head. (I'm kinda dense at times and can get set in my ways, and think that TiVo should be supporting my boxes under lifetime through the time of my leaving them to family and friends in my will.)


 That is funny....

I have no idea what the driver will be - but if I had to guess, the S2's / S3's have about 2 years life remaining.

I could be wrong, but that is just my opinion.


----------



## Mikeguy

bradleys said:


> That is funny....
> 
> I have no idea what the driver will be - but if I had to guess, the S2's / S3's have about 2 years life remaining.
> 
> I could be wrong, but that is just my opinion.


In a recent call, I asked the tier 1 rep. why TiVo was doing the S2/3-Bolt promotion, and she told me that the older boxes can't take the new updates. And others have noted the costs of maintaining multiple systems, even where there is limited attention to the old. I can see those reasons--much easier simply to have a single platform.


----------



## waynomo

bradleys said:


> That is funny....
> 
> I have no idea what the driver will be - but if I had to guess, the S2's / S3's have about 2 years life remaining.
> 
> I could be wrong, but that is just my opinion.


The line has been set at 2 years. Who wants the under? Who wants the over?


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> I'm sorry for anyone who did not qualify for the offer, especially long-term, loyal customers and if it was an issue of missing the promotion qualifying period by only a few days.
> 
> Part of me can't but wonder, though: TiVo did provide a 1-year qualifying window--it instead could have made it a 3 or 6-month period. Also, at least part of TiVo's seeming goal already was met: those greater-than-1-year boxes already seemingly had been retired.
> 
> The part that still concerns me is the long-term, loyal customer aspect of it. But I wonder what TiVo should have done there--such as, have a separate qualifying provision that if one has purchased 3 TiVo boxes in 10 years, one also can retire the oldest that still is in operation and get the deal? (Should the purchase of a single box long ago qualify?) Do other consumer electronics manufacturers do promotions like this? But, I guess, that's a different promotion. Or consider matters ad hoc, as customers with older (unused) boxes call in? That certainly meets a goodwill aspect, but not a goal of retiring older boxes (which already has been met). My assumption is that TiVo considered the various permutations and determined what met its ultimate goals (whatever those might have been--seemingly, the retirement of older boxes was the motivator) as well as what it could sell within the company to get authorization for the promotion.


First, when we paid for Lifetime service, where does it say a lifetime based on when Tivo thinks we should plug the unit in? When the hell did it become their business how I use MY unit, bought and paid for?
Second, Tivo should have handled it by saying "if you can get it plugged in, online and up to date in the next 48 hours, then the machine is valid". That would rule out 'landfill' units, or ones hanging on people's accounts long since traded, sold or disposed of.
Sorry Tivo corporate lovers, I bought it, fair and square. I don't remember the original agreement saying if I didn't use it for a preset time period then Lifetime became invalid. Maybe it does say that in the agreement, I just don't remember it 
While I can still use my unit that fell outside their time-window, if they indeed say, six months from now, "Sorry, no more service or listings for Series 2 units", then at that time they better re-offer the same $99 deal, or they'll have a fight from me at least.


----------



## Popasmurf

I ordered a 1 TB Bolt on 4/1. I have not received an e-mail or anything since. I have checked online and my only option is to cancel my order. Every time I call Sales they say they are back ordered. They said it would ship yesterday but it has not. Has anyone who ordered a 1 TB unit ON or AFTER 4/1 had theirs ship or recieved theirs yet?


----------



## timckelley

Mine showed up on my front porch in literally one day after I ordered it, but I think I ordered it on 3/31. I do remember the CSR saying, when I said "maybe I should talk to my wife first and call you back", saying "the faster the better, because these are selling fast, and may sell out". At that point, I made the judgement to order it on the spot. I'm glad I did.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> First, when we paid for Lifetime service, where does it say a lifetime based on when Tivo thinks we should plug the unit in? When the hell did it become their business how I use MY unit, bought and paid for?


I absolutely agree--I paid for my lifetime. But I did not pay for an absolute right to a future TiVo promotion under my terms.


> Second, Tivo should have handled it by saying "if you can get it plugged in, online and up to date in the next 48 hours, then the machine is valid". That would rule out 'landfill' units, or ones hanging on people's accounts long since traded, sold or disposed of.


That's actually an option that I had mentioned earlier. But it doesn't eliminate people pulling old boxes out of garages, basements and attics, long-abandoned and never to see the light of day again.


> Sorry Tivo corporate lovers, I bought it, fair and square. I don't remember the original agreement saying if I didn't use it for a preset time period then Lifetime became invalid. Maybe it does say that in the agreement, I just don't remember it
> While I can still use my unit that fell outside their time-window, if they indeed say, six months from now, "Sorry, no more service or listings for Series 2 units", then at that time they better re-offer the same $99 deal, or they'll have a fight from me at least.


(1. Please don't be insulting with this (insupportable) "Tivo corporate lovers" jazz.)

2. This promotion isn't about the loss of service for old boxes. It's separate and new, about the opportunity to upgrade to a new box under certain circumstances.

3. I don't necessarily disagree with your latter point--along the lines of what I had said, under a certain amount of attack, in a couple of threads here last year as to the dropping of lifetimed Series 1 box customers. Although, even there, I think that people made an interesting point as to damages--TiVo could come back and say, "ok, we'll give you enough money to go out and buy a used, lifetimed (earliest still-supported box model), which still puts you ahead of the game." TiVo also could dispute a claim of a future intention to use a box, and hence any harm, where the box already hasn't been used for years.


----------



## Dan203

waynomo said:


> Is there any technical reason why a Series 3 shouldn't continue to work?


No, they already did the hard work of transitioning the guide data over. Not sure if the S3 units still have any networking features left (i.e. apps, etc...) but if they do it's possible those could all go away.


----------



## 1rickey

Does the warranty start when I connect the Bolt to Tivo or when it's received/purchased? I have an HD that still suits my needs, but feel this offer is a good one(they're still available) & wouldn't connect the Bolt for months to a year from now. Also, I've been getting premium channels from the cable card for years now, but not being charged for it..would the card transfer eliminate that freebie?


----------



## Mikeguy

1rickey said:


> Does the warranty start when I connect the Bolt to Tivo or when it's received/purchased? I have an HD that still suits my needs, but feel this offer is a good one(they're still available) & wouldn't connect the Bolt for months to a year from now.


I had asked TiVo--the latter (although I'm not sure purchased or received).

edit: Looking at my notes, they show a perhaps inconsistent (as TiVo told me): the 30-day satisfaction-guaranteed return period starts when you receive the box; a purchased extended warranty period starts when you purchase the box. From this, I would guess that the "regular" warranty also starts from purchase, as vs. receipt.

And in checking some more, TiVo's written warranty policy uses the purchase (as vs. receipt) date. TiVo® DVR Limited Warranty

And in further checking, the satisfaction-guaranteed policy indeed stems from receipt. https://www.tivo.com/buytivo/popups/windowpopup-30daymoneybackguarantee_ajax.html


----------



## pdhenry

I don't think it's an issue that there are limits to TiVo's willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate the loyalty of someone whose box has been on Lifetime for a decade but not connected in the previous year. It's not as though a 10-year-old box on Lifetime has been doing anything for TiVo"'s bottom line all that time.

This was a big topic of discussion during the time when Lifetime subscription were unavailable.


----------



## pdhenry

tvmaster2 said:


> First, when we paid for Lifetime service, where does it say a lifetime based on when Tivo thinks we should plug the unit in? When the hell did it become their business how I use MY unit, bought and paid for?
> Second, Tivo should have handled it by saying "if you can get it plugged in, online and up to date in the next 48 hours, then the machine is valid". That would rule out 'landfill' units, or ones hanging on people's accounts long since traded, sold or disposed of.
> Sorry Tivo corporate lovers, I bought it, fair and square. I don't remember the original agreement saying if I didn't use it for a preset time period then Lifetime became invalid. Maybe it does say that in the agreement, I just don't remember it
> While I can still use my unit that fell outside their time-window, if they indeed say, six months from now, "Sorry, no more service or listings for Series 2 units", then at that time they better re-offer the same $99 deal, or they'll have a fight from me at least.


Crocodile tears. Your unit will still operate should you get the initiative to plug it in and set it up. You were never promised a transfer of Lifetime to another unit. In fact they were careful to inform you that it's for the life of that particular box.

Based on previous practice there probably will be some token buyout amount should they cease to provide service to your S2/S3.


----------



## timckelley

pdhenry said:


> I don't think it's an issue that there are limits to TiVo's willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate the loyalty of someone whose box has been on Lifetime for a decade but not connected in the previous year. It's not as though a 10-year-old box on Lifetime has been doing anything for TiVo"'s bottom line all that time.
> 
> This was a big topic of discussion during the time when Lifetime subscription were unavailable.


True; at the same time I can see TiVo trying harder to make deals with us lifetimers than with the monthliers because they're already collecting a steady stream of $ from the latter, but it may be in their best interest to find a way for us lifetimers to cough up more $.


----------



## timckelley

pdhenry said:


> Based on previous practice there probably will be some token buyout amount should they cease to provide service to your S2/S3.


Then I better plug in my other retired S2 so it can be on record as having dialed in.


----------



## danm628

Dan203 said:


> No, they already did the hard work of transitioning the guide data over. Not sure if the S3 units still have any networking features left (i.e. apps, etc...) but if they do it's possible those could all go away.


That depends on which S3 you are talking about. The original S3 with OLED does not support MPEG 4. So on Comcast it is no longer supports HD (with a few exceptions for the channels that have been switched yet). It will continue to work OTA though. The TiVoHD does support MPEG 4 and should continue to work for a few more years.

The only network feature I ever used on my S3 OLED was the option to download a rented movie from Amazon to watch instead of streaming it. I used this a lot when it was first offered. I had a slow internet connection at the time and couldn't stream SD reliably much less HD. I would rent a movie at lunch on Friday while on a business trip. Fly home Friday afternoon and the movie would be available to watch when I got home that night. This was turned off by Amazon a few years ago.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> Then I better plug in my other retired S2 so it can be on record as having dialed in.


IMHO, absolutely--things could come back. I thought this when I saw the Series 1 offer last Fall.


----------



## Papageno

I wonder when they're going to make an offer like this that covers Premiere owners with Lifetime. My Premiere is going to be 7 years old this coming December. The core functionality is still pretty good, but it's dog slow when using it with any third-party provider like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Also, 7 years is a long time to be using the same HDD.


----------



## Mikeguy

Papageno said:


> I wonder when they're going to make an offer like this that covers Premiere owners with Lifetime. My Premiere is going to be 7 years old this coming December. The core functionality is still pretty good, but it's dog slow when using it with any third-party provider like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Also, 7 years is a long time to be using the same HDD.


Whatever you do, make sure that it keeps connecting.


----------



## timckelley

Well I like the service we're getting from our Premier, and I'm not sure I'm inclined to upgrade it yet if I have to pay to do so.


----------



## pdhenry

Papageno said:


> Also, 7 years is a long time to be using the same HDD.


My S2 is over 12 years.


----------



## Papageno

pdhenry said:


> My S2 is over 12 years.


Well, you got lucky there. I got my S2 back in October 2002 and had to replace the HDD twice between then and when I got my Premiere in Dec. 2010.


----------



## Dan203

Papageno said:


> I wonder when they're going to make an offer like this that covers Premiere owners with Lifetime. My Premiere is going to be 7 years old this coming December. The core functionality is still pretty good, but it's dog slow when using it with any third-party provider like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Also, 7 years is a long time to be using the same HDD.


I doubt they are. The Premiere is still using the same basic codebase as the Roamio and Bolt, so it's probably not as much of a hassle for them to continue to support them. I'm guessing this deal is an attempt to get most users off of the S2/S3 platform so that they can eventually EOL those units like they did the S1 units.


----------



## pig_man

I just went to the sale page and not only does it look like the sale is still going, you can now select the 1TB Bolt model from the list. I didn't try adding it to the cart, so I can't say for sure if you can actually buy one.


----------



## KyleLC

pig_man said:


> I just went to the sale page and not only does it look like the sale is still going, you can now select the 1TB Bolt model from the list. I didn't try adding it to the cart, so I can't say for sure if you can actually buy one.


You can't. I saw your message and tried it just to see. After you add it to the cart, it shows a message that says "This item is out of stock, please remove the item before the final checkout."


----------



## George Cifranci

Wow, the 500GB Bolt I received today was made 8 days ago on April 3, 2017. That's 2 days after I ordered it. They are made in Mexico.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## krkaufman

George Cifranci said:


> Wow, the 500GB Bolt I received today was made 8 days ago on April 3, 2017. That's 2 days after I ordered it. They are made in Mexico.


Yeesh. Hope they remember to put the hard drive in mine.


----------



## phox_mulder

Dan203 said:


> Not sure if the S3 units still have any networking features left (i.e. apps, etc...) but if they do it's possible those could all go away.


As of now, the S3 (and TiVoHD I think) only have access to Netflix, and that is extremely hobbled.
One of the reasons I jumped on the transfer offer, that and my S3 is over 10 years old, and 10 years slow.

phox


----------



## pdhenry

KyleLC said:


> You can't. I saw your message and tried it just to see. After you add it to the cart, it shows a message that says "This item is out of stock, please remove the item before the final checkout."


 It's definitely letting me check out with a 1 TB unit in my cart. But it did recognize that I've already used my discount code (I only have one qualifying unit) so I'm not going to actually enter my credit card info.

The status for the 1TB on the product page shows as "backordered," the same as the 500 GB model. Last week immediately after I ordered one the 1 TB model completely disappeared from the product page.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> My S2 is over 12 years.


You beat me by half a year. And also with the original hard drive.

I've worn much of the print off the (also original) remote, though.


----------



## krkaufman

Curious, the web page for $99 "Once in a Lifetime" BOLT upgrade sale is still live. Is the sale still ongoing?


----------



## Mikeguy

pig_man said:


> I just went to the sale page and not only does it look like the sale is still going, you can now select the 1TB Bolt model from the list. I didn't try adding it to the cart, so I can't say for sure if you can actually buy one.





KyleLC said:


> You can't. I saw your message and tried it just to see. After you add it to the cart, it shows a message that says "This item is out of stock, please remove the item before the final checkout."


If interested in the 1TB model, you might want to try again--the system just allowed me to add it to my cart. (It shows a full price for lifetime, though, seemingly waiting for the promo code.) The order page before had a "sold out" moniker over the 1TB model order button, and so I would think the absence of that now may indicate that more stock is in. But, who knows--this is TiVo after all.


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> Curious, the web page for $99 "Once in a Lifetime" BOLT upgrade sale is still live. Is the sale still ongoing?


Presumably so--it just let me put a Bolt in my cart, under the promotion. And the earlier-sold-out 1TB model, no less. (But I did not complete the process nor enter in a promo code.)

Ira Bahr did indicate earlier that he thought the promotion would go past April 10--to the last week of the month.


----------



## HerronScott

Dan203 said:


> No, they already did the hard work of transitioning the guide data over. Not sure if the S3 units still have any networking features left (i.e. apps, etc...) but if they do it's possible those could all go away.


Netflix still works (bare bones client) as does Pandora but that's all that's left.

Scott


----------



## HerronScott

HerronScott said:


> Has anyone that ordered their deal via the website gone through the process of picking which existing TiVo you want to use? We've got 2 S3's and 2 HD's with lifetime and there is definitely a specific HD that I want to us for this deal. Unfortunately, I waited until the phone lines were closed today to try and call and place the order so I had to do it via the website.


Called TiVo today and after giving the nice lady all my information and letting her look over the TiVo's on my account for qualifying units ("Boy you have a lot of TiVo's" and we're nothing compared to many users here!), I was able to tell her which one we wanted to use for the upgrade deal by name (and confirming the TSN). She also gave me a case number as well.

Scott


----------



## pdhenry

Mikeguy said:


> I've worn much of the print off the (also original) remote, though.


I've long since relegated the Humax S2 to secondary (and now tertiary) duty, and I picked up a few Direct TV TiVo remotes from Woot or somewhere so all of my remotes still have legible key labels.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> I've long since relegated the Humax S2 to secondary (and now tertiary) duty, and I picked up a few Direct TV TiVo remotes from Woot or somewhere so all of my remotes still have legible key labels.


Mine still is in very active daily duty, although being "slid over" towards retirement. I'm just so used to it (and even though the remote buttons are requiring more force than ever before)--it's sentimental.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> Crocodile tears. Your unit will still operate should you get the initiative to plug it in and set it up. You were never promised a transfer of Lifetime to another unit. In fact they were careful to inform you that it's for the life of that particular box.
> 
> Based on previous practice there probably will be some token buyout amount should they cease to provide service to your S2/S3.


That's all I ask - if they obsolete the machine, and I can understand if they do, then give us options.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> It's definitely letting me check out with a 1 TB unit in my cart. But it did recognize that I've already used my discount code (I only have one qualifying unit) so I'm not going to actually enter my credit card info.
> 
> The status for the 1TB on the product page shows as "backordered," the same as the 500 GB model. Last week immediately after I ordered one the 1 TB model completely disappeared from the product page.


same here - shows as backordered, accepted the code and reduced lifetime from $549 to $99. worth a phone call at dawn tomorrow...


----------



## jsprandel

waynomo said:


> Yeah, April 21st is the shipping date they gave me on the 500 GB Bolt. (Ordered yesterday)
> 
> They said they were all sold out of the 1TB Bolt.
> 
> The Bolt Plus should ship soon as it was in stock.


I wanted to order the 1TB Tivo Bolt and was even willing to wait on backorder, but rep told me it was sold out and no longer available on the transfer of ownership deal - so I bought the 500 GB. Now, a day after the deal expired, you can backorder the Tivo 1TB and/or 500 GB.....


----------



## Mikeguy

jsprandel said:


> I wanted to order the 1TB Tivo Bolt and was even willing to wait on backorder, but rep told me it was sold out and no longer available on the transfer of ownership deal - so I bought the 500 GB. Now, a day after the deal expired, you can backorder the Tivo 1TB and/or 500 GB.....


Personally, I would call TiVo, explain, and see if the old order can be cancelled and the 1TB version ordered. It's just a cheap phone call.  If you do so, please let people here know the result.


----------



## pdhenry

Yeah, you can cancel a backorder at tivo.com, but you should call because the discount code is one-time use.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> Personally, I would call TiVo, explain, and see if the old order can be cancelled and the 1TB version ordered. It's just a cheap phone call.  If you do so, please let people here know the result.


is a 1TB Bolt worth the extra $100? Is it difficult to upgrade yourself, and what does a supported 1tb drive cost?


----------



## skaggs

tvmaster2 said:


> is a 1TB Bolt worth the extra $100? Is it difficult to upgrade yourself, and what does a supported 1tb drive cost?


I paid $115 for a 3TB hard drive.

For $15 more than the 1TB model sold by TiVo, you get 3TB. It is incredibly simple to install. I still don't understand the desire for the 1TB model from TiVo.

There is a thread and video about removing & replacing the hard drive in the Bolt.
=========================================================
EDIT: after researching my Amazon account, I actually paid $135 for the drive, tax included. This same drive is now $149.95 on Amazon. Still, $50 for an additional 2TB is worth it.


----------



## tvmaster2

skaggs said:


> I paid $115 for a 3TB hard drive.
> 
> For $15 more than the 1TB model sold by TiVo, you get 3TB. It is incredibly simple to install. I still don't understand the desire for the 1TB model from TiVo.
> 
> There is a thread and video about removing & replacing the hard drive in the Bolt.
> =========================================================
> EDIT: after researching my Amazon account, I actually paid $135 for the drive, tax included. This same drive is now $149.95 on Amazon. Still, $50 for an additional 2TB is worth it.


Thanks. Think i'll just keep the 500mb I have on order then. Good link too


----------



## Redoctobyr

I did the same thing, ordered the 500GB Bolt, and a 3TB Toshiba MQ03ABB300 drive for about $135 (I actually ended up getting mine on eBay). I'll get triple the space of the 1TB, for about $35 more, and I now also have a 500GB drive that I can use for something else if I want. 

I plan to maybe go through Guided Setup before installing the drive, just to make sure the TiVo is working OK. Then open it up and install the larger drive. I'm getting a CableCard, I'm just not sure if I should register it with the TiVo before installing the new drive. It sounds like sometimes registering a CableCard a second time can cause some trouble.


----------



## Mikeguy

skaggs said:


> I paid $115 for a 3TB hard drive.
> 
> For $15 more than the 1TB model sold by TiVo, you get 3TB. It is incredibly simple to install. I still don't understand the desire for the 1TB model from TiVo.
> 
> There is a thread and video about removing & replacing the hard drive in the Bolt.
> =========================================================
> EDIT: after researching my Amazon account, I actually paid $135 for the drive, tax included. This same drive is now $149.95 on Amazon. Still, $50 for an additional 2TB is worth it.





tvmaster2 said:


> is a 1TB Bolt worth the extra $100? Is it difficult to upgrade yourself, and what does a supported 1tb drive cost?


^ +1 as to everything skaggs says. Threads on this below, including a video showing the hard drive replacement process. The replacement 3TB Toshiba hard drive seems to be a hard drive of choice and a "sweet spot" vis-à-vis cost and amount of storage space.

Upgrading TiVo Bolt to 1TB or higher - instructions?
Tivo Bolt hard drive replacement video

In the end, doing the hard drive replacement yourself: currently, an extra $50 (plus tax) over the TiVo 1TB for an extra 2TB of space--pretty nice. Having said that, some people just aren't comfortable doing a swap themselves, nor may see a need for the additional space.

As to whether one should go up from 500GB to begin with: it all depends on your needs. If you're really only looking at the DVR as temporary storage, e.g. for your week's worth of shows, and are not looking at it for longer storage, then probably, nothing more is needed. Likewise if you only track limited shows. But if you tend to track and store a lot, or like the idea of a video "jukebox," more space always is good.

TiVo told me that its 1TB version is its most popular. Nicely, though, you always can upgrade your 500GB drive later should you later decide it would be beneficial. Note: if you do so and want to save what you've already recorded, you would need to transfer shows you've already recorded to anther TiVo or to a computer, and then back again if you so desire. Also, note that opening your TiVo box likely voids your box's warranty. Having said that, TiVo tends to look the other way as to this unless the consumer calls it to TiVo's attention, and many users will hold on to the original hard drive and put it back in the box in case warranty service is needed. Also, you could wait to do a hard drive replacement until after the 1-year warranty period is up, and decide, at that point, if you need the extra space, based on experience. Just some thoughts and options.


----------



## Hank

So what can we do with these retired S3 HD and OLED units?

They both have good hard drives (from Weaknees). The S3 OLED has a good power supply (replaced caps) I guess I could resell. Is it worth it?


----------



## Mikeguy

Well, you could still watch your already-recorded shows on them. That's pretty much it (and if reselling, I'd make sure people understood that). Sadly, parts and landfill/recycling.  That just seems like such a shame and waste.

Personally, I wish instead that TiVo would just leave them alone, possibly on the acknowledged, express condition that TiVo no longer has any obligation to support them in any way. *Or even better, turn a switch and make them into manual DVR's.* (Note: a forum I visited suggested that one could do that oneself, by taking a box off any network prior to deactivation--no more calling in. An issue, though, with the clock: it can't be manually adjusted, e.g. for Daylight Saving Time or the inevitable clock drift.)


----------



## aaronwt

Redoctobyr said:


> I did the same thing, ordered the 500GB Bolt, and a 3TB Toshiba MQ03ABB300 drive for about $135 (I actually ended up getting mine on eBay). I'll get triple the space of the 1TB, for about $35 more, and I now also have a 500GB drive that I can use for something else if I want.
> 
> I plan to maybe go through Guided Setup before installing the drive, just to make sure the TiVo is working OK. Then open it up and install the larger drive. I'm getting a CableCard, I'm just not sure if I should register it with the TiVo before installing the new drive. It sounds like sometimes registering a CableCard a second time can cause some trouble.


If the cable is card is paired, when you replace the hard drive you will lose pairing.


----------



## aaronwt

Hank said:


> So what can we do with these retired S3 HD and OLED units?
> 
> They both have good hard drives (from Weaknees). The S3 OLED has a good power supply (replaced caps) I guess I could resell. Is it worth it?


I'm trashing mine along with the hard drives. The 1TB drives I have in them are ten years old.


----------



## Hank

Speaking of which, I have a single stream cable card in my S3.. will I be able to just plop that into the Bolt and have it work? Or do I have to go through customer support hell with Verizon FIOS to re-provision it?


----------



## Hank

aaronwt said:


> I'm trashing mine along with the hard drives. The 1TB drives I have in them are ten years old.


It's like throwing away a piece of art!


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> Speaking of which, *I have a single stream cable card* in my S3.. will I be able to just plop that into the Bolt and have it work? Or do I have to go through customer support hell with Verizon FIOS to re-provision it?


You'll need a Multi-Stream CableCARD.


----------



## Dr_Zoidberg

krkaufman said:


> Curious, the web page for $99 "Once in a Lifetime" BOLT upgrade sale is still live. Is the sale still ongoing?


I never got this email offer. I'll probably call them up when I'm at home and have my CC ready. However, the promo code is missing from the page now. What is it? I want to try to get a 3TB unit.


----------



## krkaufman

Dr_Zoidberg said:


> I never got this email offer. I'll probably call them up when I'm at home and have my CC ready. However, the promo code is missing from the page now. What is it? I want to try to get a 3TB unit.


If you have a qualifying device and the promo is still live, TiVo should be able to check your account and authorize the promo upgrade via the phone, sans code.

I didn't use/need a code when I called-in; the qualifying unit on the account was sufficient.


----------



## Dr_Zoidberg

krkaufman said:


> I didn't use/need a code when I called-in; the qualifying unit on the account was sufficient.


Thanks. I have an S2DT that I turned off earlier this year, and it's still listed on their site under my account, so I'll be using that one. If not, I have an S3HD in the master bedroom and a Premiere XL4 if it really comes to that. They all have Lifetime, so I hope I won't get an argument.


----------



## timckelley

I don't think your Premiere will be eligible.


----------



## Hank

krkaufman said:


> You'll need a Multi-Stream CableCARD.


Do I *need* a multi-stream card, or will a single stream card still work and I'll just get one tuner? (which is fine).


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> Do I *need* a multi-stream card, or will a single stream card still work and I'll just get one tuner? (which is fine).


You *need* the Multi-Stream card, at least if you aren't looking to supply evidence for the other side in a commitment hearing.


----------



## Hank

krkaufman said:


> You *need* the Multi-Stream card, at least if you aren't looking to supply evidence for the other side in a commitment hearing.


I'm not getting what you're saying.


----------



## Dan203

I believe the single stream will work, but the TiVo will complain about it. Since you have to repair it to the new TiVo anyway (you can't just move it over and have it work) you might as well just get a multistream card.


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> I'm not getting what you're saying.


I believe someone was suggesting that you would be literally crazy, providing evidence for that argument, not to get a Multi-Stream card for the BOLT.


----------



## Hank

krkaufman said:


> I believe someone was suggesting that you would be literally crazy, providing evidence for that argument, not to get a Multi-Stream card for the BOLT.


Ok, I can explain. I have a home office that I work in during the day. I go home to my real house every night where I have a Roamio basic and Mini. 4 tuners there is plenty for me and the wife. But at my office, I just watch TV/Tivo while eating lunch. I have a few SPs set up so it records a few things I like to watch without cluttering up the Roamio at home. But I really don't need two (or more) tuners for that location. I mean, as it is now, I have an S3 with just one cable card because I didn't want to have to pay Verizon $60/year for a second one that I'd never really use.

eta:It's going to suck if VerizonFIOS charges me extra for an M-card over the single stream card I have now.


----------



## skaggs

Received the 500GB Bolt this afternoon that I ordered on April 1st.

On the bottom of the Bolt, the sticker states, "MADE IN MEXICO, 01-Apr-17"


----------



## aaronwt

Hank said:


> Ok, I can explain. I have a home office that I work in during the day. I go home to my real house every night where I have a Roamio basic and Mini. 4 tuners there is plenty for me and the wife. But at my office, I just watch TV/Tivo while eating lunch. I have a few SPs set up so it records a few things I like to watch without cluttering up the Roamio at home. But I really don't need two (or more) tuners for that location. I mean, as it is now, I have an S3 with just one cable card because I didn't want to have to pay Verizon $60/year for a second one that I'd never really use.
> 
> eta:It's going to suck if VerizonFIOS charges me extra for an M-card over the single stream card I have now.


The cable card is still $5.

I had to pick up a new one this morning because the tech last night screwed up the CC in the system when I moved it and tried to get it repaired. It was a tech outside of the US and he was reading a script. And like a dumbass I didn't hang up. So later I went to chat with a US tech and it was hosed. She couldn't get it to work. So I turned in the old one and picked up a new one when they opened at 10AM.

Monday night I moved my first cable card and got a tech from the US on the phone that knew what they were doing. So it got moved and repaired without much difficulty.
Hopefully the new one I got has no problems since I can use the automated system with the new card. And in the past the automated system has typically worked without any issues. Unfortunate you can't use it on a card you already have.


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> eta:It's going to suck if VerizonFIOS charges me extra for an M-card over the single stream card I have now.


I'm not a FiOS customer so I can't provide any insight on their billing procedures. My expectation is that you would swap the Single-Stream CableCARD for a Multi-Stream card and would be charged the same by FiOS for the privilege.

If you're not being charged for your current card owing to some oversight on the part of FiOS and are concerned that swapping for a Multi-Stream card will wake the FiOS Billing Giant, then I understand.


----------



## Dan203

Hank said:


> Ok, I can explain. I have a home office that I work in during the day. I go home to my real house every night where I have a Roamio basic and Mini. 4 tuners there is plenty for me and the wife. But at my office, I just watch TV/Tivo while eating lunch. I have a few SPs set up so it records a few things I like to watch without cluttering up the Roamio at home. But I really don't need two (or more) tuners for that location. I mean, as it is now, I have an S3 with just one cable card because I didn't want to have to pay Verizon $60/year for a second one that I'd never really use.
> 
> eta:It's going to suck if VerizonFIOS charges me extra for an M-card over the single stream card I have now.


That's the whole point of the M card. 1 card gets you up to 6 tuners. So you don't have to pay extra for each tuner.


----------



## Hank

Oh, I'm being charged for one card, but the last time I asked for an M-card, I was pretty sure it was more than an S-card... but that was years ago.


----------



## Hank

Dan203 said:


> That's the whole point of the M card. 1 card gets you up to 6 tuners. So you don't have to pay extra for each tuner.


Yeah, I know that's the point of an M-card... but AFAIK there's no reason Verizon couldn't charge more for an M-card because it is providing you with up to 6 tuners over just one.


----------



## Dan203

Hank said:


> Yeah, I know that's the point of an M-card... but AFAIK there's no reason Verizon couldn't charge more for an M-card because it is providing you with up to 6 tuners over just one.


The law prevents that. The law actually has provisions on how much they can charge for the card. This is why Comcast and Verizon use "outlet fees" to jack up the prices for any cards beyond the first one. Because they are limited by law on how much they can charge for the card itself.


----------



## wtherrell

Hank said:


> I'm not getting what you're saying.


Translation : Use multi stream card. You'd be crazy not to.


----------



## aaronwt

Hank said:


> Yeah, I know that's the point of an M-card... but AFAIK there's no reason Verizon couldn't charge more for an M-card because it is providing you with up to 6 tuners over just one.


They don't. Whether a Single Stream card or a Multi-Stream card, FiOS charges the same $4.99 a month fee.

Although I do wish it was still $2.99. Back then I had eight cable cards when I was using three Series 3 Boxes on FiOS with two SS cards each, a TiVo HD on FiOS with a MS card, and a TiVo HD on Comcast with a Multi-stream card.


----------



## Redoctobyr

Learning about CableCards in the last week was part of what made me plan on buying a single Bolt and a Mini, to replace my pair of Series 2s. Comcast will charge more if I'm using CableCards in two TiVos. And 4 tuners in a single Bolt (effectively 3, if using a Mini) is enough for me. I'm used to just having 2 total, managed separately. So using a single Bolt should help reduce my monthly bill. 

From what I understand, using a CableCard also seems to avoid the $10/month they were going to add to my plan for HD service to just a TV.


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> Oh, I'm being charged for one card, but the last time I asked for an M-card, I was pretty sure it was more than an S-card... but that was years ago.


Simple enough... what are you being charged for your current S-Card? (And someone else can pipe-in with their M-Card cost.)


----------



## JoeKustra

Motorola M-card $2.95/mo


----------



## krkaufman

aaronwt said:


> They don't. Whether a Single Stream card or a Multi-Stream card, FiOS charges the same $4.99 a month fee.
> 
> Although I do wish it was still $2.99. ...





JoeKustra said:


> Motorola M-card $2.95/mo


Is that on FiOS, @JoeKustra ?


----------



## DrewTivo

krkaufman said:


> Simple enough... what are you being charged for your current S-Card? (And someone else can pipe-in with their M-Card cost.)


Verizon M-card is $4.99 for me as well (Washington DC area)


----------



## JoeKustra

krkaufman said:


> Is that on FiOS, @JoeKustra ?


Nope. www.secv.com which is a small company that knows cable cards. Heck, it even used to publish its clear QAM channels way back when they were clear.


----------



## jrtroo

skaggs said:


> Received the 500GB Bolt this afternoon that I ordered on April 1st.
> 
> On the bottom of the Bolt, the sticker states, "MADE IN MEXICO, 01-Apr-17"


Got mine today after ordering on April 2nd and found the mfr date to be April 3rd.

I'm waiting to install until I get my 3TB Toshiba drive from Amazon tomorrow. It looks like the preferred drive (MQ03ABB300) also comes installed in a portable drive (HDTB330XK3CA) for about $50 less, so I'll be tearing that down and hoping to get a little lucky.


----------



## krkaufman

jrtroo said:


> It looks like the preferred drive (MQ03ABB300) also comes installed in a portable drive (HDTB330XK3CA) for about $50 less, so I'll be tearing that down and hoping to get a little lucky.


Do please let us know how that works out, as I'd like to upgrade the drive in my ordered BOLT DVR, but $150 is a bit steep. I was going to start shopping around to see what a recommended 2TB drive might be going for, as a compromise.

I'll have to find & subscribe to the BOLT HDD upgrade threads.


----------



## lpvp

Cisco/Scientific Atlanta M-card $2.50/mth (Spectrum San Diego)


----------



## Dr_Zoidberg

krkaufman said:


> If you have a qualifying device and the promo is still live, TiVo should be able to check your account and authorize the promo upgrade via the phone, sans code.
> 
> I didn't use/need a code when I called-in; the qualifying unit on the account was sufficient.


If someone had supplied the code, I'd have ordered through the website.

Anyway, I just got off the phone with them. I didn't realize, but my S2 DT hasn't connected to the TiVo service since early March of 2016, and is therefore ineligible for this. They wouldn't let me use it for the trade-in, even if I plugged it in now and connected, I guess it had to do with this eligibility window. I'm not so bothered by that because I seriously haven't used it for any recording in over a year. It was only there in case I wanted/needed to record or play anything else, but I don't use that TV as a TV, really, it's got an HDMI connection that I've been using as a computer monitor. I even returned the cable box it was using, so that's that. My S3 HD is eligible, so I did use that for the upgrade. I barely use it to record anything, anyway. My plan was to move the Premiere XL4 to the master BR to replace the S3 HD and put the Bolt in the living room.

In any case, the sales rep said all but the 3TB models were on backorder, but in theory that'll change "within the hour", so you may be able to order the lesser models again. I placed the order for the 3TB, so I guess I'll see it soon enough.

I'll bet they extended the offer because of the backorder situation.

Apparently I opted out of receiving email offers, at least that explains why I didn't get the email.

I should reconnect the S2DT back up and see if it'll connect. I guess could sell it if the Lifetime's still good on it.


----------



## tbauer

Just picked up a 500g Bolt for $199 plus lifetime transfer for $99, Backordered, but I can wait!!!


----------



## pdhenry

If you look upthread there was a mix of expiration days (email said 4/10, website said ~4/28 somewhere) from the outset.


----------



## phox_mulder

Hank said:


> So what can we do with these retired S3 HD and OLED units?
> 
> They both have good hard drives (from Weaknees). The S3 OLED has a good power supply (replaced caps) I guess I could resell. Is it worth it?


Pretty sure once service has been removed from the units, TiVo won't let anyone, including you, add any kind of plan, so it won't really be worth anything to sell them, except maybe for parts.

phox


----------



## Hank

Yeah, I know they're door-stops once de-activated. It just feels wrong to just junk it. I was hoping there was someone doing something beneficial with the carcases. 

Guess not.


----------



## Redoctobyr

jrtroo said:


> I'm waiting to install until I get my 3TB Toshiba drive from Amazon tomorrow. It looks like the preferred drive (MQ03ABB300) also comes installed in a portable drive (HDTB330XK3CA) for about $50 less, so I'll be tearing that down and hoping to get a little lucky.


Wow, yeah, please let us know! If it's the same model number drive, that would be great. And an excellent discovery, since I don't recall seeing that mentioned in my reading about HD upgrades. My 
MQ03ABB300 just arrived this evening. But the combination of lower cost, and also getting an external case and disk interface, would be a nice deal!


----------



## Dan203

Yeah you might get someone to pay you for the power supply, but that's it. The rest of the unit is a boat anchor.


----------



## Dan203

Hank said:


> Yeah, I know they're door-stops once de-activated. It just feels wrong to just junk it. I was hoping there was someone doing something beneficial with the carcases.
> 
> Guess not.


If it's the original OLED one maybe you could rip the guts out and build an HTPC in the case that actually uses the OLED display. That might be kind of cool.


----------



## cwerdna

I'm rather annoyed that the 1 TB Bolt is now available after the offer "deadline". I ended up paying big $ and ordering the Bolt+.


Mikeguy said:


> Bravo to you: both for getting the offer, and for actually checking with the earlier purchaser.


Actually. I was able to reach him (which was a concern since his email was an @aol.com address) but since it hasn't connected since 2011, it seems unlikely that TiVo will let me deactivate that guy. I think it's almost certain that they'll deactivate my TiVo HD, which is ok. I planned on that anyway.


skaggs said:


> I paid $115 for a 3TB hard drive.
> 
> For $15 more than the 1TB model sold by TiVo, you get 3TB. It is incredibly simple to install. I still don't understand the desire for the 1TB model from TiVo.
> 
> There is a thread and video about removing & replacing the hard drive in the Bolt.
> =========================================================
> EDIT: after researching my Amazon account, I actually paid $135 for the drive, tax included. This same drive is now $149.95 on Amazon. Still, $50 for an additional 2TB is worth it.


Hopefully you got a Toshiba MQ03ABB300. From all my digging around a few days ago, that's probably the only currently sold internal drive that actually will continue working on a TiVo Bolt.


Redoctobyr said:


> I did the same thing, ordered the 500GB Bolt, and a 3TB Toshiba MQ03ABB300 drive for about $135 (I actually ended up getting mine on eBay). I'll get triple the space of the 1TB, for about $35 more, and I now also have a 500GB drive that I can use for something else if I want.


Hope that drive holds up. So far, that seems to be the only one that's generally holding up, from what I gathered. Seems like most of the other 2.5" drives from the likes of Seagate Samsung were getting killed within a few months, esp. the SMR drives.

I was thinking about getting the 500 gig and either getting that Toshiba drive or an external enclosure and an external 3.5". But, then I wasn't too keen about voiding the warranty early on or waiting until a certain point (e.g. 90 days) to void it. I'm not sure how reliable these Bolts are. And, I'm concerned about reliability of the MQ03ABB300 or external enclosure or whether any software updates will break unsupported drives (never was an issue in the Series 1 and 2 days, and didn't seem that way w/the 3 either). I would just HATE to lose all my recordings and be futzing around w/no TV and no TiVo until I get replacement parts/fix stuff.

I ended up paying the $40 for the 3-year extended warranty


----------



## Mikeguy

cwerdna said:


> I'm rather annoyed that the 1 TB Bolt is now available after the offer "deadline". I ended up paying big $ and ordering the Bolt+.


If this is an issue, you might consider telephoning TiVo and asking to return the Bolt+, "swapping" it for the 1TB and with a $ credit back to you. You never know 'til you ask.


----------



## skaggs

jrtroo said:


> It looks like the preferred drive (MQ03ABB300) also comes installed in a portable drive (HDTB330XK3CA) for about $50 less.


I never considered even looking at the portable drives before reading your post.

Toshiba MQ03ABB300 2.5 3TB 5400RPM SATA: $149.95

Toshiba Canvio Basics 3TB Portable Hard Drive (HDTB330XK3CA): $94.66

I'm considering returning the MQ03ABB300 and getting the HDTB330XK3CA.


----------



## V7Goose

Not all drives in portable cases are usable when removed. I do not remember the exact details, but I recall information about some larger WD 2.5" drives in portable cases that did not have normal SATA connectors (I believe this was the same WD 3TB drive used in the Bolt+, but without the normal connector). I'd either do more research on the Toshiba, or wait for someone else who already ordered one to report back.

Even if it is a "normal" drive, you want to make sure it is the exact same model number as the one being recommended for the Bolt - that is NOT a laptop drive (it is rated for NAS use instead of laptop).


----------



## jrtroo

My research shows it will likely be the same retail drive, there are teardowns out there on YouTube. I've done this before a few years ago when upgrading some premiers and on my old whs box, so I'm hoping to strike gold again today. I'll update once I get it open, hopefully tonight.


----------



## aaronwt

cwerdna said:


> I'm rather annoyed that the 1 TB Bolt is now available after the offer "deadline". I ended up paying big $ and ordering the Bolt+.
> Actually. I was able to reach him (which was a concern since his email was an @aol.com address) but since it hasn't connected since 2011, it seems unlikely that TiVo will let me deactivate that guy. I think it's almost certain that they'll deactivate my TiVo HD, which is ok. I planned on that anyway.
> 
> Hopefully you got a Toshiba MQ03ABB300. From all my digging around a few days ago, that's probably the only currently sold internal drive that actually will continue working on a TiVo Bolt.
> 
> Hope that drive holds up. So far, that seems to be the only one that's generally holding up, from what I gathered. Seems like most of the other 2.5" drives from the likes of Seagate Samsung were getting killed within a few months, esp. the SMR drives.
> 
> I was thinking about getting the 500 gig and either getting that Toshiba drive or an external enclosure and an external 3.5". But, then I wasn't too keen about voiding the warranty early on or waiting until a certain point (e.g. 90 days) to void it. I'm not sure how reliable these Bolts are. And, I'm concerned about reliability of the MQ03ABB300 or external enclosure or whether any software updates will break unsupported drives (never was an issue in the Series 1 and 2 days, and didn't seem that way w/the 3 either). I would just HATE to lose all my recordings and be futzing around w/no TV and no TiVo until I get replacement parts/fix stuff.
> 
> I ended up paying the $40 for the 3-year extended warranty


I had considered getting the Bolt+, but for the same price I got two of the 500GB lots. Giving me eight tuners and the ability to use it with OTA if I need to. Which will hopefully increase the life of its usefulness. Plus I had the two 4TB drives in my existing Bolts on yearly subscription. So they got moved over to the lifetime Bolts. And I really have no other use for the 4TB, 2.5" drives other than in the Bolts.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


----------



## jamesrob

They should call this lifetime service transfer offer the lifetime WAIT FOR SERVICE offer. My TiVo 3/TiVo HD began rebooting randomly about a month ago. On this forum I speculated that the problem might be a failing external or internal drive, and some agreed. However, some of the reboots happened when the DVR really wasn't doing anything except acting as the tuner for my Comcast Cable live TV. I was told to try manually rebooting the TV and investigating with some command line software from Weaknees, which I couldn't activate, possibly because I no longer have my TiVo remote (I'm using a programmable remote that came with my Bose Home Theater system).

Ultimately, I decided the best route for me was to purchase a new TiVo before mine failed completely, so bought a Bolt 1TB unit at Best Buy. Wandering through incoming mail on my iPhone while my wife drove us home, I discovered the "Transfer your lifetime service" offer. So, as soon as I arrived home I tried to do just that with my new box. No Go (there's no place to enter the offer code on the "activate your new TiVo box" webpage. So, I called TiVo support (answered reasonably quickly). I learned that only TiVo Bolts purchased directly from TiVo would qualify.

So, I returned my brand new Bolt and ordered directly from TiVo on a Saturday evening. The person who took my order was VERY knowledgeable, and during the ordering process he told me it was most likely the DC power supply that was failing, because exhausted or worn out capacitors could overload the microcircuitry 

He told me my new unit would ship by FedEx ground on April 1st and arrive on April 6, that I'd receive an email with tracking number when the order was processed, and that TiVo was very impressed by the service FedEx ground was offering its customers in comparison to their previous shipping partner, UPS.

April 6 came and went. In the interim, our TiVo box went from "seriously ill" to "life support" status. Sometimes it wouldn't even complete its boot process, and when it did, it would stay up less than 30 minutes. We're on Comcast cable, but don't rent a cable box from them because the TiVo has been our tuner for a decade of "no rent charges" cable TV watching/recording.

On April 6, I called TiVo again, waited longer for someone to answer, only to be told "we're so busy; we didn't understand how many of our customers were just waiting for us to do something like this. Orders coming in now will have to wait for new units to come in from manufacturing, but don't worry, they ship in the order that the order was placed, and we have units in stock that include your order, which will ship on the 10th.

Now its the 12th. Still no email from TiVo. So, I called sales support again and waited a LONG time (about 30 minutes) before reaching a person. He reiterated the story about the overwhelming response to the offer (which I'd also been told was made ONLY to select customers who'd been with TiVo a long time and had units with problematic software or hardware issues). He also added that TiVo was in a backorder situation for these units. I JUMPED on that and pointed out that TWO prior sales people had told me TiVo had sufficient inventory to ship mine as soon as their shipping staff reached my order in the Queue. He backtracked and said he meant to say there was a shipping window of April 10 to April 21 and that there still was stock available to ship my unit.

He had nothing intelligent to say about a high tech 21st century company that sells about a dozen different products but can't seem to ship them without a lag time of approximately a month! As had the other two agents, he told me that I could not change my order to expedited shipping (which, as previously, I offered to pay whatever charge was attached). He said I could "call back" if I didn't receive my shipping email by April 21.

I've had TiVo service for over a decade. Up until now, I've been pleased with it. But this nonsense is ridiculous, especially coming at a time when there are so many "cut the cable cord" services competing for my dollar.


----------



## Redoctobyr

jrtroo said:


> My research shows it will likely be the same retail drive, there are teardowns out there on YouTube. I've done this before a few years ago when upgrading some premiers and on my old whs box, so I'm hoping to strike gold again today. I'll update once I get it open, hopefully tonight.


Thanks, looking forward to hearing what you find.

I hadn't realized the commonly-suggested Toshiba drive is NAS-rated. That's good, I guess. If you find the same drive within the case, I'll have to decide whether to return my unopened internal drive  I'd likely end up just using it anyhow. But my Bolt hasn't shipped yet (despite the website saying to expect it today, on the 13th, when I ordered on the 8th), so I may have time available.

Doing a bit more reading since ordering my drive, I'm slightly surprised that more people don't seem to use a cable and a larger 3.5" drive. More storage, lower drive cost, and you'd also keep some of the heat outside of the Bolt case. But I haven't looked at exactly how that would work, maybe it's quite awkward to use the drive externally, or maybe the perception is it will look ugly. And I wonder if powering a larger 3.5" drive might risk overloading the unit's power supply.


----------



## Mikeguy

jamesrob said:


> They should call this lifetime service transfer offer the lifetime WAIT FOR SERVICE offer. My TiVo 3/TiVo HD began rebooting randomly about a month ago. On this forum I speculated that the problem might be a failing external or internal drive, and some agreed. However, some of the reboots happened when the DVR really wasn't doing anything except acting as the tuner for my Comcast Cable live TV. I was told to try manually rebooting the TV and investigating with some command line software from Weaknees, which I couldn't activate, possibly because I no longer have my TiVo remote (I'm using a programmable remote that came with my Bose Home Theater system).
> 
> Ultimately, I decided the best route for me was to purchase a new TiVo before mine failed completely, so bought a Bolt 1TB unit at Best Buy. Wandering through incoming mail on my iPhone while my wife drove us home, I discovered the "Transfer your lifetime service" offer. So, as soon as I arrived home I tried to do just that with my new box. No Go (there's no place to enter the offer code on the "activate your new TiVo box" webpage. So, I called TiVo support (answered reasonably quickly). I learned that only TiVo Bolts purchased directly from TiVo would qualify.
> 
> So, I returned my brand new Bolt and ordered directly from TiVo on a Saturday evening. The person who took my order was VERY knowledgeable, and during the ordering process he told me it was most likely the DC power supply that was failing, because exhausted or worn out capacitors could overload the microcircuitry
> 
> He told me my new unit would ship by FedEx ground on April 1st and arrive on April 6, that I'd receive an email with tracking number when the order was processed, and that TiVo was very impressed by the service FedEx ground was offering its customers in comparison to their previous shipping partner, UPS.
> 
> April 6 came and went. In the interim, our TiVo box went from "seriously ill" to "life support" status. Sometimes it wouldn't even complete its boot process, and when it did, it would stay up less than 30 minutes. We're on Comcast cable, but don't rent a cable box from them because the TiVo has been our tuner for a decade of "no rent charges" cable TV watching/recording.
> 
> On April 6, I called TiVo again, waited longer for someone to answer, only to be told "we're so busy; we didn't understand how many of our customers were just waiting for us to do something like this. Orders coming in now will have to wait for new units to come in from manufacturing, but don't worry, they ship in the order that the order was placed, and we have units in stock that include your order, which will ship on the 10th.
> 
> Now its the 12th. Still no email from TiVo. So, I called sales support again and waited a LONG time (about 30 minutes) before reaching a person. He reiterated the story about the overwhelming response to the offer (which I'd also been told was made ONLY to select customers who'd been with TiVo a long time and had units with problematic software or hardware issues). He also added that TiVo was in a backorder situation for these units. I JUMPED on that and pointed out that TWO prior sales people had told me TiVo had sufficient inventory to ship mine as soon as their shipping staff reached my order in the Queue. He backtracked and said he meant to say there was a shipping window of April 10 to April 21 and that there still was stock available to ship my unit.
> 
> He had nothing intelligent to say about a high tech 21st century company that sells about a dozen different products but can't seem to ship them without a lag time of approximately a month! As had the other two agents, he told me that I could not change my order to expedited shipping (which, as previously, I offered to pay whatever charge was attached). He said I could "call back" if I didn't receive my shipping email by April 21.
> 
> I've had TiVo service for over a decade. Up until now, I've been pleased with it. But this nonsense is ridiculous, especially coming at a time when there are so many "cut the cable cord" services competing for my dollar.


I agree, the wait can be infuriating and TiVo should be taking a more proactive stance here in keeping its customers informed, _especially when it sent out emails before to some purchasers saying that boxes were shipping on April 10 (which has come and gone, without shipments being made or any status updates)._

But: TiVo was hammered by this. And they will come (or _that _will be the major issue).


----------



## lynncosbm

Redoctobyr said:


> Thanks, looking forward to hearing what you find.
> 
> I hadn't realized the commonly-suggested Toshiba drive is NAS-rated. That's good, I guess. If you find the same drive within the case, I'll have to decide whether to return my unopened internal drive  I'd likely end up just using it anyhow. But my Bolt hasn't shipped yet (despite the website saying to expect it today, on the 13th, when I ordered on the 8th), so I may have time available.
> 
> Doing a bit more reading since ordering my drive, I'm slightly surprised that more people don't seem to use a cable and a larger 3.5" drive. More storage, lower drive cost, and you'd also keep some of the heat outside of the Bolt case. But I haven't looked at exactly how that would work, maybe it's quite awkward to use the drive externally, or maybe the perception is it will look ugly. And I wonder if powering a larger 3.5" drive might risk overloading the unit's power supply.


My brother has agreed to upgrade the HD on my new 500 GB Bolt when it arrives and I'm planning to get the Toshiba one that has been recommended but he mentioned that possibility. I said I'd never heard of anyone doing it so wasn't sure if it would work. So I'm interested in that possibility and whether anyone has tried it already.


----------



## dark54555

Also in the "ordered and waiting" camp. Placed an order for a 1TB model on 4/2 (evening). At that time, they still showed in stock online, and my order confirmation said delivery by 4/6/2016.

When I saw nothing, I called on 4/7. I was told then it would ship no later than 4/21. Haven't tried to check back (seeing what everyone else is reporting), so I guess we'll see if it ships in the next 8 days as they said. Annoying, but at least this isn't replacing an already failed mission critical box. I'm taking the lifetime of a Series 2 I bought in 2003 (on its second HD and second power supply, but still functional) that was going to be retired soon anyway since it's not terribly functional with Time Warner's move to all digital. It will likely replace a Premier as the main box in the house, with a cascade effect on the other two boxes we use the most (Premier moves to secondary status, Tivo HD moves to a 3rd home). 

I was considering upgrading two, to replace both the Series 2 units I still have, but decided I'd try a Bolt before committing to both. My guess is they'll do this again before the end of the year, considering how popular it was.


----------



## aaronwt

Redoctobyr said:


> Thanks, looking forward to hearing what you find.
> 
> I hadn't realized the commonly-suggested Toshiba drive is NAS-rated. That's good, I guess. If you find the same drive within the case, I'll have to decide whether to return my unopened internal drive  I'd likely end up just using it anyhow. But my Bolt hasn't shipped yet (despite the website saying to expect it today, on the 13th, when I ordered on the 8th), so I may have time available.
> 
> Doing a bit more reading since ordering my drive, I'm slightly surprised that more people don't seem to use a cable and a larger 3.5" drive. More storage, lower drive cost, and you'd also keep some of the heat outside of the Bolt case. But I haven't looked at exactly how that would work, maybe it's quite awkward to use the drive externally, or maybe the perception is it will look ugly. And I wonder if powering a larger 3.5" drive might risk overloading the unit's power supply.


When using a 3.5" drive it is powered by an external case. But to use it you need to modify the case. For me, I want to be able to easily sell the box without any permanent modifcations.


----------



## TIVO_GUY_HERE

only reason I kept my s3 around is I was able to transfer to PC/Phone all cable channels, unlike Bolt and premiere, that only allows ( for me anyway) to d/L broadcast channels.
But that has changed, I can now download most everything I would want from bolt, so I jumped at the deal 
Also saves me from renting a cable converter thingy from spectrum.


----------



## krkaufman

TIVO_GUY_HERE said:


> only reason I kept my s3 around is I was able to transfer to PC/Phone all cable channels, unlike Bolt and premiere, that only allows ( for me anyway) to d/L broadcast channels. ... But that has changed, I can now download most everything I would want from bolt, so I jumped at the deal also saves me from renting a cable converter thingy from spectrum.


So you've verified that your cable provider isn't copy-protecting any of your cable content? I have to believe that they're at least protecting premium channels.


----------



## JoeKustra

krkaufman said:


> So you've verified that your cable provider isn't copy-protecting any of your cable content? I have to believe that they're at least protecting premium channels.


Sorry to be an exception, but my feed doesn't apply copy protection to anything. I was surprised too. But it could change at any time, even by accident. I still receive two clear QAM channels. Small company.


----------



## jrtroo

V7Goose said:


> Not all drives in portable cases are usable when removed.


I looked back at the videos, and the more recent ones show that Toshiba has gone in this direction along with WD.  
Confirmation forthcoming.


----------



## delgadobb

V7Goose said:


> Not all drives in portable cases are usable when removed. I do not remember the exact details, but I recall information about some larger WD 2.5" drives in portable cases that did not have normal SATA connectors (I believe this was the same WD 3TB drive used in the Bolt+, but without the normal connector). I'd either do more research on the Toshiba, or wait for someone else who already ordered one to report back.


Here's an example, I'd love to hear if anyone has found adapters/connectors to allow usage. I found a couple 2 TB WD MyPassport for Mac drives for a deal. The interface is part of the PCB board attached to the drive rather than regular SATA. This is the drive inside:


This is what the connector looks like - it's USB3, looks like a MicroUSB with a sidecar, same kind of connector as my Samsung Galaxy Note phone:


I'm going to try to install this in one of the 500G Bolts I just ordered, open to suggestions. I'd think SOMEBODY makes cables and/or adapters to allow it to connect to SATA in the Bolt. I'll keep TCF updated as I learn more ...

FWIW, I've done this numerous times with 3.5" external drives (getting, among other things, WD 5 TB & 8 TB Red Drives for far cheaper than otherwise.) However, most 3.5" external drives will have regular drives with a normal interface inside as opposed to some of the WD 2.5" drives like the one pictured above.


----------



## TIVO_GUY_HERE

krkaufman said:


> So you've verified that your cable provider isn't copy-protecting any of your cable content? I have to believe that they're at least protecting premium channels.


Yes, shows like FX USA TNT etc.. on tivo app it will download to phone, but it will delete show from the Tivo. I can live with that, cuz I record the show on bedroom tivo also 

Correction: I just checked again ( been a few months since I needed to download cable show, and it's grayed out)

correction 2: oops I was on moble, once I switched to wi-fi, all channels allow to download to phone ( I don't have premiums) with the note saying they will be deleted off of tivo.


----------



## worachj

Another delay shipment Email until April 28th.



> Dear John,
> We value our loyal customers and strive to deliver great service. However, we have experienced some unexpected supply chain issues, which have affected our promise to ship your TiVo BOLT on time. We are not pleased with this, and we sincerely apologize. Today, we received assurances from our manufacturing team that they are confident we will ship your orders by April 28.
> For those of you who opted for 1-day or 2-day shipping, we will ship your order as you originally instructed. However, we are refunding your expedited shipping charges.
> We are aware that this delay is an inconvenience. If you wish to cancel your order, you may do so by logging into your account at tivo.com or by calling our service center at (877) 367-8486. However, we cannot promise that this promotion will be offered again. We appreciate your loyalty as a customer and would hate to see you miss this offer.
> Thank you for your patience!
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nicola Mattis
> Sr. Promotions Manager
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you have any questions, please contact TiVo Customer Support at 1-877-367-8486.
> ©2017 TiVo Corporation. All rights reserved. TiVo, the TiVo logo and the TiVo silhouette logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Corporation or its subsidiaries worldwide. TiVo Corporation, 2160 Gold St., San Jose, CA 95002. Please review our Privacy Policy. This is an administrative email sent to: as a courtesy to our customers affected. If you have chosen not to receive promotional emails from TiVo Corporation, you will remain in that status unless and until you notify us otherwise. You may update your email preferences at any time. To ensure receipt of our emails, please add [email protected] to your address book.


----------



## Redoctobyr

I placed my Bolt order on April 8th. At the end of placing my order, the website showed an estimated delivery date of April 13th. 

I just got an email from TiVo saying that they are confident they will be able to ship the orders by April 28th. They said they will refund expedited shipping charges for people who selected 1- or 2-day shipping, but will still ship those orders with the specified shipping speed. 

The delay is unfortunate, but not entirely a surprise. I would have preferred that they at least keep to the April 21st ship date that the website had been showing, but what can you do?


----------



## pdhenry

Just got the April 28 email tonight. Since I wasn't 100% sure that they weren't eventually going to cancel the order (I ordered just as the 1TB models sold out) the news was oddly reassuring.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> Just got the April 28 email tonight. Since I wasn't 100% sure that they weren't eventually going to cancel the order (I ordered just as the 1TB models sold out) the news was oddly reassuring.


received the same email today as well, but in true Tivo fashion, they bungled the message. We changed our email address with Tivo over a year ago. Tivo emailed me the initial order confirmation to the correct, new address. Today, they emailed the April 28th letter to the email address we deleted a year ago.
They must be using multiple servers / departments, none of which are communicating with each other.


----------



## jrtroo

jrtroo said:


> Confirmation forthcoming.


Denied. It has the USB 3.0 connector on the board. I not found a cable that would connect to SATA.


----------



## Trey Dio

I ordered the Bolt 500GB on April 3 and received it on April 12.

My plan is to upgrade the drive to 4TB using the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB.

Amazon.com: Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black (STDR4000100): Computers & Accessories

Here is the upgrade procedure I'm planning to use:

A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo.






Has anyone else used this drive to upgrade to 4TB?


----------



## V7Goose

Trey Dio said:


> My plan is to upgrade the drive to 4TB using the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB.


Oooooo, Seagate 2.5" drives and TiVo - Bad bad bad. Better do some more reading in the upgrade and Bolt forums. Friends don't let friends use Seagate.


----------



## Trey Dio

V7Goose said:


> Oooooo, Seagate 2.5" drives and TiVo - Bad bad bad. Better do some more reading in the upgrade and Bolt forums. Friends don't let friends use Seagate.


Thanks for the info!


----------



## V7Goose

jrtroo said:


> Denied. It has the USB 3.0 connector on the board. I not found a cable that would connect to SATA.


That's too bad. I assume you are confirming that the Toshiba drive has the USB connector permanently attached like the WD drive, and not just a simple push-on adapter like the Seagate drive? Thanx for reporting back on this.


----------



## atmuscarella

Trey Dio said:


> I ordered the Bolt 500GB on April 3 and received it on April 12.
> 
> My plan is to upgrade the drive to 4TB using the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB.
> 
> ...
> 
> Has anyone else used this drive to upgrade to 4TB?


I believe the drive is uses SMR technology which has been shown to cause the drives to fail prematurely in a DVR. Not sure if this is the exact drive that others have used but most people have had their 4TB drives fail, there is one exception and that person had a very early drive with 1.0 firmware, others who used that drive with higher than version 1.0 firmware, had the drive fail within a few months.


----------



## krkaufman

jrtroo said:


> Denied. It has the USB 3.0 connector on the board. I not found a cable that would connect to SATA.


Bummer to hear. Thanks for trail-blazing.


----------



## jrtroo

krkaufman said:


> Bummer to hear. Thanks for trail-blazing.


Thanks. I think of it more like a "Don't go that way"!


----------



## timckelley

My price protection claim (for $68.95) has taken longer than they said, so I called for an update. They tell me that they sent it to the underwriters for payment. Technically it's up to the underwriters to make sure all the documents line up and approve or deny, but he sounded like this ought to be approved. He said it'll be today or Monday when I hear the final decision, and by then, they'll have already mailed the check. So:

Bolt: $199.99 + $16.50 tax
LifeTime Service: $99.00 + $6.53 tax
Total: 322.02

Amazon had this for $131.04
Price protection claim = $68.95

Net cost to me (including tax) after claim = $253.07

(I'm pretty sure price protection on my card won't refund any sale tax I originally paid.)

So who is it in this thread who told me about price protection, so that I may send him his commission?


----------



## Hank

What credit card?


----------



## timckelley

Visa.


----------



## krkaufman

What number?


----------



## timckelley

What kind of number are you asking for?


----------



## krkaufman

(Sorry, being "funny.")


----------



## Hank

Damn.. I think I used my CapitalOne card which doesn't have price protection. Drats.


----------



## timckelley

Hank said:


> Damn.. I think I used my CapitalOne card which doesn't have price protection. Drats.


Thanks to tips in this thread, I researched my cards before choosing which one I'd use to buy the Bolt.


----------



## InFromTheCold

jrtroo said:


> My research shows it will likely be the same retail drive, there are teardowns out there on YouTube. I've done this before a few years ago when upgrading some premiers and on my old whs box, so I'm hoping to strike gold again today. I'll update once I get it open, hopefully tonight.


Right, for anyone who hasn't yet watched it, here's a video from a guy who does a teardown of the Toshiba and shows the USB3 connector.

I was wondering -- in my HD, I replaced the stock drive some years ago with one from Hitachi, with good results. I don't see anyone mentioning them for this project. Is it because they're not recommended anymore, or is it simply that they don't make large-enough laptop drives to interest us?


----------



## Hank

Since my Bolt hasn't shipped yet, I'm going to see if Tivo will change the CC I gave them to my Chase SR card which has price protection.


----------



## mlsnyc

Hank said:


> Since my Bolt hasn't shipped yet, I'm going to see if Tivo will change the CC I gave them to my Chase SR card which has price protection.


I tried that and told it wasn't possible. Please share if you succeed.


----------



## Hank

mlsnyc said:


> I tried that and told it wasn't possible. Please share if you succeed.


On the phone now.


----------



## Hank

mlsnyc said:


> I tried that and told it wasn't possible. Please share if you succeed.


No go. "the authorization already went through". Drats. At least I get double-points! :/


----------



## aaronwt

Trey Dio said:


> I ordered the Bolt 500GB on April 3 and received it on April 12.
> 
> My plan is to upgrade the drive to 4TB using the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB.
> 
> Amazon.com: Seagate Backup Plus 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, Black (STDR4000100): Computers & Accessories
> 
> Here is the upgrade procedure I'm planning to use:
> 
> A Guide to Upgrading Your Tivo Bolt, Tivo Premiere, Tivo Roamio, Tivo Roamio OTA, Tivo HD, Tivo Series 3 or Tivo Series 2 (Easily upgrade your Tivo Bolt, Roamio or Premiere to 300 Hours+ HD Capacity) - Also includes instructions on how to fix a broken Tivo.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Has anyone else used this drive to upgrade to 4TB?


Yes. I've been using two of them in Bolts since October 2015 with zero issuses. But both of my drives have firmware 0001. Later firmwares cause issues when used with the TiVo Bolt. So this drive is not recommended. And I doubt there is anyway to find one with the first firmware on them any more. Mine came from the first batches they made.

There is a 5TB version of this drive now. No idea if it would have issues. But I would think it would have a firmware similar to the current firmware the 4TB has. So it would still be a huge risk. I got really lucky with the purchase of my two 4TB Seagates from Newegg.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


----------



## atmuscarella

InFromTheCold said:


> Right, for anyone who hasn't yet watched it, here's a video from a guy who does a teardown of the Toshiba and shows the USB3 connector.
> 
> I was wondering -- in my HD, I replaced the stock drive some years ago with one from Hitachi, with good results. I don't see anyone mentioning them for this project. Is it because they're not recommended anymore, or is it simply that they don't make large-enough laptop drives to interest us?


Hitachi sold their hard drive business to Western Digital (Note Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive business so now WD owns the old IBM drive business which was actually the bulk of the Hitachi hard drive business), WD via the old Hitachi hard drive business makes hard drives under the HGST brand (formerly Hitachi Global Storage), but they don't make any high capacity 2.5 inch drives under that brand. Individual drive names under the HGST brand sound allot like the old IBM names .


----------



## Redoctobyr

Hank said:


> Since my Bolt hasn't shipped yet, I'm going to see if Tivo will change the CC I gave them to my Chase SR card which has price protection.


Can they cancel that order, and place a new one for you? My order hasn't shipped yet, and the website has a "cancel order" button. And it sounds like the promotion is still actually going, though it may end as early as today.


----------



## Hank

Redoctobyr said:


> Can they cancel that order, and place a new one for you? My order hasn't shipped yet, and the website has a "cancel order" button. And it sounds like the promotion is still actually going, though it may end as early as today.


Possible, but risky. Whenever I try something like that, it goes from bad to worse.


----------



## InFromTheCold

atmuscarella said:


> Hitachi sold their hard drive business to Western Digital (Note Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive business so now WD owns the old IBM drive business which was actually the bulk of the Hitachi hard drive business), WD via the old Hitachi hard drive business makes hard drives under the HGST brand (formerly Hitachi Global Storage), but they don't make any high capacity 2.5 inch drives under that brand. Individual drive names under the HGST brand sound allot like the old IBM names .


Interesting!


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> Possible, but risky. Whenever I try something like that, it goes from bad to worse.


A 500GB BOLT in the hand is worth 2(x500GB) in the bush.


----------



## delgadobb

krkaufman said:


> What number?


Anyone still have the Underhill's American Express #?


----------



## jlin

Has anyone's S3 been disabled as promised?


----------



## aaronwt

It hasn't been ten days yet for me.


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> A 500GB BOLT in the hand is worth 2(x500GB) in the bush.


I would only consider buying a new Bolt under the promotion, and cancelling an old order, all to switch to a new credit card, by doing it all over the phone with a rep., to make sure that it all can be done and in fact is done. And even then, personally, I still would be suitably nervous about it all that I don't think I would do so.


----------



## Redoctobyr

I have a pair of qualifying Series 2s. I ordered a pair of Bolts, but I'm going to start with trying 1, and see how it goes. I also ordered a Mini, I'm hoping to just need a Bolt and Mini, to successfully replace the pair of S2s. The 4K TV will have the Bolt, the HD TV will get the Mini, so Mini resolution limitations shouldn't be a problem. 

I placed my order online. Can anyone tell me how the activation process works, when setting up the new Bolt? I want to transfer the Lifetime from a particular S2, I don't want TiVo to just pick which unit gets transferred. Does the activation process ask you for the serial number of the box whose Lifetime will be transferred, or something like that?


----------



## Mikeguy

Redoctobyr said:


> I have a pair of qualifying Series 2s. I ordered a pair of Bolts, but I'm going to start with trying 1, and see how it goes. I also ordered a Mini, I'm hoping to just need a Bolt and Mini, to successfully replace the pair of S2s. The 4K TV will have the Bolt, the HD TV will get the Mini, so Mini resolution limitations shouldn't be a problem.
> 
> I placed my order online. Can anyone tell me how the activation process works, when setting up the new Bolt? I want to transfer the Lifetime from a particular S2, I don't want TiVo to just pick which unit gets transferred. Does the activation process ask you for the serial number of the box whose Lifetime will be transferred, or something like that?


The box will come pre-activated. Simply turn it on and go through the guided setup, and you're away to go.

As to deactivation of your old unit, people have reported that TiVo will be sending out an email where the user, I guess, indicates which older box should be deactivated. You also can telephone TiVo to do so. Personally, I trust the latter method more and would go that route.


----------



## worachj

The offer has ended.



> *We're sorry but this offer
> has expired.*
> Visit our Shop page for current offers on TiVo BOLT and other TiVo products.


----------



## Mikeguy

worachj said:


> The offer has ended.


----------



## pdhenry

Kudos that they gave us a heads up that it was ending.


----------



## Redoctobyr

Mikeguy said:


> As to deactivation of your old unit, people have reported that TiVo will be sending out an email where the user, I guess, indicates which older box should be deactivated. You also can telephone TiVo to do so. Personally, I trust the latter method more and would go that route.


Thanks. I guess I'll watch for an email, or worst-case, call them before doing anything with the new Bolt.


----------



## justen_m

worachj said:


> The offer has ended.


The original email I received stated the offer ended April 10th. Was it extended beyond that?


----------



## danm628

justen_m said:


> The original email I received stated the offer ended April 10th. Was it extended beyond that?


They never announced an extension but continued to accept orders for a few extra days.


----------



## timckelley

I've have hooked up my other lifetimed S2 that has been sitting dormant for over a year. As we speak, it's just now connecting to the mother ship; I wasn't 100% that it still works, but apparently it does work.

My wife said she no longer cares about the S2 - that between our Premier, our Roamio, and our Bolt she thinks that's enough, but I told her I still want the S2 to connect to the TiVo servers so that it will become eligible for future promotions. I now await the next promotion. 

Meanwhile, I do have the S2 hooked to our OTA antenna, as well as to an IR controlled tuner that converts digital to analog, so we could put it into productive service recording shows, if we want, like our last S2 used to do. (Recall that that S2 no longer has TiVo service, thanks to this Bolt promotion.)


----------



## rawlic

I ordered a 500 GB Bolt on 4/5 and received it on Thursday. Just hooked it up today. Very smooth setup with the Optimum Cablecard. Coming from a Series 2, it'll be an adjustment. My wife is very confused, but I'm sure she'll pick things up quickly.


----------



## George Cifranci

I am really happy that I took the deal. I am really loving my new Bolt! Quite a difference coming from my Series 3 that I have been using for the past 10 years. The iOS TiVo app works great as well.

Speaking of the iOS TiVo app. Does anyone know if it's possible to paste with it? Like if I had to enter a password copied from my password manager?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## timckelley

Another question about the iOS TiVo app: I see I can watch shows on my iPad, as they stream from the Bolt. I had for some reason assumed I could do the same with my Roamio and Premier, that the Bolt would somehow act as a relay (like the TiVo Stream would, if I had one). Am I mistaken about that?


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## justen_m

rawlic said:


> I ordered a 500 GB Bolt on 4/5 and received it on Thursday. Just hooked it up today. Very smooth setup with the Optimum Cablecard. Coming from a Series 2, it'll be an adjustment. My wife is very confused, but I'm sure she'll pick things up quickly.


I'm jealous! I ordered mine 4/4 and it hasn't even shipped yet! Did you order expedited shipping? I didn't.


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## tvmaster2

timckelley said:


> I've have hooked up my other lifetimed S2 that has been sitting dormant for over a year. As we speak, it's just now connecting to the mother ship; I wasn't 100% that it still works, but apparently it does work.
> 
> My wife said she no longer cares about the S2 - that between our Premier, our Roamio, and our Bolt she thinks that's enough, but I told her I still want the S2 to connect to the TiVo servers so that it will become eligible for future promotions. I now await the next promotion.
> 
> Meanwhile, I do have the S2 hooked to our OTA antenna, as well as to an IR controlled tuner that converts digital to analog, so we could put it into productive service recording shows, if we want, like our last S2 used to do. (Recall that that S2 no longer has TiVo service, thanks to this Bolt promotion.)


remember, this is the ONLY Tivo which allows external box switching. So someone in an RV with satellite would have good use for these. I'm not sure if Tivo allows ownership change anymore, but if they do, then there's still a reason for these to live. I use one with a satellite dish in a guest room - does it's job just fine, albeit in SD


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## Mikeguy

rawlic said:


> I ordered a 500 GB Bolt on 4/5 and received it on Thursday. Just hooked it up today. Very smooth setup with the Optimum Cablecard. Coming from a Series 2, it'll be an adjustment. My wife is very confused, but I'm sure she'll pick things up quickly.


Some people have all the luck--congrats!


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## ej42137

timckelley said:


> Another question about the iOS TiVo app: I see I can watch shows on my iPad, as they stream from the Bolt. I had for some reason assumed I could do the same with my Roamio and Premier, that the Bolt would somehow act as a relay (like the TiVo Stream would, if I had one). Am I mistaken about that?


It is my understanding that the streaming facility in the Bolt is only for the Bolt and, unlike the stand-alone Stream and the Roamio Plus/Pro, will not stream for other devices. (I have no first-hand knowledge of this situation as I have two Roamio Pluses in my network.)


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## delgadobb

timckelley said:


> Another question about the iOS TiVo app: I see I can watch shows on my iPad, as they stream from the Bolt. I had for some reason assumed I could do the same with my Roamio and Premier, that the Bolt would somehow act as a relay (like the TiVo Stream would, if I had one). Am I mistaken about that?


Yes.

The Roamio Pro & Roamio Plus essentially have a Tivo Stream built inside them & can function as you've described. The Bolt has a slightly different implementation & will only stream for the box itself. To do what you're describing with the Roamio & Premier you'll need either a standalone Tivo Stream or a Roamio Pro/Plus.


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## timckelley

Thank you for that answer. In my case, I don't think it's worth getting a TiVo Stream because the Bolt has been designated as my TiVo, while my wife gets the rest, and I'm the one that's mainly interested in streaming to the iPad. So at least the Bolt will stream, which is a significant feature for me. (Also, if I really wanted to, I could transfer shows from other TiVos to the Bolt for later watching through iOS, though I'm not sure I'll actually bother to do that.)

Right now I'm still busy watching my backlog on the Roamio (not a Pro or Plus, so no streaming to iPad), but eventually I'll have stuff to watch on the Bolt.

Say, here's one other question about that iOS app. I see it has buttons similar to my TiVo remote, like 7 second replay and 30 second skip, which is quite nice, but I don't see the A/B/C/D buttons anywhere. (I especially like using the D button to skip commercials.) Does anybody know if those buttons just aren't there on the app? My workaround is to FF or use repeated 30 second skips to get through the commercials, but it would be nice to have that D button.


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## ej42137

timckelley said:


> Say, here's one other question about that iOS app. I see it has buttons similar to my TiVo remote, like 7 second replay and 30 second skip, which is quite nice, but I don't see the A/B/C/D buttons anywhere. (I especially like using the D button to skip commercials.) Does anybody know if those buttons just aren't there on the app? My workaround is to FF or use repeated 30 second skips to get through the commercials, but it would be nice to have that D button.



The TiVo app has A/B/C/D buttons; to see them you have to slide the remote up a little.
You don't need the D button to skip commercials; Channel Up does that, and Channel Down skips back to the previous skip point.


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## rawlic

Mikeguy said:


> Some people have all the luck--congrats!


Oops...I should know better than to rely on my failing memory.  I actually ordered on 4/3 and not 4/5. But still not bad considering I didn't specify Expedited Shipping.


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## Redoctobyr

tvmaster2 said:


> remember, this is the ONLY Tivo which allows external box switching. So someone in an RV with satellite would have good use for these. I'm not sure if Tivo allows ownership change anymore, but if they do, then there's still a reason for these to live. I use one with a satellite dish in a guest room - does it's job just fine, albeit in SD


I was trying to figure out what you mean by external box switching. My S2s are my newest TiVos, until the Bolt arrives.

Do you mean they are the only ones with the IR emitters on cables, for controlling an external tuner/box? I'm so used to doing things that way that I hadn't even considered that the new boxes might not allow that. I guess I need to get caught up to how stuff works now.

I'm just glad that the CableCard should hopefully eliminate the occasional issue where the IR repeater doesn't work quite right, and the channel doesn't change correctly for a recording.


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## pdhenry

HD-capable TiVos don't have a port for the blasters nor an AV input.


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## sfhub

ej42137 said:


> The TiVo app has A/B/C/D buttons; to see them you have to slide the remote up a little.
> You don't need the D button to skip commercials; Channel Down does that, and Channel Up skips back to the previous skip point.


I think you have the skip commercials reversed . Channel UP skips to next index point and Channel DOWN does the previous index point.


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## sharownnn

I just received my Bolt and I took an active cable card out from my Premiere and had Comcast pair it to the Bolt. While I get the cable channels fine, I noticed that the time it takes when changing channels has increased. For example, I'll hit channel up and and a black screen will appear(for what I think is longer than norm) before the actual channel picture appears. It is definitely feels longer than what the Premiere was doing.

Since I had Comcast on the phone while noticing this, I told them about it. They tried resetting the cable card and I still noticed it. They recommended contacting Tivo about it as it was determined that the signal was indeed coming through and the lag could be a Tivo issue; not Comcast issue.

Is this normal? Anyone else experience this? All in my head?


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## jlb

sharownnn said:


> I just received my Bolt and I took an active cable card out from my Premiere and had Comcast pair it to the Bolt. While I get the cable channels fine, I noticed that the time it takes when changing channels has increased. For example, I'll hit channel up and and a black screen will appear(for what I think is longer than norm) before the actual channel picture appears. It is definitely feels longer than what the Premiere was doing.
> 
> Since I had Comcast on the phone while noticing this, I told them about it. They tried resetting the cable card and I still noticed it. They recommended contacting Tivo about it as it was determined that the signal was indeed coming through and the lag could be a Tivo issue; not Comcast issue.
> 
> Is this normal? Anyone else experience this? All in my head?


Take a look at your video settings. When I got my TiVoHD years ago (still my primary for now) I set the video output to auto. I seemed to have some lag on channel changes. But since my TV is 720p, I changed the output to 720p fixed. Don't know what the settings options are on the Bolt but it's something to look into....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## aaronwt

sharownnn said:


> I just received my Bolt and I took an active cable card out from my Premiere and had Comcast pair it to the Bolt. While I get the cable channels fine, I noticed that the time it takes when changing channels has increased. For example, I'll hit channel up and and a black screen will appear(for what I think is longer than norm) before the actual channel picture appears. It is definitely feels longer than what the Premiere was doing.
> 
> Since I had Comcast on the phone while noticing this, I told them about it. They tried resetting the cable card and I still noticed it. They recommended contacting Tivo about it as it was determined that the signal was indeed coming through and the lag could be a Tivo issue; not Comcast issue.
> 
> Is this normal? Anyone else experience this? All in my head?


Set the video output to one resolution to avoid this.

Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk


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## sharownnn

jlb said:


> Take a look at your video settings. When I got my TiVoHD years ago (still my primary for now) I set the video output to auto. I seemed to have some lag on channel changes. But since my TV is 720p, I changed the output to 720p fixed. Don't know what the settings options are on the Bolt but it's something to look into....
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk





aaronwt said:


> Set the video output to one resolution to avoid this.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk


Thank you both for the quick response. I tried setting it to the auto resolution (720p) only but I'm still seeing the lag.

Interestingly, my bf's Roamio also has a black screen lag but his will play audio while having black screen. Mine will not have audio until the channel picture comes through


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## ej42137

sfhub said:


> I think you have the skip commercials reversed . Channel UP skips to next index point and Channel DOWN does the previous index point.


You are correct, a careless error on my part.


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## tluxon

jlin said:


> Has anyone's S3 been disabled as promised?


On another thread there's been some concern about the email we received just before the Bolt being delivered that says the Bolt has already connected. Being that between two HD's that I chose to transfer lifetime from there are 3TB of shows, I'm very interested in knowing if the 10-day countdown clock is already ticking on my unopened Bolts. Downloading the recordings on a 2TB TiVoHD takes approximately 13 days running 24/7.

Has anybody had their lifetime transferred unit disabled yet? How many days was it after making your own connection (not TiVo's pre-delivery connection)?


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## timckelley

I can't say, because while hooking up the Bolt, I unplugged my S2, and when I plugged it back in, it wouldn't boot. All my attempts at resuscitation have failed. Fortunately there wasn't that much stuff on it, and miraculously my wife didn't have a cow at the loss. I think it's easier for her to accept the loss of content when she's knows it's not my fault.

Anyway, shouldn't the old lifetimed units still work in the limited sense that you can play stuff that's on the My Shows/Now Playing menu, even after service is disconnected? In this way, people can take as much time as they want to watch their backlog. But I can see that if your plans were to archive it in a centralized repository, this countdown timer could be important.


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## George Cifranci

timckelley said:


> Anyway, shouldn't the old lifetimed units still work in the limited sense that you can play stuff that's on the My Shows/Now Playing menu, even after service is disconnected? In this way, people can take as much time as they want to watch their backlog. But I can see that if your plans were to archive it in a centralized repository, this countdown timer could be important.


Yes they should. Both my series 1 and series 2 TiVos that haven't had service in quite some time are still able to play the content I recorded on them. I just tried them the other day in fact. I expect it to be the same with my Series 3. I should mention that The only shows recorded on my series 3 are from OTA. If you had cable service then some shows might not be viewable without the cable card do to Digital rights management maybe?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tthompson

In case anybody wants to know I thought offer was over for $99 transfer of lifetime service but I called today and they gave it to me but I had to get bolt plus 3 tb drive. They said that was only model left for offer ok my me


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## cwerdna

timckelley said:


> But I can see that if your plans were to archive it in a centralized repository, this countdown timer could be important.


Besides the archiving, it also matters if the unit that will be deactivated is your primary and only DVR that you use everyday. In this case, it's my TiVo HD.

I shouldn't have any other TiVos that are eligible for this offer. I sold my Series 2 SA in 2011 (which still shows up on my account page) and checking w/the buyer recently, he says it hasn't been connected since 2011.


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## timckelley

So, even if it's your primary, the Bolt I assume will be the new primary, and the deactivated unit could still be left on until the backlog is watched.


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## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> Anyway, shouldn't the old lifetimed units still work in the limited sense that you can play stuff that's on the My Shows/Now Playing menu, even after service is disconnected? In this way, people can take as much time as they want to watch their backlog.


I specifically had called on this and was told, yes.

Similarly, if you have a TiVo DVD model, the DVD player still will function (I didn't ask if one still could record DVD's). Transfers between boxes, I was told, will not work.


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## Mikeguy

(By the way, I might humbly suggest, download the relatively recent easier-to-use pyTivo setup/interface software and download all of your shows onto a PC/PC external hard drive, while waiting for your new box to arrive. The software is very easy to set up and use (really, just clicks away) and you can queue up what you want to archive and then walk away, letting pyTivo and your PC do their thing, even if it takes days. Really.

Easier to use pyTivo)


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## timckelley

Mikeguy said:


> (By the way, I might humbly suggest, download the relatively recent easier-to-use pyTivo setup/interface software and download all of your shows onto a PC/PC external hard drive, while waiting for your new box to arrive. The software is very easy to set up and use (really, just clicks away) and you can queue up what you want to archive and then walk away, letting pyTivo and your PC do their thing, even if it takes days. Really.
> 
> Easier to use pyTivo)


I've been using what I'm pretty sure is an older version that required me to install python first, and then pyTiVo, and the UI looks like a webpage with checkboxes next to each show that I want to download. I wonder if I should replace all that with your "easier to use" version.


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## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> I've been using what I'm pretty sure is an older version that required me to install python first, and then pyTiVo, and the UI looks like a webpage with checkboxes next to each show that I want to download. I wonder if I should replace all that with your "easier to use" version.


I'm not savvy enough to know. I think that the primary benefit of the new set-up/interface version is the ease of set-up as well as simple use. It's been awhile since I had pyTivo installed, and so I don't know if all the options under the earlier set-up/interface are available under the new and/or vice-versa. For basic downloading and uploading, however, everything under the new seems to be there and working.

If what you have works, you might want to keep what you have until you've transferred what you need for now, and then move after, if you would like. (Sorry, I'm superstitious, and networking software always seems to go south on me when I need it most.)

But, I'm sure the tech. folks here will have better answers.

Btw, thank Dan203 for his development of the new installation/interface software.


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## Mikeguy

tluxon said:


> On another thread there's been some concern about the email we received just before the Bolt being delivered that says the Bolt has already connected. Being that between two HD's that I chose to transfer lifetime from there are 3TB of shows, I'm very interested in knowing if the 10-day countdown clock is already ticking on my unopened Bolts. Downloading the recordings on a 2TB TiVoHD takes approximately 13 days running 24/7.
> 
> Has anybody had their lifetime transferred unit disabled yet? How many days was it after making your own connection (not TiVo's pre-delivery connection)?


Did you call/chat/email TiVo to ask?


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## Redoctobyr

tluxon said:


> On another thread there's been some concern about the email we received just before the Bolt being delivered that says the Bolt has already connected. Being that between two HD's that I chose to transfer lifetime from there are 3TB of shows, I'm very interested in knowing if the 10-day countdown clock is already ticking on my unopened Bolts. Downloading the recordings on a 2TB TiVoHD takes approximately 13 days running 24/7.


My space usage is much lower, but at its current rate, the fuller of my S2s will take roughly 14 days to transfer the 445GB on it. So maybe it's OK that my Bolt may not be shipping for a little while yet.



timckelley said:


> I can't say, because while hooking up the Bolt, I unplugged my S2, and when I plugged it back in, it wouldn't boot. All my attempts at resuscitation have failed. Fortunately there wasn't that much stuff on it, and miraculously my wife didn't have a cow at the loss. I think it's easier for her to accept the loss of content when she's knows it's not my fault.


Sorry to hear that. Could it maybe be a failing power supply? One of my S2 supplies started failing, and it wouldn't boot. But it was marginal enough that swapping the supplies between my S2s (different styles of S2 units, one is a 240, the other is a 540) was enough to get them both working. If you had a spare, swapping a supply would be fairly easy, but not sure if there's much you could do to ease the load on the existing supply. If you could somehow power the S2s hard drive with another supply (spare computer PS?), that could reduce the load on the internal supply, perhaps you could get it running long enough to pull the recordings off it.


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## HerronScott

tthompson said:


> In case anybody wants to know I thought offer was over for $99 transfer of lifetime service but I called today and they gave it to me but I had to get bolt plus 3 tb drive. They said that was only model left for offer ok my me


Oh that's interesting. The web page indicates the promotion is over. Good for you though! 

Scott


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## Mikeguy

Just because I'm tired of seeing this important issue being raised, here, without anyone checking and without a (definitive) answer being posted:

Per my online chat with TiVo earlier this afternoon:

Me (3:43:43 PM):. . . Would you please clarify: when does the 10-day deactivation period begin? From when I actually hook the new Bolt up in my home, or from when TiVo sends its email saying that the new Bolt has been connected (even though the purchaser has not yet actually received the new Bolt)? And, is there a limit as to how long one may delay setting the new Bolt up, without losing the 10-day deactivation period window? Days, weeks, even months?

Thank you.
Peter (3:46:41 PM):10 Days from the time of the first connection to the TiVo Service (During guided setup). As far as I have been made aware, there is not a limit to how long that can be delayed. Keeping in mind that if we get out past the 30 day money back guarantee period there will be no options for returning the device.
Me (3:49:04 PM):Thank you for your information. And just to make sure that I understand, that's when I take the Bolt out and first run Guided Setup, and not starting from what TiVo does on its end to prepare the Bolt and ship it to me, correct? 
Peter (3:49:06 PM):Correct​
The full chat session:


> Peter (3:43:14 PM):Thank you for contacting TiVo Support Chat, my name is Peter and I am happy to assist you. Are you a current TiVo customer (or subscriber)?
> Me (3:43:35 PM):Current customer, thank you.
> Me (3:43:43 PM):Hi, there, I am writing for clarification concerning when the old-box-deactivation 10-day period starts, under TiVo's recent Series 2/Series 3-Bolt upgrade promotion.
> 
> Specifically, the promotion states that, "Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service."
> 
> Recently, however, purchasers under the promotion have been receiving emails from TiVo stating, "Our records show that your TiVo BOLT® is connected to the TiVo service but is still not receiving a TV signal," even though the new Bolt has not yet been received (and actually has arrived later that day).
> 
> When I had asked, pre-purchase, when the 10-day deactivation period begins, I was told that it starts when I first hook the new Bolt up. And so, if I was busy, I could delay hooking the new Bolt up for some period of time, until when I had time to do so and then to transfer shows from my old TiVo to the new Bolt during the 10-day window.
> 
> Would you please clarify: when does the 10-day deactivation period begin? From when I actually hook the new Bolt up in my home, or from when TiVo sends its email saying that the new Bolt has been connected (even though the purchaser has not yet actually received the new Bolt)? And, is there a limit as to how long one may delay setting the new Bolt up, without losing the 10-day deactivation period window? Days, weeks, even months?
> 
> Thank you.
> Peter (3:46:41 PM):10 Days from the time of the first connection to the TiVo Service (During guided setup). As far as I have been made aware, there is not a limit to how long that can be delayed. Keeping in mind that if we get out past the 30 day money back guarantee period there will be no options for returning the device.
> Me (3:49:04 PM):Thank you for your information. And just to make sure that I understand, that's when I take the Bolt out and first run Guided Setup, and not starting from what TiVo does on its end to prepare the Bolt and ship it to me, correct?
> Peter (3:49:06 PM):Correct
> Me (3:50:07 PM):Great. And thank you for mentioning the 30-day satisfaction guaranteed period as well--important to keep that in mind!
> Peter (3:50:29 PM):Not a problem, does that answer all the questions that I can for you at this time?
> Me (3:51:40 PM):You might want to alert someone in the company as to the issue with the emails (noting the connection of the new Bolt, when it has not yet even been received), which can lead to confusion.
> Peter (3:54:10 PM):Not a problem. Anything else I can do for you.
> Me (3:54:38 PM):No, that's it. Thank you for your help, and have a good day.
> Peter (3:56:40 PM):Thank you for using TiVo Chat, and have a great day! Feel free to press the end chat button to disconnect this chat.


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## jlb

Not to hijack but a quick question.....does your SPL list auto transfer over now? If so, from any? Like my TiVoHD? If so, I wouldn't even bother transferring my shows and just play them back from the HD. 

Ok back to our regularly scheduled programming. I was toying with trying for the transfer as I was having some problems the last week. But those now seem to have been due to my wifi adapter. I had a second one which seems to have solved the issues I was having. But, I may still consider trying to transfer over the summer, maybe


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Mikeguy

jlb said:


> Not to hijack but a quick question.....does your SPL list auto transfer over now? If so, from any? Like my TiVoHD? If so, I wouldn't even bother transferring my shows and just play them back from the HD.


From my experimenting last evening (never having used it before), Season Passes can be transferred between all boxes at online.tivo.com (Under Manage/OnePass Manager)--simply a matter of dragging and dropping between lists.   I don't know if there separately is an auto-transfer.


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## jlb

Mikeguy said:


> From my experimenting last evening (never having used it before), Season Passes can be transferred between all boxes at online.tivo.com (Under Manage/OnePass Manager)--simply a matter of dragging and dropping between lists.  I don't know if there separately is an auto-transfer.


Thanks....though not the end of the world if it doesn't work well. I can always recreate fairly easily

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## pdhenry

SPL = Season Passes? Not automatically, but you can do it online at TiVo.com or (I think) with the app.


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## aaronwt

You can also use KMTTG to backup and restore the Season Passes. This is what I used with my 200+ Season passes to transfer them to the two Bolts I got with the Lifetime transfer deal. Much, much, much quicker than doing it online at TiVo Online ( http://online.tivo.com/start/wt) and the order is also always correct from kmttg.


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## timckelley

Well when I ordered the Bolt, they told me that the service would be transferred over on the day they ship, which could be earlier than the day I receive it, let alone the day when I run guided setup.


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## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> Well when I ordered the Bolt, they told me that the service would be transferred over on the day they ship, which could be earlier than the day I receive it, let alone the day when I run guided setup.


That might be the service but apart from the 10-day window. I consistently (ok, x2  ) have been told that the window starts when you run Guided Setup on the new Bolt.


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## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> You can also use KMTTG to backup and restore the Season Passes. This is what I used with my 200+ Season passes to transfer them to the two Bolts I got with the Lifetime transfer deal. Much, much, much quicker than doing it online at TiVo Online ( http://online.tivo.com/start/wt) and the order is also always correct from kmttg.


I've looked but just not seen as to compatibility: will that work with a Series 2 box?


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## aaronwt

Mikeguy said:


> I've looked but just not seen as to compatibility: will that work with a Series 2 box?


Not sure. I've used it with Series 3 and later though.


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## tluxon

Mikeguy said:


> ...
> Per my online chat with TiVo earlier this afternoon:
> 
> ...
> Me (3:49:04 PM):Thank you for your information. And just to make sure that I understand, that's when I take the Bolt out and first run Guided Setup, and not starting from what TiVo does on its end to prepare the Bolt and ship it to me, correct?
> Peter (3:49:06 PM):Correct​
> The full chat session:


Awesome - thank you so much for clarifying that! I've had some major ancillary issues to deal with on the home front and just had not had time to call. I've barely had time to begin pyTiVo-ing and kmttg-ing shows to the PC, so really needed to know how to prioritize the potentially impossible effort. Now, at least I know I can take the foot off the gas a little.


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## Mikeguy

tluxon said:


> Awesome - thank you so much for clarifying that! I've had some major ancillary issues to deal with on the home front and just had not had time to call. I've barely had time to begin pyTiVo-ing and kmttg-ing shows to the PC, so really needed to know how to prioritize the potentially impossible effort. Now, at least I know I can take the foot off the gas a little.


But to keep the 30-day satisfaction policy in mind . . . .


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## wtherrell

Mikeguy said:


> I specifically had called on this and was told, yes.
> 
> Similarly, if you have a TiVo DVD model, the DVD player still will function (I didn't ask if one still could record DVD's). Transfers between boxes, I was told, will not work.


Just today I transferred a bunch of stuff from my S2 DVD model, but it is still activated. I'm sure that capability will be gone once deactivated on the account.


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## brett09

aaronwt said:


> This is what I used with my 200+ Season passes to transfer them to the two Bolts I got with the Lifetime transfer deal.


200 season passes?!? Wow. That's quite a bit. I guess with 10TB in Tivo space you need it. Can asked what a few of your season passes are for?


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## brett09

HerronScott said:


> Sounds like you are misinformed. None of the TiVo's will allow you to download to your PC anything that's copy-protected (excluding hacked ones). You seem to think that Comcast's MPEG4 channels are copy-protected but they aren't other than the pay movie channels that were copy-protected when they were MPEG2.
> 
> Scott


Thanks for (re)education.


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## brueger

Sorry for this basic question, but I have a Series 3 and just did the upgrade offer.

Can I still watch my recorded programs on the Series 3, or will they be "erased" when I activate my new Bolt?

Thanks


----------



## justen_m

brueger said:


> Can I still watch my recorded programs on the Series 3, or will they be "erased" when I activate my new Bolt?


You can still watch 'em, forever.

For 10 days after you activate your Bolt, you can still transfer the programs from your S3 to your Bolt, or PC. After 10 days, you can still watch them on your S3, just not transfer them anymore.


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## aaronwt

brett09 said:


> 200 season passes?!? Wow. That's quite a bit. I guess with 10TB in Tivo space you need it. Can asked what a few of your season passes are for?


A large percentage are News shows. Mostly for CNN and FOX news. As well as the news for all the local stations and 60 minutes. Then reality shows and scripted shows. But the 200+ season passes are between both Bolts. One I use for news and some reality shows. And the other Bolt I use for scripted shows and the other reality shows I record.


----------



## jrtroo

You can always watch old programs from a retired box.


----------



## Mikeguy

jrtroo said:


> You can always watch old programs from a retired box.


Assuming it's not unplugged in a box in the garage waiting to be taken to the recycling center or for the next trash electronics pick-up day.


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## cwerdna

One hint for others: take pictures or all the SPs you have on your old TiVo before removing its CableCARD. It looks like the http://online.tivo.com/start/manage tool didn't properly move over my manual recordings.

Also, on my source TiVo HD, many of my SPs I noticed are now broken. Not sure if it's because the CC is missing or due to the switch to Rovi data. Some have turned into just the station name + call sign w/no info (e.g. 5 KPIX). I have no idea what it was for since it lists no name, days nor times.

I'm not about to remove the CableCARD that I just called Comcast to pair to my Bolt+ and put it back into the TiVoHD. I couldn't activate/pair online. Their damned page kept giving me errors so I had to call and spend 22 minutes on the phone w/them.


----------



## aaronwt

cwerdna said:


> One hint for others: take pictures or all the SPs you have on your old TiVo before removing its CableCARD. It looks like the http://online.tivo.com/start/manage tool didn't properly move over my manual recordings.
> 
> Also, on my source TiVo HD, many of my SPs I noticed are now broken. Not sure if it's because the CC is missing or due to the switch to Rovi data. Some have turned into just the station name + call sign w/no info (e.g. 5 KPIX). I have no idea what it was for since it lists no name, days nor times.
> 
> I'm not about to remove the CableCARD that I just called Comcast to pair to my Bolt+ and put it back into the TiVoHD. I couldn't activate/pair online. Their damned page kept giving me errors so I had to call and spend 22 minutes on the phone w/them.


This is where KMTTG comes in handy. Just backup your season passes. And you can restore them to another TiVo in under a minute. With all passes populating in the same order they were previously.


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## timckelley

What I did was dictate my SPs by voice to my iPhone and had it record it into the note app (transcribing my voice to text). But I guess taking pictures might have been easier.


----------



## Pcomazzi

argh, was away on vacation and had 0 access to email ... missed the offer. I tried calling to see if it was still available but eventhough they extended it for a few days, its not gone. And to top it off, my old box wont boot ... HD died when on vaca too ....


----------



## timckelley

Pcomazzi said:


> argh, was away on vacation and had 0 access to email ... missed the offer. I tried calling to see if it was still available but eventhough they extended it for a few days, its not gone. And to top it off, my old box wont boot ... HD died when on vaca too ....


What a supremely raw deal.


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## justen_m

aaronwt said:


> This is where KMTTG comes in handy. Just backup your season passes. And you can restore them to another TiVo in under a minute. With all passes populating in the same order they were previously.


We just discussed this in another thread. When TiVo discontinued online support for the S3, breaking Push functionality, it also broke the capability of kmttg to download the Season Passes from an S3. kmttg can only download One Passes from S4+. Bummer, I know. I used kmttg to download all my Season Passes from my S3 and upload them to my new Roamio a couple years ago. Doesn't work anymore.

[edit] That's speculation as to the cause, anyway. I verified it there seems to no longer be any way to use kmttg (v2.2s) to download the Season Pass list from my TiVoHD (still up and running, waiting for my Bolt to ship).


----------



## aaronwt

justen_m said:


> We just discussed this in another thread. When TiVo discontinued online support for the S3, breaking Push functionality, it also broke the capability of kmttg to download the Season Passes from an S3. kmttg can only download One Passes from S4+. Bummer, I know. I used kmttg to download all my Season Passes from my S3 and upload them to my new Roamio a couple years ago. Doesn't work anymore.
> 
> [edit] That's speculation as to the cause, anyway. I verified it there seems to no longer be any way to use kmttg (v2.2s) to download the Season Pass list from my TiVoHD (still up and running, waiting for my Bolt to ship).


Darnit!!! 

I could have sworn I messed around with the S3, KMTTG, and One Passes when I was getting ready for the $99 Lifetime Transfer Bolts. But I guess not

I see now where KMTTG doesn't even give me the option to view the S3 for Season Passes, To Do list etc. It only shows the My SHows List. I guess it was my Premiere I was messing around with at the time.


----------



## cooper243

Does anybody have their "proof" from amazon of a price match they used for their credit card? It appears their prices went up $20 and I was hoping someone could send me theirs so I could use it also. Thank you!


----------



## cwerdna

Has anyone moving from a Series 3 or TiVo HD actually succeeded in transferring recordings from their Series 3 or HD over to their Bolt or Bolt+ using http://online.tivo.com/start/transfer?

I posted a query at TiVo.com online transfer inoperable on HD TiVo and got no reply.

Seems completely broken. I can successfully use the Bolt+ to see my TiVo HD and transfer shows that way but there's no way to select more than 1 show or an entire folder. And, it's very slow to even open a show and then confirm a transfer is queued/underway.

If not, it sounds like I'll have to use kmttg and/or pyTiVo. Have never tried the latter as I wasn't interested in Python tools, so I thought.


----------



## justen_m

cwerdna said:


> Has anyone moving from a Series 3 or TiVo HD actually succeeded in transferring recordings from their Series 3 or HD over to their Bolt or Bolt+ using ttp://online.tivo.com/start/transfer?


I'm guessing this broke when TiVo stopped offering online support for the S3. Same time pyTivo/TiVoDesktopPlus Push broke. And, as mentioned above, same time downloading Season Passes from an S3 with kmttg broke. For all three uses TiVo removed the necessary functionality from its website.

kmttg/pyTivo aren't any simpler than what you are doing now. kmttg can do a batch pull from your TiVoHD to a PC, but when the files are published with pyTivo, you still have to go on your Bolt+ and pull every one, individually, one-by-one. (Because Push is broken). Not any easier than pulling directly from the TiVoHD, although it will be faster, offset, of course, by the slow download from the TiVoHD to your PC in the first place. Once the shows are on your PC, you could just pull them back to your Bolt+ as you want to view them. PC->Bolt is fast.


----------



## timckelley

cooper243 said:


> Does anybody have their "proof" from amazon of a price match they used for their credit card? It appears their prices went up $20 and I was hoping someone could send me theirs so I could use it also. Thank you!


I downloaded this attachment from Amazon back when I submitted my claim. By the way, they were supposed to rule in 5 business days, and that was 12 days ago. I called today, and they said they've had an unusual surge in price protection claims, and it's taking longer for them to process them all. They have no ETA on when mine will be processed. I'm still assuming it'll be honored, but technically it's not official, and the underwriters still have the option to reject my claim, though I don't see what their grounds could be; I think I've met all the terms.


----------



## Dan203

justen_m said:


> kmttg can do a batch pull from your TiVoHD to a PC


FYI I added a "Download All" button to pyTivo Desktop a couple version back so it can do batch downloads now too.


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## cwerdna

Mikeguy said:


> From my experimenting last evening (never having used it before), Season Passes can be transferred between all boxes at online.tivo.com (Under Manage/OnePass Manager)--simply a matter of dragging and dropping between lists.  I don't know if there separately is an auto-transfer.


It has some caveats.

I didn't inspect things carefully, I did that and noticed the ordering of some got messed up. It looks like the manual recording SPs didn't get transferred. Also, some SPs look like they have no OnePass equivalent so it has to drop some things.

For example, I had SPs for on 2 separate channels for a SD and HD versions of Entertainment Tonight. I think I have the KAM limits set differently on both (to keep more of the SD versions and fewer HD since HD uses up so much space). I think I only got a single OnePass and I don't think there's a way to create two OnePasses to do what I want to achieve.


----------



## cwerdna

justen_m said:


> I'm guessing this broke when TiVo stopped offering online support for the S3. Same time pyTivo/TiVoDesktopPlus Push broke. And, as mentioned above, same time downloading Season Passes from an S3 with kmttg broke. For all three uses TiVo removed the necessary functionality from its website.
> 
> kmttg/pyTivo aren't any simpler than what you are doing now. kmttg can do a batch pull from your TiVoHD to a PC, but when the files are published with pyTivo, you still have to go on your Bolt+ and pull every one, individually, one-by-one. (Because Push is broken). Not any easier than pulling directly from the TiVoHD, although it will be faster, offset, of course, by the slow download from the TiVoHD to your PC in the first place. Once the shows are on your PC, you could just pull them back to your Bolt+ as you want to view them. PC->Bolt is fast.


Gotcha.

I just realized MPEG-4 transfers from TiVo HD to PC via kmttg probably don't work. Not many Comcast channels have gone MPEG-4 but I recall awhile ago, my PC only produced a small file w/only audio and no video. I just tried another (most likely MPEG4) recording and confirmed this. (It was an ep of How It's Made on Science Channel HD that's 0.83 gigs per kmttg for 30 minutes yet the resulting .TiVo file is only 83 megabytes and has only audio when played w/WMP.)

I think the developer of kmttg basically said MPEG-4 is a no go for below Series 4 units. I found a thread on that at kmttg / Discussion / General Discussion:kmttg not downloading complete video file from TiVo when it's encoded in MPEG4.


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## cooper243

Tim,

Thank you but I should have said I bought a 1000gb bolt.


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## justen_m

cwerdna said:


> I just realized MPEG-4 transfers from TiVo HD to PC via kmttg probably don't work.


That's correct. TiVo added support to the TiVoHD for mpeg-4 channels, but not external Transport Stream support. So mpeg-4 recordings on the TiVoHD cannot be downloaded via kmttg or TiVoDesktop. They can, however, be transferred to another TiVo. So if you transfer the recording to an S4+, it can then be transferred to a PC from the S4+ TiVo using TS. As you noted in the thread you point to, that can be somewhat buggy, too, but there are workarounds. Seems like running post-processing with VideoReDo will fix the glitches. I haven't followed that thread too closely, not being affected (no mpg-4 channels here).


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## Mikeguy

cooper243 said:


> Tim,
> 
> Thank you but I should have said I bought a 1000gb bolt.


Do keep your eye on prices--as I recall, my credit card gives price protection for 2 or 3 months after a purchase.


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## pdhenry

Discover is 60 days, if my memory serves me correctly (it often doesn't).


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## lynncosbm

I just received my two Bolts, one for me and one for my daughter, yay! I'm planning on upgrading to a 3 TB HD or I should say my brother will be doing it for me! So I won't be setting mine up for a few days since I'm waiting for the HD to arrive. My daughter will be transferring her cable card from her TiVo HD to her Bolt. I think I read somewhere that the TiVo should be turned off and unplugged before removing the cable card? Is there anything else I should tell her to do? The suggestion of taking pictures of the SPs was good I think, I'll tell her to do that too.


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## Redoctobyr

For those of us who are curious, can I ask when you ordered yours? Just wondering where they are in the backlog of orders.


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## HerronScott

cwerdna said:


> I just realized MPEG-4 transfers from TiVo HD to PC via kmttg probably don't work. Not many Comcast channels have gone MPEG-4 but I recall awhile ago, my PC only produced a small file w/only audio and no video. I just tried another (most likely MPEG4) recording and confirmed this. (It was an ep of How It's Made on Science Channel HD that's 0.83 gigs per kmttg for 30 minutes yet the resulting .TiVo file is only 83 megabytes and has only audio when played w/WMP.)


That's correct on HD models since they did not include the ability to support TS format transfers when they added MPEG4 recording capabiities, but you should be able to transfer that MPEG4 recording directly from the HD to a newer TiVo.

Scott


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## HerronScott

cwerdna said:


> For example, I had SPs for on 2 separate channels for a SD and HD versions of Entertainment Tonight. I think I have the KAM limits set differently on both (to keep more of the SD versions and fewer HD since HD uses up so much space). I think I only got a single OnePass and I don't think there's a way to create two OnePasses to do what I want to achieve.


Correct, one of the items that got the biggest complaints with regards to 1P's was the inability to create two 1P for the same show with different settings.

Scott


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## lynncosbm

Redoctobyr said:


> For those of us who are curious, can I ask when you ordered yours? Just wondering where they are in the backlog of orders.


I think it was April 3, but I live in Bermuda so it takes longer to get here than to people in the US mainland. It was shipped on the 10th. ;^)


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## cwerdna

Another bunch of hints for those who choose to use the web site to migrate your SPs from a TiVo HD:
- make sure the KAM limits for your shows are set right. It seems many of mine are set to 25 eps when I think they were set to all on my TiVo HD
- most of my OPs seem to be set to record new eps only when that's not my intent (e.g. catching reruns of Mythbusters, Bizarre Foods w/Andrew Zimmern, etc.) I had to go thru and change a ton of my OPs.

I currently have 66 OnePasses. Overall, I'm quite impressed by the Bolt+. It is BLAZING fast on almost everything compared to my Tivo HD. And, some of the features like being able to watch from a tablet or phone are pretty cool.

The extra buttons on the remote and some UI convention differences take a bit to get used to. There was no button marked Back on the Tivo HD but now there is beside pressing left, which isn't always the same. Guide button location throws me off too since that's where Select was.


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## Jrr6415sun

so i can't read through 42 pages of this, any chance of calling and getting them to still give you the offer even though it's expired?


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## Mikeguy

Jrr6415sun said:


> so i can't read through 42 pages of this, any chance of calling and getting them to still give you the offer even though it's expired?


So try just the past few pages. 

Yep. I would call and simply note your interest and ask for it--some have had success. Also, one person, upon asking, was told that they are working on another promotion, which will be coming soon (who knows . . .).


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## Worf

Apparently you can still upgrade to a Bolt+ on this offer. Upgrading to a 500/1TB Bolt is less likely, but you might get lucky.

Might have to play CSR roulette.


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## leiff

I'm curious nobody has confirmed if they bought more than one at once online with this offer that has shipped? Because of this I didn't buy more for resale. I had the opportunity to get more of these old qualifing Series 2 boxes for around $50 on eBay before they sold out perhaps others people having the same idea is as me? Better 4 those to get one that really wants one - I'm happy I got one bolt with for an extra $50 eBay price tag for owner account transfer to me. I still haven't submitted my Discover price protection mainly since Amazon price match price went up & since mine hasn't shipped yet and transaction was removed from my CC


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## caughey

The real question is, once the Bolt arrives, can you hide it inside the old Series2 case?


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## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> I'm curious nobody has confirmed if they bought more than one at once online with this offer that has shipped? Because of this I didn't buy more for resale. I had the opportunity to get more of these old qualifing Series 2 boxes for around $50 on eBay before they sold out perhaps others people having the same idea is as me? Better 4 those to get one that really wants one - I'm happy I got one bolt with for an extra $50 eBay price tag for owner account transfer to me. I still haven't submitted my Discover price protection mainly since Amazon price match price went up & since mine hasn't shipped yet and transaction was removed from my CC


As you may see in the posts, some people have, at least over the phone, if I recall correctly. Personally, absent my already having the boxes, I wouldn't want to go out and buy others and try--there always is a risk.


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## jlb

aaronwt said:


> This is where KMTTG comes in handy. Just backup your season passes. And you can restore them to another TiVo in under a minute. With all passes populating in the same order they were previously.


I'm toying with trying to get a transfer of my LT HD to a Bolt series. What's the best place to learn how to easily install and use KMTTG..... and sadly I have to ask....will it run on XP?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jlb

jlb said:


> I'm toying with trying to get a transfer of my LT HD to a Bolt series. What's the best place to learn how to easily install and use KMTTG..... and sadly I have to ask....will it run on XP?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Oooops didn't read ahead enough.....looks like kmttg may no longer work. Oh well

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Mikeguy

jlb said:


> I'm toying with trying to get a transfer of my LT HD to a Bolt series. What's the best place to learn how to easily install and use KMTTG..... and sadly I have to ask....will it run on XP?


I downloaded and installed kmttg with almost no pre-knowledge (well, actually, it's not installed--you run it from its folder, even easier), and it was a piece of cake. The interface itself can seem intimidating--there's lots there--but again can be fessed out without too much fuss.


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## jlb

Ok one more question. If I were to try and still get the deal for my LT HD (with my own 2TB drive in it), would it make more sense to get the 1TB Bolt (I don't need 6 tuners), wait for warranty period to lapse and then consider an upgraded drive or invest in a Bolt+? I may be fine with 1TB long term but upgrading should be easy enough after warranty....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Mikeguy

3TB internal drive replacement for the Bolt: currently around $150 at Amazon.com.

The sweet spot seems to be, doing this with the 500GB Bolt, which is $100 less expensive than the 1TB Bolt. And which would bring the cost of a modded 500GB/now 3TB Bolt to $350, as vs. $300 for a 1TB Bolt pre-mod. But, then, the mod will take half-an-hour or an hour.


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## aaronwt

Mikeguy said:


> 3TB internal drive replacement for the Bolt: currently around $150 at Amazon.com.
> 
> The sweet spot seems to be, doing this with the 500GB Bolt, which is $100 less expensive than the 1TB Bolt. And which would bring the cost of a modded 500GB/now 3TB Bolt to $350, as vs. $300 for a 1TB Bolt pre-mod. But, then, the mod will take half-an-hour or an hour.


More like five minutes if you know what you are doing.

But I've opened up the Bolt's a couple dozen times now. So I can swap out the hard drive extremely quickly now.

Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk


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## leiff

Color - black vs white might matter make difference to some also


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## Redoctobyr

leiff said:


> I'm curious nobody has confirmed if they bought more than one at once online with this offer that has shipped?


I have 2 Series 2s, and bought 2 Bolts online in the same order, yes. They haven't shipped yet, but there's nothing to make me suspect there will be an issue beyond the delayed backlog of orders that's affecting a lot of people.

I bought the 500GB, and will upgrade the drive. Based on what I paid, another $35 (vs the cost of the 1TB model) will get me 3TB of storage. And I'm fine with having 4 tuners, rather than 6. I'll deal with the white case, though it's not my first choice of color.



jlb said:


> Oooops didn't read ahead enough.....looks like kmttg may no longer work. Oh well


What do you mean by kmttg may no longer work? Not work in XP? Or in general? I'm running kmttg on Win7 and Win10 at the moment, transferring shows from my S2s. I guess I'd (naiively) be surprised if it wouldn't run in XP, it's a Java program. I'd expect that might make it more "tolerant" of running on a wider range of Windows versions.


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## Mikeguy

leiff said:


> Color - black vs white might matter make difference to some also


I'm waiting for some enterprising company to come out with some interesting (ventilated) skins for the Bolt.


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## aaronwt

Mikeguy said:


> I'm waiting for some enterprising company to come out with some interesting (ventilated) skins for the Bolt.


It's been eighteen months since the Bolt was released. If the skins aren't available now, I would think that they are unlikely to appear.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


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## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> It's been eighteen months since the Bolt was released. If the skins aren't available now, I would think that they are unlikely to appear.


I agree, but am surprised--I woulda thought that this would be a gimme, given how easy a skin would be for the skin companies to produce and the Bolt's simple design. Have a skin for your different rooms and moods: a faux leather skin for the den, silver or gold-reflective for that 70's style living room, a sedate pastel for the bedroom . . . . Hmm, will have to check out the Con-Tact paper at my local hardware store.


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## jlb

aaronwt said:


> More like five minutes if you know what you are doing.
> 
> But I've opened up the Bolt's a couple dozen times now. So I can swap out the hard drive extremely quickly now.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk


Would you guys upgrade right away or would you wait for warranty expiration? Also, what is the best drive for upgrade in the Bolt? And lastly, would someone be as kind to provide a link to the easiest/best instructions for Bolt drive replacement?

Sooo regarding upgrade, is upgrade for bolt vastly different from the old days and upgrading my HD? If it only takes 5 min or so.....and I'm techie so I'm pretty good with these things in general....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## jlb

Ok I just read it's easy because you can just pop in the replacement drive and it formats itself when powered on

Question.... do you need to run guided setup on the stock drive first before replacement? I guess it would be smart to make sure there are no other problems with the box. And I assume that if you run GS first, get the CC paired, and set up your OPs, that you could use TiVo Online to push the OPs back after putting the new drive in?

That video seems easy enough that I agree, it would make more sense to buy the 500gb and replace right away. Though with the WAF maybe i just get the 1TB to start and down the road if we really need the added space (just sub to locals), then I can say "well I can upgrade easily for us"


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## cwerdna

jlb said:


> Would you guys upgrade right away or would you wait for warranty expiration? Also, what is the best drive for upgrade in the Bolt?


I personally would wait for warranty expiration. But, unfortunately, that means that if you care about preserving your recordings, you gotta worry about copying over all the shows from the original drive to your new one vs. just popping in a new drive.

For anything large, it seems like only the Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3.0TB 2.5-inch 15.0mm... in stock at MacSales.com is the only 3 TB drive currently readily available to consumers that's reasonably priced that is holding up. You've probably seen all the horror stories already of various 2.5" drives (esp. SMR: Shingled magnetic recording - Wikipedia) getting killed within weeks or months. Only problem is, AFAIK, we don't know how the above Toshiba's holding up in the long term.

I was originally going to order the 1 TB Bolt thru the upgrade offer but then they went OOS. I thought about getting a 500 gig then using an external enclosure and 3.5" drive or going the above Toshiba route. I was concerned about long-term longevity of both setup: the reliability of the enclosure or the Toshiba 2.5" drive. Also, the external setup would mean for cooling piece of mind, I'd probably need to have a small fan blowing into the Bolt w/its top left cover off, which is kinda ugly.

In the end, I bit bullet and got the Bolt+ and buying the 3 year extended warranty. Sure, it's a lot more $, but at least I feel I have more peace of mind in terms of drives or enclosures failing over the long term and losing all my recordings. (I HATE losing all my recordings and SPs/OPs.)

Or, some software update could break unsupported setups. TiVo isn't the same company it was before given Rovi bought them. And we all know how bad Rovi guide data is vs. Tribune/Gracenote along w/how much Rovi seems to care...


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## jlb

cwerdna said:


> I personally would wait for warranty expiration. But, unfortunately, that means that if you care about preserving your recordings, you gotta worry about copying over all the shows from the original drive to your new one vs. just popping in a new drive.
> 
> For anything large, it seems like only the Toshiba MQ03ABB300 3.0TB 2.5-inch 15.0mm... in stock at MacSales.com is the only 3 TB drive currently readily available to consumers that's reasonably priced that is holding up. You've probably seen all the horror stories already of various 2.5" drives (esp. SMR: Shingled magnetic recording - Wikipedia) getting killed within weeks or months. Only problem is, AFAIK, we don't know how the above Toshiba's holding up in the long term.
> 
> I was originally going to order the 1 TB Bolt thru the upgrade offer but then they went OOS. I thought about getting a 500 gig then using an external enclosure and 3.5" drive or going the above Toshiba route. I was concerned about long-term longevity of both setup: the reliability of the enclosure or the Toshiba 2.5" drive. Also, the external setup would mean for cooling piece of mind, I'd probably need to have a small fan blowing into the Bolt w/its top left cover off, which is kinda ugly.
> 
> In the end, I bit bullet and got the Bolt+ and buying the 3 year extended warranty. Sure, it's a lot more $, but at least I feel I have more peace of mind in terms of drives or enclosures failing over the long term and losing all my recordings. (I HATE losing all my recordings and SPs/OPs.)
> 
> Or, some software update could break unsupported setups. TiVo isn't the same company it was before given Rovi bought them. And we all know how bad Rovi guide data is vs. Tribune/Gracenote along w/how much Rovi seems to care...


Well, that gets me thinking. We only sub to locals. And on our current 2TB TiVoHD I don't think we've ever come anywhere ear capacity or even half maybe. So I could consider getting the 1TB and just running with it. And if we ever need to upgrade we prob wouldn't have too many recordings, especially if I wait until summer.

I think the Bolt+ would be overkill for us storage wise and def tuners wise.

How much is the extended warranty for the 3 years?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Redoctobyr

I am planning to upgrade my 500GB model after it arrives, to the 3TB Toshiba. I'm planning to try it out first (run through Guided Setup, etc), and make sure the Bolt works. Then carefully do the upgrade. Someone said that you'll have to redo Guided Setup after replacing the drive.

As far as the risk of an external enclosure failing, that actually wouldn't worry me all that much. If the enclosure had a problem, it would likely not destroy the drive. And the drive is the more important of the two, given that it has all your shows, and is likely more expensive than the enclosure.

Edit: It looks like the 2-year warranty is $30, and 3-year warranty is $40. If you have a credit card that extends warranties, that can help too. I didn't get the extended warranty from TiVo, but my CC should still double the 1 year to 2 years. I'm hoping that the Bolt will be pretty reliable once you get past the initial "infant mortality" stage. Hopefully future failures beyond the normal warranty would be mainly limited to the HD (manageable) or power supply (easier and cheaper to replace than the ones built into my Series 2s).


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## jlb

Is there an "approved" (by the community) 2TB drive by any chance (in assuming that would be 9.5mm)? Just curious.....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## cwerdna

jlb said:


> How much is the extended warranty for the 3 years?


For my Bolt+, it was $39.99 to make the warranty 3 years, in total.

If I currently shop on TiVo's web site for a Bolt+ (500 GB and 1 TB are backordered), 2 year extended warranty is $29.99 and 3 years is $39.99, exactly like what I got. From https://www.tivo.com/buytivo/warranty/popup_protect_investment.html, it looks like you can always add it as long as you do it within 90 days of the unit's activation.

I'm not normally a fan of buying extended warranties (and almost never buy them), but if (not readily available) WD's 3 TB drive that TiVo uses in the Bolt turns out to be crap, or how hot the units run == failures within 3 years, well, at least I'll be covered.

The extended warranty requires that it be connected to a UL-listed surge protector and it mentions it may be collected for examination. The funny part is that the contract/terms look like it's a generic extended warranty as later on, it refers to heating, cooling, air conditioner, refrigerator, freezer, etc.


----------



## aaronwt

jlb said:


> Would you guys upgrade right away or would you wait for warranty expiration? Also, what is the best drive for upgrade in the Bolt? And lastly, would someone be as kind to provide a link to the easiest/best instructions for Bolt drive replacement?
> 
> Sooo regarding upgrade, is upgrade for bolt vastly different from the old days and upgrading my HD? If it only takes 5 min or so.....and I'm techie so I'm pretty good with these things in general....
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Personally I typically run the TiVo for a few days to make sure there are no issues before I upgrade the drive. I don't wait for the warranty to expire before upgrading. But you can only do what you feel comfortable with.


----------



## Mikeguy

Personally, I'd get the 500GB Bolt and, if you think you want more space in the short-term, get the 3TB drive and sub it in after making sure your box is fine--for $50 over the 1TB price, you get 2 extra TB's. As to the warranty, historically, TiVo has tended to look the other way when it's come to hard drive upgrades; it's seemed to raise a warranty issue when the _consumer_ has raised the drive issue or otherwise been, perhaps, an issue. (There's a thread here on the warranty topic, if you'd like to read up on this some.) And if you need warranty service, you put the original drive back in the box first.

If that still makes you concerned, I guess I'd ask, can you "survive" (lol) with 500GB and then add in the new drive at the end of a year? As you saw, easy enough to do, and with the new pyTivo Desktop software here, pretty easy to transfer your content to your PC and then back to the TiVo with new drive.

Really, just some personal judgments on your part.


----------



## jlb

Mikeguy said:


> Personally, I'd get the 500GB Bolt and, if you think you want more space in the short-term, get the 3TB drive and sub it in after making sure your box is fine--for $50 over the 1TB price, you get 2 extra TB's. As to the warranty, historically, TiVo has tended to look the other way when it's come to hard drive upgrades; it's seemed to raise a warranty issue when the _consumer_ has raised the drive issue or otherwise been, perhaps, an issue. (There's a thread here on the warranty topic, if you'd like to read up on this some.) And if you need warranty service, you put the original drive back in the box first.
> 
> If that still makes you concerned, I guess I'd ask, can you "survive" (lol) with 500GB and then add in the new drive at the end of a year? As you saw, easy enough to do, and with the new pyTivo Desktop software here, pretty easy to transfer your content to your PC and then back to the TiVo with new drive.
> 
> Really, just some personal judgments on your part.


Nah, I think I'm good. I think I would prob do exactly what you said. Get the 500gb....run for maybe a week tops and then sub in the 3TB drive.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## cwerdna

Mikeguy said:


> Personally, I'd get the 500GB Bolt and, if you think you want more space in the short-term, get the 3TB drive and sub it in after making sure your box is fine--for $50 over the 1TB price, you get 2 extra TB's. As to the warranty, historically, TiVo has tended to look the other way when it's come to hard drive upgrades; it's seemed to raise a warranty issue when the _consumer_ has raised the drive issue or otherwise been, perhaps, an issue. (There's a thread here on the warranty topic, if you'd like to read up on this some.) And if you need warranty service, you put the original drive back in the box first.


I am surprised about people saying that TiVo has tended to look the other way when to warranty service. I saw all sorts of mentions of that when doing research for this upgrade offer. I'm sure TiVo knows people have changed out the drive, as they have since Series 1 days just from the boot logs. If it's not a drive they've ever shipped with or it suddenly changed for a given TSN w/o them changing it, it's been hacked... errr upgraded.

FWIW, the factory warranty on a Bolt w/lifetime err... all-in subscription isn't very long (90 days on parts and labor, 1 year for parts): https://support.tivo.com/articles/Features_Use/TiVo-Limited-Warranty. I recall warranties on Series 1 thru HD were similar.

My thing is, if the warranty is over or at least past the 90 days and I have a lifetime/all-in plan on it and something other than the hard drive starts going south, then what? TiVo has the right to say "sorry... it's out of warranty and you've also opened he box" and not be willing transfer the lifetime sub to another unit.

Voiding a warranty on Bolt w/o lifetime isn't as big of a deal but voiding it where you've paid for the box + lifetime (in this case transferred)...

I've replaced the drives or added to them on my older TiVos, but lifetime used to cost significantly less than the $550 it is now.


----------



## sfhub

IME it is extremely rare for the non-moving parts in TiVo to fail in the first 90 days after working for a few days. Either those areas aren't working right away or start failing a year or more into usage.

IMO I would just test the unit out for a few days, then upgrade the drive and re-pair the CableCARDs.

It depends on how much work it is for one to migrate later on also. If you don't really care about your shows and can trash them, then you can easily wait the 90 days. If you spent a lot of time migrating shows and season passes, you don't want to be doing that stuff over and over.

Even if your warranty is void, TiVo has been known to fix your unit for a price and transfer the lifetime.


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## Mikeguy

cwerdna said:


> I am surprised about people saying that TiVo has tended to look the other way when to warranty service. I saw all sorts of mentions of that when doing research for this upgrade offer. I'm sure TiVo knows people have changed out the drive, as they have since Series 1 days just from the boot logs. If it's not a drive they've ever shipped with or it suddenly changed for a given TSN w/o them changing it, it's been hacked... errr upgraded.
> 
> FWIW, the factory warranty on a Bolt w/lifetime err... all-in subscription isn't very long (90 days on parts and labor, 1 year for parts): https://support.tivo.com/articles/Features_Use/TiVo-Limited-Warranty. I recall warranties on Series 1 thru HD were similar.
> 
> My thing is, if the warranty is over or at least past the 90 days and I have a lifetime/all-in plan on it and something other than the hard drive starts going south, then what? TiVo has the right to say "sorry... it's out of warranty and you've also opened he box" and not be willing transfer the lifetime sub to another unit.
> 
> Voiding a warranty on Bolt w/o lifetime isn't as big of a deal but voiding it where you've paid for the box + lifetime (in this case transferred)...
> 
> I've replaced the drives or added to them on my older TiVos, but lifetime used to cost significantly less than the $550 it is now.


What can I tell you? I based my post re warranty and DIY hard drive upgrades on what I've gathered from what people had posted here in an earlier thread, as to their experiences with TiVo on warranty matters after having put in a new drive still within the original box warranty period. My take-away (with emphasis on its being _my_ take-away) was that TiVo more-often-than-not has followed through and provided warranty service (where the issue was not hard drive related) absent the user pointing out the hard drive upgrade to TiVo or being, seemingly, a more problematic customer. This tends to match what people see as the "old TiVo" and its persona.

As always, YMMV, as well as your take-away from others' experiences.


----------



## Worf

Mikeguy said:


> I agree, but am surprised--I woulda thought that this would be a gimme, given how easy a skin would be for the skin companies to produce and the Bolt's simple design. Have a skin for your different rooms and moods: a faux leather skin for the den, silver or gold-reflective for that 70's style living room, a sedate pastel for the bedroom . . . . Hmm, will have to check out the Con-Tact paper at my local hardware store.


I don't think there's enough demand to mass produce skins, but maybe those graphics companies may have Bolt patterns in their database so you can custom-print a skin and have it cut out to the right size. After all, a pattern is cheap - it costs nothing in the end since it's the business they're in - printing out custom vinyl overlays and having them pre-cut to the right size.

As for extended warranty - $40 is cheap for what a Bolt+ cost in the end. 3 years for $40 after paying $600? That's a steal. All the other places will charge you $100+ for that kind of warranty.


----------



## idksmy

I bought a Roamio Basic when they were first available and just bought a Bolt. In each case, I went through guided setup to make sure everything worked, then I replaced the drive with a bigger one. They both have lifetime.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Redoctobyr said:


> I am planning to upgrade my 500GB model after it arrives, to the 3TB Toshiba. I'm planning to try it out first (run through Guided Setup, etc), and make sure the Bolt works. Then carefully do the upgrade. Someone said that you'll have to redo Guided Setup after replacing the drive.
> 
> As far as the risk of an external enclosure failing, that actually wouldn't worry me all that much. If the enclosure had a problem, it would likely not destroy the drive. And the drive is the more important of the two, given that it has all your shows, and is likely more expensive than the enclosure.
> 
> Edit: It looks like the 2-year warranty is $30, and 3-year warranty is $40. If you have a credit card that extends warranties, that can help too. I didn't get the extended warranty from TiVo, but my CC should still double the 1 year to 2 years. I'm hoping that the Bolt will be pretty reliable once you get past the initial "infant mortality" stage. Hopefully future failures beyond the normal warranty would be mainly limited to the HD (manageable) or power supply (easier and cheaper to replace than the ones built into my Series 2s).


The warranty from your credit card may replace the unit, but will it also cover another lifetime subscription on the replacement as the extended TiVo warranty does?


----------



## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> The warranty from your credit card may replace the unit, but will it also cover another lifetime subscription on the replacement as the extended TiVo warranty does?


If it were me I would tell the insurance company instead of replacing the unit, pay for TiVo to repair the unit, which would normally cost less than replacing (and TiVo essentially gives you a refurb), in which case, TiVo will transfer the lifetime.


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## aaronwt

sfhub said:


> If it were me I would tell the insurance company instead of replacing the unit, pay for TiVo to repair the unit, which would normally cost less than replacing (and TiVo essentially gives you a refurb), in which case, TiVo will transfer the lifetime.


TiVo doesn't repair individual units. They replace them with a refurb.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


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## Redoctobyr

TheCryptkeeper said:


> The warranty from your credit card may replace the unit, but will it also cover another lifetime subscription on the replacement as the extended TiVo warranty does?


Ugh, that's a good point, I hadn't considered that aspect. Having an extra $500+ in value tied to that particular physical box always complicates things.

I may have to reconsider getting an extended warranty. I think the likelihood of a "really-expensive" failure (which kills the motherboard, and therefore your Lifetime) is low, but the financial risk is high ($750 for a 500GB Bolt plus Lifetime).

From TiVo's extended warranty page, here:
About warranties - TiVo

- You get 60 days to change your mind and return an extended warranty.
- You *should* be able to buy an extended warranty up to 90 days after buying/activating the box. Most of the wording is pretty reassuring (eg- "you can purchase an extended warranty...."), except for this one. Bolded emphasis is mine:
"If you have already activated your DVR you *may* be able to purchase an extended warranty by logging into your account on tivo.com."



sfhub said:


> If it were me I would tell the insurance company instead of replacing the unit, pay for TiVo to repair the unit, which would normally cost less than replacing (and TiVo essentially gives you a refurb), in which case, TiVo will transfer the lifetime.


That sounds pretty reasonable. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee the credit card company would see it that reasonably. They might simply do something like refund your purchase price, or something else that sacrifices your Lifetime.

Frankly, if TiVo is willing to do repairs that way, then they might reasonably be expected to repair a Bolt for less than the cost of a new one, for the owner.

(Edit- I'm using "repair" slightly generically, in the sense of getting a working unit again, whether they actually fix yours, or provide a refurb).

And if they will transfer your Lifetime as part of the repair, then at most, you're out $200 for a 500GB Bolt and transferred Lifetime, vs $200 + 550 to buy a new replacement. That would at least soften the blow.


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## sfhub

Redoctobyr said:


> Frankly, if TiVo is willing to do repairs that way, then they might reasonably be expected to repair a Bolt for less than the cost of a new one, for the owner.


I'm pretty sure I've read of others that were charged less than $100 by TiVo to repair out of warranty units (ie get sent a refurb) and they got lifetime transferred. Perhaps you could call TiVo support and ask them what it costs to repair out-of-warranty unit and if they will transfer lifetime in that case.

Also I've personally helped someone get activation transferred after an extended warranty replacement (new unit) for 3rd-party extended warranty, so I know it can be done, but that was years ago and I can't tell you if that is official or current policy. I know in the past it was conjectured that TiVo supports this policy because they sold through some retail channels and retailers make good money on extended warranties.


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## Mikeguy

Worf said:


> I don't think there's enough demand to mass produce skins, but maybe those graphics companies may have Bolt patterns in their database so you can custom-print a skin and have it cut out to the right size. After all, a pattern is cheap - it costs nothing in the end since it's the business they're in - printing out custom vinyl overlays and having them pre-cut to the right size.


I was somewhat kidding originally, but really, it would be so easy for a skin company to do, I _am_ kinda surprised.


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## Redoctobyr

The unconventional shape of the Bolt would make a skin a bit trickier, I'd expect. If you make it lay flat on the top of the Bolt, it will have a wrinkle on the front face of the skin. And if you make it flat against the front face of the Bolt, the top will have a wrinkle. If you stretched the skin a fair bit, you could reduce the wrinkling, but that may not be trivial either.


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## juanian

Maybe I have missed it (looking through dozens of pages), but has anyone indicated how TiVo 'picks' which eligible lifetime TiVo will be transferred (if the new Bolt was ordered online)? (I have multiple TiVos with lifetime that are eligible for transfer, but there is a specific one that I want the lifetime transferred from (that is, my old S2 140 that still has its original HD!).)


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## wtherrell

juanian said:


> Maybe I have missed it (looking through dozens of pages), but has anyone indicated how TiVo 'picks' which eligible lifetime TiVo will be transferred (if the new Bolt was ordered online)? (I have multiple TiVos with lifetime that are eligible for transfer, but there is a specific one that I want the lifetime transferred from (that is, my old S2 140 that still has its original HD!).)


I ended up calling them to be sure.


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## HerronScott

juanian said:


> Maybe I have missed it (looking through dozens of pages), but has anyone indicated how TiVo 'picks' which eligible lifetime TiVo will be transferred (if the new Bolt was ordered online)? (I have multiple TiVos with lifetime that are eligible for transfer, but there is a specific one that I want the lifetime transferred from (that is, my old S2 140 that still has its original HD!).)


I called the next day after ordering online the night before (on what was supposed to be the last day of the promotion). We have 4 that were eligible but there was one specific one that I wanted to use.

Scott


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## Mikeguy

juanian said:


> Maybe I have missed it (looking through dozens of pages), but has anyone indicated how TiVo 'picks' which eligible lifetime TiVo will be transferred (if the new Bolt was ordered online)? (I have multiple TiVos with lifetime that are eligible for transfer, but there is a specific one that I want the lifetime transferred from (that is, my old S2 140 that still has its original HD!).)


Yep, you missed it. 

Some people were asked when they called and made the purchase, some people were told that TiVo would send out an email asking; and the (wise) people have called TiVo customer support and told them.


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## juanian

Mikeguy said:


> Yep, you missed it.
> 
> Some people were asked when they called and made the purchase, some people were told that TiVo would send out an email asking; and the (wise) people have called TiVo customer support and told them.


Thanks - looks like I will be calling Monday to pick the TiVo I want the transfer to occur on.

And just to chime in on shipping times, I ordered my Bolt 500 on 4/9, and the last e-mail I received said that it should ship on 4/28. I seem to remember seeing something (maybe on the offer web page) that said 4/21 was the shipping date; but, when I placed the order (and chose the free shipping method), it did say it would be arriving in 2-3 days. (I'm in no hurry; I am currently on DTV, so the Bolt will only be doing OTA once I actually activate it.)


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## Mikeguy

juanian said:


> Thanks - looks like I will be calling Monday to pick the TiVo I want the transfer to occur on.
> 
> And just to chime in on shipping times, I ordered my Bolt 500 on 4/9, and the last e-mail I received said that it should ship on 4/28. I seem to remember seeing something (maybe on the offer web page) that said 4/21 was the shipping date; but, when I placed the order (and chose the free shipping method), it did say it would be arriving in 2-3 days. (I'm in no hurry; I am currently on DTV, so the Bolt will only be doing OTA once I actually activate it.)


I think the ship date slipped to the date in the email (shipping by 4-28), due to the demand (and TiVo rushing to make more boxes, to cash in on the demand?), which is the latest I've heard.


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## Burdy

Just before going through guided setup on my new unit I did an online chat to indicate which old TiVo was to be deactivated; I provided the TSN of the donor unit assuming somehow this was key to the activation process. The support person said an email would be forthcoming and my response to it should specify which unit to deactivate and never gave any indication that I had closed the loop by specifying the machine in advance. 

So far I haven't received any email yet (it has been 17 days since the shipping notice activation and 15 days since the actual activation). Nothing has changed on tivo.com to indicate that any machine has had service deactivated (the donor unit is no longer functioning for me to try it out). The new Bolt shows 'Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee' in the Pymt Plan column (as does an existing Bolt on my account) but has a clickable link under the 'device options' column that reads "Change this currrent plan" with the note "Make any changes to your service plan within 30 days of activation or after your commitment is fulfilled." I guess I'll just wait and see, though I am somewhat skeptical that those who made phone contact are any more finalized in this process than I am.


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## aaronwt

It's been 15 days since both of my Bolts first connected to TiVo. And both my S3 TiVos are still on my account and can transfer to/from my Roamios and Bolts.


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## tvmaster2

so has anyone who was told "shipping be friday, april 28th" received your Bolts yet? Any email updates?


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## Redoctobyr

I haven't gotten an email update, nor has my order shipped, as of the last time I checked. The email about them expecting to ship by the 28th was sent on the 13th, a week and a half ago.


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## mlsnyc

I haven't gotten any updates.


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## dark54555

No updated here either. (4/2 order for a 1TB Bolt; was told 4/21 on the phone before the 4/28 e-mail got sent)


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## brettatk

The only communication I've gotten since ordering my Bolt 500GB on April 5th, was on April 13th when they emailed saying it would be shipped by April 28th. I guess I'll find out soon how true that statement was.


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## tivohogg

I ordered my Bolt on April 6. I did it over the phone so I could be sure the correct Tivo was the donor lifetime. I was expecting an arrival after April 21 but received mine within 5 days. I was amazed. And I am very happy with the Bolt so far.


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## mlsnyc

tivohogg said:


> I ordered my Bolt on April 6. I did it over the phone so I could be sure the correct Tivo was the donor lifetime. I was expecting an arrival after April 21 but received mine within 5 days. I was amazed. And I am very happy with the Bolt so far.


Did you order the Bolt or Bolt+? The Bolt+ are going out right away as far as I know.


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## tivohogg

mlsnyc said:


> Did you order the Bolt or Bolt+? The Bolt+ are going out right away as far as I know.


The Bolt 500. I really wanted the 1G but it was unavailable and I didn't want to miss out on the transfer of lifetime.


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## mlsnyc

tivohogg said:


> The Bolt 500. I really wanted the 1G but it was unavailable and I didn't want to miss out on the transfer of lifetime.


Congrats!

I placed mine online on Apr 5 and am among those who haven't heard a peep except to be told on the 13th we needed to wait til the 28th. I wasn't in a rush but now I'm getting antsy to get a hold of this thing.


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## tivohogg

mlsnyc said:


> Congrats!
> 
> I placed mine online on Apr 5 and am among those who haven't heard a peep except to be told on the 13th we needed to wait til the 28th. I wasn't in a rush but now I'm getting antsy to get a hold of this thing.


I have been watching that on the posts. Guess I am under a lucky star. and you should be happy to get it. I am very pleased with how it works. Especially the 4 tuner. That is a nice addition.


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## TheCryptkeeper

sfhub said:


> If it were me I would tell the insurance company instead of replacing the unit, pay for TiVo to repair the unit, which would normally cost less than replacing (and TiVo essentially gives you a refurb), in which case, TiVo will transfer the lifetime.


Good luck with that. The insurance company will do what's cheapest for them regardless of what the customer wants.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## Mikeguy

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Good luck with that. The insurance company will do what's cheapest for them regardless of what the customer wants.


Nicely, sometimes the 2 coincide. The insurer under my card requires the exploration of repairs for items costing more than $100.


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## HerronScott

tvmaster2 said:


> so has everyone who was told "shipping be friday, april 28th" received your Bolts yet? Any email updates?


Why would everyone who was told they were shipping by April 28th have received them already? 

I'm guessing you meant has anyone...

Scott


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## tvmaster2

HerronScott said:


> Why would everyone who was told they were shipping by April 28th have received them already?
> 
> I'm guessing you meant has anyone...
> 
> Scott


hehe, yeah, autocorrect fooled me, and you too apparently. has been corrected so absolutely everyone will understand....


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## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Good luck with that. The insurance company will do what's cheapest for them regardless of what the customer wants.


It is normally cheaper for them to have TiVo repair (send you a refurb) than to replace the unit. So I guess you could say good luck not having your insurance company repair it.


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## TheCryptkeeper

sfhub said:


> It is normally cheaper for them to have TiVo repair (send you a refurb) than to replace the unit. So I guess you could say good luck not having your insurance company repair it.


But will TiVo transfer the Lifetime Service to the refurbished replacement if it's not under their specific extended warranty?

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> But will TiVo transfer the Lifetime Service to the refurbished replacement if it's not under their specific extended warranty?


If you (or your insurance) pays for TiVo to do out-of-warranty repairs (ie send you refurb) they will transfer the lifetime. I can't say I've verified today right this moment, but I have helped someone do this in the past.


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## Mikeguy

TheCryptkeeper said:


> But will TiVo transfer the Lifetime Service to the refurbished replacement if it's not under their specific extended warranty?


TiVo has been known to make special deals in that circumstance.


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## repancjc

Ordered a Bolt 500gb online the 4th, not a word except the email about the 4/28 shipping. Wrote on TIVO's Facebook page, they answered back Monday (4/24) saying... "We apologize for the delay! We plan to ship towards the end of the month. You will receive an email with a tracking number once your order ships!"


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## Mikeguy

repancjc said:


> Ordered a Bolt 500gb online the 4th, not a word except the email about the 4/28 shipping. Wrote on TIVO's Facebook page, they answered back Monday (4/24) saying... "We apologize for the delay! We plan to ship towards the end of the month. You will receive an email with a tracking number once your order ships!"


And, well, the 28th is "towards the end of the month."


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## repancjc

Mikeguy said:


> And, well, the 28th is "towards the end of the month."


Yeah, I was just hoping their original projection of 4/21 might hold up, perhaps we'd see some orders start to go out.


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## slk230

My order, placed 4/1 for the 1T was shipped this morning from Fort Worth, TX.


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## mlsnyc

It's felt like a quiet last week and a half in terms of delivery news. Either the units were steadily shipping out and not too many people were mentioning it here (which is fine since no one is under any obligation to report) or TiVo was spending the time ramping up to get ready to send them out this week. Whatever the case, hopefully none of us have to wait much longer and all orders get shipped by the 28th as promised.


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## TheCryptkeeper

Someone on another site reported receiving notice last evening of their order being shipped, but the order was placed on 4/1.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## Redoctobyr

Wow. I believe I've seen people mention having their orders ship already, for orders placed more like the 5th or so. So am order from the 1st just shipping now seems kinda odd. 

Granted, the size that was ordered may play a part, some sizes may be more backordered than others. Maybe the previously-shipped boxes were a size that had more available. 

I ordered my 500GB on the 8th, hopefully it will be able to ship soon. In the meantime, at least I have more time to pull the shows off my S2s.


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## timckelley

Now that I'm using the Bolt as an OTA box, I'm noticing a couple of my OTA channels (CBS and the CW channel) aren't all that reliable. Sometimes there is a lot of pixelation, making certain shows unwatchable. All the other channels come in quite nicely though.

I have a fairly nice antenna mounted in my attic, so now I'm wondering if I were to mount it on my chimney instead, if that would improve my reception. The only thing is I'm not sure I feel safe going up there on my roof; maybe there's a way I can hire somebody to mount it up there for me.


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## Redoctobyr

I don't use OTA, I have only experimented with a little antenna for a few minutes, straight to my TV. 

But I believe I saw someone mention that the Bolt splits your incoming signal across the 4 tuners, which reduces the signal strength to each tuner. So based on that, it's possible that the Bolt could give worse reception than just feeding that same antenna signal directly to your TV, or to a single-tuner TiVo box. 

If you're starting with a signal that was ok before the Bolt, maybe you could try adding an amplifier between the signal and the Bolt. You can also try re-aiming the antenna to see if you can improve the marginal stations, without making the rest worse.


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## scandia101

Just checked my order history on tivo.com and the "cancel order" option is gone. I'm assuming/hoping that's because it's in the process of being shipped.


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## timckelley

Redoctobyr said:


> I don't use OTA, I have only experimented with a little antenna for a few minutes, straight to my TV.
> 
> But I believe I saw someone mention that the Bolt splits your incoming signal across the 4 tuners, which reduces the signal strength to each tuner. So based on that, it's possible that the Bolt could give worse reception than just feeding that same antenna signal directly to your TV, or to a single-tuner TiVo box.
> 
> If you're starting with a signal that was ok before the Bolt, maybe you could try adding an amplifier between the signal and the Bolt. You can also try re-aiming the antenna to see if you can improve the marginal stations, without making the rest worse.


In addition, I"m splitting the signal between the Bolt and a Series 2, so that further weakens the signal. That's a nice suggestion about putting in an amplifier; I should look into that. I think I might even have one in my box of electronics out in the garage. Another option is to remove the S2 from my antenna network, because I basically have the S2 hooked up so it can participate in future promotions; I'm not sure we actually need it to record shows.


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## pdhenry

scandia101 said:


> Just checked my order history on tivo.com and the "cancel order" option is gone. I'm assuming/hoping that's because it's in the process of being shipped.


My status has changed from "Order Placed" to "Processing Order" (and like yours, the option to cancel the order has disappeared).


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## Popasmurf

I ordered a 1 TB Bolt on 4/1 and I can confirm my order is shipping. I should receive mine by tomorrow.


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## dark54555

pdhenry said:


> My status has changed from "Order Placed" to "Processing Order" (and like yours, the option to cancel the order has disappeared).


Mine has too. (4/2 1TB order)

I assume that means it's being shipped soon. And knowing where they fulfill from, it'll be at my door the day after it ships.


----------



## scandia101

Shipped!
Only 21 days after placing the order


----------



## catperson

dark54555 said:


> And knowing where they fulfill from ...


Texas?


----------



## dark54555

catperson said:


> Texas?


Their logistics facility is out near Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, to be specific.


----------



## Redoctobyr

You guys got me all hopeful  Ordered 4/8, still gives the option to cancel, and doesn't say Shipped. Oh well, all in good time.


----------



## slowride

My order for 4 500gb bolts on 4/6 hasn't changed either.


----------



## timckelley

dark54555 said:


> Their logistics facility is out near Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, to be specific.


It probably helps explain why my bolt was on my front porch less than 24 hours after I ordered it. They guy on the phone told me to expect it fast for that reason.


----------



## Riblet2000

timckelley said:


> I have a fairly nice antenna mounted in my attic, so now I'm wondering if I were to mount it on my chimney instead, if that would improve my reception.


What RF channels are they on? If they're VHF and you only have a UHF antenna that's a problem. The other non-obvious thing is with digital you can have too much signal, and might need an attenuator to get it back to the Bolt's happy place.


----------



## aaronwt

I currently have my antenna feed going to an eight way splitter. I have the two S3 boxes on OTA. Two Roamios on OTA. And my two old Bolts are on OTA. Currently they can all receive the same channels. If there is a signal issue with a channel on the Bolts, the S3 and Roamios also have the issue.


----------



## slowride

slowride said:


> My online order for 4 500gb bolts on 4/6 hasn't changed either.


I just checked tivo again and my order for 4 units is changed to processing. Thats great news considering only 2 out of 4 tivos on my account had connected in the proper time window for the deal.


----------



## mlsnyc

Mine switched to processing some time in the last 2 hours.


----------



## repancjc

Order placed 4/4, Bolt 500gb shipped today, just got the tracking.


----------



## worachj

repancjc said:


> Order placed 4/4, Bolt 500gb shipped today, just got the tracking.


Same here. I'm also able to change the new Bolt's name under DVR preferences.


----------



## brettatk

My order placed on April 5th just shipped.


----------



## Mikeguy

worachj said:


> Same here. *I'm also able to change the new Bolt's name under DVR preferences.*


Oooh, brings to mind, we should have a naming contest here!


----------



## pdhenry

Mine has shipped! 1TB ordered April 3.

The new box appears in My Account on TiVo.com, in process of being activated.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

mlsnyc said:


> Mine switched to processing some time in the last 2 hours.


When did you order? I may still have a long wait; I didn't order until the 12th.


----------



## mlsnyc

TheCryptkeeper said:


> When did you order? I may still have a long wait; I didn't order until the 12th.


I ordered online on Apr 5th.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

mlsnyc said:


> I ordered online on Apr 5th.


I guess it may be another week or more for me. Wow, they must have had a ton of orders to fill.


----------



## mlsnyc

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I guess it may be another week or more for me. Wow, they must have had a ton of orders to fill.


I wouldn't be pessimistic just yet. Unless there's another email announcing another delay, it's very much possible they'll get through all the orders by this week as they promised.


----------



## Mikeguy

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I guess it may be another week or more for me. Wow, they must have had a ton of orders to fill.


Ya' never know--if a bunch all came in, it might just be a matter of the time it takes to process them out the door (and for the shipper to be able to accommodate).


----------



## pdhenry

Mine is shipping FedEx Ground from Ft. Worth - anticipated delivery Friday.


----------



## timckelley

Riblet2000 said:


> What RF channels are they on? If they're VHF and you only have a UHF antenna that's a problem. The other non-obvious thing is with digital you can have too much signal, and might need an attenuator to get it back to the Bolt's happy place.


The channels I'm having the most trouble with are 42 and 54, so it's the highest numbered channels. 36 (NBC) seems fine.


----------



## pdhenry

IIRC, digital TV no longer has explicitly defined relationships between channel numbers and assigned frequency.



> With the advent of digital television in 2009, stations are allowed to identify themselves by a virtual channel that may not necessarily be the same as the station's RF channel. Virtual channels 1, 37, and 70 to 99 can be assigned via PSIP even though there is no corresponding physical station on that RF channel.[9]


North American television frequencies - Wikipedia

As an example, "Channel 8" may broadcast via UHF or "Channel 35" may broadcast via VHF.


----------



## JoeKustra

timckelley said:


> The channels I'm having the most trouble with are 42 and 54, so it's the highest numbered channels. 36 (NBC) seems fine.


Your channels, Austin Television Stations - Station Index are both UHF but have a big difference in power levels.

KXAN is also UHF: KXAN-TV - Wikipedia


----------



## timckelley

JoeKustra said:


> Your channels, Austin Television Stations - Station Index are both UHF but have a big difference in power levels.
> 
> KXAN is also UHF: KXAN-TV - Wikipedia


So, it sounds like the signal is too weak for those stations for me? Maybe an amplifier as somebody suggested will help, but I wonder if the stations that are already fine would become over amplified. Also, as I mentioned, maybe before installing an amplifier, I could try removing the splitter between the Bolt and the S2, because I don't think we're really planning on using the S2 to active record shows for us to watch later. I think with the addition of the Bolt, we probably no longer need an S2.

The other idea is to take the antenna out of my attic, and put it on the chimney, but I don't feel too safe walking up there. I will say that I have the antenna near some kind of vent at the apex of my attic, and that vent directly faces the TV towers (far away though those towers are.)


----------



## timckelley

Wait, I think I misunderstood you; I think you're saying my two problem channels differ quite a bit in power level. Hmmm... you'd think the more powerful one would come in clearly.


----------



## timckelley

Wow, KEYE is the more powerful one at 1000 kW, and that's probably the one I have the most trouble getting. And there are other weaker ones that always come in clearly.


----------



## dark54555

Shipped! Fedex, projected to arrive tomorrow.


----------



## JoeKustra

timckelley said:


> Wow, KEYE is the more powerful one at 1000 kW, and that's probably the one I have the most trouble getting. And there are other weaker ones that always come in clearly.





timckelley said:


> Wait, I think I misunderstood you; I think you're saying my two problem channels differ quite a bit in power level. Hmmm... you'd think the more powerful one would come in clearly.


I'm not making any conclusions or suggestions. I'm just trying to give you the information to decide a course of action. As for the 1MW station, there could be multipath issues. I always use Wiki to check a station for physical channel and sub-channels, which degrade quality. BTW, the TiVo doesn't know about PSIP.


----------



## jlb

pdhenry said:


> Mine has shipped! 1TB ordered April 3.
> 
> The new box appears in My Account on TiVo.com, in process of being activated.


Curious.....sticking with 1TB or upgrading?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## pdhenry

I think 1 TB will be plenty for awhile (I have a 420 GB Premiere upstairs).


----------



## TDon

1 TB ordered on 4/3. Shipping today, should be here Friday!


----------



## Redoctobyr

The amount of space needed for HD recordings is an adjustment, coming from an SD Series 2. 

500GB sounds like a lot, but it's similar to the HD space in my upgraded S2s. Except that it's like 400+ hours for an S2, vs 75 hours in HD. 

I've gotten used to having the extra space. And we'll be going from a pair of S2s, to one Bolt, so even with upgrading it to 3TB, it's probably less than the total hours we have now. I'm glad we have options for more than 500GB.


----------



## pdhenry

I'll deactivate an S2 for my Bolt, but it will actually take the place of a 320 GB Premiere. My other (newer, based on the original activation date) Premiere is a "400 hour" model but I don't really know its HD size. We seldom have issues with space but we're pretty good at watching & deleting programs.

Edit: looks like the "other" Premiere is a 500 GB model. TiVopedia - TiVo Premiere Series4 - TCD746320 and TCD746500


----------



## danm628

I just got a shipment notice from TiVo and FedEx that my Bolt is on the way. Scheduled to arrive Saturday.


----------



## phox_mulder

As of 4 hours ago when I left for work, nothing.
Just checked my email and my 500G Bolt ordered on the 4th has shipped as well.

Not sure about this part though "If your tracking number begins with 1Z, go to www.ups.com or if your tracking number begins with 91, go to www.usps.com and enter your full tracking number".

My tracking number begins with 043, so I guess I can assume it's FedEx?
Only info is "Ship Method: Ground 4-6 Bus. Days"

phox


----------



## pdhenry

I Googled my tracking number and it gave me FedEx, so yeah.


----------



## Mikeguy

phox_mulder said:


> As of 4 hours ago when I left for work, nothing.
> Just checked my email and my 500G Bolt ordered on the 4th has shipped as well.
> 
> Not sure about this part though "If your tracking number begins with 1Z, go to www.ups.com or if your tracking number begins with 91, go to www.usps.com and enter your full tracking number".
> 
> My tracking number begins with 043, so I guess I can assume it's FedEx?
> Only info is "Ship Method: Ground 4-6 Bus. Days"
> 
> phox


It's FedEx. A nice thing with shipment numbers from the major companies: typically, you simply can enter the number into one of the major Internet browsers' address window (just like it's a URL) and the browser will locate the record, provide shipment info., and give the link to the shipping co. and record. Cool.


----------



## Mikeguy

danm628 said:


> I just got a shipment notice from TiVo and FedEx that my Bolt is on the way. Scheduled to arrive Saturday.


Nice that FedEx delivers the weekend!


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

All quite here and no change in status. I hope they don't cancel my order or delay it again.


----------



## phox_mulder

Mikeguy said:


> It's FedEx.


FedEx is a good thing, they actually deliver in the morning/early afternoon.

UPS, for some reason, always delivers within 1/2 hour of "by 8pm" in my neighborhood, and I'm at work at that time, so who knows how long it will sit on the porch, or if it needs a signature, ever get delivered.

phox


----------



## Mikeguy

phox_mulder said:


> FedEx is a good thing, they actually deliver in the morning/early afternoon.
> 
> UPS, for some reason, always delivers within 1/2 hour of "by 8pm" in my neighborhood, and I'm at work at that time, so who knows how long it will sit on the porch, or if it needs a signature, ever get delivered.
> 
> phox


Same here. It appears that UPS will push home deliveries to after-business hours, presumably to assure it gets its business deliveries done during the day. FedEx seems to more mix it up.

Personally, I get good service from and like USPS, as I know when it will deliver, it delivers on Saturday, and I can go to the post office to pick an item up easily enough, if needed.

With all of them, I enjoy the fact that in my quiet neighborhood, they've decided to put their speed over security and so simply will leave packages at the door (without even knocking), if they think they can get away with it.


----------



## HerronScott

Just as a data point, I placed my order on the evening of the 10th and no change in status (still showing that I could cancel the order). I'm not worried about the delay. I'm glad that it was so popular and hope it helped them. 

Scott


----------



## leiff

ETA friday for me here.


----------



## justen_m

Ordered mine 4/4, shipped 4/25 and got an stating it shipped, expected delivery 4/28. I guess that's better than the email simply saying it will ship by the 28th.


----------



## Mikeguy

justen_m said:


> Ordered mine 4/4, shipped 4/25 and got an stating it shipped, expected delivery 4/28. I guess that's better than the email simply saying it will ship by the 28th.


Yep, it meant that TiVo was able to keep to what it said, ship by April 28, and bettering than doing it the last day.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Mine Hasn't shipped yet 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## leiff

to those using Plex - does it run better on bolt vs roamio?


----------



## pdhenry

It takes 12 hours to go from Ft. Worth to Lebanon, Tennessee, I see...

(Tracking shipment...)


----------



## mlsnyc

Got my shipping notice. According to FedEx it will arrive this Sat the 29th.

For reference:
- Ordered online 4/5
- Order went to processing midday 4/25
- Shipped end of day 4/26


----------



## Tweak42

Thanks to timckelley for the Amazon webpage capture back on Post 809. Submitted and received approval for Citi price rewind of $68.95 back on our 500GB Bolt purchase. We used the email showing the Tivo order summary by line because the website only shows the order total.


----------



## slowride

For those who's order is shipped has your credit card been charged? My order is supposed to be here on friday and my credit card hasn't been charged.


----------



## Redoctobyr

I haven't tried using price-matching with my CC company before. Am I correct in assuming that I need to wait until TiVo charges my card (presumably as they get ready to ship), before trying to price-match?

Also, that Amazon screenshot in post 809 was from presumably April 6th (it says "Get it tomorrow, April 7th"). I ordered on the 8th. Could I still try using that Amazon reference? That's a better price than the ~$150 I remember seeing when I ordered.


----------



## pdhenry

You have on the order of 60 days after payment to claim for price protection, so there's time for (a) you to have the hardware and (b) the charge to hit the card.


----------



## pdhenry

Amazon's price for the 1TB Bolt is up to $280...


----------



## mlsnyc

slowride said:


> For those who's order is shipped has your credit card been charged? My order is supposed to be here on friday and my credit card hasn't been charged.


Haven't seen a charge yet.


----------



## aaronwt

slowride said:


> For those who's order is shipped has your credit card been charged? My order is supposed to be here on friday and my credit card hasn't been charged.


My credit card wasn't charged until a few days after I actually received the Bolts.


----------



## Mikeguy

slowride said:


> For those who's order is shipped has your credit card been charged? My order is supposed to be here on friday and my credit card hasn't been charged.


Shhhhh . . . .  (Maybe it's a secret Rovi gift, to make up for matters.)


----------



## Mikeguy

Redoctobyr said:


> I haven't tried using price-matching with my CC company before. Am I correct in assuming that I need to wait until TiVo charges my card (presumably as they get ready to ship), before trying to price-match?
> 
> Also, that Amazon screenshot in post 809 was from presumably April 6th (it says "Get it tomorrow, April 7th"). I ordered on the 8th. Could I still try using that Amazon reference? That's a better price than the ~$150 I remember seeing when I ordered.


Do be sure to check with your credit card company--the rules may be different by company and card.

With mine, I need to submit the purchase receipt, the full credit card statement on which the charge appears, and the competing ad; the last time I checked, I believe I had 90 days from my purchase date.

I assume that a pre-purchase ad can't be used, because (1) you could have purchased that unit instead, in the eyes of the insurance company, and (2) the "coverage period" has not yet begun, presumably beginning with your actual purchase.


----------



## Tweak42

Redoctobyr said:


> I haven't tried using price-matching with my CC company before. Am I correct in assuming that I need to wait until TiVo charges my card (presumably as they get ready to ship), before trying to price-match?
> 
> Also, that Amazon screenshot in post 809 was from presumably April 6th (it says "Get it tomorrow, April 7th"). I ordered on the 8th. Could I still try using that Amazon reference? That's a better price than the ~$150 I remember seeing when I ordered.


I think at the minimum the date of the order confirmation email needs to fall before the pricematch.

I ordered on April 2nd, received on April 13th but waited till the 23rd to submit to make sure everything on the Bolt worked as advertised. You could wait out the your price protection window looking for a lower price.

We were already happy with the deal without the pricematch, so anything we get back is icing on the cake.


----------



## timckelley

This is getting ridiculous: I filed for price protection 20 days ago, and they still haven't ruled. They advertise that it takes them 5 business days to rule, but whenever I call them, they say they're backlogged more than usual. It's been probably more than a week since I last called, so I think I'll call them tomorrow to see if they can give me any kind of ETA. Last time they said they couldn't give an ETA, but maybe it depends on who answers the phone.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> This is getting ridiculous: I filed for price protection 20 days ago, and they still haven't ruled. They advertise that it takes them 5 business days to rule, but whenever I call them, they say they're backlogged more than usual. It's been probably more than a week since I last called, so I think I'll call them tomorrow to see if they can give me any kind of ETA. Last time they said they couldn't give an ETA, but maybe it depends on who answers the phone.


Totally understandable. But it will come, grasshopper.


----------



## pdhenry

Everyone's claiming for TiVos.


----------



## timckelley

pdhenry said:


> Everyone's claiming for TiVos.


Maybe so, but I was pretty much an early bird in this process.


----------



## leiff

Anyone know does discover price protection filing work online or do I just call?


----------



## scandia101

aaronwt said:


> slowride said:
> 
> 
> 
> For those who's order is shipped has your credit card been charged? My order is supposed to be here on friday and my credit card hasn't been charged.
> 
> 
> 
> My credit card wasn't charged until a few days after I actually received the Bolts.
Click to expand...

I've had a pending charge on my card since I placed the order on 4/4. On the 25th when my Bolt shipped, there was a second pending charge from Tivo for the same $300+ and yesterday, the second pending charge had posted and the first pending charge from the 4/4 is still pending.


----------



## sharownnn

leiff said:


> Anyone know does discover price protection filing work online or do I just call?


I had to call them and give them some high level info(dates, price, etc) and then they give you a some options on how to submit your claim. They can email you a link to fill out the info and attach your receipts and things or snail mail everything.

I submitted my claim online on the 24th and it changed to approved today:blush:I'm not sure what happens now but I assume a statement credit back or a check?

For anyone interested, I price matched to TiVo BOLT 500 GB Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player which had it listed for $111.xx at the time. I was a little worried since the site is not as reputable as Amazon.


----------



## cherry ghost

Mine came today. Hard drive due Saturday.


----------



## Mikeguy

sharownnn said:


> I had to call them and give them some high level info(dates, price, etc) and then they give you a some options on how to submit your claim. They can email you a link to fill out the info and attach your receipts and things or snail mail everything.
> 
> I submitted my claim online on the 24th and it changed to approved today:blush:I'm not sure what happens now but I assume a statement credit back or a check?
> 
> For anyone interested, I price matched to TiVo BOLT 500 GB Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player which had it listed for $111.xx at the time. I was a little worried since the site is not as reputable as Amazon.


Congrats! The form of reimbursement depends on the policy company (there may be info. at its website)--with mine, I received a reimbursement check, although I think that most recently, they also may have had a debit card option.


----------



## Redoctobyr

sharownnn said:


> For anyone interested, I price matched to TiVo BOLT 500 GB Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player which had it listed for $111.xx at the time. I was a little worried since the site is not as reputable as Amazon.


That's a great price! That site is currently at $138. Still better than Amazon's current price, at least, maybe I can use it for price-matching. Could I ask what date you found the $111 price? Would you consider posting a grab of that price, to help others to use it for price-matching? I understand if you'd rather not.

Interestingly, it looks like Amazon had the Bolt for $131 when I ordered mine from TiVo on 4/8. I wish I'd thought to grab a copy of the price at the time, but I hadn't considered trying to price-match later: 
The Tracktor - The Tracktor - TiVo BOLT 500 GB DVR: Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player - 4K UHD Compatible - Works with Cable or HD Antenna


----------



## pdhenry

I'm waiting until the charge actually hits my card before saying I "bought" at TiVo's price...


----------



## aaronwt

scandia101 said:


> I've had a pending charge on my card since I placed the order on 4/4. On the 25th when my Bolt shipped, there was a second pending charge from Tivo for the same $300+ and yesterday, the second pending charge had posted and the first pending charge from the 4/4 is still pending.


My pending charge fell off around four or five days after the order. When the Bolts actually shipped the pending charge had already disappeared. So at the time I didn't know if there would be an issues and was surprised that my card still had not been charged when i received my Bolts.


----------



## pdhenry

My Bolt is within 20 miles of my home; scheduled delivery tomorrow.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> My Bolt is within 20 miles of my home; scheduled delivery tomorrow.


Of course, it could be sent to your home via Ft. Worth . . . .


----------



## sharownnn

Redoctobyr said:


> That's a great price! That site is currently at $138. Still better than Amazon's current price, at least, maybe I can use it for price-matching. Could I ask what date you found the $111 price? Would you consider posting a grab of that price, to help others to use it for price-matching? I understand if you'd rather not.
> 
> Interestingly, it looks like Amazon had the Bolt for $131 when I ordered mine from TiVo on 4/8. I wish I'd thought to grab a copy of the price at the time, but I hadn't considered trying to price-match later:
> The Tracktor - The Tracktor - TiVo BOLT 500 GB DVR: Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player - 4K UHD Compatible - Works with Cable or HD Antenna


Attaching my print out. I "printed" it on 4/21.

Of course, I cannot guarantee anyone else's price match will get approved with this - the website is certainly not as reputable as Amazon.


----------



## Redoctobyr

Thanks for sharing!


----------



## phox_mulder

My new Bolt, still on a truck somewhere between Texas and Utah, showed up on my account today.

I was doing my daily check on the Android App to make sure things were still recording that were supposed to be, and saw a new un-named TiVo on the drop down menu.
And, as luck would have it, my Roamio Basic didn't have anything in the ToDo list, and today being the first day of May Sweeps, I know nothing was reruns, so was able to reschedule everything on my other two OTA's for tonight.
I'm guessing I'll get home and find it's lost it's "Product Lifetime" status yet again, and needs to contact the mother ship.

phox


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> My Bolt is within 20 miles of my home; scheduled delivery tomorrow.


Did you get a fresh email before it shipped? Tomorrow is the 28th, and it's all quiet here....


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Did you get a fresh email before it shipped? Tomorrow is the 28th, and it's all quiet here....


Did you check your tivo.com account/orders page? That's where the change seems to occur, the order progressing to "processing" or something similar, and then to "shipped" with a tracking button.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

All quiet here too.


----------



## DVR_Dave

Ordered two Bolt 500GB on 4/10 PM. Status still says "Order Placed".


----------



## pdhenry

Out for delivery...


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

pdhenry said:


> Out for delivery...


No love for TheCryptkeeper yet. Today was suppose to be the day my Bolts ship, but we shall see.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## tvmaster2

DVR_Dave said:


> Ordered two Bolt 500GB on 4/10 PM. Status still says "Order Placed".


that's what mine says as well. Some one in the Philippines told me yesterday that was normal, and that the unit was still on target to ship today, the 28th. I have my doubts....


----------



## justen_m

pdhenry said:


> Out for delivery...


Mine too.


----------



## BHyde

From this thread, I am assuming that the offer is no longer available? I have a Series 3 HD with a lifetime pass that I don't use anymore. Sure would have liked to have seen this info about the offer earlier.


----------



## Mikeguy

BHyde said:


> From this thread, I am assuming that the offer is no longer available? I have a Series 3 HD with a lifetime pass that I don't use anymore. Sure would have liked to have seen this info about the offer earlier.


Has your box connected up between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017, the requirement? If so, you always could call TiVo and see if you still can get the offer--some people got it after-the-fact (but it's been a while, now), and a phone call is cheap. Some people also were told that TiVo was working on anther offer (but, who knows?).


----------



## justen_m

pdhenry said:


> Out for delivery...





justen_m said:


> Mine too.


Woo-hoo! Just arrived. 930am FedEx delivery. FWIW, I picked standard, free shipping when I place my order.


----------



## Mikeguy

justen_m said:


> Woo-hoo! Just arrived. 930am FedEx delivery. FWIW, I picked standard, free shipping when I place my order.


Congrats! Nice to get it before the weekend.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

tvmaster2 said:


> that's what mine says as well. Some one in the Philippines told me yesterday that was normal, and that the unit was still on target to ship today, the 28th. I have my doubts....


Mine still says order placed too with the option to cancel. I'm skeptical that they will ship today. I don't mean to complain. The offer was a generous one. But it would be nice to get an update or something if they aren't going to meet schedule. If my order will be delayed a third time they should let me know rather than leaving me in the dark.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## Redoctobyr

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Mine still says order placed too. I'm skeptical that they will ship today. It would be nice to get an update or something if they aren't going to meet this second delay.


Same here, mine still has the option to cancel. When I ordered on the 8th, the site said it would ship the 10th, at the end of my order. The main promotion page still said shipping the 21st. Then a few days after ordering, there was the email about shipping the 28th.

It's certainly not a huge problem if it's another few days, but I'm hoping it will ship today. I want to try it out


----------



## jlin

Two of my 'upgrades' have the defective HDMI handshake issues which requires me to restart the Bolt when I turn on the TV (see the 2 threads on the Bolt forum).

Tivo is going to RMA both units but I highly doubt that will make any difference.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Just chatted with a TiVo rep who said my 500 GB Bolt will ship towards the end of the month (I ordered it on 4/12).


----------



## Mikeguy

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Just chatted with a TiVo rep who said my 500 GB Bolt will ship *towards the end of the month *(I ordered it on 4/12).


Guess that means, any minute now . . . .


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Mikeguy said:


> Guess that means, any minute now . . . .


LOL

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## Redoctobyr

Yeah, sorry, I'm a bit confused too. When you say shipping at the end of the month, do you mean the end of April, or the end of May? If it's the end of May, then wow, that's a mighty big change in timing.


----------



## krkaufman

BHyde said:


> From this thread, I am assuming that the offer is no longer available? I have a Series 3 HD with a lifetime pass that I don't use anymore. Sure would have liked to have seen this info about the offer earlier.


If the terms of this offer are a guide...


Mikeguy said:


> Has your box connected up between March 28, 2016 and March 28, 2017


... you'll want to have your old Series 3 periodically connecting to the TiVo service.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Redoctobyr said:


> Yeah, sorry, I'm a bit confused too. When you say shipping at the end of the month, do you mean the end of April, or the end of May? If it's the end of May, then wow, that's a mighty big change in timing.


I'm confused too. I don't think English was the native tongue for the person I was chatting with. I assumed the rep meant the end of May. We're toward the end of April now. I don't think they ship on weekends and Monday will be May 1st. I don't know. Perhaps someone else can provide more clarification. I don't want to keep bothering them.


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## Hit The Ball

I placed my order on 4/10 and it went to order processing between 1:00 and 2:00 PM PDT.
Yeah!

HTB


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## TheCryptkeeper

Hit The Ball said:


> I placed my order on 4/10 and it went to order processing between 1:00 and 2:00 PM PDT.
> Yeah!
> 
> HTB


Good for you. Thanks for letting us know. Which model Bolt did you order? There's no change to my order yet. I hope it's not too much longer.

Redoctobyr, has your order status changed? You ordered on 8th.

Does anyone know if they process orders on weekends?


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## Hit The Ball

I ordered a 500 GB - no idea if orders are processed on the weekends.

HTB


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## Redoctobyr

I was about to reply, as I checked after seeing HTB's post. I ordered a pair of 500GB Bolts and a Mini on 4/8, it went to Processing Order within the last few hours. Very nice. 

Hopefully they received a big batch of units, and can get a lot of people's orders shipped out soon!


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## waynomo

I ordered a 500 GB at 12:45 PM on the 10th. The cancel order button isn't there anymore, but also there is no Track Shipment button.


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## pdhenry

waynomo said:


> I ordered a 500 GB at 12:45 PM on the 10th. The cancel order button isn't there anymore, but also there is no Track Shipment button.


What's the status (on the left)?


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## waynomo

pdhenry said:


> What's the status (on the left)?


Processing.


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## TheCryptkeeper

Has anyone who ordered on the 12th or later heard anything?


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## pdhenry

waynomo said:


> Processing.


That means they're getting ready to ship. The default status is "Order Placed."


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## KyleLC

I ordered on April 10 and the status is still "Order Placed."


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## TheCryptkeeper

Waynomo ordered at 12:45 P.M. on the 10th and his order is processing. Your order must be close. But who knows how much inventory they have and when they'll get more.


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## tvmaster2

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Just chatted with a TiVo rep who said my 500 GB Bolt will ship towards the end of the month (I ordered it on 4/12). A previously mentioned vendor on this thread selling Bolts now has an estimated delivery date of May 12 - 28 for this model, whereas it was May 5th last week. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I suspect that if you ordered towards the end of this promotion like me, and your Bolt hasn't shipped yet, you probably won't see it until the end of May.





TheCryptkeeper said:


> Waynomo ordered at 12:45 P.M. on the 10th and his order is processing. Your order must be close. But who knows how much inventory they have and when they'll get more.


After two phone calls the last two days, mine went from "order placed" to "processing" late yesterday. Hopefully the squeaky wheel gets oiled....


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## Trey Dio

Well, I'm not having a good start with my new Bolt 500GB. I went through guided setup yesterday morning and everything seemed to be working fine. Eventually I noticed I wasn't able to communicate with the Bolt from my Roamio OTA, HD XL or Tivo desktop. The problem turned out to be that the Media Access Key (MAK) on the Bolt is inexplicably not the same as the MAK on the other Tivos and on my account. The Bolt shows up as active in my Tivo account. I online chatted with Tivo support yesterday but their recommendation have so far not solved the problem. The recommendation was to connect to the Tivo service twice back to back, then unplug and plug back in, then connect to the Tivo service a third time, and then wait 2 hours. I even went through guided setup again again this morning to no avail. I'm antenna only so don't have cable card complicatons. Has anyone run into this situation before?


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## krkaufman

Trey Dio said:


> Well, I'm not having a good start with my new Bolt 500GB.


Did TiVo have you try a Clear & Delete Everything, to reset the BOLT back to factory defaults?


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## Mikeguy

Trey Dio said:


> Well, I'm not having a good start with my new Bolt 500GB. I went through guided setup yesterday morning and everything seemed to be working fine. Eventually I noticed I wasn't able to communicate with the Bolt from my Roamio OTA, HD XL or Tivo desktop. The problem turned out to be that the Media Access Key (MAK) on the Bolt is inexplicably not the same as the MAK on the other Tivos and on my account. The Bolt shows up as active in my Tivo account. I online chatted with Tivo support yesterday but their recommendation have so far not solved the problem. The recommendation was to connect to the Tivo service twice back to back, then unplug and plug back in, then connect to the Tivo service a third time, and then wait 2 hours. I even went through guided setup again again this morning to no avail. I'm antenna only so don't have cable card complicatons. Has anyone run into this situation before?


Just to double-check: are the device preferences set for the new box on your account at tivo.com?


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## Trey Dio

krkaufman said:


> Did TiVo have you try a Clear & Delete Everything, to reset the BOLT back to factory defaults?


Thanks. I'll try that next.


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## Trey Dio

Mikeguy said:


> Just to double-check: are the device preferences set for the new box on your account at tivo.com?


Yes, both video sharing and enable video downloads are checked.


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## TheCryptkeeper

Trey Dio said:


> Well, I'm not having a good start with my new Bolt 500GB. I went through guided setup yesterday morning and everything seemed to be working fine. Eventually I noticed I wasn't able to communicate with the Bolt from my Roamio OTA, HD XL or Tivo desktop. The problem turned out to be that the Media Access Key (MAK) on the Bolt is inexplicably not the same as the MAK on the other Tivos and on my account. The Bolt shows up as active in my Tivo account. I online chatted with Tivo support yesterday but their recommendation have so far not solved the problem. The recommendation was to connect to the Tivo service twice back to back, then unplug and plug back in, then connect to the Tivo service a third time, and then wait 2 hours. I even went through guided setup again again this morning to no avail. I'm antenna only so don't have cable card complicatons. Has anyone run into this situation before?





Mikeguy said:


> Just to double-check: are the device preferences set for the new box on your account at tivo.com?


Good point, Mikeguy. Also, sometimes it takes a little while for multiple DVRs to see one another properly. When I got my first Bolt, I could stream from my Roamio to it perfectly, but could not stream from the Bolt on the Roamio. I needed to restart my network and all my DVRs. For a week or so, when I streamed movies from my Bolt on the Roamio, the connection would stop and I'd need to restart playback. Very annoying. But after a week passed, everything started working properly, like magic, and I hadn't done anything different.


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## HerronScott

waynomo said:


> I ordered a 500 GB at 12:45 PM on the 10th. The cancel order button isn't there anymore, but also there is no Track Shipment button.


Mine was ordered the evening of the 10th and is still showing the Cancel option but hopefully it will ship soon since yours was ordered earlier that day. 

Scott


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## justen_m

Trey Dio said:


> Well, I'm not having a good start with my new Bolt 500GB.


Same here. Purchased it to replace my OTA only TiVoHD. Unplugged one, plugged in the next. No other changes. I can only tune in 1/5th of the channels I got on my OTA. Thinking about returning this defective piece of ****.

BOLT OTA tuners are an order of magnitude behide those of my TiVoHD!!!!


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## Trey Dio

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Good point, Mikeguy. Also, sometimes it takes a little while for multiple DVRs to see one another properly. When I got my first Bolt, I could stream from my Roamio to it perfectly, but could not stream from the Bolt on the Roamio. I needed to restart my network and all my DVRs. For a week or so, when I streamed movies from my Bolt on the Roamio, the connection would stop and I'd need to restart playback. Very annoying. But after a week passed, everything started working properly, like magic, and I hadn't done anything different.


I know what you mean. I've had similar network issues in the past. But this seems to be a MAK issue. It's as if my new Bolt was registered to a different account.


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## Mikeguy

Trey Dio said:


> I know what you mean. I've had similar network issues in the past. But this seems to be a MAK issue. It's as if my new Bolt was registered to a different account.


Hopefully, something easy enough for TiVo to correct.


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## Redoctobyr

justen_m said:


> Same here. Purchased it to replace my OTA only TiVoHD. Unplugged one, plugged in the next. No other changes. I can only tune in 1/5th of the channels I got on my OTA. Thinking about returning this defective piece of ****.
> 
> BOLT OTA tuners are an order of magnitude behide those of my TiVoHD!!!!


I've heard people say that the incoming signal is split 4 ways, across the 4 tuners in the Bolt, thus reducing the signal strength to each tuner. I have no way to verify this, but it seems reasonable, since there *are* 4 tuners.

So it may not be defective, it may simply come with the territory, of having multiple tuners. You could try adding a signal amplifier before the Bolt, to counteract the strength change due to the internal splitter.


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## pdhenry

If you're having signal strength issues a call to the cable company may be in order. I've generally been lucky in that the tech finds an issue with the line to the house (which puts the service call on their nickel), which he fixes and then he goes throughout the house improving my infrastructure for free (replacing leads, reworking crimped connectors).


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## Mini Me

I was a little upset. I called last week and was told that the special was extended to the end of the month (April) that the system just needed to be updated. She was going to call me back. I followed up today and was told the special ended on the 10th. But looking at some of these posts, looks like I may have dodged a bullet by not getting a Bolt.


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## Trey Dio

Mikeguy said:


> Hopefully, something easy enough for TiVo to correct.


Well, after an agonizing 2 hours dealing with Tivo the problem appears to be solved. Turns out the Tivo Service Number (TSN) on my account for the new Bolt was incorrect. I had checked the label on the white cardboard packaging box and it matched OK. But the TSN on the actual Tivo Bolt was different. Quality control in Mexico seems to be lacking.


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## Trey Dio

Trey Dio said:


> Well, after an agonizing 2 hours dealing with Tivo the problem appears to be solved. Turns out the Tivo Service Number (TSN) on my account for the new Bolt was incorrect. I had checked the label on the white cardboard packaging box and it matched OK. But the TSN on the actual Tivo Bolt was different. Quality control in Mexico seems to be lacking.


Oh, I forgot to mention Tivo tech support was excellent but customer support SUCKED SUCKED SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I needed to rant.


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## Redoctobyr

pdhenry said:


> If you're having signal strength issues a call to the cable company may be in order. I've generally been lucky in that the tech finds an issue with the line to the house (which puts the service call on their nickel), which he fixes and then he goes throughout the house improving my infrastructure for free (replacing leads, reworking crimped connectors).


He said he's replacing an OTA-only unit. So I'm guessing he's using an antenna, not cable.


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## aaronwt

If the signal strength drops to the point where you only get 1/5th of the channels, the level must have been pretty low to begin with. In my setup, I used to have a three way splitter on my OTA signal. But then I put an 8-way splitter in so I could feed the two S3 boxes, two Roamios, two Bolts, and a Premiere during this Lifetime transfer deal. I still get the same dozens of channels here in the DC area as I did with the 3-way splitter. All of my TiVos on OTA receive the same channels. And the couple of channels that have issues because of a lower signal strength, all of my TiVos have the same intermittent issues picking them up.


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## HerronScott

Trey Dio said:


> Well, after an agonizing 2 hours dealing with Tivo the problem appears to be solved. Turns out the Tivo Service Number (TSN) on my account for the new Bolt was incorrect. I had checked the label on the white cardboard packaging box and it matched OK. But the TSN on the actual Tivo Bolt was different. Quality control in Mexico seems to be lacking.


How far off was it? You have to wonder if 2 boxes got swapped (and there's another person out there that may have an issue) or if a whole group is off or if there was just a duplicate label.

Scott


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## leiff

My Bolt came with 4-20 build date. cool. 
Yes my fan is loud unfortunately


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## idksmy

Mini Me said:


> But looking at some of these posts, looks like I may have dodged a bullet by not getting a Bolt.


Actually, you didn't dodge a bullet. There are plenty of happy Bolt users who don't post about it.


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## Mikeguy

Mini Me said:


> I was a little upset. I called last week and was told that the special was extended to the end of the month (April) that the system just needed to be updated. She was going to call me back. I followed up today and was told the special ended on the 10th.


Yep, April 10 was the listed date for the end of the promotion (subject to qualification), although it actually hung around until April 14 or so. If the Internet has taught me anything (and continues to teach me--I haven't been good at this), it's that any deal can end at any time, for a multitude of reasons and despite what anyone says--if there's a deal and one wants it, grab it now.

For whatever it's worth, a few reps. have told people that other promotions are possible/being worked on--perhaps that's what the rep. was looking into. You might want to keep an eye posted, such as here, where people nicely will post deals coming down. TiVo's flash sale earlier this month on the Roamio OTA refurb. came out of nowhere.


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## CaseyJ

justen_m said:


> Same here. Purchased it to replace my OTA only TiVoHD. Unplugged one, plugged in the next. No other changes. I can only tune in 1/5th of the channels I got on my OTA. Thinking about returning this defective piece of ****.
> 
> BOLT OTA tuners are an order of magnitude behide those of my TiVoHD!!!!


I have my TiVo HD and my Bolt on a 2 way splitter and can switch between them on 2 inputs on my TV. I'm using OTA only. For signals on the low end, the Bolt actually picks them up better with a clear picture, while the HD breaks up and freezes. If you're using the same setup for your Bolt as you did for your HD, maybe your Bolt is defective. Or maybe there's a loose connection. Hope you find a solution because the Bolt is so much better in many ways.


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## phox_mulder

My 500GB arrived yesterday.
Opted to fire it up and let it it run for a week or two before putting in the 3TB drive, to test both the whole unit, and for fan noise.
Connected right away, guided setup went quickly, was able to transfer all my SP's from my S3 to the Bolt online, was not able to transfer any programs.
Since I previously transferred all of them to one of my Roamio OTA's manually, I was able to transfer them from the OTA to the Bolt online with only a couple clicks.

I must have lucked out, as my fan seems to be whisper quiet.

phox


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## pdhenry

I ended up setting mine up around midnight last night. Very zippy compared to my 2011 Premiere, fairly quiet fan. I only listened up close to it when I started it up but it's inside a ventilated cabinet so I don't think it would be much of an issue anyway.

I put the CableCard from the Premiere into the Bolt (I'm going to try to sell that Premiere) and I'm only getting the CableCard pairing screen on a few channels. They activation number wasn't staffed when I called last night; I suppose the few missing channels will eventually bother me enough that I'll call.

I'm not crazy about the bolder colors in the Bolt HD menus but I guess I'll adjust.


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## krkaufman

pdhenry said:


> I'm not crazy about the bolder colors in the Bolt HD menus but I guess I'll adjust.


Don't get too attached to the BOLT's UI, since it'll be changing when the "Hydra" UI is released.


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## mlsnyc

Got mine today and no issues setting it up. Early impressions:

Haven't noticed the fan being loud
Picture quality of 1080p content on a 4k TV looks better than 1080p from the Roamio
Noticed that Amazon only shows in HD, not 4k. Then dug around a few discussions here and apparently Amazon hasn't rolled out 4k support to their TiVo app (Any News on Amazon 4K Support?). Not cool. 
Netflix 4k content looks as good as running natively on my TV
Picked up all OTA channels my TiVo HD picked up. At least all the ones I cared about. May have even picked up 1-2 that weren't picked up by the HD.
Nice that it kept Skip Mode on programs I transferred from my Roamio


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## bebw

Trey Dio said:


> Well, I'm not having a good start with my new Bolt 500GB. I went through guided setup yesterday morning and everything seemed to be working fine. Eventually I noticed I wasn't able to communicate with the Bolt from my Roamio OTA, HD XL or Tivo desktop. The problem turned out to be that the Media Access Key (MAK) on the Bolt is inexplicably not the same as the MAK on the other Tivos and on my account. The Bolt shows up as active in my Tivo account. I online chatted with Tivo support yesterday but their recommendation have so far not solved the problem. The recommendation was to connect to the Tivo service twice back to back, then unplug and plug back in, then connect to the Tivo service a third time, and then wait 2 hours. I even went through guided setup again again this morning to no avail. I'm antenna only so don't have cable card complicatons. Has anyone run into this situation before?


Trey, are you using the Bolt to connect to the internet via a cable company? I'm getting a bolt and was going to connect to the internet via the Bolt (I think). I have cable tv now but considering cutting the cords on that as they have raised their rates here too high I think.


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## aaronwt

Yes we have been waiting for UHD from Amazon since October 2015. It took so long that I gave up. I don't use my Bolts for Netflix or Amazon any more. But I guess that is also mostly because the Bolts don't output in HDR. But at this point I would keep using my Roku Ultra and Sony UHD BD player for the 4K/HDR apps anyway.


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## danm628

My new Bolt arrived at 8:45 this morning. Built on the 19th. 

This afternoon I powered it up and made sure it was working then shutdown and swapped in a 3TB drive. Restarted and went through guided setup which took awhile; it did a software update in the middle. Then called Comcast and had them pair my M-Card from my Series 3 with the Bolt.

Fan noise is acceptable. It's about the same volume as my Roamio and S3. Pitch is slightly higher than the others. I'll look for my dB meter tomorrow and see if I can make actual measurements to compare. In the long run it won't matter since I will move the Bolt into the cabinet where the S3 is currently located once I retire the S3. There is a glass door on the front which is sufficient to block the fan noise.

I've started transferring the shows I wanted to keep from my S3 to the Bolt. Not that may; mostly stuff that I've kept for 4+ years. Not that many recent recordings since my OLED S3 doesn't support MPEG4 on Comcast. A few things I'd like to transfer but I can't due to DRM. Though I knew this would happen. They are shows from the old Amazon download to S3 service before they had streaming to TiVo. Not the end of the world since all are available via streaming and/or iTunes.


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## cwerdna

justen_m said:


> kmttg/pyTivo aren't any simpler than what you are doing now. kmttg can do a batch pull from your TiVoHD to a PC, but when the files are published with pyTivo, you still have to go on your Bolt+ and pull every one, individually, one-by-one. (Because Push is broken). Not any easier than pulling directly from the TiVoHD, although it will be faster, offset, of course, by the slow download from the TiVoHD to your PC in the first place. Once the shows are on your PC, you could just pull them back to your Bolt+ as you want to view them. PC->Bolt is fast.


Thanks for the tips. You're very correct about PC to Bolt being fast. The Bolt+ UI responds MUCH faster when selecting a remote recording from my PC, selecting transfer and it acknowledging. Also, the transfers are much faster, now that I finally got a gigabit switch for my PC.

Using Bolt+ to select stuff and transfer from TiVo HD is very slow for all of the required steps.


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## danm628

I like the white remote. Makes it easy to tell which one to use. 

I miss the "TiVo" with the smile on the TiVo button. 

So far I lik the Bolt. I do wonder why they haven't made the same UI updates on the Roamio. Menu changes, etc.


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## Trey Dio

bebw said:


> Trey, are you using the Bolt to connect to the internet via a cable company? I'm getting a bolt and was going to connect to the internet via the Bolt (I think). I have cable tv now but considering cutting the cords on that as they have raised their rates here too high I think.


Yes, I have Comcast internet. I do a lot of streaming as well as using Tivo for OTA.


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## pdhenry

When I was looking onto ditching cable TV a few years back the delta between having cable Internet and Internet plus limited basic TV was small enough that it didn't make sense to try to make an OTA antenna work.


----------



## Trey Dio

Trey Dio said:


> Well, after an agonizing 2 hours dealing with Tivo the problem appears to be solved. Turns out the Tivo Service Number (TSN) on my account for the new Bolt was incorrect. I had checked the label on the white cardboard packaging box and it matched OK. But the TSN on the actual Tivo Bolt was different. Quality control in Mexico seems to be lacking.


Does anyone know if all customer support (not tech support) has been outsourced or did I just make the mistake of calling on the weekend? My account is still messed up but I'm reluctant to call today. Hoping tomorrow would yield better results.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Trey Dio said:


> Does anyone know if all customer support (not tech support) has been outsourced or did I just make the mistake of calling on the weekend? My account is still messed up but I'm reluctant to call today. Hoping tomorrow would yield better results.


My contact with TiVo's customer support has mostly been with outsourced staff who are unable answer anything not addressed in their script. It is a completely different company from the one I purchased my Roamio from three years ago. I don't know if you will have better luck on weekdays.


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## jlb

pdhenry said:


> When I was looking onto ditching cable TV a few years back the delta between having cable Internet and Internet plus limited basic TV was small enough that it didn't make sense to try to make an OTA antenna work.


We've only been on limited basic with Comcast for the locals for years at basically $10/month

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## leiff

jlb said:


> We've only been on limited basic with Comcast for the locals for years at basically $10/month
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


 I recently downgraded to Comcast local only my bill comes to $30 a month wonder why yours Is cheaper? I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that the Discovery Channel 750 still works.


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## Trey Dio

leiff said:


> I recently downgraded to Comcast local only my bill comes to $30 a month wonder why yours Is cheaper? I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that the Discovery Channel 750 still works.


I recently dropped Comcast basic. The cost was over $30. Right now I'm spending $35/month on Directvnow which gives me Discovery Channel and much more than Comcast basic and in HD. Luckily I can receive the local network channels OTA. Can't wait for 5G internet so I can drop Comcast all together.


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## Redoctobyr

We have the broadcast-channels-only Comcast service. Our bill comes to about $15/mo. Up until now, we've had two of their little SD-only DTA boxes. I'm told by Comcast that getting the new single CableCARD won't increase the bill, and we'll now get HD service. I plan to return the DTA boxes, once the new Bolt is up and running. 

$15/mo isn't bad, though free would be better, of course. But we're some distance from the nearest city, and I suspect our reception would be iffy. So I'm not sure I want to introduce poor-signal problems, to eliminate a bill that's at least manageable. 

I have debated getting a fairly-powerful indoor antenna, something that I could try easily, without a lot of installation hassle for something that may not work out. Previously, it might have been tougher to try an antenna with TiVos upstairs and downstairs. But now with a Bolt & Mini, I would only have to put an antenna in just one location.


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## enthalpy

Mikeguy said:


> Congrats! Nice to get it before the weekend.


Wow. My 1000 GB Bolt arrived on Friday! I ordered it April 2, Tivo promised for April 6. When I called on the 6th to ask why there were no Tracking details I could click on, they admitted the offer had overwhelmed them. I'm glad to finally have it, but this was a long wait. On the box, they show the manufacture date, April 19. They were overwhelmed, but still didn't start assembling my Bolt until 17 days after I ordered it? Just got home from a trip, time to go through guided setup.


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## pdhenry

enthalpy said:


> They were overwhelmed, but still didn't start assembling my Bolt until 17 days after I ordered it?


They had to build the ones for people ahead of you in the queue first, and possibly had to procure parts for yours and earlier builds as well.

Everyone that ordered was given an initial shipment date that assumed the device was sitting in the shipment warehouse at the time of the order. Not the best product management process but it all works out in the he end.


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## danm628

pdhenry said:


> Everyone that ordered was given an initial shipment date that assumed the device was sitting in the shipment warehouse at the time of the order. Not the best product management process but it all works out in the he end.


A lot of companies only update inventory in batches. So there can be a big difference between actual inventory (start of day minus sales) and what the system shows. A lot depends on how the warehouse is operated. Fortunately the batch approach is fading away.

I'm enjoying my Bolt. I would have enjoyed it just as much at the originally promised date. It is working well so far. It's a new TiVo to replace one that is a 10 years old at this point.


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## jlb

leiff said:


> I recently downgraded to Comcast local only my bill comes to $30 a month wonder why yours Is cheaper? I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that the Discovery Channel 750 still works.


Well maybe it's outlet fees or something. We just have the one M series cable card and my Comcast doesn't charge for it

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## phox_mulder

mlsnyc said:


> Nice that it kept Skip Mode on programs I transferred from my Roamio


I was expecting shows transferred from my S3 would now have Skip Mode, but they don't.
It's not like they are old recordings from years ago, just OTA network shows from the last month or two.

Wondering if ID's were stored differently on older Tivo's, so Skip Mode isn't being recognized?

phox


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## cwerdna

pdhenry said:


> They had to build the ones for people ahead of you in the queue first, and possibly had to procure parts for yours and earlier builds as well.


Exactly. If there's no or an insufficient inventory of parts, esp. something internal, they can be blocked on production until parts arrive.

I'm seeing the same behavior as phox_mulder re: shows transferred from my TiVo HD. No skip mode on those.

FWIW, it looks like I ordered my 4 TB Bolt+ on 4/9 late afternoon. I received my order has shipped email before noon Pacific on 4/10.


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## leiff

Redoctobyr said:


> We have the broadcast-channels-only Comcast service. Our bill comes to about $15/mo. Up until now, we've had two of their little SD-only DTA boxes. I'm told by Comcast that getting the new single CableCARD won't increase the bill, and we'll now get HD service. I plan to return the DTA boxes, once the new Bolt is up and running.
> 
> $15/mo isn't bad, though free would be better, of course. But we're some distance from the nearest city, and I suspect our reception would be iffy. So I'm not sure I want to introduce poor-signal problems, to eliminate a bill that's at least manageable.
> 
> I have debated getting a fairly-powerful indoor antenna, something that I could try easily, without a lot of installation hassle for something that may not work out. Previously, it might have been tougher to try an antenna with TiVos upstairs and downstairs. But now with a Bolt & Mini, I would only have to put an antenna in just one location.


I also have poor OTA reception that's why I subscribe to my locals from comcast. That's all I subscribe to. I shouldn't be getting Discovery Channel 750 but I do. My locals cost about $25 that puts my bill to about $30 a month. I just didn't know the cost of locals varied so much from region to region. Im happy Discovery Channel works as is discovery content via Xfinity On Demand app from TiVo. I Haven't tried accessing discovery channel from the Android Xfinity app yet. I'm curious if I'm the only one getting this channel for free whose only subscribe to locals? I'll swap the cable card into my bolt from my roamio tomorrow and hopefully Discovery Channel still working otherwise I'll be too afraid to call Comcast to re-repair the card for fear I'll lose free discovery.


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## cwerdna

I think the Comcast pairing and CableCARD not being paired to the right unit might only show issues when tuning to copy protected channels. I was pleasantly surprised that most channels worked when I moved my CableCARD that was paired to my TiVo HD to my new Bolt+.

It was late at night and the pairing page was busted for me + the pairing phone # was closed for the night. 

When I talked to the Comcast CableCARD pairing guy the next morning, he suggested I try HBO (which I am getting for free for a few months). Sure enough, when the card's not paired, tuning to HBO results in a a message (ugly generic black and white pages that you see w/all the CableCARD pages) saying to call your cable provider.


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## waynomo

I just received an email that my 500 GB TiVo that was ordered at 12:45 PM on 4/10/17 shipped. Indeed status on tivo.com now has a active track shipment button.


----------



## Redoctobyr

I just got an email that my order of 4/8 shipped. They gave a tracking number. They said 4-6 business days, hopefully it's more like 4.


----------



## Hit The Ball

waynomo said:


> I just received an email that my 500 GB TiVo that was ordered at 12:45 PM on 4/10/17 shipped. Indeed status on tivo.com now has a active track shipment button.


My order, also on the tenth is showing as shipped with a due date of 5/4/2017.

HTB


----------



## KyleLC

My 4/10 order (placed at about 6:55 PM CDT) still has not shipped.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

KyleLC said:


> My 4/10 order (placed at about 6:55 PM CDT) still has not shipped.


Any change in status (i.e., processing instead of order placed)?


----------



## sfhub

Evening 4/10 order, still allows me to cancel order.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

sfhub said:


> Evening 4/10 order, still allows me to cancel order.


Judging from what other posts have revealed, it appears like the most recent supply of 500GB boxes ran out with orders placed sometime on 4/10. Those of us remaining will likely need to wait for the next batch from China, Mexico, or wherever they're made to arrive. Orders from around the 3rd until early on the 10th of April took until the 26th to 28th to process. I'd say that pushes us stragglers to sometime around May 18th for order processing. I hope it's sooner, but I'm NOT optimistic.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## KyleLC

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Any change in status (i.e., processing instead of order placed)?


Nope. Same status as sfhub's.


----------



## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Judging from what other posts have revealed, it appears like the most recent supply of 500GB boxes ran out with orders placed sometime on 4/10. Those of us remaining will likely need to wait for the next batch from China, Mexico, or wherever they're made to arrive. Orders from around the 3rd until early on the 10th of April took until the 26th to 28th to process. I'd say that pushes us stragglers to sometime around May 18th for order processing. I hope it's sooner, but I'm NOT optimistic.


According to TiVo manager they got another shipment in after the 19th, but who knows how accurate that is. According to TiVo Philipines #1 I should expect something end of month (clearly scripted not realizing it is already past end of month). According to TiVo Philipines #2, I should expect something in 1-2 weeks, and be patient they got more orders than expected, which is a perfectly reasonable excuse on 4/10 but getting long in tooth when they missed their extended deadline. Would TiVo accept the excuse that I got more bills than expected and they should expect payment for their products a month later?


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

sfhub said:


> According to TiVo manager they got another shipment in after the 19th, but who knows how accurate that is. According to TiVo Philipines #1 I should expect something end of month (clearly scripted not realizing it is already past end of month). According to TiVo Philipines #2, I should expect something in 1-2 weeks, and be patient they got more orders than expected, which is a perfectly reasonable excuse on 4/10 but getting long in tooth when they missed their extended deadline. Would TiVo accept the excuse that I got more bills than expected and they should expect payment for their products a month later?


That would put us around 5/11 maybe? I've called TiVo a few times unable to get an updated date for shipment. It's like no one at the company knows anything.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## Redoctobyr

If it's going to be more than a few days, I hope TiVo will send out an update, about when they expect to fill the orders. Honestly, they should send an update anyhow, having missed their goal of 4/28.


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## TheCryptkeeper

Redoctobyr said:


> If it's going to be more than a few days, I hope TiVo will send out an update, about when they expect to fill the orders. Honestly, they should send an update anyhow, having missed their goal of 4/28.


Agreed.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> That would put us around 5/11 maybe? I've called TiVo a few times unable to get an updated date for shipment. It's like no one at the company knows anything.


If you get Philipines, just hang up. This is based on my experience. They are nice but have no power to do anything nor ability to make further inquiries. All Philipines support can be replaced by monthly FAQ sent to TiVo customers by email. The nicer ones will kind of make stuff up because they feel bad for you and want to make you feel better, but it is probably better if they stuck with I don't have any further information.

I have a separate billing issue where they already credited my account and I see the credit, but it hasn't posted to my credit card in 3+ weeks. I would think this is something philipines could handle, but even that they need to escalate to a specialist in the states, so they are basically serving as a proxy to read off an FAQ script, then transcribe my request to a case # that then gets sent to US-based support.

Talking to TiVo now reminds me of talking to Comcast, except the Comcast folks are meaner. Same level of (lack of) empowerment though.


----------



## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> That would put us around 5/11 maybe? I've called TiVo a few times unable to get an updated date for shipment. It's like no one at the company knows anything.


The impression I got from the manager was the 19th builds are the ones that most people got sent last week and they received another shipment after that which is being worked through for the remainder of the orders.


----------



## wolfskinbjc

My Bolt upgrade went doa about 6 days in, and i called for an advanced exchange and i'm STILL waiting for even a tracking number.....so don't feel bad, i've contacted them 4 times since last saturday (when it broke) and not one had a clue when i'll get the replacement.


----------



## phox_mulder

Probably not the right thread, but WOW! Netflix on the Bolt is so much faster than on my Roamio's.
I knew it would be night and day compared to the S3, but didn't figure it would be this much faster than the Roamio.
Loads the Netflix app quite quickly, and playback starts almost immediately, where the Roamio's would take 20-30 seconds to buffer up enough to start playing.

phox


----------



## skaggs

Just received an email confirmation that Discover Card will be sending me a check for $68.95 in response to my price protection claim for my TiVo Bolt 500 GB purchase.


----------



## leiff

skaggs said:


> Just received an email confirmation that Discover Card will be sending me a check for $68.95 in response to my price protection claim for my TiVo Bolt 500 GB purchase.


Did you phone them to initiate the Discover price match and did you screenshot the cheaper add yourself or were you able to use some copied image others have posted here? Thanks.


----------



## skaggs

leiff said:


> Did you phone them to initiate the Discover price match and did you screenshot the cheaper add yourself or were you able to use some copied image others have posted here? Thanks.


I initiated the process with a phone call, but then they sent me a link via email to submit the application.

I had my own screenshots of the $131 Amazon price, but I don't see why the previously posted image wouldn't work, also.


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## timckelley

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks since I submitted my price protection claim, and those losers still haven't ruled.


----------



## tvmaster2

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Agreed.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


finally - processing turned to delivery, expected tomorrow, which, I believe happened because I got cranky and started calling


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

I'm still waiting for "Order placed" to change to "processing". Something tells me it may be a while yet.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## DVR_Dave

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I'm still waiting for "Order placed" to change to processing. May be a while yet.


Same here. Apparently they ran out of Bolt 500GBs for orders placed after 4/10 late morning / early afternoon.


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## scandia101

Finally got my bolt setup this morning. After 5 days of it just sitting here while I tried to decide if I should set it up with the original hdd or put in the 3TB hdd before doing anything else, I finally decided to just go for it and put in the 3TB drive. What I didn't expect was that when I pulled the comcast cablecard out of my roamio and put it in the bolt, it just worked w/o having to do any pairing. Then I started the recording transfer process and that is going at a swift 94 Mb/s.


----------



## danm628

scandia101 said:


> What I didn't expect was that when I pulled the comcast cablecard out of my roamio and put it in the bolt, it just worked w/o having to do any pairing.


Be sure to check your premium channels. Those do require pairing.

It took about 5 minutes for the Comcast employee to get me paired.


----------



## scandia101

danm628 said:


> Be sure to check your premium channels. Those do require pairing.
> 
> It took about 5 minutes for the Comcast employee to get me paired.


No premiums here.


----------



## HTGuy

I believe that On Demand will also not work without proper pairing.


----------



## V7Goose

scandia101 said:


> Then I started the recording transfer process and that is going at a swift 94 Mb/s.


The Bolt is capable of WAY faster speeds than that (IF your network is capable). Even MoCA should easily do three times that. Unless you are using some old 10/100 limited equipment, you should look for problems.

Oops - I forgot that someone posting in this thread is most likely transferring from old S2/S3 stuff, so the speeds are going to be very limited. In fact, 94 Mb/s would be blazingly fast!


----------



## sfhub

Take everything with a grain of salt, but TiVo support Philipines says orders that haven't shipped are delayed until 3rd week of May.


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## Mikeguy

sfhub said:


> Take everything with a grain of salt, but TiVo support Philipines says orders that haven't shipped are delayed until 3rd week of May.


If that's the case, would be nice if TiVo formally would notify people, if it hasn't done so. (I don't recall the legal requirements as to this.)


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## Hank

I ordered a few weeks ago, and got it today.


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## sfhub

Mikeguy said:


> If that's the case, would be nice if TiVo formally would notify people, if it hasn't done so. (I don't recall the legal requirements as to this.)


Just take everything with a grain of salt. I've been given false or made up information from TiVo Philipines before.


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## danm628

sfhub said:


> Just take everything with a grain of salt. I've been given false or made up information from TiVo Philipines before.


To be honest that doesn't happen with just TiVo. A lot of the outsourced customer support reps will just make something up in order to end the call. Usually the call duration is measured and if it goes on too long they are downgraded.


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## PatEllis15

Gah! I can't believe i missed this. I'd had been checking in here, and on Tivo waiting for a sale until sometime in March, then got distracted and hadn't been back until today! Anyone have any success in getting Tivo to honor this offer after the short window they provided it?!


----------



## Hank

PatEllis15 said:


> Gah! I can't believe i missed this. I'd had been checking in here, and on Tivo waiting for a sale until sometime in March, then got distracted and hadn't been back until today!


Heck, the only reason I found this thread was I was bored with Happy Hour and said "let me see what's going on in the Tivo forums for a change.." which I do like one or twice per year. Just happened to catch it right in time. I could have just as easily totally missed it.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

sfhub said:


> Take everything with a grain of salt, but TiVo support Philipines says orders that haven't shipped are delayed until 3rd week of May.


I ordered my Bolt on 4/12. It was supposed to ship on 4/21, but shipment was postponed to 4/28. TiVo then said my Bolt would ship by the end of the month when I called them on 4/28 for an update. I guess they meant the end of May. So if your Bolt hasn't shipped yet, you'll have it by June. Have a nice day.


----------



## timckelley

I actually came here looking to see if there was a thread on the deal, because I received the offer directly from TiVo via email, and I wanted to what others' reactions to the deal was. So it was my email that triggered me to come looking for this thread.


----------



## Redoctobyr

PatEllis15 said:


> Gah! I can't believe i missed this. I'd had been checking in here, and on Tivo waiting for a sale until sometime in March, then got distracted and hadn't been back until today! Anyone have any success in getting Tivo to honor this offer after the short window they provided it?!


From the discussions I've seen, it sounds like the window for trying to get in on the deal, after it ended on the 14th, pretty much closed in the days after that, maybe a week. You can certainly call and try, but don't be surprised if they say no.

With that said, one TiVo rep apparently said they're considering doing a similar promotion in the future.

So if you have an old TiVo that you haven't used in a while, it's probably worth plugging it in and letting it connect to their servers, so it shows that it's been used recently. That might help be eligible for something like this, if it's offered again.


----------



## sfhub

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I ordered my Bolt on 4/12. It was supposed to ship on 4/21, but shipment was postponed to 4/28. TiVo then said my Bolt would ship by the end of the month when I called them on 4/28 for an update. I guess they meant the end of May. So if your Bolt hasn't shipped yet, you'll have it by June. Have a nice day.


Finally got through to US support and their contact at the back end says they should have enough inventory to fulfill a few more of the orders by Friday, but no guarantees, because his system still says back ordered. This rep was really cool (just like the TiVo reps before outsourcing) and very careful to not give me information he wasn't sure about. He definitely didn't feel like he was telling me what I wanted to hear (actually I didn't care that it be shipped early but rather needed an address change due to TiVo's extended delays)


----------



## KyleLC

timckelley said:


> I actually came here looking to see if there was a thread on the deal, because I received the offer directly from TiVo via email, and I wanted to what others' reactions to the deal was. So it was my email that triggered me to come looking for this thread.


Me too.


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## TheCryptkeeper

sfhub said:


> Finally got through to US support and their contact at the back end says they should have enough inventory to fulfill a few more of the orders by Friday, but no guarantees, because his system still says back ordered. This rep was really cool (just like the TiVo reps before outsourcing) and very careful to not give me information he wasn't sure about. He definitely didn't feel like he was telling me what I wanted to hear (actually I didn't care that it be shipped early but rather needed an address change due to TiVo's extended delays)


Thanks for the info. We'll see I guess.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## TheCryptkeeper

PatEllis15 said:


> Gah! I can't believe i missed this. I'd had been checking in here, and on Tivo waiting for a sale until sometime in March, then got distracted and hadn't been back until today! Anyone have any success in getting Tivo to honor this offer after the short window they provided it?!


It's unfortunate you missed this deal. Even with the backorder and long wait, it's well worth it.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## timckelley

TheCryptkeeper said:


> It's unfortunate you missed this deal. Even with the backorder and long wait, it's well worth it.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


Yes, my new Bolt is worlds better than the S2 it replaced.


----------



## pdhenry

Mikeguy said:


> If that's the case, would be nice if TiVo formally would notify people, if it hasn't done so. (I don't recall the legal requirements as to this.)


IIRC they can't keep an order open past 30 days without having you reaffirm that you still want the item despite the wait. But I guess people are going past that point as we speak.


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## Trey Dio

sfhub said:


> Finally got through to US support and their contact at the back end says they should have enough inventory to fulfill a few more of the orders by Friday, but no guarantees, because his system still says back ordered. This rep was really cool (just like the TiVo reps before outsourcing) and very careful to not give me information he wasn't sure about. He definitely didn't feel like he was telling me what I wanted to hear (actually I didn't care that it be shipped early but rather needed an address change due to TiVo's extended delays)


How were able to get to US Support?


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## Trey Dio

Trey Dio said:


> How were able to get to US Support?


I meant How were you able to get to US Support?


----------



## DVR_Dave

pdhenry said:


> IIRC they can't keep an order open past 30 days without having you reaffirm that you still want the item despite the wait. But I guess people are going past that point as we speak.


From what I've seen posted, most orders placed on or before 4/10 AM have been shipped (at least for Bolt 500GB).


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## sfhub

Trey Dio said:


> I meant How were you able to get to US Support?


Luck. When I tried to get US supervisor through philipines they were extremly hesitant. I assume they lose some points when they can't handle calls themselves. They submitted a case and asked mainland supervisor to contact me, which they never did. Then I called another time to check why nobody called me, and it got routed to US.


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## HerronScott

pdhenry said:


> IIRC they can't keep an order open past 30 days without having you reaffirm that you still want the item despite the wait. But I guess people are going past that point as we speak.


Seemed like orders made up to early on the 10th have been shipped so we're not up to 30 days quite yet (my order was placed late on the 10th so still waiting).

Scott


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

HerronScott said:


> Seemed like orders made up to early on the 10th have been shipped so we're not up to 30 days quite yet (my order was placed late on the 10th so still waiting).
> 
> Scott


I odered on the evening of the 12th and I'm still waiting as well. At least they haven't cancelled yet.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## waynomo

I wonder how back ordered they are for the 500 GB Bolt? If I was a new customer and ordered one right now, what would they tell me my wait would be?


----------



## tvmaster2

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I odered on the evening of the 12th and I'm still waiting as well. At least they haven't cancelled yet.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


Have you called them yet? I called two days in a row, and on the third day, the order went from order to processing to shipped


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

tvmaster2 said:


> Have you called them yet? I called two days in a row, and on the third day, the order went from order to processing to shipped


I've called on five separate occasions thus far, each time told something like, "by the end of the month, anytime now", etc. I've given up. At this point I'm resigned to just waiting it out and seeing what happens. I check their website daily, and the order still shows placed with the option to cancel.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


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## waynomo

tvmaster2 said:


> Have you called them yet? I called two days in a row, and on the third day, the order went from order to processing to shipped


I received mine that was ordered on the 10th yesterday. I was curious about current orders.


----------



## cherry ghost

Curious that they stopped the deal on the 1TB once they sold out but continued it for a while on the 500GB when those were sold out.


----------



## overFEDEXed

skaggs said:


> I initiated the process with a phone call, but then they sent me a link via email to submit the application.
> 
> I had my own screenshots of the $131 Amazon price, but I don't see why the previously posted image wouldn't work, also.


Can I ask how do you think Discover differentiates between the $199 tivo and the $99 service? On my Tivo online order history"receipt" it says Bundle only and has the total $312 price. It does have a breakdown of the items on the billing history, but that one has a date on it that is AFTER my $111 price match date.


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## waynomo

overFEDEXed said:


> Can I ask how do you think Discover differentiates between the $199 tivo and the $99 service? On my Tivo online order history"receipt" it says Bundle only and has the total $312 price. It does have a breakdown of the items on the billing history, but that one has a date on it that is AFTER my $111 price match date.


The email confirmation listed service separately.


----------



## DevdogAZ

I placed my order on 4/16 and it's still sitting there with the option to cancel, so it hasn't started processing yet. Hopefully soon. I haven't called at all since I knew it was already backordered when I placed the order.


----------



## overFEDEXed

waynomo said:


> The email confirmation listed service separately.


Thank you.


----------



## pdhenry

My TiVo arrived a week ago and tonight I received this email:



> Dear pdhenry,
> 
> Thank you for participating in our "Once In A Lifetime" promotion to transfer your Product Lifetime service plan to a new TiVo BOLT™! According to our records, you purchased 1 TiVo BOLT(s) and have 1 TiVo Series2/Series3 DVRs on your account.
> 
> We are happy to inform you that we will officially transfer your Product Lifetime service plan to your new BOLT(s) and automatically deactivate your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) on *May 15, 2017*. Enjoy your new BOLT(s)!
> 
> Thank you for your attention!
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nicola Mattis
> Sr. Promotions Manager


So the time before deactivation of the old TiVo is about 2.5 weeks after receipt.


----------



## DevdogAZ

pdhenry said:


> My TiVo arrived a week ago and tonight I received this email:
> 
> So the time before deactivation of the old TiVo is about 2.5 weeks after receipt.


Not necessarily. I just got an email with the May 15 date as well and my order still hasn't started processing. Based on a couple of posts in the "Once in a Lifetime" thread, I think everyone gets the May 15 date regardless of when they received/will receive their order.


----------



## lynncosbm

pdhenry said:


> My TiVo arrived a week ago and tonight I received this email:
> 
> So the time before deactivation of the old TiVo is about 2.5 weeks after receipt.


I just got that same email. The weird thing is they had four old TiVos listed and asked me to choose which two I wanted to deactivate. Two of them stopped working a while ago and hadn't connected in probably a few years. So, if I had known, I could have got two more!


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

I haven't received any email and I ordered on the 12th of April.


----------



## Mikeguy

cherry ghost said:


> Curious that they stopped the deal on the 1TB once they sold out but continued it for a while on the 500GB when those were sold out.


They subsequently started selling the 1GB version again, under the deal.


----------



## DVR_Dave

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I haven't received any email and I ordered on the 12th of April.


I just received this email regarding my 4/10 order shipping delay:

_Dear DVR_Dave,

I really didn't want to have to write you another letter because I just knew that you would have your TiVo BOLT by now. I sincerely apologize. At this point, I know that you have no reason to believe the next date, but I will tell you exactly what occurred. Our sales operations team received a late delivery of a single component during the TiVo BOLT manufacturing process, and even with the late delivery, they were trying to move swiftly to avoid affecting their commitment to ship all the product at the end of April. Unfortunately, we weren't that lucky. I am frustrated because we were so excited about being able to offer this promotion for the first time, and now, we're experiencing these unexpected challenges, getting the TiVo BOLT in your hands. As of today, your new TiVo BOLT is scheduled to ship by May 12, 2017 at the latest, and although it might be sooner, I don't want to disappoint you again.

We are still keeping our commitment to those of you who opted for 1-day or 2-day shipping, and we will ship your order according to your designated shipping preference. In addition, we are refunding your expedited shipping charges.

Although we really want you to have this great service transfer deal with your new TiVo BOLT, we will understand if you wish to cancel your order. You may cancel by logging into your account at tivo.com or by calling our service center at (877) 367-8486. At this time, I cannot guarantee that this offer will be given again, but I want you to do what's best for you. We appreciate your patience and loyalty as a customer.

Again, please accept my sincere apology.

Sincerely, 









Nicola Mattis 
Sr. Promotions Manager _


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Perhaps I should prepare myself for a cancellation notice from TiVo because I haven't received any emails from them.


----------



## krkaufman

Thought this excerpt from @DVR_Dave's email was interesting...

_"I am frustrated because we were so excited about being able to offer this promotion *for the first time*, ..."
_​So maybe some hope for those who missed-out, though still no way of knowing if they'll ever have a similar promotion, or when.


----------



## timckelley

I'm pretty surprised at the letter I just got:



> Dear xxx,
> Thank you for participating in our "Once In A Lifetime" promotion to transfer your Product Lifetime service plan to a new TiVo BOLT™! According to our records, you purchased 1 TiVo BOLT(s) and have 3 TiVo Series2/Series3 DVRs on your account.
> Please let us know which of your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) you would like to deactivate by clicking Next Step. Once we have your selection(s), your TiVo DVR(s) will be scheduled for deactivation on *May 15, 2017*.
> 
> If you do not inform us which of your Series2 and/or Series 3 DVRs to deactivate in advance of *May 15, 2017*, we will deactivate the DVR(s) that has been inactive the longest.
> We would appreciate if you could complete this step at your earliest convenience.
> NEXT STEP
> Thank you for your cooperation!
> Sincerely,


I think I ordered back on 3-31 or so, back when it was first offered, and it was in my house literally 24 hours after I ordered. But when I ordered it, I was told I only had one qualifying TiVo, because only one had connected within the 1 year window. I do have others that have been inactive for a long time, mostly because they're broken... except for one that I have since then put back into use. (I certainly don't want them to deactivate that one.) Gosh, maybe I should click on that link and select an old broken/unrepairable TiVo. This sounds like a glitch on their end.


----------



## timckelley

Okay, I've logged on and it's listing 2 S2's and 1 S3 that I can choose from. Question: Is S3 the same thing as TiVo HD? I actually disposed of my old TiVO HD because it was unrepairable, so I'd love them to move that lifetime and put it to the Bolt. (BTW, I've been using the Bolt just fine, and it's been getting guide data.  )

My TiVo Premier is not an S3 is it? I think that's considered an S4, right?


BTW, the lifetime that was on my HD was originally on an old S1 which had become unrepairable, and TiVO inc nicely transferred it to the HD for free, just out of niceness.


----------



## Mikeguy

timckelley said:


> Gosh, maybe I should click on that link and select an old broken/unrepairable TiVo.


That's what they are offering to you (for whatever the reason) . . . .


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> Thought this excerpt from @DVR_Dave's email was interesting...
> 
> _"I am frustrated because we were so excited about being able to offer this promotion *for the first time*, ..."
> _​So maybe some hope for those who missed-out, though still no way of knowing if they'll ever have a similar promotion, or when.


I took the wording a bit differently, as in, this was a unique offer. But, as you noted, who knows . . . . And things at TiVo have been known to change on a dime.


----------



## DVR_Dave

timckelley said:


> Okay, I've logged on and it's listing 2 S2's and 1 S3 that I can choose from. Question: Is S3 the same thing as TiVo HD? I actually disposed of my old TiVO HD because it was unrepairable, so I'd love them to move that lifetime and put it to the Bolt. (BTW, I've been using the Bolt just fine, and it's been getting guide data.  )


TiVo HD is considered an S3.

Original S3 = model code 648
TiVo HD S3 = model code 652; HD XL = 658


----------



## tvmaster2

lynncosbm said:


> I just got that same email. The weird thing is they had four old TiVos listed and asked me to choose which two I wanted to deactivate. Two of them stopped working a while ago and hadn't connected in probably a few years. So, if I had known, I could have got two more!


Me too, even though when I placed the order the Tivo CSR specifically noted which unit would be decommissioned, it now seems I can choose whichever I like, even one that didn't fit the original time-in-service-guidelines. Hmmmm......


----------



## c-collins

My guess is this promotion was a huge success for TiVo. The anecdotal evidence seems to indicate they sold out of their inventory of Bolts and sold a large number of Bolt+ as well. If that's the case it seems logical to be gracious and allow the end user to choose which TiVo to deactivate in the hopes that the next time they run a promo like this again (maybe in a year or 18 months) they can dip into this pool multi tivo owners again. 

They sold a lot of hardware to people that hey normally would not have.
They get to shut down more dial-in lines and support a smaller base of outdated hardware.
This means they can deploy the interface hydra to a much larger audience (Im guessing august/september)
There people will now in turn be displaying the newest hardware and interface to their friends.


----------



## HerronScott

DVR_Dave said:


> I just received this email regarding my 4/10 order shipping delay:
> 
> _Dear DVR_Dave,
> 
> I really didn't want to have to write you another letter because I just knew that you would have your TiVo BOLT by now. I sincerely apologize. At this point, I know that you have no reason to believe the next date, but I will tell you exactly what occurred. Our sales operations team received a late delivery of a single component during the TiVo BOLT manufacturing process, and even with the late delivery, they were trying to move swiftly to avoid affecting their commitment to ship all the product at the end of April. Unfortunately, we weren't that lucky. I am frustrated because we were so excited about being able to offer this promotion for the first time, and now, we're experiencing these unexpected challenges, getting the TiVo BOLT in your hands. As of today, your new TiVo BOLT is scheduled to ship by May 12, 2017 at the latest, and although it might be sooner, I don't want to disappoint you again.
> 
> We are still keeping our commitment to those of you who opted for 1-day or 2-day shipping, and we will ship your order according to your designated shipping preference. In addition, we are refunding your expedited shipping charges.
> 
> Although we really want you to have this great service transfer deal with your new TiVo BOLT, we will understand if you wish to cancel your order. You may cancel by logging into your account at tivo.com or by calling our service center at (877) 367-8486. At this time, I cannot guarantee that this offer will be given again, but I want you to do what's best for you. We appreciate your patience and loyalty as a customer.
> 
> Again, please accept my sincere apology.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nicola Mattis
> Sr. Promotions Manager _


Got the same letter last night at 11:00pm. Works for me since we're going out of town this week.

Scott


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

krkaufman said:


> Thought this excerpt from @DVR_Dave's email was interesting...
> 
> _"I am frustrated because we were so excited about being able to offer this promotion *for the first time*, ..."
> _​So maybe some hope for those who missed-out, though still no way of knowing if they'll ever have a similar promotion, or when.


While


HerronScott said:


> Got the same letter last night at 11:00pm. Works for me since we're going out of town this week.
> 
> Scott


It seems like these emails went out to everyone who ordered on 4/10 or earlier. I ordered on 4/12 and have heard nada from TiVo.


----------



## Redoctobyr

I have a pair of Series 2s, and ordered a pair of Bolts and a Mini. They arrived Thursday. 

I called TiVo yesterday to try and specify a particular Series 2 to transfer to the first Bolt. The lady told me they don't have access to that information, so I couldn't specify which S2 transferred to which Bolt. I found that unfortunate, but oh well. She did help me add a 3-year extended warranty to that Bolt. 

I did not get the email last night asking which box to transfer. Admittedly, perhaps this is because I have 2 old units, and 2 new Bolts, so they figure there is no point in asking the question. That only makes sense if they really are going to deactivate the old units on May 15th, regardless of whether the new Bolt has been used yet. That's not the impression I got from the initial offer. My understanding was that if I was only using 1 Bolt, then one of my old units would remain active. Maybe that's wrong. 

But I *did* get the email apologizing for the delay. I ordered 4/8, and my order arrived a few days ago, so the additional delay doesn't apply to me. Perhaps the process of deciding who gets which emails isn't quite perfect.


----------



## scandia101

The email from tivo says the the deactivation will be on the 15th. 


> Once we have your selection(s), your TiVo DVR(s) will be scheduled for deactivation on *May 15, 2017*.


but the confirmation I got after I selected which Tivo to deactivate says


> Thank you for your submission. Your TiVo DVRs will be deactivated between 6-8 days from now


which is May 12, 13, 14. For the record, I set up the bolt on May 3.


----------



## HerronScott

TheCryptkeeper said:


> While
> 
> It seems like these emails went out to everyone who ordered on 4/10 or earlier. I ordered on 4/12 and have heard nada from TiVo.


I don't think the delayed shipment mails would have gone to people who ordered earlier than the 10th as all indications are that they have all received their orders and this includes at least some that ordered early on the 10th as well. Mine was ordered late on the 10th.

Scott


----------



## Redoctobyr

HerronScott said:


> I don't think the delayed shipment mails would have gone to people who ordered earlier than the 10th as all indications are that they have all received their orders and this includes at least some that ordered early on the 10th as well. Mine was ordered late on the 10th.
> 
> Scott


As I posted, I ordered on 4/8, and received my order a few days ago, and I still got the delayed-shipment email. Clearly the email wasn't needed, but their selection method for who gets it may be a little off.


----------



## Hank

Well that was easy (tm).

I set up my new bolt without a new cable card from Verizon. Did guided setup and I started to transfer some shows from my S3 (damn, that's SLOOOOW)... but anyway, after I did that, I figured -- what the hell -- pop out the old cable card from my S3 and pop it into the bolt just to see what happened.

Surprise, surprise, it recognized the card immediately, downloaded channel info, and began working in under a minute. And also to my surprise, the CC in my S3 was already a M-card. 

So it looks like I won't even have to call Verizon to re-pair the card with my Bolt. 

But why are transfers between the two boxes so damn slow? They are both on the same GB Ethernet switch right next to each other. Maybe I'll try a crossover cable instead.


----------



## justen_m

Hank said:


> But why are transfers between the two boxes so damn slow? They are both on the same GB Ethernet switch right next to each other. Maybe I'll try a crossover cable instead.


It won't help. You'll never get more than, say, 12-15Mbps to or from an S3. Processor bound. It simply can't send or receive data any faster, regardless of the network capability.

[edit] S4 and Roamio Base and OTA can get about 80Mbps. They only support 100Mbps networking. Roamio Plus, Pro and Bolts can get more than double that. They support Gigabit networking, but are processor bound, so still don't get anywhere near the 800Mbps I see between my workstation and server.


----------



## Redoctobyr

And be glad they're that quick! My S2s are transferring at 3-5Mbps  

I'm glad your process went smoothly. I set mine up last night, with a new CableCARD. The first activation didn't get it going. After some head scratching and trying Guided Setup again, I called Comcast again. They did the process one more time, and then after a reboot, it started working properly.


----------



## krkaufman

c-collins said:


> My guess is this promotion was a huge success for TiVo. The anecdotal evidence seems to indicate they sold out of their inventory of Bolts and sold a large number of Bolt+ as well. If that's the case it seems logical to be gracious and allow the end user to choose which TiVo to deactivate in the hopes that the next time they run a promo like this again (maybe in a year or 18 months) they can dip into this pool multi tivo owners again.


My guess is their planned approach to tagging and deactivating old units was proving too cumbersome to manage and/or implement and they opted for an alternate solution, without regard to the original actual terms of the sale.


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> My guess is their planned approach to tagging and deactivating old units was proving too cumbersome to manage and/or implement and they opted for an alternate solution, *without regard to the original actual terms of the sale*.


That's funny, lol.


----------



## c-collins

LOL....definitely is possibility.:laughing: Im trying to give TiVo the benefit of doubt here since it worked out better than planned for me.


----------



## waynomo

Hank said:


> Well that was easy (tm).
> 
> I set up my new bolt without a new cable card from Verizon. Did guided setup and I started to transfer some shows from my S3 (damn, that's SLOOOOW)... but anyway, after I did that, I figured -- what the hell -- pop out the old cable card from my S3 and pop it into the bolt just to see what happened.
> 
> Surprise, surprise, it recognized the card immediately, downloaded channel info, and began working in under a minute. And also to my surprise, the CC in my S3 was already a M-card.
> 
> So it looks like I won't even have to call Verizon to re-pair the card with my Bolt.
> 
> But why are transfers between the two boxes so damn slow? They are both on the same GB Ethernet switch right next to each other. Maybe I'll try a crossover cable instead.


Do you have any premiums like HBO, SHO, et. al?


----------



## BigJimOutlaw

Hank said:


> So it looks like I won't even have to call Verizon to re-pair the card with my Bolt.


On Fios, Fox cable channels (Fox News, Nat Geo, FX, etc) as well as HBO and Max are copy protected and won't come through without pairing.


----------



## HerronScott

justen_m said:


> It won't help. You'll never get more than, say, 12-15Mbps to or from an S3. Processor bound. It simply can't send or receive data any faster, regardless of the network capability.
> .


The original S3 OLED was faster than the HD as it had a faster processor and could get up to 30Mbps if I recall correctly.

Scott


----------



## Hit The Ball

I received my 500GB Bolt on Thursday but just set it up today.
Only hassle was the Comcast account was in my wife's name so she had to add me to the account before the pairing could be completed.
Once that was done (she was out of pocket for a couple of hours) everything worked fine. 
The fan is quiet. 
I will do most of the show transfers at night as they are slow. 

HTB


----------



## deronj

krkaufman said:


> My guess is their planned approach to tagging and deactivating old units was proving too cumbersome to manage and/or implement and they opted for an alternate solution, *without regard to the original actual terms of the sale.*





Mikeguy said:


> That's funny, lol.


I for one am not laughing. The offer specifically said, "_Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service._" I figured great, I'll get it now, and deal with the expected Frontier CableCARD nightmare sometime later, like after some upcoming season finales. Then Friday at 6 PM Pacific I got the "We are happy to inform you that we will...automatically deactivate your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) on May 15, 2017." Well at least TiVo is happy.

I guess I'll mentally prepare myself and contact Frontier.

(P.S. Rediscovering this forum after a long absence. I'd forgotten how much good information is here.)


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

deronj said:


> I for one am not laughing. The offer specifically said, "_Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service._" I figured great, I'll get it now, and deal with the expected Frontier CableCARD nightmare sometime later, like after some upcoming season finales. Then Friday at 6 PM Pacific I got the "We are happy to inform you that we will...automatically deactivate your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) on May 15, 2017." Well at least TiVo is happy.
> 
> I guess I'll mentally prepare myself and contact Frontier.
> 
> (P.S. Rediscovering this forum after a long absence. I'd forgotten how much good information is here.)


This is a great forum to keep coming back to. The generous people here have helped me upgrade, save, and even resurrect my TiVos.


----------



## tvmaster2

Wow - holy crap - are these Bolt's ever HOT! Nearly burned my hand touching the top. That's what happens when you suck all the useful are out to miniaturize I guess. Zowie.....


----------



## Mikeguy

deronj said:


> I for one am not laughing. The offer specifically said, "_Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service._" I figured great, I'll get it now, and deal with the expected Frontier CableCARD nightmare sometime later, like after some upcoming season finales. Then Friday at 6 PM Pacific I got the "We are happy to inform you that we will...automatically deactivate your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) on May 15, 2017." Well at least TiVo is happy.
> 
> I guess I'll mentally prepare myself and contact Frontier.
> 
> (P.S. Rediscovering this forum after a long absence. I'd forgotten how much good information is here.)


I'm not convinced that the language in the email "controls." If the timing is an issue, I would call TiVo and simply tell it that I want it to honor the timing details in the original offer.


----------



## Worf

Yeah, I have to admit I was surprised at this as well since I had no intention of setting up my Bolt until I had the time to set it up properly. Looks instead that I'll just have to set it up and transfer the video off my S3 and there it will sit doing nothing.

Though I thought I could transfer the THX video from my S3 as well...


----------



## HerronScott

Worf said:


> Though I thought I could transfer the THX video from my S3 as well...


What THX video is that? I have 2 S3 OLED's and we never had a THX video on them that I recall (besides the opening sequence).

Scott


----------



## V7Goose

HerronScott said:


> What THX video is that? I have 2 S3 OLED's and we never had a THX video on them that I recall (besides the opening sequence).
> 
> Scott


Yeah, THX was a complete joke in my opinion. After I bought that first S3 with the cool THX clip on boot, I even went out and bought a new AV amp with THX capability - really was looking forward to all those great THX videos to come . . .

What a complete and total waste!


----------



## aaronwt

justen_m said:


> It won't help. You'll never get more than, say, 12-15Mbps to or from an S3. Processor bound. It simply can't send or receive data any faster, regardless of the network capability.
> 
> [edit] S4 and Roamio Base and OTA can get about 80Mbps. They only support 100Mbps networking. Roamio Plus, Pro and Bolts can get more than double that. They support Gigabit networking, but are processor bound, so still don't get anywhere near the 800Mbps I see between my workstation and server.





HerronScott said:


> The original S3 OLED was faster than the HD as it had a faster processor and could get up to 30Mbps if I recall correctly.
> 
> Scott


Yes. That sounds more like it. If someone is only getting 15Mb/s speeds from their S3, then something is wrong.
My S3 boxes were never that slow. They could always easily transfer in faster than realtime. And that was with programs that had higher bitrates than today.

I just tried a test from one of my S3 boxes still hooked up to my network. It transferred at a 31.54Mb/s rate from the S3.

And the Bolt can get up to 500Mb/s transfer rates under the right conditions. That is the speed I got with a 10 hour HD recording test transfer. With the Bolt in standby, with no tuners buffering and no tuners recording. Although in normal use with all tuners buffering, my Bolts get over 300 Mb/s transfer rates


----------



## leiff

tvmaster2 said:


> Wow - holy crap - are these Bolt's ever HOT! Nearly burned my hand touching the top. That's what happens when you suck all the useful are out to miniaturize I guess. Zowie.....


That was my impression of my new 420 build date bolt as well. Im runnning my bolt with no lid and no fan due to the loud fan noise. Now my bolt Temps are now 10 temp values cooler. Next I'd like to mount my bolt on the wall unless vertical orientation is bad for hard drives?


----------



## JoeKustra

leiff said:


> Next I'd like to mount my bolt on the wall unless vertical orientation is bad for hard drives?


This may help: Does Hard Drive Orientation Affect Its Lifespan?


----------



## cwerdna

tvmaster2 said:


> Wow - holy crap - are these Bolt's ever HOT! Nearly burned my hand touching the top. That's what happens when you suck all the useful are out to miniaturize I guess. Zowie.....


My Bolt+ runs hot w/hot being very warm, but not nearly enough burn my hand.

The fan's running, right? What is the ODT in the system info screen?

I believe those are on-die temps (of some chip, probably the Broadcam SoC e.g. BCM7445) in Celsius.

I ended up getting a laptop cooling pad as has been discussed in other threads. At the pad's lowest speed, my ODT dropped from around 62 C to 50 C. I've definitely seen ODTs higher than 62 C.

I had to hard time finding cooling pads at Frys that didn't have any/much tilt, which led me to get Thermaltake Massive 14 Notebook Cooler - Black that was on sale for $13 after rebate. After I got home and plugged it in, I realized I maybe should've bought more but I think the sale's over and rebate was only good for purchases thru 5/6 (I bought it 5/6). Reasoning for buying a few is I don't have high hopes for these lasting too long before the fan bearings crap out.


----------



## krkaufman

JoeKustra said:


> This may help: Does Hard Drive Orientation Affect Its Lifespan?


Interesting article. I'd never heard of the "format vs run-time orientation" concern before.

And I'm wondering if the tilted BOLT design adheres to the orthogonal/90-degree stipulation. It appears OK, as the motherboard looks to be parallel to the resting surface.


----------



## leiff

I thought I heard about orientation advantages with spinning hard drives
Makes me consider buying a SSD drive then I can hang it on my wall.


----------



## krkaufman

leiff said:


> I thought I heard about orientation advantages with spinning hard drives
> Makes me consider buying a SSD drive then I can hang it on my wall.


If you review the article posted by @JoeKustra you'll see that there is NO orientation advantage, or disadvantage, so long as you're talking about 90-degree orientation changes. Wall mounting is fine, as-is, assuming your wall is vertical.


----------



## aaronwt

krkaufman said:


> Interesting article. I'd never heard of the "format vs run-time orientation" concern before.
> 
> And I'm wondering if the tilted BOLT design adheres to the orthogonal/90-degree stipulation. It appears OK, as the motherboard looks to be parallel to the resting surface.


The Hard drive in the Bolt is horizontal. It isn't at an angle.

Sent from my Galaxy S6 using Tapatalk


----------



## tvmaster2

OK everyone who's giving up on either a *Series 2* or *Series 3/HD* - if you had one of each, which would you surrender and why? I'm leaning towards decommissioning the *Series 3/HD*, and here's my logic: the *Series 2* still does one thing that no other Tivo can do - control an external box. So if you were in Canada for example (as I may be one day), or anywhere a cable/satellite company still has set-top devices and DOESN'T supply cable cards, the *Series 2* still has a function.
Granted, the *Series 2* is *SD*, but since everything the *Series 3/HD* does can be done by a Premiere 2-tuner, isn't the *Series 2* the odd-box that at least may have a purpose down the road? My only worry would be that Tivo wakes up one day and just decides to S#$%-can all the Series 2's.
Also, if a spare guest room had a playback-only device, the *Series 3/HD* could at least be loaded up with HD material, classic movies, that kind of thing, and would be somewhat future-proof as a HD source box (I have a fair number of films still around before Cox started flagging copy-once nonsense)
Thoughts?


----------



## c-collins

They have already deactivated the series 1's 
My guess is the Series 2 boxes will be shut down in the next two years. Series 3 has some more life in it since it's newer and HD. That said I wouldn't say its long term prospects are good maybe another 3-4 years.


----------



## cwerdna

krkaufman said:


> Interesting article. I'd never heard of the "format vs run-time orientation" concern before.


I think this became a non-issue AGES ago. Back in the days of MFM and RLL drives w/the ST-506 interface, there were many drives that didn't have a servo surface (side of a disc) nor embedded servo information. So, there was no really good way to tell how well the head was positioning above the track. Example would be the Seagate ST-225.

I see a note at Hard Drive: SEAGATE: ST225 21MB 5.25"/HH MFM ST412


> The drive may be mounted horizontally with the PC board down or on
> either side. Mounting vertically on either end is a prohibited orien-
> tation.
> The drive should not be tilted front or back, in any position, by
> more than 5*. For optimum performance, the drive should be formatted
> in the same position as it will be mounted in the host system.


I think the * was meant to a be a degree sign.

Back in those days, when you specified cylinder, heads and sectors per track in the CMOS setup and they actually mapped to what the drive actually had, you could tell if the drive had a servo surface it had an odd # of heads. Odd # == one entire surface and head dedicated to servo information, to aid in positioning the rest of the mechanism.

I think all drive makers have now gone w/embedded servo information and not wasting an entire surface.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> OK everyone who's giving up on either a *Series 2* or *Series 3/HD* - if you had one of each, which would you surrender and why? I'm leaning towards decommissioning the *Series 3/HD*, and here's my logic: the *Series 2* still does one thing that no other Tivo can do - control an external box. So if you were in Canada for example (as I may be one day), or anywhere a cable/satellite company still has set-top devices and DOESN'T supply cable cards, the *Series 2* still has a function.
> Granted, the *Series 2* is *SD*, but since everything the *Series 3/HD* does can be done by a Premiere 2-tuner, isn't the *Series 2* the odd-box that at least may have a purpose down the road? My only worry would be that Tivo wakes up one day and just decides to S#$%-can all the Series 2's.
> Thoughts?


I'm not sure how this fits into things, but I'm getting the feeling that something may be up with the Series 2 boxes in the not-distant future; perhaps this will be for the Series 3 boxes as well. Perhaps the current deal is the first wave ahead of this; perhaps there will be future offers like last year's Series 1 offer.


----------



## tvmaster2

c-collins said:


> They have already deactivated the series 1's
> My guess is the Series 2 boxes will be shut down in the next two years. Series 3 has some more life in it since it's newer and HD. That said I wouldn't say its long term prospects are good maybe another 3-4 years.


that would be my only concern with the idea of keeping the Series 2 active - aka Tivo kills them before they offer another Lifetime Transfer program. So anyone who thinks they're clairvoyant, chime in - lol


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> that would be my only concern with the idea of keeping the Series 2 active - aka Tivo kills them before they offer another Lifetime Transfer program. So anyone who thinks they're clairvoyant, chime in - lol


Remember that the current offer is not the equivalent of last year's Series 1 "shut-down" offer. If TiVo were to EOL the Series 2 boxes, my guess--totally that--is that it would do something like the Series 1 offer for Series 2 lifetime owners--legally, I think it would have to.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> Remember that the current offer is not the equivalent of last year's Series 1 "shut-down" offer. If TiVo were to EOL the Series 2 boxes, my guess--totally that--is that it would do something like the Series 1 offer for Series 2 lifetime owners--legally, I think it would have to.


what was the 'Series 1' offer?


----------



## atmuscarella

Regarding the, which to get rid of question between a Series 2, Series 3 & TiVo HD. As back ground I have one of each that still function and that I have call in every few months I use none of them. I would get rid of the Series 2 first. Back in the day I used my Series 2 with a Dish STB and another Series 2 with an OTA STB. When I got my HD TV the picture was pretty unacceptable quality wise from either unit and I ended up not watch content much from either. After that while the Series 3 was a slightly better unit than the TiVo HD, it has restriction when used with cable that make the TiVo HD a superior unit, so the Series 3 would go next.

In the end I would think part of what TiVo would like to get out from under is dial in service. I used my Series 2 via a USB network adapter connection but my understanding is some people still use the built in modems. I wonder if TiVo would have to do anything if they just drop the dial in service.


----------



## Worf

V7Goose said:


> Yeah, THX was a complete joke in my opinion. After I bought that first S3 with the cool THX clip on boot, I even went out and bought a new AV amp with THX capability - really was looking forward to all those great THX videos to come . . .
> 
> What a complete and total waste!


I could swear there was a THX test video for calibrating your system - I remember it since it was possible to accidentally delete it and you could use TiVoToGo to transfer it back. I know this forum has several people who accidentally did just that. But I can't seem to find it either.

THX did suffer a bit of a hit when it was spun off and had to become a profit-making company instead of just a division of Lucasfilm back around the turn of the millennium. Since them it looks like it's been acquired by Creative Labs (the SoundBlaster folks) and now Razer Inc (the computer gaming company), who are really creating products to use the name.


----------



## HerronScott

Worf said:


> I could swear there was a THX test video for calibrating your system - I remember it since it was possible to accidentally delete it and you could use TiVoToGo to transfer it back. I know this forum has several people who accidentally did just that. But I can't seem to find it either.


That was on the Premiere model that was THX certified.

DO NOT DELETE "THX OPTIMIZER" video!!!

Scott


----------



## skaggs

overFEDEXed said:


> Can I ask how do you think Discover differentiates between the $199 tivo and the $99 service? On my Tivo online order history"receipt" it says Bundle only and has the total $312 price. It does have a breakdown of the items on the billing history, but that one has a date on it that is AFTER my $111 price match date.


I used a screen shot of the emailed order confirmation, which had the Bolt price and the $99 service transfer listed separately.

Here is my timeline regarding the Discover Card price match:

April 1, 2017: Ordered TiVo Bolt 500GB
April 11, 2017: Called Discover Card customer service. Was later emailed the link to a website to file a claim electronically. 
April 12, 2017: Received TiVo Bolt 500GB via FedEx
April 19, 2017: Submitted the completed form and screenshots of receipts. Claim instructions required sending in a copy of my Discover Card bill, so I waited until it was posted online and took a screen shot of the page that included the TiVo charge.
May 1, 2017: Received email with notice of approval and that my claim was paid. 
May 6, 2017: Received paper check for $68.95 via US Mail


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> what was the 'Series 1' offer?


20 Questions with Ira Bahr - TiVo's Chief Marketing Officer

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Your TiVo Series1 DVR will stop recording shows after September 29

Tivo - Series 1 Owner - Not feeling the love


----------



## tvmaster2

atmuscarella said:


> Regarding the, which to get rid of question between a Series 2, Series 3 & TiVo HD. As back ground I have one of each that still function and that I have call in every few months I use none of them. I would get rid of the Series 2 first. Back in the day I used my Series 2 with a Dish STB and another Series 2 with an OTA STB. When I got my HD TV the picture was pretty unacceptable quality wise from either unit and I ended up not watch content much from either. After that while the Series 3 was a slightly better unit than the TiVo HD, it has restriction when used with cable that make the TiVo HD a superior unit, so the Series 3 would go next.
> 
> In the end I would think part of what TiVo would like to get out from under is dial in service. I used my Series 2 via a USB network adapter connection but my understanding is some people still use the built in modems. I wonder if TiVo would have to do anything if they just drop the dial in service.


Thanks - to be clear, my newer unit is a Tivo HD, although some call it a Series 3 I've found. I too use a USB network adapter for cat5 connection on the Series 2 - pain in the ass, if you bump the table the Tivo's on, there's a 50-50 chance the adapter falls out.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> 20 Questions with Ira Bahr - TiVo's Chief Marketing Officer
> 
> IMPORTANT NOTICE: Your TiVo Series1 DVR will stop recording shows after September 29
> 
> Tivo - Series 1 Owner - Not feeling the love


Wow - looks like people had less than a month to clear off their Series 1's and move on. The Series 2 just got an update, and is getting guide data, so I'm assuming it will be good for a while at least


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Wow - looks like people had less than a month to clear off their Series 1's and move on. The Series 2 just got an update, and is getting guide data, so I'm assuming it will be good for a while at least


Presumably, there would be a notice as to the future. Of course, this is all speculation--who knows if anything ever would occur at all.


----------



## overFEDEXed

skaggs said:


> I used a screen shot of the emailed order confirmation, which had the Bolt price and the $99 service transfer listed separately.
> 
> Here is my timeline regarding the Discover Card price match:
> 
> April 1, 2017: Ordered TiVo Bolt 500GB
> April 11, 2017: Called Discover Card customer service. Was later emailed the link to a website to file a claim electronically.
> April 12, 2017: Received TiVo Bolt 500GB via FedEx
> April 19, 2017: Submitted the completed form and screenshots of receipts. Claim instructions required sending in a copy of my Discover Card bill, so I waited until it was posted online and took a screen shot of the page that included the TiVo charge.
> May 1, 2017: Received email with notice of approval and that my claim was paid.
> May 6, 2017: Received paper check for $68.95 via US Mail


Thank you for that detailed info.
I've done the Discover PM many times, but my mind went blank on using the Tivo email.


----------



## Tweak42

tvmaster2 said:


> OK everyone who's giving up on either a *Series 2* or *Series 3/HD* - if you had one of each, which would you surrender and why? I'm leaning towards decommissioning the *Series 3/HD*, and here's my logic: the *Series 2* still does one thing that no other Tivo can do - control an external box. So if you were in Canada for example (as I may be one day), or anywhere a cable/satellite company still has set-top devices and DOESN'T supply cable cards, the *Series 2* still has a function.
> Granted, the *Series 2* is *SD*, but since everything the *Series 3/HD* does can be done by a Premiere 2-tuner, isn't the *Series 2* the odd-box that at least may have a purpose down the road? My only worry would be that Tivo wakes up one day and just decides to S#$%-can all the Series 2's.
> Also, if a spare guest room had a playback-only device, the *Series 3/HD* could at least be loaded up with HD material, classic movies, that kind of thing, and would be somewhat future-proof as a HD source box (I have a fair number of films still around before Cox started flagging copy-once nonsense)
> Thoughts?


We have a S2 and HD. No chance the S2 was ever going to be used with cable/sat, so it was the easy pick for transfer.

I've repaired the power supply, upgraded the hard drive and added a usb wifi adapter on the HD, it's as spare OTA only.


----------



## scandia101

tvmaster2 said:


> Thanks - to be clear, my newer unit is a Tivo HD, although some call it a Series 3 I've found.


Because it is a series 3 tivo (look at the system info screen) just like there were a few versions of the series 2 before that.


----------



## danm628

Series 1, 2 and 3 had multiple models in a series. Series 1 had Phillips, Sony, Hughes, Thompson (maybe others I don't remember). Series 2 had TiVo, Pioneer, Humax and others. Series 3 several models from TiVo with differing features from TiVo.


----------



## justen_m

The Series 2 also had multiple models from TiVo. I had a single tuner S2, and when it died was replaced by a dual tuner S2.


----------



## danm628

As usual, Wikipedia has a page with the various TiVo models.

TiVo digital video recorders - Wikipedia


----------



## Mikeguy

And don't overlook my beloved Toshiba Series 2 TiVo, with built-in DVD player/recorder!


----------



## tvmaster2

scandia101 said:


> Because it is a series 3 tivo (look at the system info screen) just like there were a few versions of the series 2 before that.


And which would you keep, a Series 2, or a Tivo HD?


----------



## waynomo

tvmaster2 said:


> OK everyone who's giving up on either a *Series 2* or *Series 3/HD* - if you had one of each, which would you surrender and why? I'm leaning towards decommissioning the *Series 3/HD*, and here's my logic: the *Series 2* still does one thing that no other Tivo can do - control an external box. So if you were in Canada for example (as I may be one day), or anywhere a cable/satellite company still has set-top devices and DOESN'T supply cable cards, the *Series 2* still has a function.
> Granted, the *Series 2* is *SD*, but since everything the *Series 3/HD* does can be done by a Premiere 2-tuner, isn't the *Series 2* the odd-box that at least may have a purpose down the road? My only worry would be that Tivo wakes up one day and just decides to S#$%-can all the Series 2's.
> Also, if a spare guest room had a playback-only device, the *Series 3/HD* could at least be loaded up with HD material, classic movies, that kind of thing, and would be somewhat future-proof as a HD source box (I have a fair number of films still around before Cox started flagging copy-once nonsense)
> Thoughts?


re: Series 3/TiVoHD...

My understanding is that you won't be able to transfer anything to it once it's deactivated. I haven't tested this first hand yet, but is my understanding.


----------



## tvmaster2

waynomo said:


> re: Series 3/TiVoHD...
> 
> My understanding is that you won't be able to transfer anything to it once it's deactivated. I haven't tested this first hand yet, but is my understanding.


correct - it will be a playback-only unit, like a dvd player with a hard drive, perfect for a guest room.


----------



## waynomo

tvmaster2 said:


> correct - it will be a playback-only unit, like a dvd player with a hard drive, perfect for a guest room.


So loaded up before it's deactivated? When I read your first post it sounded like you intended to download stuff to it after it was deactivated.


----------



## Worf

Well I got my Bolt+ setup. My season passes transferred over easy enough, but I can't believe I can't mass transfer the video using online.tivo.com - it says my Series 3 is not connected to the network.

So it looks like my option is to use the Bolt to pull it, one by one, which takes forever (and looking at a lot of "Please Wait" signs, yes, both are on Ethernet). I did use PyTiVoDesktop to pull the video, and the Bolt sees that, but it appears all the recording dates shifted to when PyTiVo pulled the videos and not the original recording dates I was hoping to preserve. Plus, the order of the videos is different between my Series 3 and what PyTiVo shows. Though it is much faster - instantaneous between selecting a video and getting the option to transfer it.

Finally - is there any way to ungroup My Shows? I just like a reverse chronological list, not everything grouped together by show. Great for binging, but not so great for just wanting quick access to what's new and not having to involve extra clicks.


----------



## Dan203

Worf said:


> Finally - is there any way to ungroup My Shows? I just like a reverse chronological list, not everything grouped together by show. Great for binging, but not so great for just wanting quick access to what's new and not having to involve extra clicks.


There is a side bar section called "Recordings" that only shows recorded shows, and no streaming episodes. That list can be ungrouped. The main one cannot.


----------



## justen_m

Worf said:


> Well I got my Bolt+ setup. My season passes transferred over easy enough, but I can't believe I can't mass transfer the video using online.tivo.com - it says my Series 3 is not connected to the network.


That functionality has been broken, on TiVo's side, for a long time with the S3.


> So it looks like my option is to use the Bolt to pull it, one by one, which takes forever (and looking at a lot of "Please Wait" signs, yes, both are on Ethernet).


Yup, painful. What I did was to use kmttg to pull all my files from my TiVoHD in one batch. That's simple and doesn't require user attention to monitor the slow transfers from the HD. Then I just serve 'em up with pyTivo, and only pull them to my Bolt from my PC when I actually want them, one at a time. Sort of like on-demand viewing. The Bolt/PC transfer is fast enough to make this practical. If you are the sort of person that wants their entire library transferred back to the Bolt... well... you'll have to be patient and pull them all back one-by-one anyway. At least pulling from the PC is much faster (like 20x) than pulling from my HD.


----------



## Redoctobyr

Worf said:


> I did use PyTiVoDesktop to pull the video, and the Bolt sees that, but it appears all the recording dates shifted to when PyTiVo pulled the videos and not the original recording dates I was hoping to preserve. Plus, the order of the videos is different between my Series 3 and what PyTiVo shows. Though it is much faster - instantaneous between selecting a video and getting the option to transfer it.


Interesting. I'm going from a pair of Series 2s to a Bolt and Mini.

In my VERY (!) limited testing, I seemed to get different behavior. Bear in mind, my Bolt had not arrived yet, so I was viewing the transferred & shared files using a Series 2, not the Bolt.

I tried transferring using kmttg, and sharing with pyTivo, and the recordings appeared to show the file-transferred date, in the Series 2 TiVo's list.

But when I tried transferring with pyTivo, and sharing using pyTivo, it appeared to show the recorded-on date, in the Series 2 TiVo's list.

I only checked with a few files, and maybe this was a fluke, or I misinterpreted the results. Or maybe the list looks different when viewing with the Bolt.

But I'm currently transferring everything with pyTivo, in the hopes of easing the transition process to the Bolt. Having the list show the recorded-on dates would help.

I think once I actually transferred one of the shows over to the Series 2, the date was shown correctly (showing recorded-on), but that doesn't help when browsing to find the one item you want to transfer.


----------



## tvmaster2

waynomo said:


> So loaded up before it's deactivated? When I read your first post it sounded like you intended to download stuff to it after it was deactivated.


Ah, sorry if I didn't make that clear. My big dilemma is deciding which one to decommission, the Series 2 or HD. Yes, it would seem obvious to decommission the Series 2, but it's the only Tivo which controls external boxes (satellite, set top cable), whereas the HD can record in HD from OTA. My sister still uses a Series 2 in Canada because cable cards aren't mandated there, so no cable companies implement them.


----------



## HerronScott

tvmaster2 said:


> Ah, sorry if I didn't make that clear. My big dilemma is deciding which one to decommission, the Series 2 or HD. Yes, it would seem obvious to decommission the Series 2, but it's the only Tivo which controls external boxes (satellite, set top cable), whereas the HD can record in HD from OTA. My sister still uses a Series 2 in Canada because cable cards aren't mandated there, so no cable companies implement them.


For me it wouldn't be a hard decision since the S2 is SD. I just can't see ever going back to watching SD so it doesn't really matter that it can control an external device.

Scott


----------



## tvmaster2

HerronScott said:


> For me it wouldn't be a hard decision since the S2 is SD. I just can't see ever going back to watching SD so it doesn't really matter that it can control an external device.
> 
> Scott


yup, there is that. However, in the guest room it's in, it feeds a 32" lcd set in zoom mode, so most guests never seem too worried. I suppose the HD would have better resale value than the Series 2....


----------



## tvmaster2

Has anyone tried the Tivo Deactivation link we were sent be email last week? At the moment, it appears to be down. This is the link where you tell the Tivo corp. which DVR you'd like to deactivate.


----------



## DVR_Dave

tvmaster2 said:


> I suppose the HD would have better resale value than the Series 2....


TiVo HD plusses are 1) HD, 2) OTA capable (for cord cutters), and 3) two digital tuners (S2/DT only has one).


----------



## Mikeguy

DVR_Dave said:


> TiVo HD plusses are 1) HD, 2) OTA capable (for cord cutters), and 3) two digital tuners (S2/DT only has one).


My Series 2 likewise can do either cable (via cable box) or OTA. Also, doesn't an S2/DT have 2 tuners (I thought the "DT" was for dual tuner)?


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> My Series 2 likewise can do either cable (via cable box) or OTA. Also, doesn't an S2/DT have 2 tuners (I thought the "DT" was for dual tuner)?


there was one version that had two tuners, but mine only has one. I didn't realize they could do OTA with the current ATSC technology - aren't they only UHF / VHF?


----------



## DVR_Dave

Mikeguy said:


> My Series 2 likewise can do either cable (via cable box) or OTA. Also, doesn't an S2/DT have 2 tuners (I thought the "DT" was for dual tuner)?


I was going by what the shipping box says: "Does not support recording from two digital cable or satellite channels at once. Supports recording from cable and satellite sources only; does not support recording from over-the-air antenna." Maybe they did a software upgrade to allow OTA? Are you using a digital to analog converter box for OTA?

A S2/DT has dual tuners which can record either 1 digital + 1 analog, or 2 analog channels.


----------



## Mikeguy

DVR_Dave said:


> Are you using a digital to analog converter box for OTA?





tvmaster2 said:


> there was one version that had two tuners, but mine only has one. I didn't realize they could do OTA with the current ATSC technology - aren't they only UHF / VHF?


Yep, since the U.S. analog/digital OTA signal transition, I've used a digital-analog signal converter box (the ones that the government issued coupons for, during the transition) along with my Series 2, which was from the analog days--the converter box functions as the Series 2's tuner, to allow the box to use current OTA signal. I always am grateful to TiVo for updating its Series 2 boxes to allow for that, rather than forcing Series 2 owners simply to chuck their boxes out.


----------



## waynomo

tvmaster2 said:


> Ah, sorry if I didn't make that clear. My big dilemma is deciding which one to decommission, the Series 2 or HD. Yes, it would seem obvious to decommission the Series 2, but it's the only Tivo which controls external boxes (satellite, set top cable), whereas the HD can record in HD from OTA. My sister still uses a Series 2 in Canada because cable cards aren't mandated there, so no cable companies implement them.


I would still decommission the Series 2. If and when you move to Canada you could always buy a used Series 2 on ebay.

Personally I can't tolerate watching SD content anymore. Perhaps if you're watching on a small TV or something it might be acceptable. But that's just me.


----------



## dark54555

So I got this e-mail from Tivo:



Tivo said:


> Thank you for participating in our "Once In A Lifetime" promotion to transfer your Product Lifetime service plan to a new TiVo BOLT™! According to our records, you purchased 1 TiVo BOLT(s) and have 3 TiVo Series2/Series3 DVRs on your account.
> Please let us know which of your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) you would like to deactivate by clicking Next Step. Once we have your selection(s), your TiVo DVR(s) will be scheduled for deactivation on May 15, 2017.
> 
> If you do not inform us which of your Series2 and/or Series 3 DVRs to deactivate in advance of May 15, 2017, we will deactivate the DVR(s) that has been inactive the longest.
> We would appreciate if you could complete this step at your earliest convenience.


But the link is broken. Anyone else having this issue? I supposedly got the box selected by calling CS before the Bolt shipped, but no way to check now.


----------



## pdhenry

Like the name suggests, the S2/DT has two (analog) tuners, but can control one (digital or analog) set-top box to watch and record channels that are digital and/or scrambled.


----------



## rmcurtis

I ordered a 500GB Bolt through this promotion late on 4/10, around 4pm PDT.

My order status finally says "Processing Order". So I think they do have more shipping out this week.

I don't mind the one month wait. I bought the Bolt as an early birthday present to myself, and now it just won't be quite so early.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

rmcurtis said:


> I ordered a 500GB Bolt through this promotion late on 4/10, around 4pm PDT.
> 
> My order status finally says "Processing Order". So I think they do have more shipping out this week.
> 
> I don't mind the one month wait. I bought the Bolt as an early birthday present to myself, and now it just won't be quite so early.


I ordered my 500 GB Bolt on the evening of 4/12 and my order status also changed to "processing order". I guess the wait gave me something to look forward to although I worried they might cancel it.


----------



## atmuscarella

Mikeguy said:


> My Series 2 likewise can do either cable (via cable box) or OTA. Also, doesn't an S2/DT have 2 tuners (I thought the "DT" was for dual tuner)?


It has 2 analog cable tuners which are pretty useless almost everywhere now and the dual tuner Series 2 can not do OTA at all except maybe if you connect a OTA STB to it, but if I remember correctly it did not support the cheap OTA converter boxes because when it was sold new it did not support OTA.


----------



## opus123

dark54555 said:


> So I got this e-mail from Tivo:
> 
> But the link is broken. Anyone else having this issue? I supposedly got the box selected by calling CS before the Bolt shipped, but no way to check now.


Same here. I noticed the linked page down since trying to access on Sunday. It shows the message below, so guessing they are behind schedule on the fix. Not sure what the problem might be.

Page Temporarily down 
Sorry! We are experiencing technical difficulties at this time and are unable to complete this process. Our technical team is aware of the issue and is currently working to fix it. We do believe that this will resolved by May 9th if not sooner.

Apologies for any inconvenience.


----------



## krkaufman

opus123 said:


> Not sure what the problem might be.
> 
> *Page Temporarily down *
> Sorry! We are experiencing technical difficulties at this time and are unable to complete this process. Our technical team is aware of the issue and is currently working to fix it. We do believe that this will resolved by May 9th if not sooner.​


My guess would be somebody realized that the page didn't match the terms of the sale and shut the page down.


----------



## Mikeguy

atmuscarella said:


> It has 2 analog cable tuners which are pretty useless almost everywhere now and the dual tuner Series 2 can not do OTA at all except maybe if you connect a OTA STB to it, but if I remember correctly it did not support the cheap OTA converter boxes because when it was sold new it did not support OTA.


My Toshiba Series 2 TiVo (single tuner) works just fine to this day, in conjunction with a standard analog-digital OTA signal converter box (Insignia, picked up with a government OTA signal transition coupon). Sure, it's not HD, but the picture still is fine.


----------



## Mikeguy

krkaufman said:


> My guess would be somebody realized that the page didn't match the terms of the sale and shut the page down.


Or, TiVo just can't handle the demand.


----------



## rmcurtis

TheCryptkeeper said:


> I ordered my 500 GB Bolt on the evening of 4/12 and my order status also changed to "processing order". I guess the wait gave me something to look forward to although I worried they might cancel it.


My order has now shipped, expected by Saturday, and I already see that activation is processing. The Bolt shows up under "Active TiVo devices".

We'll see how much of the order backlog they can satisfy with this batch of Bolts.


----------



## sfhub

4/10/17 late evening order shows shipping with tracking.


----------



## atmuscarella

Mikeguy said:


> My Toshiba Series 2 TiVo (single tuner) works just fine to this day, in conjunction with a standard analog-digital OTA signal converter box (Insignia, picked up with a government OTA signal transition coupon). Sure, it's not HD, but the picture still is fine.


Correct, but thee dual tuner Series 2 did not support OTA when new so TiVo did not port support for OTA converter boxes when they were released to them. I don't know if TiVo every said anything officially, but the general assumption was that they decided not to add OTA support to the units even through a converter box.


----------



## ColdMinnesotan

I also ordered late on 4/10 but my status remains unchanged. I did not pay for 1-2 day shipping so maybe they are shipping those out first?


----------



## timckelley

atmuscarella said:


> It has 2 analog cable tuners which are pretty useless almost everywhere now and the dual tuner Series 2 can not do OTA at all except maybe if you connect a OTA STB to it, but if I remember correctly it did not support the cheap OTA converter boxes because when it was sold new it did not support OTA.


My single tuner S2 is currently recording OTA. It's connected to an external digital tuner (controlled via IR cable) that converts the signal to analog through its RCA port. As I recall, the S2 guided setup has OTA as an option; I'm pretty sure that's how I set it up.


----------



## Mikeguy

atmuscarella said:


> Correct, but thee dual tuner Series 2 did not support OTA when new so TiVo did not port support for OTA converter boxes when they were released to them. I don't know if TiVo every said anything officially, but the general assumption was that they decided not to add OTA support to the units even through a converter box.


Got it. I _knew_ there was a reason I chose my particular box those many years ago (OTA, and TiVo's love/hate attitude towards OTA).


----------



## DevdogAZ

Ordered a Bolt 500GB on 4/16. I did not pay for expedited shipping. Just got my shipping notice and it's scheduled to be delivered on Thursday, 5/11.


----------



## sfhub

ColdMinnesotan said:


> I also ordered late on 4/10 but my status remains unchanged. I did not pay for 1-2 day shipping so maybe they are shipping those out first?


Mine was standard shipping, late evening 4/10, and it shipped.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> My Series 2 likewise can do either cable (via cable box) or OTA. Also, doesn't an S2/DT have 2 tuners (I thought the "DT" was for dual tuner)?


Yup, it has two internal tuners. With the Series 2 boxes, they were analog, correct, aka they can't decipher the new, digital ATSC OTA signals, correct?


----------



## opus123

krkaufman said:


> My guess would be somebody realized that the page didn't match the terms of the sale and shut the page down.


you're probably right. I've no complaint with the offer terms... but TiVo's communication throughout this promotion has been inconsistent with offer terms and available inventory/ship times. If they shut down the web-page for an extended time only to make functionality stricter, it would seem like a lost opportunity to recoup goodwill in light of their ill-preparedness for volume. (Ofcourse maybe i'm too naive about the cost of out-of-scope subscribers who were sold a unit).


----------



## tvmaster2

opus123 said:


> you're probably right. I've no complaint with the offer terms... but TiVo's communication throughout this promotion has been inconsistent with offer terms and available inventory/ship times. If they shut down the web-page for an extended time only to make functionality stricter, it would seem like a lost opportunity to recoup goodwill in light of their ill-preparedness for volume. (Ofcourse maybe i'm too naive about the cost of out-of-scope subscribers who were sold a unit).


the site now says it will be back up May 11th at the latest. hmmm


----------



## opus123

yeesh... would think this is problematic for people planning to transfer content from a particular unit by May 15th. 

I just want this part behind me. Feel like my Bolt transition is dragging out a lot longer than I expected.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

ColdMinnesotan said:


> I also ordered late on 4/10 but my status remains unchanged. I did not pay for 1-2 day shipping so maybe they are shipping those out first?


Placed my order late on 4/12 WITHOUT expedited shipping and my order has been shipped.


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> Yup, it has two internal tuners. With the Series 2 boxes, they were analog, correct, aka they can't decipher the new, digital ATSC OTA signals, correct?


My understanding, yes; but TiVo made the 1-tuner Series 2 which did OTA compatible with analog-digital OTA signal converter boxes, so that the TiVo box still could be used in conjunction with the converter box, for the new OTA signal.


----------



## HerronScott

My order from late on April 10th shipped today as well with expected delivery date of Friday the 12th. 

Scott


----------



## DVR_Dave

HerronScott said:


> My order from late on April 10th shipped today as well with expected delivery date of Friday the 12th.


Same here.


----------



## dark54555

tvmaster2 said:


> the site now says it will be back up May 11th at the latest. hmmm


Considering the cutoff to make a pick is May 15, the clock is very much ticking.


----------



## jimpmc

Has anyone contacted TiVo regarding the deactivation date of 5/15 and how this is different from what we were told when ordering (10 days after the first connection of the Bolt to TiVo)?


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> Got it. I _knew_ there was a reason I chose my particular box those many years ago (OTA, and TiVo's love/hate attitude towards OTA).


SO we're all in agreement that with an FCC approved DTA to analog OTA convertor, the original, single-tuner Series 2's CAN record OTA material (guide info included of course, yeah?


----------



## tvmaster2

jimpmc said:


> Has anyone contacted TiVo regarding the deactivation date of 5/15 and how this is different from what we were told when ordering (10 days after the first connection of the Bolt to TiVo)?


It does seem odd, since when I discussed when ordering over the phone, they told me I had TWO boxes to choose from, but the more recent email said I could choose between three boxes to decommission - and then the site link went dead. lol. Hey, it's Tivo!


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> SO we're all in agreement that with an FCC approved DTA to analog OTA convertor, the original, single-tuner Series 2's CAN record OTA material (guide info included of course, yeah?


Well, my Toshiba Series 2 TiVo can, and did so this morning.


----------



## krkaufman

tvmaster2 said:


> SO we're all in agreement that with an FCC approved DTA to analog OTA convertor, the original, single-tuner Series 2's CAN record OTA material (guide info included of course, yeah?


I'd think you'd need a qualifier that the S2 may or may not be able to automatically control tuning of a given DTA convertor.


----------



## atmuscarella

tvmaster2 said:


> SO we're all in agreement that with an FCC approved DTA to analog OTA convertor, the original, single-tuner Series 2's CAN record OTA material (guide info included of course, yeah?


The simple answer is yes - mostly. The longer answer is that TiVo only supported controlling certain brands of OTA converter boxes. I can not remember which brands were or were not supported at this point, but I had one that was not and traded it for one that was with my sister.

There were also some single tuner Series 2 TiVos that did not support OTA when they were sold (I think they were all refurbished units) as they were sold after the time when the FCC required all devices with an analog OTA tuner also have a digital OTA tuner (which is why the dual tuner Series 2 units did not support OTA) and I am not sure if those units ended up getting support of the OTA converter boxes or not. I think they did not.


----------



## aaronwt

jimpmc said:


> Has anyone contacted TiVo regarding the deactivation date of 5/15 and how this is different from what we were told when ordering (10 days after the first connection of the Bolt to TiVo)?


I haven't contacted them, but they are being generous. I received and setup my two Bolts on April 8th. So they will be giving me over five weeks(37 days) until my S3 boxes are shutdown. Assuming they actually shut them down on May 15th.

Until then I will keep them connected. I will be glad when they shut them down so I can disconnect them and throw them away. Since the S3 is a power hog compared to the Bolt.


----------



## krkaufman

FYI... Possible new promotion? Transfer subscription from S3 to $99 500GB BOLT


----------



## Hank

What in the heck? Why was my BOLT remote playing a little 8-bit tune?

Freaked me out. I had heard it once before when setting up my BOLT, but then it stopped.

But then looking over the Bolt, I found that little black "remote locator" button I must have accidentally hit once or twice. 

And what's that 8-bit tune it plays? Sure didn't sound like any Tivo-related tune I've heard before.


----------



## krkaufman

Hank said:


> And what's that 8-bit tune it plays? Sure didn't sound like any Tivo-related tune I've heard before.


Does it sound like any part of the old startup animation...?


----------



## aaronwt

Hank said:


> What in the heck? Why was my BOLT remote playing a little 8-bit tune?
> 
> Freaked me out. I had heard it once before when setting up my BOLT, but then it stopped.
> 
> But then looking over the Bolt, I found that little black "remote locator" button I must have accidentally hit once or twice.
> 
> And what's that 8-bit tune it plays? Sure didn't sound like any Tivo-related tune I've heard before.


It's the same tune that used to be part of a TiVo start up video


----------



## Hank

aaronwt said:


> It's the same tune that used to be part of a TiVo start up video


Thanks. You'd think in 2017 they could have added another voice or two to the remote. What is it, 1980?


----------



## timckelley

krkaufman said:


> I'd think you'd need a qualifier that the S2 may or may not be able to automatically control tuning of a given DTA convertor.


This is true. The only reason I have this d-to-a tuner is so that my S2 will work, so when I bought it from ebay, I specifically shopped for a brand easily controlled by the S2.

Historically I didn't need this, but when Time Warner converted to all digital, I decided to re-purpose the S2 as an OTA recorder, so that it could still be usable. It helps that a large hunk of shows we like to record are available OTA.


----------



## krkaufman

timckelley said:


> The only reason I have this d-to-a tuner is so that my S2 will work, so when I bought it from ebay, I specifically shopped for a brand easily controlled by the S2.


Is there a post or web page somewhere listing the known-good/bad DTA converters?


----------



## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> I haven't contacted them, but they are being generous. I received and setup my two Bolts on April 8th. So they will be giving me over five weeks(37 days) until my S3 boxes are shutdown. Assuming they actually shut them down on May 15th.
> 
> Until then I will keep them connected. I will be glad when they shut them down so I can disconnect them and throw them away. Since the S3 is a power hog compared to the Bolt.


Well, they are being generous to you, having received your Bolt so early. But for others only having received their new box relatively recently and/or who delayed setting up the new box in reliance on TiVo's repeated confirmation that one has 10 days for transfers starting from the date that the purchaser sets the new box up, not so much.


----------



## Mikeguy

atmuscarella said:


> The simple answer is yes - mostly. The longer answer is that TiVo only supported controlling certain brands of OTA converter boxes. I can not remember which brands were or were not supported at this point, but I had one that was not and traded it for one that was with my sister.
> 
> There were also some single tuner Series 2 TiVos that did not support OTA when they were sold (I think they were all refurbished units) as they were sold after the time when the FCC required all devices with an analog OTA tuner also have a digital OTA tuner (which is why the dual tuner Series 2 units did not support OTA) and I am not sure if those units ended up getting support of the OTA converter boxes or not. I think they did not.





krkaufman said:


> Is there a post or web page somewhere listing the known-good/bad DTA converters?


The Best Buy Insignia converter box available at the time of the analog-digital OTA signal transition was supported (I'm using one, with my Toshiba Series 2 TiVo). Here's TiVo's list of the supported converter boxes. (Sad that I still remember many of the brands, having compared features between them and looked at reviews!)

https://support.tivo.com/articles/Features_Use/Digital-Converter-Boxes-for-Antenna-Series2-DVRs


----------



## ColdMinnesotan

Seems like I am now the only one whose Bolt 500GB has not shipped....anyone else? Thanks


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

ColdMinnesotan said:


> Seems like I am now the only one whose Bolt 500GB has not shipped....anyone else? Thanks


When did you order?


----------



## ColdMinnesotan

April 10th in the evening. I don't have any other active Tivos besides the S2, so I'm thinking perhaps they prioritized customers who have additional Tivos first?


----------



## tvmaster2

jimpmc said:


> Has anyone contacted TiVo regarding the deactivation date of 5/15 and how this is different from what we were told when ordering (10 days after the first connection of the Bolt to TiVo)?


I will contact them today, 'cause although my box arrived on May 5th, the invoice said May 1st. I'd like those four days extra for transferring etc.

UPDATE: Honey in the Philippines just told me they are still working on the web site, and that they'd be extending the deactivation window to reflect the do-it-yourself-website downtime, which for me has been at least four days now. I asked her to deactivate a particular machine, to which she said I'd have to wait for the web site to become active again, and do it myself. :/
Can anyone else call and see if you get the same story? I'm extremely suspicious of her story...


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

ColdMinnesotan said:


> April 10th in the evening. I don't have any other active Tivos besides the S2, so I'm thinking perhaps they prioritized customers who have additional Tivos first?


Yours should have shipped. I'd call them and see what's going on. Please keep us posted.


----------



## waynomo

Upon reflection I'm sorry I never bought a Premiere. I'm thinking they will eventually offer the $99 transfer for those also. (it might be 2 or 3 years, but it might happen and then I'll be a little disappointed.)


----------



## waynomo

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Yours should have shipped. I'd call them and see what's going on. Please keep us posted.


----------



## waynomo

waynomo said:


> Upon reflection I'm sorry I never bought a Premiere. I'm thinking they will eventually offer the $99 transfer for those also. (it might be 2 or 3 years, but it might happen and then I'll be a little disappointed.)


----------



## tvmaster2

waynomo said:


> Upon reflection I'm sorry I never bought a Premiere. I'm thinking they will eventually offer the $99 transfer for those also. (it might be 2 or 3 years, but it might happen and then I'll be a little disappointed.)


It's the sweet spot - original two-tuner. OTA and cable simultaneous maps, streams to iPad, quiet, and workable apps including PLEX. I won't sell mine. Look on Craigslist, I see them there as low as $150 with Lifetime.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

tvmaster2 said:


> It's the sweet spot - original two-tuner. OTA and cable simultaneous maps, streams to iPad, quiet, and workable apps including PLEX. I won't sell mine. Look on Craigslist, I see them there as low as $150 with Lifetime.


How often does TiVo run sales on lifetime subscriptions for old boxes like the Premiere? I see a few on Craigslist without lifetime very cheap.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## Tweak42

TheCryptkeeper said:


> How often does TiVo run sales on lifetime subscriptions for old boxes like the Premiere? I see a few on Craigslist without lifetime very cheap.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


I'm fairly certain it's never since it's more profitable to sell new hardware with monthly services. Supporting old hardware will end up costing them in the long run, and lifetime just keeps that old hardware around longer.


----------



## HerronScott

TheCryptkeeper said:


> How often does TiVo run sales on lifetime subscriptions for old boxes like the Premiere? I see a few on Craigslist without lifetime very cheap.


While not a sale, they sometimes offer users who have been paying monthly service for 2-3 years on the older models like the Premiere discounts on lifetime service when calling to cancel service.

Scott


----------



## fredi

I took advantage of the Transfer of Lifetime service and purchased a 500gig Bolt because I wanted OTA as well as cable. Now I must decide which TiVo to deactivate. I own two TiVo Series 2s, one that I upgraded to 500GB and one that still has its original 80GB drive that makes a very high pitched whine, neither have anything I want to transfer. I figured that I would deactivate the 80gig whiny TiVo but noticed that TiVO.com list it as a “TiVo Series2 rev.2 DVR” while the 500gig unit is listed as a “TiVo Series2 DVR 60 hour” Is there any advantage to keeping the “TiVo Series2 rev.2 DVR”?


----------



## tvmaster2

waynomo said:


> Upon reflection I'm sorry I never bought a Premiere. I'm thinking they will eventually offer the $99 transfer for those also. (it might be 2 or 3 years, but it might happen and then I'll be a little disappointed.)


example today: Tivo Premiere w/ Lifetime and 3TB upgrade = 402 Hrs.


----------



## opus123

The page to designate which TiVo to deactivate is still down (almost a week now). Has anyone heard if they are going to delay the May 15 deactivation date?


----------



## tvmaster2

opus123 said:


> The page to designate which TiVo to deactivate is still down (almost a week now). Has anyone heard if they are going to delay the May 15 deactivation date?


Read #1249 just above. I'm getting a bit suspect, and preparing for bad surprises....


----------



## Mikeguy

opus123 said:


> The page to designate which TiVo to deactivate is still down (almost a week now). Has anyone heard if they are going to delay the May 15 deactivation date?


Did you call or chat TiVo to ask? If so, please post the results.


----------



## Redoctobyr

Yeah, the 15th date seems a bit early, to me. Certainly when compared with the initial info of getting 10 days from using the new Bolt. 

Mine arrived on the 4th, so that means I get a bit over the 10 days, assuming I set it up immediately. But many people's orders shipped later than mine, so those folks are getting significantly less than 10 days, if they keep to the 15th. 

And for a Series 2, transfers are very slow. If you have to wait for the Bolt to arrive (if you can't transfer to a PC first) then it's not difficult to imagine actually needing the 10 days for the process to finish. 

I hope they don't shortchange people on timing, by shutting boxes off right at the 15th. I can't imagine that extending the deadline would cost them much money. They still need to support other S2s, so it's not like they get to totally shut down some service on the 16th. But not giving people enough time could result in unhappy customers.


----------



## opus123

Mikeguy said:


> Did you call or chat TiVo to ask? If so, please post the results.


Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to call... have a ton of stuff to do for Mom's day and a family b-day party. Could really use another week.

Meanwhile the link still says it'll be 'up' be May 11 (after the original May 9 passed without resolution)


----------



## tvmaster2

Wow, the 15th is MONDAY!!! C'mon Tivo, either fix that web site, or release a statement. It's mother's day weekend, and lots of people are busy. Extend the date if you can't make the decommission site work


----------



## 10_pearljam

I called yesterday to verify my S2 was the one they have on deck for deactivation and the girl told me that No matter what, it's 10-days from the day you activate it and they would like them all activated by May 15. It's not the shut down date. I activated mine on May 6, so I have until the 16th to do mine...according to the girl I spoke with yesterday.


----------



## tommage1

The website where you choose which box to deactivate is still down as of May 13. I have 6 lifetime Series 2/3s on my account, all eligible for the deal. I only ordered one Bolt. When I ordered I specifically told them which device I would deactivate, they said I would not have to call or do anything else in the future. Then I got the email about having to choose. Since the site has been down for so long I called. On hold about 45 mins. They told me no problem, the one I had chosen when I ordered is scheduled for deactivation. BUT I have no proof of that, only what I was told on the phone........... So am nervous since I have 5 others. We shall see I guess. I have not hooked up the Bolt as I was considering returning it if there was any question which of my 2/3s would be deactivated, NO WAY would I consider giving up any of the other 5 at this point in time.

I have a question also, when the box is deactivated will it still be on my account as a deactivated box? IE will it still have my media key on it so I could transfer shows later if needed? I assume I would still be able to watch the shows even if deactivated and unable to transfer.

Finally my thoughts on the promo. It's not a bad deal obviously. But maybe not as good as it seems? First of all you have to pay full retail for the Bolt, $200 plus tax. You can get new Bolts for $130 assuming you even want one. And then $99 for the transfer. So a bit over $300 with the tax. And you are sacrificing your series 2 or 3 which could be worth $100-200+ depending on model/upgrades etc. So really paying $400-500+ considering the sacrifice of your current 2/3. Not bad if you really want to upgrade I guess.

The main reason Tivo did this IMO is they want to discontinue service on series 2s and 3s in the future like they did with the series 1. This way they make a couple hundred bucks each ($100 for the transfers, probably $100 or so on the hardware). And get those 2s and 3s off the market. If they wait until they actually want to discontinue the 2/3s they would probably have to transfer for free and offer discounts on whatever it is being transferred to? I know some people got Bolts for like $125-175 plus a $75 gift card plus service transferred for free when they discontinued service on the 1s. The point of this is if you did not take advantage of this "not bad" offer maybe make sure you keep connecting your 2s and 3s in case of a discontinuation of those models in the future........


----------



## pfiagra

This is why I prefer to use the chat function on TiVos website as opposed to calling them. You have proof of the conversation (can have transcript emailed to you) and it doesn't require you to stay on hold for an indefinite period of time.


----------



## tommage1

10_pearljam said:


> I called yesterday to verify my S2 was the one they have on deck for deactivation and the girl told me that No matter what, it's 10-days from the day you activate it and they would like them all activated by May 15. It's not the shut down date. I activated mine on May 6, so I have until the 16th to do mine...according to the girl I spoke with yesterday.


Well I am unclear on that. According to one a family member ordered the activation date is the shipping date even if you don't hook it up. When they checked their account it was kind of "in limbo" for 30 days, the return period, says you can alter the service plan. 30 days after the SHIPPING date the family members account showed permanent service plan status for the Bolt, lifetime in this case, no more return possible. 30 days after the SHIPPING DATE, not the arrival date or the date it was actually hooked up. So not hooking it up may or may not gain you any time for deactivation. I do know this, 30 days after it was actually hooked up the Series 2 is still out there, not deactivated so the 10 day thing is wrong, will check again 15/16th.


----------



## Mikeguy

tommage1 said:


> I have a question also, when the box is deactivated will it still be on my account as a deactivated box? IE will it still have my media key on it so I could transfer shows later if needed? I assume I would still be able to watch the shows even if deactivated and unable to transfer.


Watch, yes, transfer, no.


> Finally my thoughts on the promo. It's not a bad deal obviously. But maybe not as good as it seems? First of all you have to pay full retail for the Bolt, $200 plus tax. You can get new Bolts for $130 assuming you even want one. And then $99 for the transfer. So a bit over $300 with the tax. And you are sacrificing your series 2 or 3 which could be worth $100-200+ depending on model/upgrades etc. So really paying $400-500+ considering the sacrifice of your current 2/3. Not bad if you really want to upgrade I guess.


And then there's the, "who knows what will happen in the future" factor.

The other way to look at it is, you are paying $300 to modernize your Series 2 or 3 to a Bolt.


----------



## tommage1

pfiagra said:


> This is why I prefer to use the chat function on TiVos website as opposed to calling them. You have proof of the conversation (can have transcript emailed to you) and it doesn't require you to stay on hold for an indefinite period of time.


That is a good idea, I may do that even though I did call. Always good to have proof. Really all this could be avoided if they just put on receipt what is supposed to be done, ie here is your Bolt, your series 2/3 with service number xxxxxxxxxxxx will be deactivated on xx/xx/xxxx.


----------



## Mikeguy

tommage1 said:


> That is a good idea, I may do that even though I did call. Always good to have proof. Really all this could be avoided if they just put on receipt what is supposed to be done, ie here is your Bolt, your series 2/3 with service number xxxxxxxxxxxx will be deactivated on xx/xx/xxxx.


I think that the ground on this has changed for TiVo, due to the deactivation practicalities and TiVo only recently actually recognizing them, and/or the seemingly unexpected response TiVo got to the offer.

In other words, the "rules" have been bending due to the actual practicalities of it all. With TiVo not explaining matters consistently.


----------



## Mikeguy

tommage1 said:


> Well I am unclear on that. According to one a family member ordered the activation date is the shipping date even if you don't hook it up. When they checked their account it was kind of "in limbo" for 30 days, the return period, says you can alter the service plan. 30 days after the SHIPPING date the family members account showed permanent service plan status for the Bolt, lifetime in this case, no more return possible. 30 days after the SHIPPING DATE, not the arrival date or the date it was actually hooked up. So not hooking it up may or may not gain you any time for deactivation. I do know this, 30 days after it was actually hooked up the Series 2 is still out there, not deactivated so the 10 day thing is wrong, will check again 15/16th.


I was told this, in an April 17 TiVo chat session:

Me (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎43‎:‎43‎ ‎PM): . . . Would you please clarify: when does the 10-day deactivation period begin? From when I actually hook the new Bolt up in my home, or from when TiVo sends its email saying that the new Bolt has been connected (even though the purchaser has not yet actually received the new Bolt)? And, is there a limit as to how long one may delay setting the new Bolt up, without losing the 10-day deactivation period window? Days, weeks, even months?

Thank you.
Peter (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎46‎:‎41‎ ‎PM): 10 Days from the time of the first connection to the TiVo Service (During guided setup). As far as I have been made aware, there is not a limit to how long that can be delayed. Keeping in mind that if we get out past the 30 day money back guarantee period there will be no options for returning the device.
Me (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎49‎:‎04‎ ‎PM): Thank you for your information. And just to make sure that I understand, that's when I take the Bolt out and first run Guided Setup, and not starting from what TiVo does on its end to prepare the Bolt and ship it to me, correct?
Peter (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎49‎:‎06‎ ‎PM): Correct​For whatever it's worth, being that this was a month ago.

Also, from TiVo's website:

*30-day money back guarantee*
*TiVo packages (combined sales of device and Service)*
TiVo offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for TiVo packages as described herein. Only initial activations of TiVo packages are eligible for this offer. TiVo package payment plan changes, and hardware replacements are not eligible for this offer. You may cancel your TiVo package within 30 days of activation (which is typically your order shipment date) and return the device to TiVo for any reason for a full refund. The shipping charge for the return is at your expense.​
(In point of fact, TiVo covers the return shipping as well.)


----------



## ColdMinnesotan

My new Bolt isn't scheduled to arrive until the 17th, 2 days after the 15th deadline so I can only assume it will be extended or per the 10 day policy


----------



## scandia101

tommage1 said:


> Well I am unclear on that. According to one a family member ordered the activation date is the shipping date even if you don't hook it up.


You are confusing the activation date and the date on which the tivo first connects to the mother ship during setup. Tivo has been very clear about the "when it first connects" part of the deal.



> I do know this, 30 days after it was actually hooked up the Series 2 is still out there, not deactivated so the 10 day thing is wrong, will check again 15/16th.


How dare they not deactivate the S2 when they are contractually obligated to have done it about 3 weeks ago. Outrageous.


----------



## tommage1

scandia101 said:


> You are confusing the activation date and the date on which the tivo first connects to the mother ship during setup. Tivo has been very clear about the "when it first connects" part of the deal.
> 
> How dare they not deactivate the S2 when they are contractually obligated to have done it about 3 weeks ago. Outrageous.


Well your sarcasm is a bit over the top and rather stupid really. The point is the details of the transfer of service, how it works, when it happens etc is NOT clear and has not proceeded as Tivo claimed it would. All I want to see is a Bolt with lifetime service on my account and the series 2 or whatever Tivo is being deactivated gone. Or some actual paperwork that shows what device is being deactivated so I KNOW nothing can go wrong, such as an email saying I need to CHOOSE which device will be deactivated or they will choose one AND the method for doing that does not work, ie website down almost a week now. If they say the S2 will be deactivated 10 days after I connect the Bolt and it is NOT, and the lifetime service on the Bolt is not "finalized" (which will not happen for 30 days regardless) then I am not SURE of anything. Only when the Bolt shows unchangeable lifetime and the correct S2/3 is gone will I consider the "deal done", nothing can go wrong such as incorrect S2/3 deactivated, lifetime disappearing on Bolt due to some transfer glitch, whatever. So really, unless you have something USEFUL to say why not keep your sarcasm to yourself hmm, some people...............


----------



## Mikeguy

One way or the other, it will all work out . . . . Enjoy your snappy new Bolts!


----------



## Mikeguy

ColdMinnesotan said:


> My new Bolt isn't scheduled to arrive until the 17th, 2 days after the 15th deadline so I can only assume it will be extended or per the 10 day policy


One can only assume and hope. Or, no transfers for you . . . . 

I've been wondering how flexible the system is or isn't for TiVo on the inside, such that a customer rep. could change a deactivation date as needed by a customer, including on request.


----------



## Tweak42

FYI: Email from Tivo just came in. I already made my S2 deactivation selection before the site went down last time.

"Thank you for your patience. We are glad to inform you that the deactivation website will be live again on Wednesday, *May 17, 2017*. Also, we have extended the deactivation date to *May 22, 2017*."


----------



## Mikeguy

Tweak42 said:


> FYI: Email from Tivo just came in. I already made my S2 deactivation selection before the site went down last time.
> 
> "Thank you for your patience. We are glad to inform you that the deactivation website will be live again on Wednesday, *May 17, 2017*. Also, we have extended the deactivation date to *May 22, 2017*."


Thank you for posting! Presumably, this applies to everyone, and not just you . . . ?


----------



## pdhenry

I've already decommissioned my S2 and moved it to the recycle box in the basement.


----------



## Mikeguy

There really should be something better to do with these boxes. At the very least, it almost feels like TiVo should have developed a box recycle program as part of this deal, including a prepaid mailing label for one to return the old box to TiVo, for enviro-conscious recycling or other handling.


----------



## Mikeguy

Tweak42 said:


> FYI: Email from Tivo just came in. I already made my S2 deactivation selection before the site went down last time.
> 
> "Thank you for your patience. We are glad to inform you that the deactivation website will be live again on Wednesday, *May 17, 2017*. Also, we have extended the deactivation date to *May 22, 2017*."





Mikeguy said:


> Thank you for posting! Presumably, this applies to everyone, and not just you . . . ?


Chat with TiVo just now, confirming extension:

Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎17‎:‎00‎ ‎PM): Thank you for contacting TiVo Support Chat, my name is Lhynn katherine and I am happy to assist you. Are you a current TiVo customer (or subscriber)?
Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎18‎:‎13‎ ‎PM): Yep. Under TiVo's recent $99 Series 2/3-Bolt purchase and lifetime transfer deal, has TiVo now extended the May 15 show transfer deadline to May 22?
Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎19‎:‎09‎ ‎PM): You have received an Email from TiVo?
Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎19‎:‎50‎ ‎PM): Not yet--which is why I came here asking. A colleague received such an email from TiVo today.
Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎23‎:‎22‎ ‎PM): Hello?
Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎23‎:‎57‎ ‎PM): There's an extension for the boxes before they'll be cancelled
Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎24‎:‎19‎ ‎PM): That applies to everyone who purchased under the deal, to May 22?
Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎24‎:‎31‎ ‎PM): That's correct.
Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎24‎:‎44‎ ‎PM): Great--thank you!​


----------



## JYoung

Tweak42 said:


> FYI: Email from Tivo just came in. I already made my S2 deactivation selection before the site went down last time.
> 
> "Thank you for your patience. We are glad to inform you that the deactivation website will be live again on Wednesday, *May 17, 2017*. Also, we have extended the deactivation date to *May 22, 2017*."





Mikeguy said:


> Thank you for posting! Presumably, this applies to everyone, and not just you . . . ?


I got the same email so I'm going to guess it applies to everyone who purchased this deal.


----------



## scandia101

tommage1 said:


> If they say the S2 will be deactivated 10 days after I connect the Bolt and it is NOT, and the lifetime service on the Bolt is not "finalized" (which will not happen for 30 days regardless) then I am not SURE of anything. Only when the Bolt shows unchangeable lifetime and the correct S2/3 is gone will I consider the "deal done", nothing can go wrong such as incorrect S2/3 deactivated, lifetime disappearing on Bolt due to some transfer glitch, whatever. So really, unless you have something USEFUL to say why not keep your sarcasm to yourself hmm, some people...............


Where do you get this info about lifetime on the bolt being finalized? Nothing on the website indicates or even remotely hints that the current lifetime status is temporary. That 30 day window comes with absolutely every new tivo subscription and it's there for if you change your mind regarding the subscription type you chose, it is not a loophole for tivo to take away your subscription.

People worry about the dumbest things for no good reason.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> Chat with TiVo just now, confirming extension:
> 
> Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎17‎:‎00‎ ‎PM): Thank you for contacting TiVo Support Chat, my name is Lhynn katherine and I am happy to assist you. Are you a current TiVo customer (or subscriber)?
> Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎18‎:‎13‎ ‎PM): Yep. Under TiVo's recent $99 Series 2/3-Bolt purchase and lifetime transfer deal, has TiVo now extended the May 15 show transfer deadline to May 22?
> Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎19‎:‎09‎ ‎PM): You have received an Email from TiVo?
> Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎19‎:‎50‎ ‎PM): Not yet--which is why I came here asking. A colleague received such an email from TiVo today.
> Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎23‎:‎22‎ ‎PM): Hello?
> Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎23‎:‎57‎ ‎PM): There's an extension for the boxes before they'll be cancelled
> Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎24‎:‎19‎ ‎PM): That applies to everyone who purchased under the deal, to May 22?
> Lhynn katherine (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎24‎:‎31‎ ‎PM): That's correct.
> Me (‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎24‎:‎44‎ ‎PM): Great--thank you!​


lol. Do you trust the Tivo servers, or are you unplugging your machine from the internet until they sort out the website, just in case. I told them on April 10th which machine to deactivate, and now I've changed my mind - and don't want SKYNET to kill the machine automatically on May 15th (the original kill date). I got into a chat, and the rep made out a case number and claimed not to worry about the change. u-huh...


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> lol. Do you trust the Tivo servers, or are you unplugging your machine from the internet until they sort out the website, just in case. I told them on April 10th which machine to deactivate, and now I've changed my mind - and don't want SKYNET to kill the machine automatically on May 15th (the original kill date). I got into a chat, and the rep made out a case number and claimed not to worry about the change. u-huh...


Well, TiVo has sent out letters about the extension of the date and it makes me feel a bit more reassured that TiVo confirmed the extension to me in the chat--if need be, the chat can be used with TiVo as to why it needs to reactivate a prematurely-deactivated box, if need be.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> Well, TiVo has sent out letters about the extension of the date and it makes me feel a bit more reassured that TiVo confirmed the extension to me in the chat--if need be, the chat can be used with TiVo as to why it needs to reactivate a prematurely-deactivated box, if need be.


yup, good point. I followed your lead and did the same thing. Although i'm not sure about one thing: can a deactivated machine be re-activated?


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> yup, good point. I followed your lead and did the same thing. Although i'm not sure about one thing: can a deactivated machine be re-activated?


Presumably so--as someone here pointed out, if you return the bolt under the 30-day satisfaction guarantee, your lifetime should come back to your old box.


----------



## tvmaster2

Anyone who had a Series 2 or 3 with Lifetime, that was just days out of the eligibility period, have any luck talking a Tivo CSR into allowing it? What's the secret?


----------



## DVR_Dave

The link to choose which S2/S3 to deactivate appears to be working again ... at least partially. It is only giving me a choice of two S3 when at least one S2 should qualify.

P. S. I chatted on 4/10 and they said both of my S2 quality for the Bolt offer.


----------



## tvmaster2

DVR_Dave said:


> The link to choose which S2/S3 to deactivate appears to be working again ... at least partially. It is only giving me a choice of two S3 when at least one S2 should qualify.
> 
> P. S. I chatted on 4/10 and they said both of my S2 quality for the Bolt offer.


same here - only two machines are listed, which technically is correct, as one S2 last connected 15 days before the cutoff. But one of their CSR's said that wouldn't be a problem, so it looks like it is a problem.


----------



## pdhenry

The CSRs were wrong?!?


----------



## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> same here - only two machines are listed, which technically is correct, as one S2 last connected 15 days before the cutoff. But one of their CSR's said that wouldn't be a problem, so it looks like it is a problem.


Call and arrange "manually."


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> Call and arrange "manually."


yeah, half-way thru that process - ticket filed or the like.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> The CSRs were wrong?!?


No, they weren't.


----------



## juddev

About 2 weeks ago I got a email from tivo with a link to follow to choose what tivo's to deactivate, it had 3 choices and I picked my s2 and my personal s3, done I thought. Now 3 days or so ago I get the same email with a link to choose what 2 devices to deactivate and this time my only choices are 2 of my s3's and not my s2. my s2 hadnt connected but the salesman originally told me that it qualified so I bought it, later I decided to replace my S3 too so I called and told them I would do the deal for my series 3 and I got the second one. I just called and got 2 case numbers for the 2 tivo's I want deactivated after giving them the service numbers, the salesman told me to call right away if they turn off the wrong tivo's...... Don't they know what they are doing?


----------



## Dan203

This is a one time deal, so it's probably not something they trained for.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

juddev said:


> About 2 weeks ago I got a email from tivo with a link to follow to choose what tivo's to deactivate, it had 3 choices and I picked my s2 and my personal s3, done I thought. Now 3 days or so ago I get the same email with a link to choose what 2 devices to deactivate and this time my only choices are 2 of my s3's and not my s2. my s2 hadnt connected but the salesman originally told me that it qualified so I bought it, later I decided to replace my S3 too so I called and told them I would do the deal for my series 3 and I got the second one. I just called and got 2 case numbers for the 2 tivo's I want deactivated after giving them the service numbers, the salesman told me to call right away if they turn off the wrong tivo's...... Don't they know what they are doing?


In one word, no.


----------



## tvmaster2

Dan203 said:


> This is a one time deal, so it's probably not something they trained for.


In four phone calls, two to the Philippines, and two to U.S. CSR's, the U.S. crew were hardline "you can't use that machine", while the P's were more "ok, that should be fine - I see the machine here".
So training, yeah, likely...


----------



## tvmaster2

juddev said:


> About 2 weeks ago I got a email from tivo with a link to follow to choose what tivo's to deactivate, it had 3 choices and I picked my s2 and my personal s3, done I thought. Now 3 days or so ago I get the same email with a link to choose what 2 devices to deactivate and this time my only choices are 2 of my s3's and not my s2. my s2 hadnt connected but the salesman originally told me that it qualified so I bought it, later I decided to replace my S3 too so I called and told them I would do the deal for my series 3 and I got the second one. I just called and got 2 case numbers for the 2 tivo's I want deactivated after giving them the service numbers, the salesman told me to call right away if they turn off the wrong tivo's...... Don't they know what they are doing?


keep us posted with this...same scenario for me.


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## Mikeguy

Dan203 said:


> This is a one time deal, so it's probably not something they trained for.


I guess the 1-page memo with instructions got lost in the intra-office mail.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> I guess the 1-page memo with instructions got lost in the intra-office mail.


An offer so nice they had to email us twice...


----------



## pdhenry

tvmaster2 said:


> No, they weren't.


If they told you a machine was eligible that didn't otherwise meet the terms of the offer, well, I'll let you decide.


----------



## tvmaster2

pdhenry said:


> If they told you a machine was eligible that didn't otherwise meet the terms of the offer, well, I'll let you decide.


Whatever dude. There's a little black spot on the sun today.....


----------



## HerronScott

DVR_Dave said:


> The link to choose which S2/S3 to deactivate appears to be working again ... at least partially. It is only giving me a choice of two S3 when at least one S2 should qualify.
> 
> P. S. I chatted on 4/10 and they said both of my S2 quality for the Bolt offer.


What's the URL to the website?

Scott


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## TheCryptkeeper

HerronScott said:


> What's the URL to the website?
> 
> Scott


TiVo user login


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## jonvan

Well looks like another early adopter and advocate that got screwed. Just found out today that I am not receiving 1/2 my channels with my series 3 HD because of Mpeg 4 issue. I have the LIFETIME subscription. NOW i am being told by TiVo that I cannot transfer that to a new Bolt box. Then in doing research found out there was this upgrade offer, but I cannot get it because it expired!!!!! What crappy luck. A non working HD box and no lifetime transfer. And no new offers on the horizon. I was an advocat for tivo, used to show off how cool it was to everybody back in the day, my kid even dresed up as the TiVo dude for Halloween one year...pretty pissed right now.


----------



## Mikeguy

jonvan said:


> Well looks like another early adopter and advocate that got screwed. Just found out today that I am not receiving 1/2 my channels with my series 3 HD because of Mpeg 4 issue. I have the LIFETIME subscription. NOW i am being told by TiVo that I cannot transfer that to a new Bolt box. Then in doing research found out there was this upgrade offer, but I cannot get it because it expired!!!!! What crappy luck. A non working HD box and no lifetime transfer. *And no new offers on the horizon. *I was an advocat for tivo, used to show off how cool it was to everybody back in the day, my kid even dresed up as the TiVo dude for Halloween one year...pretty pissed right now.


All may not be lost: various reps have said that other promotions are being worked on--who knows. Best advice: keep checking in here.


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## bradleys

Mikeguy said:


> Presumably so--as someone here pointed out, if you return the bolt under the 30-day satisfaction guarantee, your lifetime should come back to your old box.


That would suprise me... Does someone have specific experience with that?


----------



## bradleys

jonvan said:


> Well looks like another early adopter and advocate that got screwed. Just found out today that I am not receiving 1/2 my channels with my series 3 HD because of Mpeg 4 issue. I have the LIFETIME subscription. NOW i am being told by TiVo that I cannot transfer that to a new Bolt box. Then in doing research found out there was this upgrade offer, but I cannot get it because it expired!!!!! What crappy luck. A non working HD box and no lifetime transfer. And no new offers on the horizon. I was an advocat for tivo, used to show off how cool it was to everybody back in the day, my kid even dresed up as the TiVo dude for Halloween one year...pretty pissed right now.


TiVo communicated quite clearly that the OLED S3's would not be upgraded to support MPEG4 - originally they weren't going to update the HD S3's either, but eventually supported those boxes. That information has been out for several years.

The communication went out via several mediums, including email, update notifications on the devices themselves, the website and this forum.

In addition, if you used your S3 in the last year, you should have received notification on the once in a lifetime transfer offer as well.

You have to accept some personal responsibility


----------



## KyleLC

bradleys said:


> That would suprise me... Does someone have specific experience with that?


The TiVo person I talked to said that they couldn't revert the lifetime back to the old box after the 10 day window.


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## DrewTivo

Mikeguy said:


> There really should be something better to do with these boxes. At the very least, it almost feels like TiVo should have developed a box recycle program as part of this deal, including a prepaid mailing label for one to return the old box to TiVo, for enviro-conscious recycling or other handling.


The components in older boxes aren't probably worth much . . . but you can always take them to Best Buy, which recycles the materials.


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## bradleys

KyleLC said:


> The TiVo person I talked to said that they couldn't revert the lifetime back to the old box after the 10 day window.


That is EXACTLY what I would expect.


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## Mikeguy

KyleLC said:


> The TiVo person I talked to said that they couldn't revert the lifetime back to the old box after the 10 day window.


And so they have a 30-day satisfaction guarantee on the new box, refund your money if you avail yourself of that, but don't "refund" your lifetime subscription? They can remove the lifetime from your Series 2 box but can't put it back? If that's the case, shouldn't they disclose that upfront and/or note that the 30-day satisfaction guarantee actually is a 10-day guarantee (or make that period 30 days)?


----------



## InFromTheCold

tvmaster2 said:


> Whatever dude. There's a little black spot on the sun today.....


----------



## jimpmc

bradleys said:


> That is EXACTLY what I would expect.


I asked this specific question 3 different times with 3 separate reps (2 US-based, 1 offshore) before I ordered the upgrade. I was told in ALL 3 calls that the 30 day satisfaction guarantee was part of this deal and should the Bolt be returned within 30 days, they would revert the lifetime service back to the original box.


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## rie28

FYI:
Hello,

The deactivation form (as well as the list considered if no selection is made) should only include eligible devices.

Customers should not have the option to select ineligible devices.


----------



## bradleys

jimpmc said:


> I asked this specific question 3 different times with 3 separate reps (2 US-based, 1 offshore) before I ordered the upgrade. I was told in ALL 3 calls that the 30 day satisfaction guarantee was part of this deal and should the Bolt be returned within 30 days, they would revert the lifetime service back to the original box.


I doubt it would work out for you...


----------



## opus123

Those advocating a strict interpretation of the original offer terms have a valid point; however, Tivo has the right to modify those terms at any time... and their communication has been inconsistent throughout this process. Even the original email linking to web page had inconsistencies. In one area wording seemed clear that only boxes that connected within a window would qualify... in another area it seemed to refer to customers with boxes connecting within a window. In one area it said the offer ended April 10, on another page it stated April 28. People calling in got all sorts of interpretations. And of course the struggles to provide accurate inventory/shipping estimates.

I think it's pointless to argue over who deserves what. We can all agree that Tivo was ill prepared to fulfill this promotion, primarily because most of us (for so long) were not encouraged to upgrade their units due to prohibitive and overly expensive lifetime pricing... so this offer unleashed a whole mess of pent up demand. Personally, I feel where TiVo reps made mistakes in policy with certain individuals they could/should honor them, but we can't expect they would either.

Personally I'm disappointed i was told a 'non-call-in-window' box would qualify, then after a TiVo billing screw-up, I was denied the same terms when I had to cancel and reorder. I let it go, but i'm that much more likely to move on to a competing solution as their expiring patents find their way into the marketplace. IMO if TiVo was more reasonable on lifetime pricing, or offered discounted lifetime for retiring/upgrading units, i feel their business would be in a stronger position than it is today. 

I'll enjoy my Bolt for now, but remain curious about potential alternatives like Amazon's rumored Fire TV with antenna input. 

Hopefully this post didn't waste too much of your time... I'll get down from my soap box now.


----------



## HerronScott

TheCryptkeeper said:


> TiVo user login


Thanks, we just got the Bolt and had not gotten the follow-up mail yet with the website. I logged in and do see our 2 S3 OLED and 2 HD TiVo's that would have qualified.

Scott


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## bmgoodman

So I had 2 eligible Tivos, an S2 and and OLED S3. I accepted the offer for ONE Bolt, transferring Lifetime from the Series 2. Today I signed into the "Tivo user login" site where I see:

*Please review each of the TSNs listed and select the [3] you are deactivating so that you can fully transfer your service to your new TiVo BOLT(s).*

Below that message, I see my two old Tivos. So I selected just the S2 and I was told I have selected too few TSNs. I guess now I must call Tivo and enjoy that long hold time.


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## TheCryptkeeper

bmgoodman said:


> So I had 2 eligible Tivos, an S2 and and OLED S3. I accepted the offer for ONE Bolt, transferring Lifetime from the Series 2. Today I signed into the "Tivo user login" site where I see:
> 
> *Please review each of the TSNs listed and select the [3] you are deactivating so that you can fully transfer your service to your new TiVo BOLT(s).*
> 
> Below that message, I see my two old Tivos. So I selected just the S2 and I was told I have selected too few TSNs. I guess now I must call Tivo and enjoy that long hold time.


Wow, what a mess. While this was a great offer, generous by TiVo standards, they really botched things in multiple ways, and may end up destroying much of the goodwill they initially generated.


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## waynomo

Has anybody's TiVo been automatically deactivated yet? If so, how do they appear on your account?

I took advantage of the deal by buying 2 TiVos for my two Series 3 boxes that were eligible. When I go to the deactivation page it doesn't list any TSNs for deactivation. I guess this makes sense since I only had two eligible and purchased two under the deal, so I'm wondering what I should see on the TiVo page that list all my devices.


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## Redoctobyr

I just got an email from TiVo that my old boxes (replaced using this offer) will be deactivated on May 26th. 

It will be interesting to see if everyone has the same deactivation date, or if it depends on when your Bolt order shipped.


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## DevdogAZ

Redoctobyr said:


> I just got an email from TiVo that my old boxes (replaced using this offer) will be deactivated on May 26th.
> 
> It will be interesting to see if everyone has the same deactivation date, or if it depends on when your Bolt order shipped.


Have you received and activated your new Bolt? Did you activate it on May 16, by chance?


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## Redoctobyr

I ordered 2. I hooked up the first one and did Guided Setup on May 5th. I haven't opened the second Bolt's box. 

So they're not just going by some amount of time after you start using each individual box.


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## Mikeguy

Redoctobyr said:


> I just got an email from TiVo that my old boxes (replaced using this offer) will be deactivated on May 26th.
> 
> It will be interesting to see if everyone has the same deactivation date, or if it depends on when your Bolt order shipped.


Gosh, some consistency and certainty would be nice . . . .


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## KyleLC

DevdogAZ said:


> Have you received and activated your new Bolt? Did you activate it on May 16, by chance?


I also received that email today with the same date of May 26 and yes, I activated mine on May 16.


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## Redoctobyr

Maybe they picked a date that's XX days from when most people should have received their orders? 

I'm making the assumption that most have hopefully arrived by now, of course.


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## Mikeguy

And so, perhaps the revised May 22 deactivation date now is May 26 for all?


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## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> And so, perhaps the revised May 22 deactivation date now is May 26 for all?


That would be nice, but I didn't get that date-change email today. Got the last two. hmmmm.


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## Mikeguy

tvmaster2 said:


> That would be nice, but I didn't get that date-change email today. Got the last two. hmmmm.


I haven't received any, lol (apart from the original, setting the May 15 date).


----------



## DVR_Dave

Mikeguy said:


> I haven't received any, lol (apart from the original, setting the May 15 date).


I received my first and only email today regarding deactivation.

_Thank you for participating in our "Once In A Lifetime" promotion to transfer your Product Lifetime service plan to a new TiVo BOLT™! According to our records, you purchased 2 TiVo BOLT(s) and have 4 TiVo Series2/Series3 DVRs on your account. 
Please let us know which of your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) you would like to deactivate by clicking Next Step. Once we have your selection(s), your TiVo DVR(s) will be scheduled for deactivation on *May 26, 2017*. 
If you do not inform us which of your Series2 and/or Series 3 DVRs to deactivate in advance of *May 26, 2017*, we will deactivate the DVR(s) that has been inactive the longest. 
We would appreciate if you could complete this step at your earliest convenience. _

I received my 2 Bolts on 5/12 and both are still in the sealed box. I also unplugged my 2 S2 on 4/12 so they should be the longest inactive boxes. Next Step link only shows two S3.


----------



## sfhub

Redoctobyr said:


> Maybe they picked a date that's XX days from when most people should have received their orders?
> 
> I'm making the assumption that most have hopefully arrived by now, of course.


You are right, they just picked a date. Mine arrived 5/19 and I received the 5/26 email, meaning I have less than the stated 10 days even if I were able to connect it today.


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## gthassell

Well, adding my story to the list.... When I placed my order, I told them I wanted to use an old S3HD that had recently connected, and confirmed was valid for the offer. There were also several lifetime premiere's I had picked up for resale, and a Series 2 box which I had sold last October. I was told they made notes for the S3HD box. Then, when the email came out to choose a box (and it didn't work), I called in and had to finally speak to a US supervisor since the 1st line folks couldn't understand what I wanted, and was finally told that the only option was to choose from the website, even though it wasn't working. When I arrived home last night after travelling for work for the week, I logged into the transfer site, and there is only one box to choose from on the special website - and guess what - it's not the one that I told them multiple times was the one I need to transfer from - it's the old S2 unit I sold to someone last October. 

So today, once they open phone support, I'll be giving this a shot once more to make sure that the S2 doesn't get turned off on the person who purchased my unit last year. Ugh.


----------



## waynomo

KyleLC said:


> I also received that email today with the same date of May 26 and yes, I activated mine on May 16.


Hey everyone. It looks like TiVo based everything on when Kyle set up his box.


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## V7Goose

I had two old boxes on my account, and I ordered two new ones under the deal. I got the email on 5/5 about the scheduled deactivation date on the 15th (like most people), but I was not directed to go to the web site and choose boxes for deactivation - my email specifically stated that since I had two and ordered two, 'that was a done deal' (obviously not a real quote from the email).

I received my two new boxes very quickly, set one up immediately and left the other one in the box until about two weeks ago. I do no think either old box has yet been deactivated (but I haven't tested them recently either).


----------



## Redoctobyr

waynomo said:


> Hey everyone. It looks like TiVo based everything on when Kyle set up his box.


Ha, thanks Kyle, you couldn't have waited a bit longer, to help everyone else out? 

Communication during this process has seemed very hit or miss. I didn't get the email with the link to specify which box to transfer from, nor did I get any other emails about when boxes would be deactivated. But I did get the one yesterday about shutting them off on May 26th.

Why I got some emails and not others is a mystery to me. I'm just happy I got the first email announcing the deal.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Redoctobyr said:


> Ha, thanks Kyle, you couldn't have waited a bit longer, to help everyone else out?
> 
> Communication during this process has seemed very hit or miss. I didn't get the email with the link to specify which box to transfer from, nor did I get any other emails about when boxes would be deactivated. But I did get the one yesterday about shutting them off on May 26th.
> 
> Why I got some emails and not others is a mystery to me. I'm just happy I got the first email announcing the deal.


I haven't gotten ANY emails from TiVo other than order confirmation. And yes, I've opted in for notifications, etc. Everything is up to date. Good thing I hang out here.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk


----------



## V7Goose

Like I said a few messages above, I got the email on 5/5 saying both would deactivate on the 15th, but as of this morning, I have not seen the new one people have been getting about the new date of the 26th (and they both still show as active on my account). The lack of consistency in their automated communications makes no sense at all.


----------



## Mikeguy

V7Goose said:


> Like I said a few messages above, I got the email on 5/5 saying both would deactivate on the 15th, but as of this morning, I have not seen the new one people have been getting about the new date of the 26th (and they both still show as active on my account). The lack of consistency in their automated communications makes no sense at all.


And the last email, before the most recent, had moved the deactivation date to May 22 (which date was confirmed to me by TiVo chat support, the transcript of which I had posted above).


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> And the last email, before the most recent, had moved the deactivation date to May 22 (which date was confirmed to me by TiVo chat support, the transcript of which I had posted above).


Do you think people are getting different deactivate dates, or are we ALL, NOW, looking at May 26th. I could sure use some extra days for file dumps....


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## Mikeguy

Chat just now with TiVo. Bottom line: May 22 _remains_ the deactivation date (meaning, transfers must be completed _before_ May 22) for people who had received their boxes and deactivation dates earlier; May 26 applies to people who more recently received their boxes and the most recent May 26 deactivation date email.

The longish chat:

Rachel (9:48:04 AM):Thank you for contacting TiVo Support Chat, my name is Rachel and I am happy to assist you. Are you a current TiVo customer (or subscriber)? 
Me (9:48:23 AM):What is the current deactivation date for Series 2 and 3 TiVo boxes under TiVo's recent $99 lifetime subscription transfer promotion (purchase a new Bolt and have your lifetime subscription transferred from your Series 2 or 3 TiVo box, for $99)? 
Rachel (9:49:18 AM):The official deactivation date has been moved to Monday, May 22, 2017. 
Me (9:51:42 AM):Thank you. Some colleagues, however, just received emails from TiVo stating a May 26 deactivation date. Has TiVo now extended the May 22 (earlier, May 15) old box deactivation/show transfer deadline to May 26--could you check on this? 
Rachel (9:52:18 AM):One moment please. 
Rachel (9:54:53 AM):When did you order the box? 
Rachel (9:55:17 AM)o you have the Order ID? 
Me (9:56:24 AM):I ordered back in early April, but my order became a backorder and I did not receive my new Bolt until late April. 
Me (9:57:32 AM):I am just wondering if TiVo now has extended the deactivation date for all purchases under the promotion, to a uniform date of May 26. 
Rachel (10:01:18 AM):I'm sorry to say but we don't have any announcement about the deactivation date of May 26. 
Rachel (10:01:56 AM):The official deactivation date that we have is May 22,2017. 
Rachel (10:02:36 AM):Hello? 
Me (10:03:51 AM):Thank you. And does that mean that one has until May 22 to complete show transfers from the old TiVo box, or does one have that day as well to finish that? 
Rachel (10:05:22 AM):You have to finish the transfer of shows before May 22. 
Me (10:05:41 AM):Thank you--that is helpful to know. 
Me (10:06:40 AM):And simply for your information, here is the May 26 deactivation date email that a colleague received from TiVo: 
Me (10:06:45 AM):Thank you for participating in our "Once In A Lifetime" promotion to transfer your Product Lifetime service plan to a new TiVo BOLT™! According to our records, you purchased 2 TiVo BOLT(s) and have 4 TiVo Series2/Series3 DVRs on your account. 
Please let us know which of your Series2 and/or Series3 DVR(s) you would like to deactivate by clicking Next Step. Once we have your selection(s), your TiVo DVR(s) will be scheduled for deactivation on May 26, 2017. 
If you do not inform us which of your Series2 and/or Series 3 DVRs to deactivate in advance of May 26, 2017, we will deactivate the DVR(s) that has been inactive the longest. 
We would appreciate if you could complete this step at your earliest convenience. 
Rachel (10:07:26 AM):It depends on the shipment of the box. When did your colleague order the box? 
Rachel (10:08:47 AM):Have you received the same email? 
Rachel (10:09:08 AM):It depends on the shipment date of the box. 
Rachel (10:09:33 AM):So that I can verify your account, could I get the following information?
Name
Phone Number
Address 
Current Email 
Me (10:09:51 AM):I don't know all the details. One colleague who received the email activated the new Bolt on May 16, I don't know about another colleague who received the email. 
Rachel (10:10:46 AM):If the shipment was April 28, 2017 the deactivation date is May 22. 
Me (10:10:51 AM):It's sounding like, for us "earlier" purchasers, TiVo set the uniform May 22 date. For later purchasers, it depends on when the new Bolt was activated. 
Rachel (10:12:22 AM):It seems that your colleague has different shipment date that is why her/his activation date is May 26. 
Me (10:13:25 AM):Understood. And so I will rely on the May 22 date for myself, and get matters done this weekend. 
Rachel (10:13:38 AM):Yes please. 
Me (10:15:32 AM)By the way, I only received one email as to this all, with the original May 15 deactivation date. I only confirmed the extension of that date to May 22, by hearing of that from others and then coming here to confirm matters with TiVo.) 
Rachel (10:15:36 AM):So that I can verify your account, could I get the following information?
Name
Phone Number
Address 
Current Email 
Rachel (10:16:36 AM):Hello? 
Me (10:17:25 AM):Thank you, I think I'm set, and will finish transferring my shows this weekend. Thank you for your help! 
Rachel (10:17:33 AM):You're welcome. Thank you for contacting TiVo Chat Support. 
Rachel (10:17:42 AM):Have a great day!​


----------



## Mikeguy

And so, has anyone's Series 2 or 3 box now been deactivated? The May 22 deactivation date for the April shipments of boxes has been hit . . . .


----------



## juddev

I just connected and mine is still active


----------



## KyleLC

My Series3 was still active this morning before I left for work.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Maybe it will never happen. Perhaps it's all psychological.


----------



## Mikeguy

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Maybe it will never happen. Perhaps it's all psychological.


That's it--it's all been a TiVo psych-out!


----------



## cmontyburns

I happened to set up my new Bolt on the evening of the 22nd (after it has sat in the box for a week). In the process, I had to log into my account online for something and noticed that the box I had chosen to deactivate wasn't listed. So I assume it is indeed deactivated. I can't test it because it broke a couple of months ago.


----------



## Mikeguy

cmontyburns said:


> I happened to set up my new Bolt on the evening of the 22nd (after it has sat in the box for a week). In the process, I had to log into my account online for something and noticed that the box I had chosen to deactivate wasn't listed. So I assume it is indeed deactivated. I can't test it because it broke a couple of months ago.


If that indeed is the case, the first reported sighting. You win free lifetime!


----------



## aaronwt

I just checked my account and my S3 boxes are still on there. I figured they would have been removed by now. I got my two Bolts from the Lifetime transfer deal six and a half weeks ago.


----------



## Mikeguy

aaronwt said:


> I just checked my account and my S3 boxes are still on there. I figured they would have been removed by now. I got my two Bolts from the Lifetime transfer deal six and a half weeks ago.


My guess is that they weren't doing anyone until at least this past Monday/Tuesday, to handle at one time. Now to get it done . . . .


----------



## tvmaster2

OK folks, after four phone calls over three days and over two hours spent on those calls, be afraid, be very afraid of WHICH of your machines will be deactivated.
Although I selected the Tivo I wanted killed via the online link sent from Tivo (on May 21st), four CSR's in Manila have told me every machine EXCEPT the one I selected on the link will be deactivated!

Partially my fault, and here's why:

April 10th - order Bolt, and casually said "Deactivate my HD I guess"
May 18th - called in to ask if they'd reconsider including the one which was two-weeks outside the eligible window, to which a supervisor said "ok, we'll add it - if you don't decide by the 22nd, this is the one we will deactivate."
A ticket was created with that info.
May 21st - used the Tivo email link and deactivated one of the machines listed. Decision made.
May 22nd to today - every call made to confirm (and one chat) resulted in the wrong machine as the deactivation Tivo. Currently, all Tivo's are active.

Today - another ticket created, apparently sending the info to the 'back-channels' (or something like that), and escalating the issue. The Manila supervisor claimed a machine could be re-activated if they get it 'wrong'.

Fingers crossed. My only recourse is to send the Bolt back, but then everyone loses.

At least I took a photo of the deactivation selection, with a Windows calendar up beside it.


----------



## cmontyburns

When I ordered my Bolt, I told them which box to disable and we verified it with the service number (or whatever that unique ID is called). A few weeks later, while verifying the ship date of the Bolt via chat, I asked what box they had scheduled to shut off and the agent confirmed it with that ID. I saved that chat transcript. At this point I assume they'll do (or per my prior post, have already done) the right thing. If something unexpected happens anyway, I've got that chat transcript to show they'll need to make it right.


----------



## timckelley

Update on my price protection claim. It's been 1 month and 18 days since I filed it, and their website still says "pending". So I called them today, and they said they're having website problems, and actually I've advanced to the next stage. That is, the underwriters have approved the claim, but now it's gone to another department to verify the actual dollar amount of the claim. I asked how long its sits in that stage, and they said 10-15 business days, and then they mail the check. Apparently it entered into that phase 9 calendar days ago, so I figure 10-15 business days equals 2-3 weeks, and it's been 9 days so far, so worst case, I could wait another 12 calendar days. I guess we'll see how that goes.


----------



## DVR_Dave

I submitted 2 price protection claims to Chase on 5/13 using dealsCube $111.04 price. One claim was rejected on 5/21 saying that the advertiser is not an authorized dealer. The other claim was approved on 5/22 and a check is in the mail.

Now I need to contact Chase benefits to get the rejected claim approved or resubmit using an Amazon printout.


----------



## timckelley

My cc is also Chase, but they're taking forever.


----------



## pdhenry

My S2 is still on my account. The activation date on the Bolt was 4/25, so I'm wondering if it will change when the Bolt's 30 day return period expires (I've seen that others have been told that the lifetime can't be moved back to the donor unit, even within the 30 day period).


----------



## Redoctobyr

As far as the deactivation date, is there a way to tell from the System Info pages, for example, when your box will be turned off? If not, what if you unplug its network connection before the "kill signal" is sent? Obviously it wouldn't be getting new guide data, but maybe you'd have some ability to still transfer things off it, if required? You'd need to put it on a network that didn't have internet access, of course, so it couldn't call home. 

I just unplugged my Series 2s, figuring there's probably no harm.


----------



## tvmaster2

cmontyburns said:


> When I ordered my Bolt, I told them which box to disable and we verified it with the service number (or whatever that unique ID is called). A few weeks later, while verifying the ship date of the Bolt via chat, I asked what box they had scheduled to shut off and the agent confirmed it with that ID. I saved that chat transcript. At this point I assume they'll do (or per my prior post, have already done) the right thing. If something unexpected happens anyway, I've got that chat transcript to show they'll need to make it right.


It does seem like the choice made during the initial phone call made, while placing the order, is the Tivo which comes up, even if you used the email link site afterwards.


----------



## aaronwt

At least mine was easy. My letter said that since I had two S3 TiVos on my account and that I purchased two Bolts with the deal, that both S3 boxes would be deactivated. So I never got a link to a page.


----------



## tvmaster2

Can people post when their machines are deactivated. Thanks


----------



## Hank

I never got an email or a letter about the deactivation. My S3 is still activated.


----------



## DevdogAZ

tvmaster2 said:


> Can people post when their machines are deactivated. Thanks


I don't understand the fascination with the deactivation dates. Why does everyone in this thread seem to care so much?


----------



## danm628

DevdogAZ said:


> I don't understand the fascination with the deactivation dates. Why does everyone in this thread seem to care so much?


I can see worrying about the deactivation date if you still have shows you want to transfer off the old TiVo.

My Series 3 still shows as activated at TiVo.com. I pulled all the shows I wanted off of it in the first couple of days. Then left it running for a week. I turned it off last weekend. I'm not planning to turn it back on.

I do miss seeing the OLED with the time and show being recorded on the front. I'm sure I'll adapt quickly to not seeing it though.


----------



## sfhub

DevdogAZ said:


> I don't understand the fascination with the deactivation dates. Why does everyone in this thread seem to care so much?


Perhaps they still have stuff to transfer over and are busy with work?


----------



## timckelley

Another possibility is if there is a large amount of copy protected shows that can't be moved, but only watched. In that case it could take a fair amount of time to watch that backlog.


----------



## HerronScott

timckelley said:


> Another possibility is if there is a large amount of copy protected shows that can't be moved, but only watched. In that case it could take a fair amount of time to watch that backlog.


You can still watch shows even with it deactivated.

Scott


----------



## timckelley

Oops I forgot; then nix that particular reason for wanting to know the deactivation date.


----------



## sfhub

In case anyone was curious, TiVo says they picked a date 15 days after the last Bolt shipped (to account for 5 days shipping) and that is the deactivation date. They say they don't have any ability to make accomodations for folks who received their units late. They don't really care that they are not honoring the terms of the original offer (10 days after Bolt connects)


----------



## leiff

My Amazon $68 discover price protection was approved on this sweet


----------



## pdhenry

Amazon's price for the 1 TB has been steadfastly glued to $299 ever since my card was charged.


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> Amazon's price for the 1 TB has been steadfastly glued to $299 ever since my card was charged.


My impression has been that the 1TB doesn't price-change as much as the 500GB.


----------



## delgadobb

sfhub said:


> In case anyone was curious, TiVo says they picked a date 15 days after the last Bolt shipped (to account for 5 days shipping) and that is the deactivation date. They say they don't have any ability to make accomodations for folks who received their units late. They don't really care that they are not honoring the terms of the original offer (10 days after Bolt connects)


Since I won't be setting up my Bolts until July, I reached out to a contact at corporate to express my concern about the May 15 deactivation date (seemingly a moving target since then.) She said I might need to reactivate my TivoHDs for $15/mo for a couple months & she would compensate me. (Apparently that means Series 3 CAN be reactivated by the right person within the right timeframe.) While I appreciated the gesture, I told her my concern was that Tivo was violating the terms of their own offer & they might have a whole lot of unhappy customers as a result. (Class action? Arbitration?)

Having some apprehension with the 'new' Tivo, I had clarified the terms of the offer with the corporate office & multiple others within Tivo BEFORE ordering my Bolts. I was attempting to be proactive & do my homework, asking explicitly to clarify the retiring device would have 10 days of service AFTER the new box made a physical connection to Tivo's mothership. Every time I was told 'yes'. I guess my radar was working well ... TOO well  (I'd rather be wrong about stuff like that, but it didn't pass the 'stink' test.) Based on what she had been told, she was certain May 15th was communicated at every step of the process including the original offer.

This means Tivo's own corporate office seems unaware that they made this offer explicitly stating that the retiring box would be active until 10 days AFTER the new box first connects to the mothership. When my contact reached out to the promotions department, they were adamant that the original offer & ALL communications explicitly stated the May 15th deactivation date. I don't know about the rest of you, but my e-mailed offers specifically mentioned the 10 days after connection but made NO mention of May 15th or any other hard deactivation date. I've taken screenshots & printed out copies so that nobody at Rivo can claim revisionist history. Heck, even today if I follow the link it doesn't mention May 15th. Only dates mentioned are April 10th order deadline & that previous box needed to be active between 3/28/16 & 3/28/17.

As a result, I'll be reaching out to my corporate contact next week with a copy of this information. Any suggestions about how to most effectively communicate with them are welcome, as long as it can lead to productive discussions & hopefully a good end result for all of us concerned. It will likely be Tuesday when I reach out to them, so if you have suggestions please voice them here prior to Tuesday.


----------



## waynomo

DevdogAZ said:


> I don't understand the fascination with the deactivation dates. Why does everyone in this thread seem to care so much?


I wouldn't necessarily call it a fascination, but there are several reasons we're curious.
1) We've been told so many different things we're not sure what to believe
2) General curiosity about what happens to the TiVo box after it is deactivated
3) What does the system info screen say once it has been deactivated
4) Those of us with multiple boxes want to make sure that the correct ones get deactivated
5) Testing to see what happens to a deactivated box that has connected to TiVo for over 30 days

Those are a few off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other very good reasons for caring.


----------



## waynomo

delgadobb said:


> It will likely be Tuesday when I reach out to them, so if you have suggestions please voice them here prior to Tuesday.


Threaten to go 9/11 on them.


----------



## Trey Dio

delgadobb said:


> It will likely be Tuesday when I reach out to them, so if you have suggestions please voice them here prior to Tuesday.


You might try contacting the executive relations team.

Management Team | TiVo

Contact the Executive Relations Team


----------



## tvmaster2

waynomo said:


> I wouldn't necessarily call it a fascination, but there are several reasons we're curious.
> 1) We've been told so many different things we're not sure what to believe
> 2) General curiosity about what happens to the TiVo box after it is deactivated
> 3) What does the system info screen say once it has been deactivated
> 4) Those of us with multiple boxes want to make sure that the correct ones get deactivated
> 5) Testing to see what happens to a deactivated box that has connected to TiVo for over 30 days
> 
> Those are a few off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other very good reasons for caring.


#4 in my case, as run-ins with Tivo CSR's leave me less than confident they'll get it right, and I want to be able to jump on that quickly...


----------



## Mikeguy

delgadobb said:


> Since I won't be setting up my Bolts until July, I reached out to a contact at corporate to express my concern about the May 15 deactivation date (seemingly a moving target since then.) She said I might need to reactivate my TivoHDs for $15/mo for a couple months & she would compensate me. (Apparently that means Series 3 CAN be reactivated by the right person within the right timeframe.) While I appreciated the gesture, I told her my concern was that Tivo was violating the terms of their own offer & they might have a whole lot of unhappy customers as a result. (Class action? Arbitration?)
> 
> Having some apprehension with the 'new' Tivo, I had clarified the terms of the offer with the corporate office & multiple others within Tivo BEFORE ordering my Bolts. I was attempting to be proactive & do my homework, asking explicitly to clarify the retiring device would have 10 days of service AFTER the new box made a physical connection to Tivo's mothership. Every time I was told 'yes'. I guess my radar was working well ... TOO well  (I'd rather be wrong about stuff like that, but it didn't pass the 'stink' test.) Based on what she had been told, she was certain May 15th was communicated at every step of the process including the original offer.
> 
> This means Tivo's own corporate office seems unaware that they made this offer explicitly stating that the retiring box would be active until 10 days AFTER the new box first connects to the mothership. When my contact reached out to the promotions department, they were adamant that the original offer & ALL communications explicitly stated the May 15th deactivation date. I don't know about the rest of you, but my e-mailed offers specifically mentioned the 10 days after connection but made NO mention of May 15th or any other hard deactivation date. I've taken screenshots & printed out copies so that nobody at Rivo can claim revisionist history. Heck, even today if I follow the link it doesn't mention May 15th. Only dates mentioned are April 10th order deadline & that previous box needed to be active between 3/28/16 & 3/28/17.
> 
> As a result, I'll be reaching out to my corporate contact next week with a copy of this information. Any suggestions about how to most effectively communicate with them are welcome, as long as it can lead to productive discussions & hopefully a good end result for all of us concerned. It will likely be Tuesday when I reach out to them, so if you have suggestions please voice them here prior to Tuesday.


I'm not sure how TiVo could have made it clearer, originally: the promotion email and website terms of the offer _all said, consistently_, "Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service." That's it; period. It doesn't take a rocket science degree to follow this. There was _no_ mention of a May 15 date originally; that only came in _later_, post-promotion period communications from TiVo, seemingly starting with a May 5 email blast from TiVo. Presumably, the TiVo marketing people can read their own promotion emails and website . . . or, is this a case of some of the marketing or other people trying to re-write history, to cover themselves for the confusion that later occurred?

And then, when TiVo confused matters in April by sending out emails to people who had not yet set up their new boxes (and some not yet having received their boxes) but the emails nonetheless stating that the boxes were "connected to the TiVo service," I chatted with TiVo online, on April 17, and once again clarified, consistent with the above:

Me (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎43‎:‎43‎ ‎PM): Hi, there, I am writing for clarification concerning when the old-box-deactivation 10-day period starts, under TiVo's recent Series 2/Series 3-Bolt upgrade promotion.

Specifically, the promotion states that, "Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service."

Recently, however, purchasers under the promotion have been receiving emails from TiVo stating, "Our records show that your TiVo BOLT® is connected to the TiVo service but is still not receiving a TV signal," even though the new Bolt has not yet been received (and actually has arrived later that day).

When I had asked, pre-purchase, when the 10-day deactivation period begins, I was told that it starts when I first hook the new Bolt up. And so, if I was busy, I could delay hooking the new Bolt up for some period of time, until when I had time to do so and then to transfer shows from my old TiVo to the new Bolt during the 10-day window.

Would you please clarify: when does the 10-day deactivation period begin? From when I actually hook the new Bolt up in my home, or from when TiVo sends its email saying that the new Bolt has been connected (even though the purchaser has not yet actually received the new Bolt)? And, is there a limit as to how long one may delay setting the new Bolt up, without losing the 10-day deactivation period window? Days, weeks, even months?

Thank you.
Peter (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎46‎:‎41‎ ‎PM): 10 Days from the time of the first connection to the TiVo Service (During guided setup). As far as I have been made aware, there is not a limit to how long that can be delayed. Keeping in mind that if we get out past the 30 day money back guarantee period there will be no options for returning the device.
Me (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎49‎:‎04‎ ‎PM): Thank you for your information. And just to make sure that I understand, that's when I take the Bolt out and first run Guided Setup, and not starting from what TiVo does on its end to prepare the Bolt and ship it to me, correct?
Peter (‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2017‎ ‎3‎:‎49‎:‎06‎ ‎PM): Correct​What more need be said? This was the universal position of TiVo at the time of the promotion (and beyond), until TiVo later communicated, seemingly starting with a May 5 email blast, a May 15 deactivation date (which still, seemingly, has not occurred, from reports here).

By the way, I can't see that there would be a class action over this snafu--I think that most people will just live it. But I guess I could see TiVo having to deal with one-off individuals such as you, and perhaps even under TiVo's own dispute resolution policy (which should be easy enough to do, assuming that TiVo exercises intelligence and candor in the process).

How could TiVo make something so simple and beneficial, so complicated and confusing?


----------



## DVR_Dave

waynomo said:


> I wouldn't necessarily call it a fascination, but there are several reasons we're curious.
> 1) We've been told so many different things we're not sure what to believe
> 2) General curiosity about what happens to the TiVo box after it is deactivated
> 3) What does the system info screen say once it has been deactivated
> 4) Those of us with multiple boxes want to make sure that the correct ones get deactivated
> 5) Testing to see what happens to a deactivated box that has connected to TiVo for over 30 days
> 
> Those are a few off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other very good reasons for caring.


#4 for me since I don't want the two S3 HDs that my parents are using to be unexpectedly deactivated while I'm out of the country.


----------



## pdhenry

Mikeguy said:


> I'm not sure how TiVo could have made it clearer, originally: the promotion email and website terms of the offer _all said, consistently_, "Your current TiVo DVR will be deactivated 10 days after you connect the new TiVo BOLT to the TiVo service." That's it; period.


I think it would have been fine, if not for people having plans to keep their donor unit in place indefinitely before eventually setting up their new Bolt. TiVo's motivation for the offer was probably mostly to take the old units out of service but the terms of the shutdown didn't accomplish that if people still felt free to keep the Bolt in the box.


----------



## cmontyburns

cmontyburns said:


> I happened to set up my new Bolt on the evening of the 22nd (after it has sat in the box for a week). In the process, I had to log into my account online for something and noticed that the box I had chosen to deactivate wasn't listed. So I assume it is indeed deactivated. I can't test it because it broke a couple of months ago.





Mikeguy said:


> If that indeed is the case, the first reported sighting. You win free lifetime!


No prize for me. I just logged into my account again and in fact the old box is still listed there. I feel certain it wasn't the last time, when I made my post above, but it's less realistic that it was gone and came back than that I simply missed it in the list before.


----------



## sfhub

Take everything with a grain of salt. TiVo has given many different conflicting respones, so this could just be another.

Here are the terms of the email offer in case anybody disputes what they communicated.










FWIW when I spoke to a TiVo supervisor he gave the excuse that if they expired your unit 10 days after connect of Bolt, that would have required someone at TiVo to actively monitor your account and they didn't have the manpower so Corporate just decided to pick a date 15 days after last ship. I mentioned if they never intended to honor the 10-day connect terms, why did they print that in the offer. His reply was they intended to but due to the flood of offers they couldn't, again due to manpower constraints. I countered that it really isn't that difficult to implement a trigger for a defined set of TSNs. They already have a trigger when you first connect a unit, just need to filter some actions based on TSN that signed up for promotion (which they clearly have, because they are sending us emails to pick the unit to deactivate) He pretty much avoided my question saying no company can do that, it would require too much work.

I asked that they extend my unit expiration by 2 weeks. He said they have been instructed by corporate not to make any "concessions". I mentioned this isn't a "concession", they are violating the terms of THEIR purchase contract and I am asking them to make it right. He said from my point of view it might not be, but from theirs, it was a concession.

Also mentioned on the call was front line customer service has no access (no tool/UI) to which unit will be deactivated. It is all being handled on the back-end. The data is of course there, but short of a customer service rep getting a special account and writing direct database queries, they can't really tell you which unit is scheduled to deactivate. They can however handle the wrong unit being disabled as there is an existing mechanism to handle that (same as if rep cancelled the wrong unit) but this is something you would need to call and complain about.

I don't mind so much they picked a date that will probably satisfy 95% of people who signed up for the offer, but I really dislike this attitude that, even though they are violating *their* terms, I should be lucky to have gotten a TiVo under these terms and making no effort to make this right, even though *they* are creating the problem.

Coupled with the revisionist history mentioned in a previous post (claims of a consistently clearly communicated May 15 deactivation date), this just leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I actually didn't even need this TiVo Bolt and got it for a friend as a gift. I hope they never have to deal with TiVo.

A well run company could think outside the box and figure that for most people just picking a date will be fine, but for the ones where it isn't fine, we'll have a procedure for them. Run a query to see how many units haven't connected yet and might need this procedure. I suspect it would be far less folks than even their original estimates on how many would sign up for this offer, so they are still getting out ahead even if they have to do something manually, which is the implication the supervisor gave me. The only way they really wouldn't be ahead, is if they never intended to honor the terms of the original offer.

Alternatively, if they made the deactivation date 45 days from last ship, that would probably take care of 99% of the people, further reducing the number of people they needed to make things right with.

As a history lesson, the way they handled this over 10 years ago with the S3 OLED lifetime transfer offer was to give you a 1yr subscription on the old unit. Someone had the intelligence to realize it was less effort to piggyback on an existing expiration mechanism and let the TiVo customer give the unit to another user to expand TiVo's customer base. There, a solution where no TiVo manpower is required and no confusion for the customer either. Alas, folks with intelligence have been replaced by folks who revise history.


----------



## Hank

I tend to lean towards the "well, crap happens" attitude and just move on with my life. But this time I agree with you. It's total BS they couldn't spend an hour to implement a software trigger to watch for when these bolts are activated, and then deactivate the older unit(s). That's just a lazy excuse for them not wanting to do the right thing. I'd keep pressing them and escalating it until you get what you want.


----------



## Mikeguy

cmontyburns said:


> No prize for me. I just logged into my account again and in fact the old box is still listed there. I feel certain it wasn't the last time, when I made my post above, but it's less realistic that it was gone and came back than that I simply missed it in the list before.


Perhaps, despite what I had been told by TiVo customer service, the cut-off date now is May 26, the date stated in the seemingly latest e-mail sent out by TiVo (to _some_ people) on this topic.


----------



## sfhub

Mikeguy said:


> Perhaps, despite what I had been told by TiVo customer service, the cut-off date now is May 26, the date stated in the seemingly latest e-mail sent out by TiVo (to _some_ people) on this topic.


To add further confusion, this is the response you get when selecting a unit for deactivation:








So what is the deal here, if you don't schedule, they'll automatically deactivate the least recently connected unit on May 26 but if you schedule, it will be 6-8 days from when you schedule, or is the May 26 date a "soft date" to entice you to pick a unit early but for everyone it'll be 6-8 days from May 26, or something else entirely?

Can TiVo be any more confusing?


----------



## Mikeguy

sfhub said:


> FWIW when I spoke to a TiVo supervisor he gave the excuse that if they expired your unit 10 days after connect of Bolt, that would have required someone at TiVo to actively monitor your account and they didn't have the manpower *so Corporate just decided to pick a date 15 days after last ship*. I mentioned if they never intended to honor the 10-day connect terms, why did they print that in the offer. His reply was they intended to but due to the flood of offers they couldn't, again due to manpower constraints. I countered that it really isn't that difficult to implement a trigger for a defined set of TSNs. They already have a trigger when you first connect a unit, just need to filter some actions based on TSN that signed up for promotion (which they clearly have, because they are sending us emails to pick the unit to deactivate) He pretty much avoided my question saying no company can do that, it would require too much work.
> 
> I asked that they extend my unit expiration by 2 weeks. He said they have been instructed by corporate not to make any "concessions". I mentioned this isn't a "concession", they are violating the terms of THEIR purchase contract and I am asking them to make it right. He said from my point of view it might not be, but from theirs, it was a concession.
> 
> Also mentioned on the call was front line customer service has no access (no tool/UI) to which unit will be deactivated. It is all being handled on the back-end. The data is of course there, but short of a customer service rep getting a special account and writing direct database queries, they can't really tell you which unit is scheduled to deactivate. They can however handle the wrong unit being disabled as there is an existing mechanism to handle that (same as if rep cancelled the wrong unit) but this is something you would need to call and complain about.
> 
> I don't mind so much they picked a date that will probably satisfy 95% of people who signed up for the offer, but I really dislike this attitude that, even though they are violating *their* terms, I should be lucky to have gotten a TiVo under these terms and making no effort to make this right, even though *they* are creating the problem.
> 
> Coupled with the revisionist history mentioned in a previous post (claims of a consistently clearly communicated May 15 deactivation date), this just leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I actually didn't even need this TiVo Bolt and got it for a friend as a gift. I hope they never have to deal with TiVo.
> 
> A well run company could think outside the box and figure that for most people just picking a date will be fine, but for the ones where it isn't fine, we'll have a procedure for them. Run a query to see how many units haven't connected yet and might need this procedure. I suspect it would be far less folks than even their original estimates on how many would sign up for this offer, so they are still getting out ahead even if they have to do something manually, which is the implication the supervisor gave me. The only way they really wouldn't be ahead, is if they never intended to honor the terms of the original offer.
> 
> Alternatively, if they made the deactivation date 45 days from last ship, that would probably take care of 99% of the people, further reducing the number of people they needed to make things right with.
> 
> As a history lesson, the way they handled this over 10 years ago with the S3 OLED lifetime transfer offer was to give you a 1yr subscription on the old unit. Someone had the intelligence to realize it was less effort to piggyback on an existing expiration mechanism and let the TiVo customer give the unit to another user to expand TiVo's customer base. There, a solution where no TiVo manpower is required and no confusion for the customer either. Alas, folks with intelligence have been replaced by folks who revise history.


And so, the (current, universal) deactivation date is . . . ? (I don't work in TiVo shipping, and so don't have my manifest showing when TiVo's final shipment under this promotion was . . . .)

And sorry to tell TiVo corporate this but, it's stuck with its original terms under the promotion, if a purchaser wants them. If customer service won't adapt to that, then I guess effected customers simply can file disputes with TiVo under its own dispute resolution policy (easy enough to do: TiVo Corp. Legal Center) and force TiVo correctly to step up to the plate that way (which has worked in the past, in other situations).


----------



## Mikeguy

sfhub said:


> To add further confusion, this is the response you get when selecting a unit for deactivation:
> View attachment 29143
> 
> So what is the deal hear, if you don't schedule, they'll automatically deactivate the least recently connected unit on May 26 but if you schedule, it will be 6-8 days from when you schedule, or is the May 26 date a "soft date" to entice you to pick a unit early but for everyone it'll be 6-8 days from May 26, or something else entirely?
> 
> Can TiVo be any more confusing?


And that's part of the issue, isn't it. There simply has been no clear, consistent and intelligent communication on this (totally apart from TiVo changing the rules mid-stream)--and to some purchasers, it does make a difference. Not good for a company's goodwill, TiVo guys in marketing . . . .


----------



## krkaufman

sfhub said:


> A well run company could ...


Frustration is born from unrealistic expectations.


----------



## pdhenry

Status update: My Bolt has passed its 30-day return period and my S2 is still on my account.


----------



## tvmaster2

Mikeguy said:


> And that's part of the issue, isn't it. There simply has been no clear, consistent and intelligent communication on this (totally apart from TiVo changing the rules mid-stream)--and to some purchasers, it does make a difference. Not good for a company's goodwill, TiVo guys in marketing . . . .


Not to mention that nearly EVERY phone call made to Tivo now goes offshore, which isn't necessarily awful, but it does seem far more difficult to get clear answers that match from one phone call to the next. And even if you ask to be elevated to either tech support or loyalty, I haven't been able to get an onshore rep on the phone in over a month. Who will make Tivo great again... lol


----------



## Mikeguy

pdhenry said:


> Status update: My Bolt has passed its 30-day return period and my S2 is still on my account.


I'm wondering, if today will be the day (the latest deactivation date I have read of here, from TiVo emails, has been May 26), and if everyone will awake to deactivated boxes tomorrow.


----------



## DevdogAZ

I just plugged in my S2 yesterday and transferred the few things I wanted to save overnight. It was still active on the network this morning before I left for work.


----------



## Mikeguy

DevdogAZ said:


> I just plugged in my S2 yesterday and transferred the few things I wanted to save overnight. It was still active on the network this morning before I left for work.


Cuttin' it close there, Devdog . . . .


----------



## DevdogAZ

Mikeguy said:


> Cuttin' it close there, Devdog . . . .


Eh. There was only one thing I really cared about and it wouldn't have been the end of the world if I lost access.


----------



## Mikeguy

DevdogAZ said:


> Eh. There was only one thing I really cared about and it wouldn't have been the end of the world if I lost access.


I've been finding myself saying that more often than not nowadays, when a problematic Roamio screws up a recording.


----------



## Worf

pdhenry said:


> I think it would have been fine, if not for people having plans to keep their donor unit in place indefinitely before eventually setting up their new Bolt. TiVo's motivation for the offer was probably mostly to take the old units out of service but the terms of the shutdown didn't accomplish that if people still felt free to keep the Bolt in the box.


Well, people are busy. I don't have time to set up the Bolt and transfer the recordings right now when the offer was made, so I was planning on doing it much later. It's not like people could schedule their lives around it - all of a sudden TiVo sends up an email saying we could move our lifetime subs to a new TiVo for $99, and we take advantage of it because it's been a LONG while since it last happened.

But people do have plans and spending half a day (or more) to set up their shiny new Bolt and then proceeding to move the recordings off their old unit to the new one (or longer - TiVo Online doesn't allow Series 3 units to easily transfer video) simply may not be on it. So the Bolt will sit in the box until we're good and ready to set it up. (And there may be other reasons too - like it's season finale season. Do you really want to set up something new around the time when everyone wants to catch season finales? What happens if you mess up and it's not recorded?).

And we're pretty much forced to accept it because who knows when TiVo will open the floodgates again? Maybe they'll open it again in a few months? A few years? Never? Better to take the offer now than lose out


----------



## pdhenry

Took me an hour. Maybe two. Most of that hands-off (connecting, downloading, updating...).


----------



## danm628

pdhenry said:


> Took me an hour. Maybe two. Most of that hands-off (connecting, downloading, updating...).


It took me a little over two hours. Including installing a 3TB drive and calling Comcast to move the cable card from my S3.

That night I started the transfers I wanted. That took under 30 minutes to get them queued. They finished transferring overnight.

Since I have a Roamio I went online to move a few season passes. I've created a few more since then.


----------



## Redoctobyr

It's not always that quick, though  The actual setup of my Bolt was quick, maybe a half hour. Setting up the CableCARD took a few calls to Comcast, then it was working. 

But copying all the stuff off my old S2s took over a week for each one. They're very slow, and they both have upgraded storage.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Redoctobyr said:


> It's not always that quick, though  The actual setup of my Bolt was quick, maybe a half hour. Setting up the CableCARD took a few calls to Comcast, then it was working.
> 
> But copying all the stuff off my old S2s took over a week for each one. They're very slow, and they both have upgraded storage.


But that's not time you're sitting in front of the screen giving commands to the TiVo. That's just a few minutes to stick stuff in the queue and then go away for many hours while they transfer. The point is that it doesn't take "half a day" to set up a new Bolt. It can be done in less than an hour.


----------



## waynomo

I'm surprised more people aren't running their old TiVos in parallel for a bit. For $5 per month that seems to be an easy safe option. I'd do it even if it was $20 per month. I only plan to do it till I get everything set up, working; and all videos, transferred, watched or deleted. I'm doing it at my pace. Easy peasy.


----------



## sfhub

DevdogAZ said:


> But that's not time you're sitting in front of the screen giving commands to the TiVo. That's just a few minutes to stick stuff in the queue and then go away for many hours while they transfer. The point is that it doesn't take "half a day" to set up a new Bolt. It can be done in less than an hour.


I transferred around 1300 shows from an S3 OLED. It really does take a while because just adding to the queue takes time (probably 15 seconds per show) and you don't want to add more than 50 at a time, in case something gets stuck or missed. If I were super efficient and added all the shows in one sitting it would take around 4.5hrs just using the UI to set the queue up, and that is using a slingbox where I can use the computer keyboard for the arrow buttons. At a more realistic pace (queueing 50 shows, letting most finish, then queueing 50 more) it could easily take many days.

Transferring from a Roamio to a Bolt is far different as you can multi-select using the TiVo web ui and just go away while it does its thing.


----------



## sfhub

waynomo said:


> I'm surprised more people aren't running their old TiVos in parallel for a bit. For $5 per month that seems to be an easy safe option. I'd do it even if it was $20 per month. I only plan to do it till I get everything set up, working; and all videos, transferred, watched or deleted. I'm doing it at my pace. Easy peasy.


I don't think they let you activate an S3 unless you get special dispensation.


----------



## waynomo

sfhub said:


> I don't think they let you activate an S3 unless you get special dispensation.


If this is serious, you missed my point.

However, we are also talking 2 different things.

There are easy ways to do things and hard ways to do things. I was suggesting an easy route that more people should probably consider.

Removing or installing a cable card has nothing to do with TiVo activation. That is handled by the MSO. Two weeks ago I installed new CableCards in my TiVoHDs because I setup a new account. No problem.


----------



## sfhub

waynomo said:


> If this is serious, you missed my point.


You talked about running your old TiVo in parallel so you could


waynomo said:


> I only plan to do it till I get everything set up, working; and *all videos, transferred, watched or deleted.* I'm doing it at my pace. Easy peasy.


Explain how this works. Maybe I am a little dense. You transfer lifetime to your new Bolt. Lifetime expires on your old unit before you've had a chance to transfer everything. It is currently a boat anchor for TiVo functionality (including transferring shows). You can of course watch your shows on a TV connected to your old unit, but you can't transfer shows and retire the unit entirely. Presumably if you are suggesting paying a monthly charge to keep the old unit working in parallel, you mean to have transfer/MRV functionality.

Now how do you reconcile your now deactivated S3 and the policy they have of not activating S3s (without getting a special case for yourself through TiVo support, ie my suggestion of getting special dispensation from TiVo to support your suggested route)?
Series 3 and HD No Longer Activated by TiVo

Setting up the new Bolt, getting the CableCARDs re-paired, and migrating one passes can be done relatively simply from S3 to Bolt. Migrating large number of shows is the only real sticking point. They killed the website functionality to easily migrate the shows (or broke it and never fixed it) If you are willing to keep the old unit around and running, changing TV input to the old unit whenever you want to watch a few older shows, that could work. Many people want to migrate all their shows to the new box and just keep that running.


----------



## HerronScott

waynomo said:


> If this is serious, you missed my point.
> 
> However, we are also talking 2 different things.


I read what you said the same as sfhub BTW since the recent part of this thread has been discussing the deactivation of the old TiVo's.

Scott


----------



## waynomo

sfhub said:


> You talked about running your old TiVo in parallel so you could
> 
> Explain how this works. Maybe I am a little dense. You transfer lifetime to your new Bolt. Lifetime expires on your old unit before you've had a chance to transfer everything. It is currently a boat anchor for TiVo functionality (including transferring shows). You can of course watch your shows on a TV connected to your old unit, but you can't transfer shows and retire the unit entirely. Presumably if you are suggesting paying a monthly charge to keep the old unit working in parallel, you mean to have transfer/MRV functionality.
> 
> Now how do you reconcile your now deactivated S3 and the policy they have of not activating S3s (without getting a special case for yourself through TiVo support, ie my suggestion of getting special dispensation from TiVo to support your suggested route)?
> Series 3 and HD No Longer Activated by TiVo
> 
> Setting up the new Bolt, getting the CableCARDs re-paired, and migrating one passes can be done relatively simply from S3 to Bolt. Migrating large number of shows is the only real sticking point. They killed the website functionality to easily migrate the shows (or broke it and never fixed it) If you are willing to keep the old unit around and running, changing TV input to the old unit whenever you want to watch a few older shows, that could work. Many people want to migrate all their shows to the new box and just keep that running.


People have had weeks to transfer, etc. Some almost 2 months. I've had almost 4 weeks to get everything off my TiVoHDs. It only took a few days with kmttg.

However, you're right. I was thinking about my Roamio Pro which I'm replacing with a Bolt+ which I purchased under the upgrade program. The TiVoHDs with upgraded drives haven't been a primary source of recording/watching for a while.

I plan to sell the Roamio in a couple of weeks after I'm done transferring, deleting, or watching.


----------



## sfhub

waynomo said:


> People have had weeks to transfer, etc. Some almost 2 months. I've had almost 4 weeks to get everything off my TiVoHDs. It only took a few days with kmttg.


I received mine on May 19. Not everyone got the initial shipments. Many of us got delayed for roughly a month.

Yes there are options to more rapidly get your shows off an S3 or HD. Was just commenting on your suggestion of keeping your old unit running in parallel for some time on a monthly activation as it related to S3/HD.

If your comment was use kmttg to move stuff more rapidly, I wouldn't have replied with the response I gave.


----------



## waynomo

sfhub said:


> I received mine on May 19. Not everyone got the initial shipments. Many of us got delayed for roughly a month.
> 
> Yes there are options to more rapidly get your shows off an S3 or HD. Was just commenting on how your suggestion of keeping your old unit running in parallel for a some time on a monthly activation as related to S3/HD.


Yeah, not strictly appropriate. In my mind it's all part of 1 transaction. In reality it's not. I have an opportunity that most don't. Or at least not to the extent I do.


----------



## sfhub

waynomo said:


> Yeah, not strictly appropriate. In my mind it's all part of 1 transaction. In reality it's not. I have an opportunity that most don't. Or at least not to the extent I do.


You are right though, if TiVo gave everyone 60 days from ship (or 60 days from last unit shipping), I think most people would be satisfied. There are of course some people who planned on keeping things going indefinitely but most just want some adequate amount of time to migrate at their own pace vis-a-vis their work schedules, season finale schedules, family schedules, etc.


----------



## Worf

My un-upgraded S3 is even slower. Using the Bolt UI, it's about 30 seconds after selecting the show (the first "please wait"). Then you select "transfer" and it's another 30 seconds of "please wait' while it does something. Repeat for the 120-odd shows on my S3, and you're looking at least the most boring 2 hours in the world. If I had the two hours to spare.

If this was a regular event, say every April TiVo goes and gives old TiVos a chance to upgrade, then there is no excuse - we can plan around it to migrate TiVos much easier knowing we're going to upgrade.

Of course, for obvious reasons, they won't do this.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Has anyone's TiVo S2 or S3 been deactivated yet?


----------



## Hank

BTW, someone mentioned this above.. I don't think Tivo will remove your device from the Tivo.com device listings, it will only still list the device, but just under "Inactive Devices". That is, when they are disabled.


----------



## Redoctobyr

Interestingly, my S2s are still shown under Active Devices, rather than Inactive. This is 2 days after the May 26th date mentioned in the email they sent.


----------



## sfhub

Hank said:


> BTW, someone mentioned this above.. I don't think Tivo will remove your device from the Tivo.com device listings, it will only still list the device, but just under "Inactive Devices". That is, when they are disabled.


That is how they did it in the past. I still have units from the S3 OLED lifetime transfer listed (over 10yrs ago, I don't remember exactly when) as inactive. However in that case, they gave me a year of service on the old units. Not sure if that will end up making a difference.


----------



## tvmaster2

Essentially, as long as you can transfer between Tivo's on your cat5 network, they're all still active, correct?


----------



## Redoctobyr

That's my understanding, yes. Inactive units apparently can not do functions involving a network (transferring, using apps, etc).


----------



## sfhub

tvmaster2 said:


> Essentially, as long as you can transfer between Tivo's on your cat5 network, they're all still active, correct?


The easiest way to tell is press the guide button. If nothing comes up (I think you might get an error message, but I forget) your unit is no longer active. You can confirm under account and system info.


----------



## bobfrank

Sorry, I'm late to the party, but my Roamio has just recently started acting flaky. I do have an old lifetime Series 3. Any chance this promotion is still available?


----------



## sfhub

bobfrank said:


> Sorry, I'm late to the party, but my Roamio has just recently started acting flaky. I do have an old lifetime Series 3. Any chance this promotion is still available?


No reports of success, but you can always call and try to see what they can offer.


----------



## bobfrank

sfhub said:


> No reports of success, but you can always call and try to see what they can offer.


I was afraid that was going to be the answer.


----------



## Wil

Quick reaction: which lifetime would you give up?:

1. A modded s3
2. A non-modded HD

Pros/Cons:
The s3 even modded will almost certainly never record mpeg4 channels (though it otherwise handles mpeg4 just fine), so who cares about losing the lifetime? And even if the s3 ever _does_ get mpeg4 channel-recording capability, from a software hack or officially, the owner can always use the existing modded s3 (lifetime given up) with a transplanted chip from another lifetimed s3 from somebody's junk pile.

The HD can always mod later, whereas once the lifetime on it is given up, it's gone and there's no chip transplant like with the s3. EDITED TO ADD: OTOH I for one am ham-handed so it would be painful to throw away the hard mod work on the s3. On the third hand doing any subsequent mod on the HD is going to be demanding. The s3 lifetime chip transplant of course would also be somewhat problematical. I can't make a decision so I'm looking for some snap opinions.

The more I think on it (and I have some friends waiting on me for a decision) you can't give up the lifetimed HD; that's known usefulness in hand. So I'm most interested in hearing any devil's advocate reasons to save the modded s3s instead.


----------



## tvmaster2

Wil said:


> Quick reaction: which lifetime would you give up?:
> 
> 1. A modded s3
> 2. A non-modded HD
> 
> Pros/Cons:
> The s3 even modded will almost certainly never record mpeg4 channels (though it otherwise handles mpeg4 just fine), so who cares about losing the lifetime? And even if the s3 ever _does_ get mpeg4 channel-recording capability, from a software hack or officially, the owner can always use the existing modded s3 (lifetime given up) with a transplanted chip from another lifetimed s3 from somebody's junk pile.
> 
> The HD I could always mod later, whereas once I give up the lifetime on it, it's gone and there's no chip transplant like with the s3. EDITED TO ADD: OTOH I'm ham-handed so doing the mod is far from trivial, so #2: it's painful to give up the hard mod work on the s3 and #1: doing any subsequent mod on the HD is going to be demanding. The s3 lifetime chip transplant of course would also be somewhat problematical. I can't make a decision so I'm looking for some snap opinions.
> 
> The more I think on it (and I have some friends waiting on me for a decision) you can't give up the lifetimed HD; that's known usefulness in hand. So I'm most interested in hearing any devil's advocate reasons to save the modded s3s instead.


Which one could you sell for more on eBay? Thats the one to keep.


----------



## Wil

tvmaster2 said:


> Which one could you sell for more on eBay? Thats the one to keep.


Thanks. I'm not a seller.

I, and my small group of Luddites, are Tivo users.


----------



## tvmaster2

Wil said:


> Thanks. I'm not a seller.
> 
> I, and my small group of Luddites, are Tivo users.


no, you missed my point: the one that's worth more is the one to keep. So, the one which is worth less, is the one to give up. I assumed you had to sacrifice one to the Bolt promo. You never know what will happen on a year, so you may as well have the one with the most $$ value. We're all Tivo users here I think


----------



## lew

Wil said:


> Quick reaction: which lifetime would you give up?:
> 
> 1. A modded s3
> 2. A non-modded HD
> 
> d.


You're not giving us enough info. Is your cable system moving a lot if stations to mp4? Comcast for example. Does your cable system set the copy flag for stations you watch? What are you paying to rent 2 cable cards for S3 vs 1 card for Tivo HD?


----------



## KyleLC

Worf said:


> My un-upgraded S3 is even slower. Using the Bolt UI, it's about 30 seconds after selecting the show (the first "please wait"). Then you select "transfer" and it's another 30 seconds of "please wait' while it does something. Repeat for the 120-odd shows on my S3, and you're looking at least the most boring 2 hours in the world. If I had the two hours to spare.


After doing this for 3 or 4 shows, I decided to use TiVo Desktop to copy my shows to my PC instead. It's not nearly as tedious.


----------



## Redoctobyr

But the process of copying them to the Bolt is the same, no? Or do you mean that the PC is a lot more-responsive, making it quicker and less annoying?


----------



## KyleLC

Redoctobyr said:


> But the process of copying them to the Bolt is the same, no? Or do you mean that the PC is a lot more-responsive, making it quicker and less annoying?


Both. And the TiVo Desktop interface is much easier to deal with. After it gets the list of shows from the S3, you can simply check the box by each show you want to transfer and then click the "transfer" button. Once you get the shows on your PC, you no longer have to worry about when your S3 will be deactivated because you can transfer them to your Bolt at any time. My PC is much more responsive to the Bolt and the transfers from it to the Bolt are much faster too.


----------



## DevdogAZ

As of last night, my S2 was still online and trying to make recordings, even though it hasn't had a signal connected to it for months.


----------



## aaronwt

I hope they deactivate my S3 boxes soon. They are power hogs compared to the Bolts. But I am waiting to disconnect until they have been deactivated. Then I will just chuck them in the trash at work since we can dump anything there and they separate things out later.


----------



## sfhub

aaronwt said:


> I hope they deactivate my S3 boxes soon. They are power hogs compared to the Bolts. But I am waiting to disconnect until they have been deactivated. Then I will just chuck them in the trash at work since we can dump anything there and they separate things out later.


Why leave it connected and pay everyday waiting for deactivation? Just unplug it and if you really want, plug it back in when other people mention their units were deactivated.


----------



## scandia101

My S2 got tossed within days of activating the new Bolt.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

I already trashed my HD, but should have kept it just in case. I unplugged my two S2s, boxed them, and put them in the closet. I will spark them up once a month until next June. If they're not deactivated by then, I'll sell them cheaply on eBay. If TiVo actually does kill them, as it keeps promising to do, they'll join the HD or I'll cannibalize them for anyone needing their parts.


----------



## shwru980r

bobfrank said:


> Sorry, I'm late to the party, but my Roamio has just recently started acting flaky. I do have an old lifetime Series 3. Any chance this promotion is still available?


Try a new hard drive in the Roamio.


----------



## aaronwt

sfhub said:


> Why leave it connected and pay everyday waiting for deactivation? Just unplug it and if you really want, plug it back in when other people mention their units were deactivated.


I should do that but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it.

I even put a ten year old, unused, 1TB drive in one of the S3 boxes to get it working for the deal. But then I found out it was the power supply that had corrupted the old 1TB drive. I should have sold that drive ages ago since it cost over $250 ten years ago.


----------



## bobfrank

shwru980r said:


> Try a new hard drive in the Roamio.


Thanks for the suggestion, but I've been able to rule out the hard drive as the source of the problem.


----------



## DVR_Dave

Has anybody chatted or received an email with a new deactivation date (last known one was 5/26)?

At this point I still do not know which two of my four S2/S3 will be deactivated, let alone if/when they will be deactivated.

FYI - Ordered two Bolts on April 10, shipped May 9, rec'd May 12. Still in sealed boxes.


----------



## sfhub

DVR_Dave said:


> Has anybody chatted or received an email with a new deactivation date (last known one was 5/26)?
> 
> At this point I still do not know which two of my four S2/S3 will be deactivated, let alone if/when they will be deactivated.
> 
> FYI - Ordered two Bolts on April 10, shipped May 9, rec'd May 12. Still in sealed boxes.


Take this with a grain of salt as there is always a chance TiVo provided incorrect information.

According to TiVo supervisor in US, the deactivation is all being handled at the back-end and front-end customer service doesn't have any interface to see what TSN is scheduled to be deactivated. It is possible back-end would add notes to indicate which unit, but when I checked there were none. I was assured they could fix mistakes after the fact if you notify them.

If they can send an email asking you which units to deactivate, surely they could put up a web page to confirm which units you want deactivated, but that might be too much work for TiVo.


----------



## HerronScott

DVR_Dave said:


> Has anybody chatted or received an email with a new deactivation date (last known one was 5/26)?
> 
> At this point I still do not know which two of my four S2/S3 will be deactivated, let alone if/when they will be deactivated.
> 
> FYI - Ordered two Bolts on April 10, shipped May 9, rec'd May 12. Still in sealed boxes


My Bolt was shipped and arrived at the same time as yours. I had selected which TiVo to deactivate by calling in after I placed the order online, but I also went to the deactivation website to be sure. Our HD is still active as of today.

Scott


----------



## DVR_Dave

HerronScott said:


> My Bolt was shipped and arrived at the same time as yours. I had selected which TiVo to deactivate by calling in after I placed the order online, but I also went to the deactivation website to be sure. Our HD is still active as of today.
> 
> Scott


I chatted earlier today and the rep added a note to my account indicating the TSNs for the two S2s that I want deactivated.

I asked when they plan to deactivate boxes and he said: "For the date of deactivation we don't have a time frame yet. Mostly, the box will be deactivated after 10 days upon activation of the new box."


----------



## atotten

Any rumours about if this offer will happen again any time soon? I never got the email that had this offer and am dying to off load my series 2 lifetime and get a new bolt


----------



## pdhenry

If people are still waiting to do a price protection claim for a 1 TB Bolt, Amazon's price just dropped to $269.98 from $299 where its been since my Bolt shipped.


----------



## Dan203

atotten said:


> Any rumours about if this offer will happen again any time soon? I never got the email that had this offer and am dying to off load my series 2 lifetime and get a new bolt


The guy who made it happen, Ira Bahr, no longer works at TiVo so I'm guessing it's never going to happen again.


----------



## atmuscarella

Dan203 said:


> The guy who made it happen, Ira Bahr, no longer works at TiVo so I'm guessing it's never going to happen again.


When did this happen? He seemed to be someone interested in us (stand alone TiVo users).


----------



## Dan203

Not 100% sure. I heard it second hand. It was recent though.


----------



## edwinyuen

Has anyone had their TiVos "turned off" from the offer? I got my Bolt over a month ago and I still don't have deactivations.


----------



## Dan203

No. I got mine the first day this offer started and the S2 I transfered from is still fully functional.


----------



## krkaufman

Dan203 said:


> The guy who made it happen, Ira Bahr, no longer works at TiVo so I'm guessing it's never going to happen again.


Per a Twitter DM reply, Ira's still with TiVo. I didn't ask him about any near-term sales possibilities, just his status.


----------



## Dan203

krkaufman said:


> Per a Twitter DM reply, Ira's still with TiVo. I didn't ask him about any near-term sales possibilities, just his status.


Hmmm... Maybe what I heard was wrong. Or maybe he's leaving but hasn't actually left yet.


----------



## HerronScott

Dan203 said:


> The guy who made it happen, Ira Bahr, no longer works at TiVo so I'm guessing it's never going to happen again.





krkaufman said:


> Per a Twitter DM reply, Ira's still with TiVo. I didn't ask him about any near-term sales possibilities, just his status.


 I was wondering about this since Ira just responded here back on May 15th!

Scott


----------



## shwru980r

If they delay in deactivating the lifetime service on the original Tivo, I could see some of these being sold and then deactivated after the return period ends.


----------



## timckelley

I'd think when the new owners call to transfer the lifetime service to their own name, they'll be told that there is no lifetime. But your point is well taken, because it's possible that the buyer will be satisfied by a view of the system status screen where it says "product lifetime service". I assume that for these units that haven't yet been deactivated, that screen still says "product lifetime service", right?


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

timckelley said:


> I'd think when the new owners call to transfer the lifetime service to their own name, they'll be told that there is no lifetime. But your point is well taken, because it's possible that the buyer will be satisfied by a view of the system status screen where it says "product lifetime service". I assume that for these units that haven't yet been deactivated, that screen still says "product lifetime service", right?


I purchased a broken S2 Lifetime unit (used by its previous owner for the Once in a Lifetime Upgrade) for parts. I got the unit working and figuring I'd use it for a little while, transferred it to my account. TiVo said nothing to me at all about it being deactivated when I did the transfer. Had the seller not informed me of its future deactivation, I would be completely ignorant of it. This could become a big problem in the future for those dealing with unscrupulous sellers.


----------



## Hank

Maybe that's a loophole. Quickly transfer out the qualifying box to another account, and when they go to your account to find a box to deactivate, it's not there!

Kind of like moving bitcoin around.


----------



## timckelley

timckelley said:


> Update on my price protection claim. It's been 1 month and 18 days since I filed it, and their website still says "pending". So I called them today, and they said they're having website problems, and actually I've advanced to the next stage. That is, the underwriters have approved the claim, but now it's gone to another department to verify the actual dollar amount of the claim. I asked how long its sits in that stage, and they said 10-15 business days, and then they mail the check. Apparently it entered into that phase 9 calendar days ago, so I figure 10-15 business days equals 2-3 weeks, and it's been 9 days so far, so worst case, I could wait another 12 calendar days. I guess we'll see how that goes.


Welp, it's now been more than TWO MONTHS since I filed this claim, and it's also been more than the 10-15 business days they told me last time I called that they said it would take to finish this stupid claim, so I called them yet again yesterday to find out why none of the ETAs they've been stringing me along with are anywhere close to being true. I could tell that they were afraid to tell me the real reason - I think they're hopelessly backlogged, and probably everybody, not just me, is not getting processed. Regardless, she told me she'd expedite my case to the next higher level of management, and that I should be hearing by this Friday that I'll be getting the check.

Oh well, none of their ETAs have panned out so far, so I'm not sure how much I should be believing their Friday tune, but I'll wait and see if they're actually going to get some action on my claim.


----------



## tvmaster2

Dan203 said:


> Hmmm... Maybe what I heard was wrong. Or maybe he's leaving but hasn't actually left yet.


He personally contacted me over something as simple as an email contact, which seemed like a real improvement in customer relations. And I don't think any of my Tivo's have been deactivated either....


----------



## fredi

My old TiVo Series 2-160GB was deactivated today. I'm so glad they used the right one.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

fredi said:


> My old TiVo Series 2-160GB was deactivated today. I'm so glad the used the right one.


Congratulations, I think you may be the first confirmed sighting.


----------



## DVR_Dave

fredi said:


> My old TiVo Series 2-160GB was deactivated today. I'm so glad the used the right one.


Need some details.

1) When did you order?
2) When did it ship?
3) When did you set up your Bolt?
4) How many qualifying boxes did you have?
5) How did you choose which to deactivate? Online link? At order placement? Follow-up phone call?
6) Was this the box that hasn't called home the longest?
7) Did the online deactivation link have the deactivated box as an option?
8) Is the deactivated box showing in your Inactive list?


----------



## HerronScott

The correct HD was deactivated for us either late last night or today for us as well.

1) When did you order? April 10th (late evening via website)
2) When did it ship? May 9th and received it May 12th
3) When did you set up your Bolt? May 21st
4) How many qualifying boxes did you have? 4
5) How did you choose which to deactivate? Online link? At order placement? Follow-up phone call? Called support the day after I ordered via website and identified which one to deactivate and also used the deactivation website on May 23rd.
6) Was this the box that hasn't called home the longest? All of the qualifying TiVo's are still actively calling in so not applicable for us.
7) Did the online deactivation link have the deactivated box as an option? Yes
8) Is the deactivated box showing in your Inactive list? Yes

Scott


----------



## sfhub

An interesting question would be whether anybody who hadn't connected their bolt yet had units deactivated.

Also for folks who never used the website and called it in, whether they honored what you specified or just picked the least recent tivo to connect.


----------



## scandia101

fredi said:


> My old TiVo Series 2-160GB was deactivated today. I'm so glad the used the right one.


My S2, the correct one, was also finally deactivated today.


----------



## pdhenry

My S2 still shows up. IIRC I ordered it on April 8 and received it before the first of May. Setup completed that day or the next.


----------



## aaronwt

My S3 boxes are still showing on my account. I finally unplugged them this past weekend. I guess I need to plug them in again. I really should have kept them connected. Since One of them has a bad power supply so it can take ten tries or more plugging it in to get it running. But once running it will continue without issues.


----------



## scandia101

aaronwt said:


> My S3 boxes are still showing on my account. I finally unplugged them this past weekend. I guess I need to plug them in again.


It's much easier to just check your tivo.com account.


----------



## aaronwt

scandia101 said:


> It's much easier to just check your tivo.com account.


OK thanks. They still show up there as active. And I've had my Bolts from the Lifetime transfer deal since April 8th from a March 31st order.. The deactivations seem rather random when people that ordered and received their Bolts much later than me are already seeing deactivated boxes.


----------



## timckelley

I ordered my Bolt 3-31-17, it was delivered on 4-1-17, and none of my old TiVos have been deactivated.


----------



## DVR_Dave

timckelley said:


> I ordered my Bolt 3-31-17, it was delivered on 4-1-17, and none of my old TiVos have been deactivated.


Did you choose a box to deactivate via the web link?


----------



## tvmaster2

After many confusing phone calls and chats, the correct S2 was decommissioned, the one I also selected from the email link.


----------



## sfhub

aaronwt said:


> The deactivations seem rather random when people that ordered and received their Bolts much later than me are already seeing deactivated boxes.


It does almost seem like they are going in reverse order. Mine was last batch like Scott and was deactivated same time as his and it seems like most who are reporting not having units deactivated, ordered and received early.


----------



## fredi

DVR_Dave said:


> Need some details.


1) When did you order? April 1st
2) When did it ship? April 10th
3) When did you set up your Bolt? As soon as I got it, Added 3TB drive 30 days later
4) How many qualifying boxes did you have? Technically one, but they saw three, two that where connected "late"
5) How did you choose which to deactivate? Online link? At order placement? Follow-up phone call? All of the above.
6) Was this the box that hasn't called home the longest? Yes, I made sure of that
7) Did the online deactivation link have the deactivated box as an option? Yes
8) Is the deactivated box showing in your Inactive list? Yes


----------



## timckelley

DVR_Dave said:


> Did you choose a box to deactivate via the web link?


I confess I never got around to it; we talked on the phone on 3-31-2017, and at that time, he told me I only had one qualifying TiVo, and that that would be the one deactivated (which according to tivo.com, hasn't happened).

That weblink they emailed me later on, though, says I have multiple qualifying TiVos, but the only one's that I'm still using is an S2 that I started up again after the one year window (which is why it wasn't supposed to qualify.) Hopefully they don't deactivate it. If they do, I suppose I could tell them we had a deal on which one to deactivate.

The S2 that they were supposed to deactivate is actually no longer active, because magically, when I got the Bolt and installed it, that S2 stopped booting, so that's why I'm fine with sticking to the original deal I made, which is to deactivate that S2.


----------



## DVR_Dave

sfhub said:


> It does almost seem like they are going in reverse order. Mine was last batch like Scott and was deactivated same time as his and it seems like most who are reporting not having units deactivated, ordered and received early.


My order & ship date were the same as Scott's but no boxes have been deactivated.

I did not set up Bolt #1 until 6/4 and have not set up Bolt #2. In addition, I did not select any boxes to deactivate via the web link.

Has anyone had a box deactivated that was not selected via the web link?


----------



## scandia101

timckelley said:


> That weblink they emailed me later on, though, says I have multiple qualifying TiVos,


How about that same weblink after they fixed the problem to show only your eligible tivos?


----------



## Dan203

Looks like mine was finally deactivated. I just fired up pyTivo Desktop and it's not showing in the TiVos list anymore.


----------



## edwinyuen

Dan203 said:


> Looks like mine was finally deactivated. I just fired up pyTivo Desktop and it's not showing in the TiVos list anymore.


Does it show on Tivo.com? Trying to figure out if I keep hooking up old Tivos to see which one actually got deactivated, as nothing is showing on Tivo.com


----------



## Dan203

No. TiVo.com still shows it as having lifetime.


----------



## HerronScott

Dan203 said:


> No. TiVo.com still shows it as having lifetime.


That would be different since ours (and others here) moved to the Inactive TiVo device list. It does show Product Lifetime under the Payment Plan but it has a cancellation date of 6/13/2017 and the comment "The box you are trying to reactivate is no longer supported. Please visit tivo.com today to shop for TiVo's latest products."

HD 20hr
01/14/2008
TiVo Package, Product Lifetime
06/13/2017
The box you are trying to reactivate is no longer supported. Please visit tivo.com today to shop for TiVo's latest products.

Scott


----------



## scandia101

Dan203 said:


> No. TiVo.com still shows it as having lifetime.


Where are you looking at tivo.com?
Look under Device Preferences and you'll see that it's not there.


----------



## Dan203

HerronScott said:


> That would be different since ours (and others here) moved to the Inactive TiVo device list. It does show Product Lifetime under the Payment Plan but it has a cancellation date of 6/13/2017 and the comment "The box you are trying to reactivate is no longer supported. Please visit tivo.com today to shop for TiVo's latest products."
> 
> HD 20hr
> 01/14/2008
> TiVo Package, Product Lifetime
> 06/13/2017
> The box you are trying to reactivate is no longer supported. Please visit tivo.com today to shop for TiVo's latest products.
> 
> Scott


I don't think mine actually deactivated. It's showing up in pyTivo again. Must have been a temporary glitch.


----------



## timckelley

timckelley said:


> Welp, it's now been more than TWO MONTHS since I filed this claim, and it's also been more than the 10-15 business days they told me last time I called that they said it would take to finish this stupid claim, so I called them yet again yesterday to find out why none of the ETAs they've been stringing me along with are anywhere close to being true. I could tell that they were afraid to tell me the real reason - I think they're hopelessly backlogged, and probably everybody, not just me, is not getting processed. Regardless, she told me she'd expedite my case to the next higher level of management, and that I should be hearing by this Friday that I'll be getting the check.
> 
> Oh well, none of their ETAs have panned out so far, so I'm not sure how much I should be believing their Friday tune, but I'll wait and see if they're actually going to get some action on my claim.


True to their form, they lied again, and they never got back to me back that Friday, which would've been 1.5 weeks ago. But lo and behold, I got a letter today (2.5 months after I submitted the claim), saying I'm approved, and enclosed is the check. Except they shorted me $27, with no explanation at all - simply saying that I'm approved and here is the check.

So I just got off the phone, and they said that since my ad had no date on it, they did their own search for an amazon ad, and by then the price was higher, so they used that newer, more expensive ad to base my refund on. (Nice that there was never any notification to me that they were doing that... and I had been calling getting updates, including after they had nailed down the amount of the claim.)

So I said, "look on page two, it says 'have this item by tomorrow, April 7th'". She said oops, sorry for the inconvenience, and they will mail me a separate check for the difference. So this still isn't complete yet.

By the way, the letter enclosed a survey asking for me feedback on how this claim experience has gone.


----------



## DVR_Dave

Has anyone had their boxes deactivated since the initial reports a couple of weeks ago?

Two BOLTs ordered 4/10, shipped 5/9, rec'd 5/12. One set up 6/4, the other still NIB.

All of my qualifying boxes (two S2DT, two S3HD) are still showing as active. My 2 S2DT have not called home since 5/12. The 2 S3HD call home everyday.


----------



## georgepio

I have two series 3 Tivos and a series 2 Tivo. I have lifetime on one of the series 3 and the series 2. I got the offer on 3/30/17 and ordered my Tivo Bolt+ the same day. I also ordered a Tivo Mini. I received the bolt on 4/5 and set it up. Had it reboot a few times during the first few days, but been solid since. Tivo sent email on 5/5 asking me to select box to deactivate by 5/15, but the link was not working. They sent a follow up email stating that the deactivation link would work on 5/22 and I would have a few days after that to make my selection. I select my s2 (since it had recently stopped working anyway) and I checked and it says it is inactive as of 6/13/17. I still run the two series 3 for now, but plan to stop paying monthly on the one soon. I have a lot of stuff still to watch on both. The main problem with using either of those boxes now is that Comcast just recently switched most if not all of their HD channels to MPEG 4, so neither series 3 get the HD channels anymore. I didn't realize that was going to happen. Maybe I would have purchased a second bolt. Oh well. Is there any hope for MPEG 4 on the Series 3 Tivos?


----------



## DVR_Dave

georgepio said:


> I select my s2 (since it had recently stopped working anyway) and I checked and it says it is inactive as of 6/13/17.


Thanks for the update. It seems like only boxes selected via the deactivation link have been deactivated so far.


georgepio said:


> Is there any hope for MPEG 4 on the Series 3 Tivos?


Sounds like you have Series 3 TSN 648 (the OLED version). 

648 will not be updated for MPEG 4. 652/658 (TiVo HD/HD XL) were updated a while ago.


----------



## HerronScott

georgepio said:


> I still run the two series 3 for now, but plan to stop paying monthly on the one soon. I have a lot of stuff still to watch on both. The main problem with using either of those boxes now is that Comcast just recently switched most if not all of their HD channels to MPEG 4, so neither series 3 get the HD channels anymore. I didn't realize that was going to happen. Maybe I would have purchased a second bolt. Oh well. Is there any hope for MPEG 4 on the Series 3 Tivos?


You must not be a frequent visitor here as no the original S3 OLED will not be upgraded to support MPEG4 and there's been lots of discussion about that here along with Comcast's move to MPEG4. That was the main reason that I replaced our 2 S3 OLED in October 2015 with a Roamio Pro with TiVo's longtime user offer due to Comcast's reports that they were moving forward with the MPEG4 switch.

Note that once you deactivate the monthly S3 it can no longer be activated. You could at least sell the lifetime S3 and get a little it back as it's still good for OTA.

Scott


----------



## 10_pearljam

I selected my box via the deactivation link and it's still active.


----------



## opus123

Is it possible TiVo is waiting until the deadline passes for any units to be returned? (I assume it would be a headache to reactivate S2/3's once deactivated). 

Otherwise it's really strange there's not a widespread deactivation and no word from TiVo. Many are anxious about specific unit(s) to deactivate or stay live... and if TiVo decided to keep them all running, many of us could find good homes for lifetime's S2/3's.


----------



## DVR_Dave

I think the last batch shipped 5/9, so they are all past the 30 day return period.


----------



## timckelley

timckelley said:


> True to their form, they lied again, and they never got back to me back that Friday, which would've been 1.5 weeks ago. But lo and behold, I got a letter today (2.5 months after I submitted the claim), saying I'm approved, and enclosed is the check. Except they shorted me $27, with no explanation at all - simply saying that I'm approved and here is the check.
> 
> So I just got off the phone, and they said that since my ad had no date on it, they did their own search for an amazon ad, and by then the price was higher, so they used that newer, more expensive ad to base my refund on. (Nice that there was never any notification to me that they were doing that... and I had been calling getting updates, including after they had nailed down the amount of the claim.)
> 
> So I said, "look on page two, it says 'have this item by tomorrow, April 7th'". She said oops, sorry for the inconvenience, and they will mail me a separate check for the difference. So this still isn't complete yet.
> 
> By the way, the letter enclosed a survey asking for me feedback on how this claim experience has gone.


Okay, I got the second check, but the shorted me again! This time, by only 99 cents though. I have a question for the people here. To check the arithmetic, I can't believe that I can't find the receipt where I paid for the TiVo. I know I had it because I uploaded it to the price protection website, but once uploaded, I can't view it there.  I searched my gmail, and no receipt. Wouldn't TiVo inc have emailed me a receipt? I can't believe I don't see it in my email. I also logged on to TiVo inc., and I see the receipt but only in summary form:

Order Shipped 1 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee TiVo BOLT 500 GB $298.99 $298.99
Shipping total $0.00
Tax $23.03
Order total $322.02

But wasn't the lifetime transfer exactly $99? That's what it said in the original offer email. If so, that implies that I paid $322.02 - $23.03 - $99.00 = $199.99

They are treating my price protection claim as if I only paid $199.00. Also, even though I paid $23.03 shipping, and the Amazon ad I sent them showed free shipping, they're not refunding me the $23.03... I think I may call and ask them if that is right.

Anyway, I'd like to confirm if I paid $199.00 or $199.99 for it.


----------



## DVR_Dave

timckelley said:


> Okay, I got the second check, but the shorted me again! This time, by only 99 cents though. I have a question for the people here. To check the arithmetic, I can't believe that I can't find the receipt where I paid for the TiVo. I know I had it because I uploaded it to the price protection website, but once uploaded, I can't view it there.  I searched my gmail, and no receipt. Wouldn't TiVo inc have emailed me a receipt? I can't believe I don't see it in my email. I also logged on to TiVo inc., and I see the receipt but only in summary form:
> 
> Order Shipped 1 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee TiVo BOLT 500 GB $298.99 $298.99
> Shipping total $0.00
> Tax $23.03
> Order total $322.02
> 
> But wasn't the lifetime transfer exactly $99? That's what it said in the original offer email. If so, that implies that I paid $322.02 - $23.03 - $99.00 = $199.99
> 
> They are treating my price protection claim as if I only paid $199.00. Also, *even though I paid $23.03 shipping*, and the Amazon ad I sent them showed free shipping, they're not refunding me the $23.03... I think I may call and ask them if that is right.
> 
> Anyway, I'd like to confirm if I paid $199.00 or $199.99 for it.


From my email receipt:

Order Summary
-------------
Product Description Qty Item Price Tax* Total
S00050 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee 1 $ 99.00 $ 0.00 $ 99.00
R84950 TiVo BOLT 500 GB 1 *$ 199.99* $ 12.00 $ 211.99

BTW, your receipt says Shipping $0.00 and Tax $23.03


----------



## DevdogAZ

timckelley said:


> Okay, I got the second check, but the shorted me again! This time, by only 99 cents though. I have a question for the people here. To check the arithmetic, I can't believe that I can't find the receipt where I paid for the TiVo. I know I had it because I uploaded it to the price protection website, but once uploaded, I can't view it there.  I searched my gmail, and no receipt. Wouldn't TiVo inc have emailed me a receipt? I can't believe I don't see it in my email. I also logged on to TiVo inc., and I see the receipt but only in summary form:
> 
> Order Shipped 1 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee TiVo BOLT 500 GB $298.99 $298.99
> Shipping total $0.00
> Tax $23.03
> Order total $322.02
> 
> But wasn't the lifetime transfer exactly $99? That's what it said in the original offer email. If so, that implies that I paid $322.02 - $23.03 - $99.00 = $199.99
> 
> They are treating my price protection claim as if I only paid $199.00. Also, even though I paid $23.03 shipping, and the Amazon ad I sent them showed free shipping, they're not refunding me the $23.03... I think I may call and ask them if that is right.
> 
> Anyway, I'd like to confirm if I paid $199.00 or $199.99 for it.


I think you're close enough and you need to now be happy with what you got and move on. Any further effort on this, whether actual or mental, is a complete waste.


----------



## timckelley

DVR_Dave said:


> BTW, your receipt says Shipping $0.00 and Tax $23.03


Oops, you're right about that.


DevdogAZ said:


> I think you're close enough and you need to now be happy with what you got and move on. Any further effort on this, whether actual or mental, is a complete waste.


Yes, so now I'm only arguing about 99 cents. My first reaction was exactly the same as you said, just forget about it. Curiosity may get to me, and I might feel like calling, just to see what they were thinking when they did the math. They even verbally told me the amount of the check they'd be sending. But yes, the value of 99 cents is negligible; if I call it'll be more for education and entertainment than for the financial gain.

And yet again, they're emailing me asking for feedback, and saying feedback is important to them. Given their extreeeeeeme slowness and inaccuracy, the feedback I give may not be very positive, but I suppose their upper management may want this kind of testimony so they know what's going on with their people.


----------



## timckelley

Well they say curiosity killed the cat, but so far I'm still standing; I succumbed to my curiosity and called them yet again, and they said they apologize, and due to an internal error they did exactly what I guessed: treated my payment to TiVo as $199.00 instead of $199.99, and they will be issuing me a third check, this one for the sum of $0.99.  The funny thing is that the first check did correctly use $199.99 in their calculation.

So when that check arrives, and my feedback has been submitted, I guess this long process will finally be concluded. Hopefully my nickname won't change to "Fred Murtz", but I did call more for curiosity than for a hankering for 99 cents.


----------



## aaronwt

timckelley said:


> Okay, I got the second check, but the shorted me again! This time, by only 99 cents though. I have a question for the people here. To check the arithmetic, I can't believe that I can't find the receipt where I paid for the TiVo. I know I had it because I uploaded it to the price protection website, but once uploaded, I can't view it there.  I searched my gmail, and no receipt. Wouldn't TiVo inc have emailed me a receipt? I can't believe I don't see it in my email. I also logged on to TiVo inc., and I see the receipt but only in summary form:
> 
> Order Shipped 1 Bundle, All-in one-time TiVo service fee TiVo BOLT 500 GB $298.99 $298.99
> Shipping total $0.00
> Tax $23.03
> Order total $322.02
> 
> But wasn't the lifetime transfer exactly $99? That's what it said in the original offer email. If so, that implies that I paid $322.02 - $23.03 - $99.00 = $199.99
> 
> They are treating my price protection claim as if I only paid $199.00. Also, even though I paid $23.03 shipping, and the Amazon ad I sent them showed free shipping, they're not refunding me the $23.03... I think I may call and ask them if that is right.
> 
> Anyway, I'd like to confirm if I paid $199.00 or $199.99 for it.


Does it really matter? At this point it's only 99 cents. I wouldn't think it's worth the effort to mess with it any more. Especially for only 99 cents.


----------



## timckelley

The point of that post wasn't to lament over the loss of 99 insignificant cents but rather a commentary on their ineptitude.


----------



## scandia101

aaronwt said:


> Does it really matter? At this point it's only 99 cents. I wouldn't think it's worth the effort to mess with it any more. Especially for only 99 cents.


He did emphasize that he was looking into it out of curiosity


----------



## Mikeguy

atotten said:


> Any rumours about if this offer will happen again any time soon? I never got the email that had this offer and am dying to off load my series 2 lifetime and get a new bolt


The deal is back again, for the next 3 days . . . .

The thread here discussing this latest, and the TiVo deal website:

Once in a lifetime PLS transfer coming back?

https://www.tivo.com/secondchancelifetimesale#/secondchancelifetimesale


----------



## jlb

Mikeguy said:


> The deal is back again, for the next 3 days . . . .
> 
> The thread here discussing this latest, and the TiVo deal website:
> 
> Once in a lifetime PLS transfer coming back?
> 
> TiVo | Exclusive Offer | Product Lifetime Service Transfer Sale


I really want to take advantage of the offer this time. However, I just moved out of my house yesterday and we move into an apartment Sunday and the general chaos has me holding off.....we don't need another $300-$400 in expenses right now. My TiVoHD is still humming along fine....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Mikeguy

jlb said:


> I really want to take advantage of the offer this time. However, I just moved out of my house yesterday and we move into an apartment Sunday and the general chaos has me holding off.....we don't need another $300-$400 in expenses right now. My TiVoHD is still humming along fine....


Who knows what will happen in the future, one way or the other. If TiVo does retire the earlier units one day, there could be some sort of a buy out, as was done with the Series 1 boxes. But again, who knows . . . .


----------



## NoVa

I have a brand new unopened S2 that was given to me 4 years ago that I never activated. 
Any way to get on this deal?

Would like to upgrade my Premiere4 to a Bolt series.


----------



## lpwcomp

NoVa said:


> I have a brand new unopened S2 that was given to me 4 years ago that I never activated.
> Any way to get on this deal?


No. You can't even activate it at this point.


----------



## NoVa

lpwcomp said:


> No. You can't even activate it at this point.


Thanks for the feedback. :|


----------



## jlb

Mikeguy said:


> Who knows what will happen in the future, one way or the other. If TiVo does retire the earlier units one day, there could be some sort of a buy out, as was done with the Series 1 boxes. But again, who knows . . . .


This is very true. But the WAF would have to be very strong I think to make this happen right now. I'm willing to take the risk of doing nothing at the moment. We shall see. Maybe once more into the apartment on Sunday table might be willing to allow the offer to extend the couple of days who knows

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## n6161h

Once again Tivo customer service doesn't know what they are talking about... After insisting that all Series-2 Tivos, would be deactivated, the guy can back and said he had made a mistake.

Apologies to anyone who say my initial post and had the same heart-attack I did.


----------



## brentsg

n6161h said:


> Once again Tivo customer service doesn't know what they are talking about... After insisting that all Series-2 Tivos, would be deactivated, the guy can back and said he had made a mistake.
> 
> Apologies to anyone who say my initial post and had the same heart-attack I did.


They're just making it up as they go along. I'm surprised that they called you back though.. that's awesome.

I was thinking about compiling the various BS/lies that I heard this week into one post. Just the stuff about the double-charge on my credit card made me laugh out loud on the phone.

"That extra charge ($1067.40!) will be gone from your account in 24 hours". Uh, it's been more than 24 hours already.
"Every once in a while it can take up to 3 days". Uh, it's already been 5 days. 
"Then that charge should be gone". I'm looking at the account online as we speak. It's still there. 
"It can sometimes take up to 1 week".


----------



## DawnW

HerronScott said:


> You must not be a frequent visitor here as no the original S3 OLED will not be upgraded to support MPEG4 and there's been lots of discussion about that here along with Comcast's move to MPEG4. That was the main reason that I replaced our 2 S3 OLED in October 2015 with a Roamio Pro with TiVo's longtime user offer due to Comcast's reports that they were moving forward with the MPEG4 switch.
> 
> Note that once you deactivate the monthly S3 it can no longer be activated. You could at least sell the lifetime S3 and get a little it back as it's still good for OTA.
> 
> Scott


What can you do with a deactivated one over the air? Can you still pause Live TV? I assume you can't set it to record anything.


----------



## losaltos

tvmaster2 said:


> After many confusing phone calls and chats, the correct S2 was decommissioned, the one I also selected from the email link.


I bought 2 of the Bolts on 2 different accounts. I was 0nly going to buy 1 because on one account the series 3 is still being used but they told me they got special permission to deactivate a series 2 which had called in both just before and just after the 1 year window. So imagine my surprise when over 2 months from the time that Bolt was activated, they suddenly without warning deactivated the series 3 they had specifically agreed not to turn off. Meanwhile the series 2 is still active. On the other account which had the holt activated maybe a week later, nothing has yet been deactivated.

I can't get the customer service people to escalate the call. They read the notes and say that the series 2 as not eligible for the deal, so they deactivated the series 3. And they won't let me talk to anyone about it.

Extremely bad customer service.


----------



## HerronScott

DawnW said:


> What can you do with a deactivated one over the air? Can you still pause Live TV? I assume you can't set it to record anything.


I think you can still pause live TV but I've never had one deactivated that's still had any kind of service (OTA or cable).

Scott


----------



## fredi

Mikeguy said:


> Who knows what will happen in the future, one way or the other. If TiVo does retire the earlier units one day, there could be some sort of a buy out, as was done with the Series 1 boxes. But again, who knows . . . .


I like to see TiVo do a deal to upgrade a Series 2/3 box to a TiVo Mini. Would be a great opportunity for people like me who purchased several TiVo units to do what TiVo Mini's do today.


----------



## Millionaire2K

fredi said:


> I like to see TiVo do a deal to upgrade a Series 2/3 box to a TiVo Mini. Would be a great opportunity for people like me who purchased several TiVo units to do what TiVo Mini's do today.


That would confuse to many people. "Oh I can get a mini to replace my S2" And then this person has no other box to run the mini. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Also would the mini be free? It wouldn't be much value for a S2.


----------



## fredi

Millionaire2K said:


> That would confuse to many people. "Oh I can get a mini to replace my S2" And then this person has no other box to run the mini. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Also would the mini be free? It wouldn't be much value for a S2.


If someone wants to give me $150 for my 500 GB Series 2, I'd take it.


----------



## Millionaire2K

fredi said:


> If someone wants to give me $150 for my 500 GB Series 2, I'd take it.


Assuming we are talking about a lifetime unit, Tivo lifetime transfer offer values a S2 at $450. Of course you would have to wait for this offer that may never come again. (I'm sure it will)


----------



## sfhub

Millionaire2K said:


> Assuming we are talking about a lifetime unit, Tivo lifetime transfer offer values a S2 at $450. Of course you would have to wait for this offer that may never come again. (I'm sure it will)


I think they value lifetime S2/S3s at more like $200 to $250. One should compare to the Summer Sale prices rather than the list prices, IMO. In case one is comparing different offers with refurbished vs new, TiVo values refurbished at $50 less than new.


----------



## raiden256

Bought three Bolts w/Lifetime (as part of the original deal in April) to replace three Lifetime TiVoHD boxes I have. Received and activated one on 4/28. Sold the other two, which were activated on and transferred to other owners via Customer Support on 5/6 and 5/9. The one I kept, as well as my original three TiVoHDs are all still showing as active with Lifetime service on my account at TiVo.com, and all still working same as they ever have. If another PLS transfer deal comes along, I'm tempted to do it again lol.


----------



## coredump4

raiden256 said:


> The one I kept, as well as my original three TiVoHDs are all still showing as active with Lifetime service on my account at TiVo.com, and all still working same as they ever have.


Yeah I have a pair of HDs showing active as well. I wonder why they haven't yet done a big sweep and disabled all the ones used for the recent promos?


----------



## Millionaire2K

sfhub said:


> I think they value lifetime S2/S3s at more like $200 to $250. One should compare to the Summer Sale prices rather than the list prices, IMO. In case one is comparing different offers with refurbished vs new, TiVo values refurbished at $50 less than new.


Very true. Forgot to factor that stuff in. But my point still is a Tivo mini is not an = trade for a lifetime on any box. IMO.


----------



## timckelley

timckelley said:


> Well they say curiosity killed the cat, but so far I'm still standing; I succumbed to my curiosity and called them yet again, and they said they apologize, and due to an internal error they did exactly what I guessed: treated my payment to TiVo as $199.00 instead of $199.99, and they will be issuing me a third check, this one for the sum of $0.99.  The funny thing is that the first check did correctly use $199.99 in their calculation.
> 
> So when that check arrives, and my feedback has been submitted, I guess this long process will finally be concluded. Hopefully my nickname won't change to "Fred Murtz", but I did call more for curiosity than for a hankering for 99 cents.


I just received the final check for 99 cents, and so this more than 3 month long process is concluded.


----------



## DVR_Dave

timckelley said:


> I just received the final check for 99 cents, and so this more than 3 month long process is concluded.


My check (for my 1st Bolt) is finally on the way.

I submitted 2 Chase PP claims on 5/13.
I used DealsCube ad with price of $111.04 for an $88.95 price difference.
The 1st claim was rejected for not an authorized retailer.
The 2nd claim (with the exact same documents uploaded) was PAID in a very timely manner.

Then the fun started to get the 1st claim paid. They did not respond to multiple emails. I finally called them and asked if I could re-open the rejected claim by submitting an Amazon ad for $131.04 (diff of $68.95). They said to email the ad. I said but you haven't responded to any of my previous emails! They said to email then call a couple days later to follow up. I called and they said they received the Amazon ad but it said Prime, so I need to send proof of Prime membership. I said I have Prime, plus the Prime note is for shipping, not the price. They said OK. A couple days later I checked online and the status changed to PAID.


----------



## sfhub

timckelley said:


> I just received the final check for 99 cents, and so this more than 3 month long process is concluded.


USPS offers their thanks for your continued support.


----------



## shwru980r

Called back last night with a reference number from a previous call and they were able to use one of my lifetime S2s to get a 500G Bolt. Total cost was $257. The S2 died in May, so now I don't have to try and fix it.


----------



## pdhenry

Sure. *NOW* the price of the 1 TB Bolt on Amazon drops to $220.


----------



## InFromTheCold

HerronScott said:


> I think you can still pause live TV but I've never had one deactivated that's still had any kind of service (OTA or cable).
> 
> Scott


After I moved my cable card to my new Bolt, I used the HD for OTA. Since deactivation, no more pause.


----------



## jlin

I tried selling the Bolt 500GB on Craiglist.. there was no takers at $550. So I tried to renew the ad after expiring, I was surprised that the ad was deleted and flagged for removal.

WTF? Is Tivo secreting trying to stop the sales of new Lifetime Bolt in the used market?


----------



## DevdogAZ

Mine was deleted and flagged for removal as well. I have no idea why.


----------



## jlb

DevdogAZ said:


> Mine was deleted and flagged for removal as well. I have no idea why.


If TiVo is scanning CL they are prob using keyword searching. So redo the ads with extra spaces... so advertise like this

Tiv o

Maybe?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## shwru980r

Probably lots of complaints about the Bolt with the HDMI issue. I'll tolerate the HDMI issue after paying $250 for an all in Bolt, but not for $550 or the $750 Tivo is asking.


----------



## timckelley

Does TiVo have the power to get Craigslist to kill ads?


----------



## jlin

I've also read that Tivo can (or have been) refuse to transfer the ownership of un-activated new Bolt purchased under this deal. Any confirmation?


----------



## jlin

jlb said:


> If TiVo is scanning CL they are prob using keyword searching. So redo the ads with extra spaces... so advertise like this
> 
> Tiv o
> 
> Maybe?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Well, if you do extra spaces then other people looking to buy Tivo would not find your ads by searching keyword


----------



## pdhenry

jlin said:


> I've also read that Tivo can (or have been) refuse to transfer the ownership of un-activated new Bolt purchased under this deal. Any confirmation?


Why wouldn't one activate it and then sell it? FWIW, my Bolt was activated prior to being shipped to me.

I think a bigger issue would be all those soon-to-be doorstop TiVos that currently appear to have Lifetime service, at least upon a casual glance.


----------



## aaronwt

shwru980r said:


> Probably lots of complaints about the Bolt with the HDMI issue. I'll tolerate the HDMI issue after paying $250 for an all in Bolt, but not for $550 or the $750 Tivo is asking.


What is the HDMI issue? I have four Bolts right now(I still need to sell my two that have four or five months of service left) and they have no HDMI issues. And none of the three other Bolts I've owned have had HDMI issues.

They have all worked at resolutions up to 2160P60.


----------



## DVR_Dave

pdhenry said:


> I think a bigger issue would be all those soon-to-be doorstop TiVos that currently appear to have Lifetime service, at least upon a casual glance.


I'm still waiting for two boxes to be deactivated from the April deal. I'd like to box them up one of these days but I'm still unsure which two of four boxes will be deactivated.

Maybe they'll do a mass deactivation in ten days (7/31); that was the deactivation date specified for the last transfer deal.


----------



## DevdogAZ

jlin said:


> I've also read that Tivo can (or have been) refuse to transfer the ownership of un-activated new Bolt purchased under this deal. Any confirmation?


TiVo had no problem transferring the ownership on the Bolt that I sold on ebay and shipped out unopened. And they had no problem transferring it back to me when the prick demanded to return it.


----------



## opus123

I hope that's not the case. If TiVo meant for upgrade owners not to sell their units, they could have simply written a provision in terms where you need to maintain ownership for X amount of time. I heard unconfirmed reports where people with 1 qualifying unit ordered many bolts via a website glitch, so I'd have little sympathy there, but punishing all 'resellers' who transferred fair and square also prevents people from gifting them to friends and family. It's not hard to envision a person with three S3's upgrading to three bolts... and then choosing to part with 2 bolts after adding 2 Mini's.


----------



## shwru980r

aaronwt said:


> What is the HDMI issue? I have four Bolts right now(I still need to sell my two that have four or five months of service left) and they have no HDMI issues. And none of the three other Bolts I've owned have had HDMI issues.
> 
> They have all worked at resolutions up to 2160P60.


The issue is when you turn off the TV and come back later and turn on the TV, then TV doesn't detect the HDMI signal from the Bolt. Random sequences of changing the TV input and/or turning the TV on and off resolve the issue. A more elegant solution is to put the Bolt in standby mode before turning off the TV and then bring the Bolt out of standby mode right before turning on the TV or after turning on the TV and getting the no signal detected message. Also setting the Bolt to one of the power saving modes so it goes into standby after a few hours helps if you forget to put it into standby before turning off the TV and you're not coming back for a while anyway.


----------



## danm628

shwru980r said:


> The issue is when you turn off the TV and come back later and turn on the TV, then TV doesn't detect the HDMI signal from the Bolt. Random sequences of changing the TV input and/or turning the TV on and off resolve the issue. A more elegant solution is to put the Bolt in standby mode before turning off the TV and then bring the Bolt out of standby mode right before turning on the TV or after turning on the TV and getting the no signal detected message. Also setting the Bolt to one of the power saving modes so it goes into standby after a few hours helps if you forget to put it into standby before turning off the TV and you're not coming back for a while anyway.


That's not a description of the issue. That's a work around for something you didn't describe.

My Bolt seems to work fine with my LG OLED.

Please describe the HDMI issue that you are having.


----------



## sfhub

danm628 said:


> That's not a description of the issue. That's a work around for something you didn't describe.





shwru980r said:


> The issue is when you turn off the TV and come back later and turn on the TV, then TV doesn't detect the HDMI signal from the Bolt.


I assume that means there is no picture.


----------



## atmuscarella

I also do not have this HDMI issue with my Bolt. However it seems that over time people have reported it or something similar with various Roamios and Bolts. I know at one point it was effecting certain TVs more than others. The randomness of this and other less critical HDMI problems seems to be more than difficult for Tivo to correct.


----------



## shwru980r

danm628 said:


> That's not a description of the issue. That's a work around for something you didn't describe.
> 
> My Bolt seems to work fine with my LG OLED.
> 
> Please describe the HDMI issue that you are having.


The screen displays a no signal detected message.


----------



## shwru980r

atmuscarella said:


> I also do not have this HDMI issue with my Bolt. However it seems that over time people have reported it or something similar with various Roamios and Bolts. I know at one point it was effecting certain TVs more than others. The randomness of this and other less critical HDMI problems seems to be more than difficult for Tivo to correct.


Interesting. My TV is a 9-year-old plasma. I had a Roamio OTA hooked up to it last year for a month and never had this issue. The HDMI issue was mentioned in other threads. That's where I found the standby workaround.


----------



## atmuscarella

shwru980r said:


> Interesting. My TV is a 9-year-old plasma. I had a Roamio OTA hooked up to it last year for a month and never had this issue. The HDMI issue was mentioned in other threads. That's where I found the standby workaround.


I also have a 9 year old Plasma (2008 Panasonic). My Bolt does go through an AV receiver right now along with a Roamio, Roku, Blu-ray player and a Premiere, perhaps if I connected the Bolt directly to my TV I would see the issue.

I also have an older Win 10 PC attached directly to the TV via HDMI and I can have the problem you described with the PC under certain circumstances. I have found unplugging the HDMI cord (it is in a port on the center front of the TV) and then plugging it back in brings up the picture.

I do have one issue with the Bolt that I do not have with the other devices running through the AV receiver. Every time I switch to the Bolt, the picture comes up fine but then about 3-5 seconds latter the screen goes black for about 2 seconds after which everything is fine.

HDMI issues are not fun for anyone and are certainly a result of all the anti theft security embedded in HDMI.


----------



## shwru980r

atmuscarella said:


> I also have a 9 year old Plasma (2008 Panasonic). My Bolt does go through an AV receiver right now along with a Roamio, Roku, Blu-ray player and a Premiere, perhaps if I connected the Bolt directly to my TV I would see the issue.
> 
> I also have an older Win 10 PC attached directly to the TV via HDMI and I can have the problem you described with the PC under certain circumstances. I have found unplugging the HDMI cord (it is in a port on the center front of the TV) and then plugging it back in brings up the picture.
> 
> I do have one issue with the Bolt that I do not have with the other devices running through the AV receiver. Every time I switch to the Bolt, the picture comes up fine but then about 3-5 seconds latter the screen goes black for about 2 seconds after which everything is fine.
> 
> HDMI issues are not fun for anyone and are certainly a result of all the anti theft security embedded in HDMI.


My bolt is connected directly to the TV. I tried unplugging the HDMI cable, a different HDMI port on the tv and a different HDMI cable and it didn't immediately resolve the issue. The standby workaround seems to consistently resolve the issue. Changing TV inputs and turning the TV on and off will eventually resolve the issue in a random pattern.

I've read in other threads of people returning multiple Bolts because of the HDMI issue. This Bolt is a refurbished unit and I didn't run clear and delete everything before running guided setup. When I set up some recordings several of them didn't record because they were duplicates, so I'm thinking someone returned this Bolt because of the HDMI issue. It seems to be a compatibility issue with certain TVs as you suggested.

I've got a couple other TVs that are newer than my Plasma TV, so I might try the bolt on one of those TVs to see if the issue reappears.


----------



## waynomo

jlin said:


> I've also read that Tivo can (or have been) refuse to transfer the ownership of un-activated new Bolt purchased under this deal. Any confirmation?


I had no problem transferring one of the 2 Bolts I purchased during the first go round.


----------



## waynomo

jlin said:


> I tried selling the Bolt 500GB on Craiglist.. there was no takers at $550. So I tried to renew the ad after expiring, I was surprised that the ad was deleted and flagged for removal.
> 
> WTF? Is Tivo secreting trying to stop the sales of new Lifetime Bolt in the used market?





timckelley said:


> Does TiVo have the power to get Craigslist to kill ads?


Highly doubt this is TiVo doing this.

CL might be doing it because people selling them as lifetime included, but they don't really or something like that. Or some other disgruntled CL user with a thing against TiVos.


----------



## sfhub

waynomo said:


> Or some other disgruntled CL user with a thing against TiVos.


Or some other CL user wanting less competition for selling a lifetime Bolt


----------



## DVR_Dave

atmuscarella said:


> I do have one issue with the Bolt that I do not have with the other devices running through the AV receiver. Every time I switch to the Bolt, the picture comes up fine but then about 3-5 seconds latter the screen goes black for about 2 seconds after which everything is fine.


The TV is probably switching resolution for the Bolt.

With their TiVo HD, my parents TV would go black when changing between channels with different resolutions. That no longer happens with their Bolt. IIRC, the TiVo HD resolution was set to Automatically detect; I think the Bolt is set to always use 1080i.


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## DVR_Dave

I get the HDMI no signal with my Roamio Plus on occasion. Cycling thru inputs fixes it.


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## shwru980r

DVR_Dave said:


> The TV is probably switching resolution for the Bolt.
> 
> With their TiVo HD, my parents TV would go black when changing between channels with different resolutions. That no longer happens with their Bolt. IIRC, the TiVo HD resolution was set to Automatically detect; I think the Bolt is set to always use 1080i.


The Bolt is set to use 1080P unless you change it. You can also change the Tivo HD to a fixed resolution, but there are several options that are not fixed.


----------



## aaronwt

shwru980r said:


> The issue is when you turn off the TV and come back later and turn on the TV, then TV doesn't detect the HDMI signal from the Bolt. Random sequences of changing the TV input and/or turning the TV on and off resolve the issue. A more elegant solution is to put the Bolt in standby mode before turning off the TV and then bring the Bolt out of standby mode right before turning on the TV or after turning on the TV and getting the no signal detected message. Also setting the Bolt to one of the power saving modes so it goes into standby after a few hours helps if you forget to put it into standby before turning off the TV and you're not coming back for a while anyway.


So that must be the reason I have never run into the issue. All my TiVos are set for High Power Savings mode.

SO once I turn off the TV. I am not accessing the TiVo and TV until the next day or much later the same day.

Although I know there are times I turn off the TV, go out come back within an hour and turn the TV back on, and the Bolt or Roamio signal is always there. Maybe because I run my Bolts through a couple of HDMI switches, then through a receiver or speaker bar, before going to the TV?


----------



## Steve-O

losaltos said:


> I bought 2 of the Bolts on 2 different accounts. I was 0nly going to buy 1 because on one account the series 3 is still being used but they told me they got special permission to deactivate a series 2 which had called in both just before and just after the 1 year window. So imagine my surprise when over 2 months from the time that Bolt was activated, they suddenly without warning deactivated the series 3 they had specifically agreed not to turn off. Meanwhile the series 2 is still active. On the other account which had the holt activated maybe a week later, nothing has yet been deactivated.
> 
> I can't get the customer service people to escalate the call. They read the notes and say that the series 2 as not eligible for the deal, so they deactivated the series 3. And they won't let me talk to anyone about it.
> 
> Extremely bad customer service.


Same thing happened to me. Now I have a lifetime sub still active on a Series 2 which I brought to electronics recycling, and a TivoHD that they snatched the lifetime sub away from, still in use for OTA.


----------



## shwru980r

Steve-O said:


> Same thing happened to me. Now I have a lifetime sub still active on a Series 2 which I brought to electronics recycling, and a TivoHD that they snatched the lifetime sub away from, still in use for OTA.


Do you mean you use the TivoHD as an OTA HD receiver for an analog TV? You can't record anything, can you?


----------



## timckelley

Why wouldn't he be able to?


----------



## sfhub

timckelley said:


> Why wouldn't he be able to?


The transferred the lifetime out. It is an inactive unit. Either it will become inactive once he connects to network or it will inactivate on its own between 30-60 days of not connecting to TiVo.

It doesn't get guide data nor does it let you manually record. When you try to set up manual recording, it just loops back to previous UI page.


----------



## timckelley

oops, I should have read more closely. Okay, the question to Steve-O remains.


----------



## 10_pearljam

These idiots deactivated the wrong box on me...after endless number of phone calls and confirmations, filling out the online link and everything, they still deactivated the wrong box on me. Unbelievable.


----------



## aaronwt

My S3 boxes are still on my account and I've had the replacement Bolts since the beginning of April.

I keep wondering when my S3 boxes will actually be deactivated.


----------



## opus123

Do many of the community members find their S3's deactivated after transferring lifetime to Bolt, or heard anything official from Tivo? 

My TiVoHD is still active after quite some time. If TiVo's elected to keep them live, I'd prefer to share this unit with a family member... but a big nuisance if it goes dead afterward. I'm hesitant to call in because my past few experiences haven't been helpful.


----------



## delgadobb

I've had exactly the opposite issue. My TivoHDs have been deactivated before I've had the chance to migrate stuff from them, violating the terms of original offer - which was deactivation 10 days after the Bolt initially connected to Tivo. (I saved the original offer just in case.) I haven't yet connected the Bolts - between traveling & now family stuff which may require extended traveling they won't be anytime soon.

My contact at Executive Relations claimed they were going to fix this & have now gone AWOL for two weeks, so I think I'm going to go down the arbitration path given Tivo seems to have 'vapor-locked' on this one.

Suggestions?


----------



## justen_m

opus123 said:


> Do many of the community members find their S3's deactivated after transferring lifetime to Bolt, or heard anything official from Tivo?
> 
> My TiVoHD is still active after quite some time. If TiVo's elected to keep them live, I'd prefer to share this unit with a family member... but a big nuisance if it goes dead afterward. I'm hesitant to call in because my past few experiences haven't been helpful.


Sorry, I haven't heard anything official, but I too would like to know, as I'm sort of in the same boat. My TiVoHD was still active when I checked it a week ago, about three months after I activated my Bolt in early May. It's got a 1TB drive that I'd pull and re-use.


----------



## TheCryptkeeper

Perhaps they realized after deactivating so many incorrect boxes that it's better if they just don't deactivate any of them.


----------



## HerronScott

opus123 said:


> Do many of the community members find their S3's deactivated after transferring lifetime to Bolt, or heard anything official from Tivo?


Mine was deactivated (the correct one as specified when I called after ordering online and which I specified through the web page when it became available).

Scott


----------



## aaronwt

For me, it's now August 7th. I received my $99 Lifetime transfer Bolts at the beginning of April. I've had them for over four months now. And my S3 boxes still have not been deactivated. They still show up on my Active TiVos list with Lifetime service.


----------



## aaronwt

TheCryptkeeper said:


> Perhaps they realized after deactivating so many incorrect boxes that it's better if they just don't deactivate any of them.


EIther way they majorly botched it. I've had my Bolts from the deal for over four months now. And my S3 boxes are still active on my account.


----------



## Worf

If I had to guess, I'd think they forgot to associate each rebate code with a TiVo unit and just generically issued a bunch of discount codes. Why? Because if you called in and placed your order, you didn't need the rebate code - they just applied it. Which in theory could mean you could order a bolt or three that way, then place an order online using the rebate code as well.

So now what happened is they gave out a bunch of bolts to people at a discount, and had a bunch more people order them with discount codes that probably worked even if you didn't have a qualifying TiVo. And a bunch more people who didn't get codes got rebates as well.

And because of poor accounting practices, they can't track down who got what, especially since some people used codes, and got their orders cancelled later (especially for Canadian TiVo users - some people tried and said TiVo could not ship them a unit to Canada, and the order got cancelled). And others who got codes cancelled and reissued because they placed an order, it got cancelled so they placed an order for another one...

I'm guessing they're trying to decide what to do. Either manually go through every order with a discount code and then look up the guy's account and see if and deactivate the right TiVos, or just leave it alone. The first would kick off a bunch of "freeloaders" but at the cost of a massive amount of manpower in having to go through a month's worth of orders, seeing which ones got discounted, and then seeing which accounts were used and all that and then confirming which TiVos to deactivate. Probably take a few people several months to work through it, so maybe one FTE for one year at full salary.

All this time, RoVi's demanding a lot of manpower trying to sort out the guide data, and the merger is still happening internally so who knows who is supposed to get what message and it's all a big mess. Heck, maybe a big decision maker got the email, then got laid off that day due to redundancies and anyone supposed to follow up got moved or laid off so the whole mess is sitting in a TiVo black hole.


----------



## aaronwt

When I ordered online with the code, it wouldn't let me order more than two Bolts. Since I only had two S3 boxes on my account. If I could have ordered more I would have. And then I would have sold the extra ones.

Sent from my Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk


----------



## opus123

I heard some people ordered a bunch more than they were entitled to... but i've no proof that's true. I'm inclined to believe Worf is correct, but that also makes it seem so bizarre they would run the promotion a second time without having a handle on the first one.


----------



## DVR_Dave

opus123 said:


> I heard some people ordered a bunch more than they were entitled to... but i've no proof that's true. I'm inclined to believe Worf is correct, but that also makes it seem so bizarre they would run the promotion a second time without having a handle on the first one.


The first round they used a random promo code (or none if you called in). The second round they used the TSN of a qualifying box as the promo code.


----------



## Welshdog

So I got Google Fiber at the end of January. I stopped using my Earthlink mail account and moved to Gmail. However, I forgot to change the email address with Tivo so I didn't see the Lifetime transfer offer until only recently when I went back to my Earthlink account to check one last time before it permanently deactivated. Sure enough there was the offer from Tivo dated March 30. If I had seen it I probably would have taken advantage as I have a Lifetimed Series 3 that was online during the offer time period.

I wonder if Tivo would still extend the offer to me?


----------



## Sparky1234

Welshdog said:


> So I got Google Fiber at the end of January. I stopped using my Earthlink mail account and moved to Gmail. However, I forgot to change the email address with Tivo so I didn't see the Lifetime transfer offer until only recently when I went back to my Earthlink account to check one last time before it permanently deactivated. Sure enough there was the offer from Tivo dated March 30. If I had seen it I probably would have taken advantage as I have a Lifetimed Series 3 that was online during the offer time period.
> 
> I wonder if Tivo would still extend the offer to me?


LOL! Not?


----------



## atmuscarella

Welshdog said:


> So I got Google Fiber at the end of January. I stopped using my Earthlink mail account and moved to Gmail. However, I forgot to change the email address with Tivo so I didn't see the Lifetime transfer offer until only recently when I went back to my Earthlink account to check one last time before it permanently deactivated. Sure enough there was the offer from Tivo dated March 30. If I had seen it I probably would have taken advantage as I have a Lifetimed Series 3 that was online during the offer time period.
> 
> I wonder if Tivo would still extend the offer to me?


Why wonder? Call them and ask. My guess is they will not give you the deal, but the only way to know is to ask. Post back if you decide to spend the time finding out.


----------



## shwru980r

Welshdog said:


> So I got Google Fiber at the end of January. I stopped using my Earthlink mail account and moved to Gmail. However, I forgot to change the email address with Tivo so I didn't see the Lifetime transfer offer until only recently when I went back to my Earthlink account to check one last time before it permanently deactivated. Sure enough, there was the offer from Tivo dated March 30. If I had seen it I probably would have taken advantage as I have a Lifetimed Series 3 that was online during the offer time period.
> 
> I wonder if Tivo would still extend the offer to me?


Buying a Roamio OTA, plus the proceeds from selling your S3 is comparable to the deal. You can add a cable card slot to the Roamio OTA, if needed. I took the deal on a lifetime S2 that had died a month earlier and would not boot with a different hard drive. I think I would have preferred a Roamio OTA to the Bolt that I got, because of the HDMI connectivity issues with the Bolt. Also, the 30-second skip on the Bolt is much slower than an S3 or S2. It's more like a 50x fast forward. If a show does not have skip mode, then it takes significantly longer to skip over commercials with the 30-second skip. This will be a real bummer when watching football since I like to use the 30-second skip and replay buttons to skip to the beginning of the next play. My main reason for using Tivo is to skip commercials as fast a possible and Tivo slowed down this process for many shows.


----------



## danm628

shwru980r said:


> Buying a Roamio OTA, plus the proceeds from selling your S3 is comparable to the deal. You can add a cable card slot to the Roamio OTA, if needed. I took the deal on a lifetime S2 that had died a month earlier and would not boot with different hard drive. I think I would have preferred a Roamio OTA to the Bolt that I got, because of the HDMI connectivity issues with the Bolt. Also, the 30-second skip on the Bolt is much slower than an S3 or S2. It's more like a 50x fast forward. If a show does not have skip mode, then it takes significantly longer to skip over commercials with the 30-second skip. This will be a real bummer when watching football since I like to use the 30-second skip and replay buttons to skip to the beginning of the next play. My main reason for using Tivo is to skip commercials as fast a possible and Tivo slowed down the process for many shows.


You can switch the Bolt back to the standard 30 second skip without the fast forward. Just do the old select-play-select-3-0-select trick like the older TiVos.


----------



## shwru980r

danm628 said:


> You can switch the Bolt back to the standard 30 second skip without the fast forward. Just do the old select-play-select-3-0-select trick like the older TiVos.


It worked. Thanks.


----------



## Hank

Anyone have a spare S3 OLED remote they no longer need for their de-activated S3 OLED?

Apparently, the white BOLT remote is no longer programmable for my BOSE 3-2-1 sound system (yeah, it's old). But the S3 remote has all the right codes. My S3 remote is, well, let's say "well used".. I'd love to get another, especially one with the 1/2 switch.


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## pdhenry

I have a few old remotes, including with the 1/2 switch, but not specifically an S3 OLED remote. Let me know if you think one would work.


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## Hank

Will do later today.. thanks.


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## JosephB

So, hopping in this thread super late. I just moved back to a cable area and have two Premieres and a TiVo HD all with lifetime and a couple of Minis from when I had a Roamio (no lifetime on the roamio tho)

Any chance that I can get TiVo to let me in on this deal, as late as it might be?

I don't want it to resell, I want a Bolt, but it's only cost effective if I can get cheaper lifetime service. buying a bolt and $15 a month is more expensive than just getting an X1 box


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## Hank

pdhenry said:


> I have a few old remotes, including with the 1/2 switch, but not specifically an S3 OLED remote. Let me know if you think one would work.


This is what I have now, I think it's the Glo Premium remote. Do you (or anyone) have a spare one of these? Thanks.


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## gfweiss

I called TiVo sales last week and asked them that very question. The lady said she wished she could help me but their computer system wouldn't let them do it. Then she added that she expected the offer to come back again at the *end of September!!!!!!* I hope she is right. Her logic was that she expected it every three months - previous offers were March 30th and June 30th so September 30th is next. She made it a point to say that she had no official internal information to confirm this. We'll find out if she is right in three weeks.


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## Mikeguy

JosephB said:


> So, hopping in this thread super late. I just moved back to a cable area and have two Premieres and a TiVo HD all with lifetime and a couple of Minis from when I had a Roamio (no lifetime on the roamio tho)
> 
> Any chance that I can get TiVo to let me in on this deal, as late as it might be?
> 
> I don't want it to resell, I want a Bolt, but it's only cost effective if I can get cheaper lifetime service. buying a bolt and $15 a month is more expensive than just getting an X1 box





gfweiss said:


> I called TiVo sales last week and asked them that very question. The lady said she wished she could help me but their computer system wouldn't let them do it. Then she added that she expected the offer to come back again at the *end of September!!!!!!* I hope she is right. Her logic was that she expected it every three months - previous offers were March 30th and June 30th so September 30th is next. She made it a point to say that she had no official internal information to confirm this. We'll find out if she is right in three weeks.


My guess is that TiVo wants to "retire" Series 2 and 3 boxes, and so I wouldn't be surprised to see another offer. Also, last year, TiVo had a very nice "White sale" starting mid-November or so--only 2+ months away now. I'd keep my eyes open.

I'd also make sure that my Series 2 or 3 box dials into TiVo regularly at this point (monthly is easy to do), as a "live" box typically has been a requirement for upgrade promotions.


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## pdhenry

I didn't know they made a Glow remote with a 1/2 switch.

I have a couple of S2 remotes that I'm no longer using. They have the 1/2, no ABCD buttons but no 'glow' function. I don't know anything about the esoteric TV codes they support. They're not learning remotes (my glow remote without the 1/2 learns but I probably wouldn't just *give* you that one).


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## HerronScott

pdhenry said:


> I didn't know they made a Glow remote with a 1/2 switch.


That was the standard that came with our original 2 S3 OLEDs (Dec 2006/Jan 2007).

Scott


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## pdhenry

OK. I got my Glow from some TiVo promo a couple of years after that.


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## JosephB

Mikeguy said:


> My guess is that TiVo wants to "retire" Series 2 and 3 boxes, and so I wouldn't be surprised to see another offer. Also, last year, TiVo had a very nice "White sale" starting mid-November or so--only 2+ months away now. I'd keep my eyes open.
> 
> I'd also make sure that my Series 2 or 3 box dials into TiVo regularly at this point (monthly is easy to do), as a "live" box typically has been a requirement for upgrade promotions.


I will get it out and checking in tonight then!


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## Hank

pdhenry said:


> (my glow remote without the 1/2 learns but I probably wouldn't just *give* you that one).


I also have a bunch of older S1/S2 remotes... there's a Glo remote on ebay for $50 -- too rich for my blood, i'll just use the separate AV remote as-is for now. Thanks.


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## shwru980r

Mikeguy said:


> My guess is that TiVo wants to "retire" Series 2 and 3 boxes, and so I wouldn't be surprised to see another offer. Also, last year, TiVo had a very nice "White sale" starting mid-November or so--only 2+ months away now. I'd keep my eyes open.
> 
> I'd also make sure that my Series 2 or 3 box dials into TiVo regularly at this point (monthly is easy to do), as a "live" box typically has been a requirement for upgrade promotions.


It seems inefficient to try to retire them so soon after providing updates to them for the new guide data. Lots of people still use CRT TVs and series 2s for satellite. It's a significant saving since there is no charge for the first receiver.


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## Dr_Zoidberg

I made the mistake of not noticing that my S2 DT was off for a long time, and missed out on the chance of replacing it with a Bolt. However, I was able to upgrade/replace my S3 HD with a Bolt when that offer was around. I have turned my S2 DT back on, and it is updating nightly, but I have long since returned the Cable Box it was using to tune for me. 

Anyone think they'll actually Have a November upgrade offer?


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## gfweiss

They have been going every three months. End of March, June, September. I’m hoping for a repeat at the end of December. The September offer did NOT include S2.


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## innocentfreak

I just hope they offer it again for the series 3


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## Mikeguy

Dr_Zoidberg said:


> I made the mistake of not noticing that my S2 DT was off for a long time, and missed out on the chance of replacing it with a Bolt. However, I was able to upgrade/replace my S3 HD with a Bolt when that offer was around. I have turned my S2 DT back on, and it is updating nightly, but I have long since returned the Cable Box it was using to tune for me.
> 
> Anyone think they'll actually Have a November upgrade offer?


I think it likely that the offer will recur in the future; I think that TiVo would like to get as many older boxes "gently" retired as possible. Keep that old box current/dialing-in . . . .


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## bebw

I have a Series two Tivo have been unplugged for so long, not sure I can get it updated enough to work. I think I'll try.

Of the other two, one works but the fan makes a lot of noise so about to go and the other one out. 

Is there a good place to send old Tivos which aren't working? Thanks


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## Mikeguy

bebw said:


> I have a Series two Tivo have been unplugged for so long, not sure I can get it updated enough to work. I think I'll try.
> 
> Of the other two, one works but the fan makes a lot of noise so about to go and the other one out.
> 
> Is there a good place to send old Tivos which aren't working? Thanks


On the possibility that TiVo could have another "buy-out" offer, I'd fire them up and have them connect to TiVo, the sooner the better (you never know what might happen in the future, esp. in Nov. and Dec.).


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## lpwcomp

Mikeguy said:


> On the possibility that TiVo could have another "buy-out" offer, I'd fire them up and have them connect to TiVo, the sooner the better (you never know what might happen in the future, esp. in Nov. and Dec.).


If they were unplugged prior to the Rovi conversion, he might need to install more recent s/w beforehand.


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## Mikeguy

lpwcomp said:


> If they were unplugged prior to the Rovi conversion, he might need to install more recent s/w beforehand.


Yep--the machine will do what needs doing, but it could be a longer process (the machine doing it all) in that case.


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## lpwcomp

Mikeguy said:


> Yep--the machine will do what needs doing, but it could be a longer process (the machine doing it all) in that case.


Based on the problems some people had getting the Mpeg4 enabled s/w on their TiVo HDs, I wouldn't count on an automatic d/l and install of the updated s/w.


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## Mikeguy

lpwcomp said:


> Based on the problems some people had getting the Mpeg4 enabled s/w on their TiVo HDs, I wouldn't count on an automatic d/l and install of the updated s/w.


Could/couldn't be--I had no issue with the upgrade of my Series 2 (and had no idea a major update was taking place, lol).


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## bebw

I had them unplugged for a year one time due to not being at home and it took forever to get them working again. In this case, I've had them unplugged for about five years but might as well try. I'd love to have a working Tivo again. I've been using a machine from my cable provider, so I guess I'll try firing them up...and I'm a 'she'~


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## Mikeguy

bebw said:


> I had them unplugged for a year one time due to not being at home and it took forever to get them working again. In this case, I've had them unplugged for about five years but might as well try. I'd love to have a working Tivo again. I've been using a machine from my cable provider, so I guess I'll try firing them up...and I'm a 'she'~


It may take some time for the software to be updated (there was a major software update a bit over a year ago)--I think that one person posted that it took a few hours, for a box not connected for a long time. But persevere (and the box is doing most of the work)! Also, for purposes of TiVo HQ seeing your box as still active (for any future promotion), simply calling in to the TiVo servers may be enough (but I would try to complete the connection and update, even if it means trying a few times). Good luck, and let us know how it goes--


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