# Time to sell my Tivo...



## comdw (Jan 22, 2002)

Well after years of good service I'm sorry to have to let my beloved Tivo go. Been using MCE for about a year now with Tivo as a backup, but MCE has proved reliable enough that I haven't touched the Tivo for ages (plus you can download most missed TV these days anyway).

If anyone's interested in a 120GB Tivo with Turbonet, you'll find it listed on ebay

Would be good to see it go to a good home, someone who appreciates it and can use it to the full potential.


----------



## Nero2 (Aug 22, 2005)

Has it got a lifetime sub?


----------



## comdw (Jan 22, 2002)

Yep, got it lifetime subbed when I bought it!


----------



## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Good time of the year to sell it in terms of likely demand and especially as most of the Sky HD adopters have now long since sold their heavily upgraded Tivos.

I'm sure you will get around £200 or so for it.

If I was building a Windows MCE desktop PC anyway I would certainly consider it as a Tivo alternative but my lifestyle dictates that I use a Notebook PC and that is not suitable as a Windows MCE tv recorder.

In those circumstances I see no advantage in then spending £500 or so on another PC box when my existing upgraded Tivo does basically all of the same things. If I was starting from scratch and did not own a Tivo then clearly my view might well be different.


----------



## comdw (Jan 22, 2002)

Hopefully... unfortunately someone else listed an almost identical spec unit finishing just 3 hours after mine. Still mine has bids already, the other one doesn't yet.

Once I had an LCD TV it made much more sense to feed it with a high resolution signal from a PC. The upscaling, combined with direct signal recording of freeview (i.e. not re-encoded) makes for a much better picture than Tivo gives via SCART.


----------



## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

comdw said:


> Hopefully... unfortunately someone else listed an almost identical spec unit finishing just 3 hours after mine. Still mine has bids already, the other one doesn't yet.


The Lifetime Tivo listing closing within 3 hours of yours only has the original 40Gb hard drive though and doesn't have a Turbonet card (or therefore Tivoweb installed) and says in his listing:-



> This Tivo has a lifetime subscription paid up (worth approx 190.00) and although *not used for 6 months *(due to a move and only selling because I now have Sky+) powers up and runs set up when tested yesterday with no problem.* I will try to find the IR blaster and Sky plus connection link, both of which are optional extras and not necessary for operation * and which I purchased separately


The lack of a Turbonet card and no upgraded drive together make that Tivo a lot less attractive than yours plus the fact that he describes the IR blaster, which is apparently missing, as an optional extra makes one suspicious he is a house clearer and not actually the original owner at all. The fact that he shows a PC type monitor sitting on top of the Tivo only reinforces this impression. You of course show a screen with Lifetime Sub status that is much more reassuring to most potential buyers (not least it because anyone in dispute through Paypal very firm ammunition).

Non upgraded Lifetime Sub Tivos are two a penny. Tivos with larger hard drives and any form of network card installed are much thinner on the ground these days now most of the Sky+ upgraders have got rid of their Tivos.


----------



## mrtickle (Aug 26, 2001)

Pete77 said:


> plus the fact that he describes the IR blaster, which is apparently missing, as an optional extra makes one suspicious he is a house clearer and not actually the original owner at all.


Well I think it's just poor wording. He is talking about two things that he purchased separately which are optional extras. One could be something like this:
http://www.pacelink.co.uk/rf2link.htm
and I suspect that the thing he's calling the "ir blaster" is one of the devices which plugs in and sends "backup" once per minute. Which is why he says they were purchased separately - they are.

As opposed to the IR emitters which TiVo uses for channel-changing which are called the IR emitters everywhere in TiVo's literature, but for some reason people on this forum call them IR blasters (which is confusing and wrong really, because TiVo's IR blaster is built into its front panel and is the alternate way of changing channels).


----------



## comdw (Jan 22, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> The Lifetime Tivo listing closing within 3 hours of yours only has the original 40Gb hard drive though and doesn't have a Turbonet card (or therefore Tivoweb installed) and says in his listing....


At the time I was just thinking the lifetime sub is all people are really paying for (or the most important part of it). On examining the other listing closer I should hope I do have a higher selling price.


----------



## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

comdw said:


> At the time I was just thinking the lifetime sub is all people are really paying for (or the most important part of it). On examining the other listing closer I should hope I do have a higher selling price.


A lot of Tivos on Ebay are bought by people reading this forum so they do appreciate the extra value of a Turbonet card etc.

Also there are plenty of people who know that having to install the new hard drive and the Turbonet card is the hard part but who do have enough PC knowledge to feel they can run a Tivo that has already had this done for them.

Also you are selling at at time when supplies of modified Tivos being sold on Ebay have largely dried up. There was quite a glut of them back in the Spring and Summer.


----------



## ericd121 (Dec 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> The fact that he shows a PC type monitor sitting on top of the Tivo only reinforces this impression.


This image is being used on two separate auctions by two different sellers!

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put the item numbers, so delete these if need be:
one is the one Pete's referring to;
the other one has a starting time is 12 hours earlier.

Perhaps Pete's instincts were right;
I certainly wouldn't be happy bidding on an item that didn't have a unique original image.


----------

