# Considering Tivo - Existing Mediacom DVR customer... ??'s



## ArcticFamily (Dec 9, 2012)

Hello all,
I am an existing Mediacom customer who's paying their DVR/digital fees.
I'd like to stop paying mediacom for the DVR and associated fees that go with it.

We will have two primary TV locations... Family room in the basement w/ the biggest TV and where I plan to put a Tivo. However, we will still have a TV in the main floor living room where we'll also watch TV.

Is there a way to utilize the recorded content on the basement TiVo and watch it on the main floor TV?


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## replaytv (Feb 21, 2011)

I don't use that feature myself, but if you are paying for service on the TiVo or have lifetime service and have a wireless or wired network with your computer, I have read that you can share shows with your computer and your other TiVos. And I think I read that you can even share shows with other people that have TiVos. 
http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/161


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

There are several ways to use tivo in a whole home situation. Multiple tivo's networked together or running an hdmi or component video cable to the other tv from the tivo along with a remote control solution are two.

In the future, Tivo plans to ship the Mini which will be an extender for second tvs in the home. Not available yet and some level of discussion of which Tivo's will actually support the device.


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## scole250 (Nov 8, 2005)

Isn't Mediacom one of the cable co's that signed a deal with Tivo to use their DVR platform. When will the Tivo DVRs be available thru Mediacom?


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

ArcticFamily said:


> Is there a way to utilize the recorded content on the basement TiVo and watch it on the main floor TV?


There is a not-released product yet that will supposedly allow this. Nobody knows yet if it will be available for purchase, or just through cable companies.

Others have given other "solutions".. you could download shows to a computer and then watch them on a TV that way.. that's hokey. Tivo Stream will allow you to watch on an iOS device (and eventually Android?).

These only work with the newest Tivo platform (Premiere). The newest of those is cable only, no OTA.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

A tivo Premiere will do anything a mini is supposed to be able to do in the future and still have its own tuners and storage available. We are only talking about possible difference in price between the two. Premiere is available for $449 one time payment and the mini will likely be in the $220 range. The Premiere also holds MUCH more resale value long term. For the diffrence in capabilities, it might prove worth the extra cost to use a Premiere for the remote sets rather than the not yet available and unknown bugs mini.

I made the decision to quit waiting on mini's over the weekend and bought Tivo #3.

The units work very well networked together.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

jcthorne said:


> A tivo Premiere will do anything a mini is supposed to be able to do in the future and still have its own tuners and storage available.


Not quite. It's my understanding that the Mini works as a sort of remote portal to the host TiVo, which means you should be able to manage the To Do List, SPs, schedule recordings, etc... from the Mini. You can't do that with two TiVos. All the recording management and scheduling stuff you do on one TiVo will only effects the TiVo you're actively using.

Now whether that's enough to make you wait... I don't know. Depends on your situation.

Also since the Mini's aren't for sale yet, and we have no official indication how much they'll cost, there is no way you can say that a Premiere will hold "MUCH more resale value". It really is going to depend if they have a service fee or not. Right now a Premiere doesn't really hold much resale value unless it has lifetime service. If Mini's have service fees then one with lifetime will likely hold it's value well, while one without wont. Just like a Premiere. Now the market for a used Mini might be smaller, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wont hold it's value.

Dan


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

If the mini has a subscription fee on top of the hardware, it will be DOA in the market.

My statement about resale value was based on historic trends of all Tivo's with lifetime service vs all tivo accessories.

I do not see the mini being able to manage subcriptions, to do lists etc for all the tivos in the household, only the one its connected to.

I would not want to try to manage this stuff from the tivo anyway. Use kmttg for most all management tasks now and it sees all the tivos on the network and works to assit with any conflict resolution needed. 

A premiere does not need to schedule recordings on a remote tivo, it can record them itself locally. Something the mini cannot do. Adding tuners and recording space to the network is the additional functionality I was speaking of that makes the use of a premiere on a remote tv rather than a mini a viable option.

In the end, one can accomplish most of the same things either way. The Premiere is available now, the mini is not and its full capabilities and hinderences are not known. We do know it will not have its own tuner nor will it work with systems using OTA delivery. The mini SHOULD be cheaper than a base model Premiere with lifetime.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

I've been a Mediacom customer for a loooong time (ever since they took over from Cox in our area). I've never used their DVRs, but I will say Mediacom works well with TiVos using CableCARDS....


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

jcthorne said:


> If the mini has a subscription fee on top of the hardware, it will be DOA in the market.
> 
> My statement about resale value was based on historic trends of all Tivo's with lifetime service vs all tivo accessories.
> 
> ...


The difference is that the Mini will be an extension of the host TiVo. So if you have an XL4/Mini combination then anything you schedule to record will be recoded by the host. So you only have one To Do List and one set of Season Passes to manage. With a multiple TiVo setup you can only manage the local TiVo, so if you're in the bedroom and want to schedule something on the TiVo in the living room you have to physically go to the living room TV to do that. (or use the app on a mobile device) I think, for most people, having a single To Do List and set of Season Passes that can be managed from any TV in the house is a simpler setup.

As for the subscription on the Mini... I think it all depends on price. If the Mini is $49 with a $5/mo subscription or the option to add lifetime for $199 then it would sell fine. And just like real TiVos the ones with lifetime would retain more of their value.

Dan


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

You are right of course.

The way we use our networked tivos gets around most of that however. Only the theater room tivo with its 2TB drive holds the recordings. The other units do live tv or MRS to watch recordings on the main unit. IE one NPL.

All recordings on the remote tivos, are automaticly moved to the main unit by kmttg. This is recordings that were done because of conflict resolution (main unit busy and offloaded to a remote) or scheduled by a user at the remote tivo. End result is one SP list to manage, and one NPL for the whole home.

Not perfect and yes Tivo should manage the NPL and SPL but until they do, this works and we have tivo at all 5 of our television sets using 3 networked Tivos.


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