# Tivo Roamio with lifetime $300????



## DawnW (Nov 28, 2008)

Thinking of maybe getting another one at this price. I paid far more for my Tivo with lifetime a year or so ago.

Anyone else jumping and adding a spare or back up?

$50 refurbished
$250 lifetime

https://www.tivo.com/shop/promo/supersavings


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## DawnW (Nov 28, 2008)

Oh, you know, I bought a Tivo Roamio with lifetime almost a year ago and paid $399. I just looked at my purchase history.

I guess in my mind I was remembering more, but I think that is because I also bought minis at the same time.

Maybe this isn't the best deal. But better than the non-sale price.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

Even in these days of crazy low consumer electronics prices, I didn't think we would see a 4-tuner 500GB TiVo with lifetime for $300 from TiVo. I won't speculate we won't see it with the next model but I sure wouldn't bet on it. Will 4K be a must have feature in the near future? That is the only reluctance I would have.


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## Spike_KK (Apr 6, 2005)

I'm in for a refurb Roamio w Lifetime - total $300 is good enough for me!


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## DawnW (Nov 28, 2008)

What is a 4K?

See, I don't even know if I need one!

Dawn



Chris Gerhard said:


> Even in these days of crazy low consumer electronics prices, I didn't think we would see a 4-tuner 500GB TiVo with lifetime for $300 from TiVo. I won't speculate we won't see it with the next model but I sure wouldn't bet on it. Will 4K be a must have feature in the near future? That is the only reluctance I would have.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

DawnW said:


> Thinking of maybe getting another one at this price. I paid far more for my Tivo with lifetime a year or so ago.
> 
> Anyone else jumping and adding a spare or back up?
> 
> ...


This promo has been going on for quite a while now and is rumored to be about to end, perhaps around 9/21. There is a huge thread here with many posts from people who took the deal -- which is a great one:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507790
I took the deal two weeks ago and I'm quite happy with it.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

DawnW said:


> What is a 4K?
> 
> See, I don't even know if I need one!
> 
> Dawn


It's a new standard for even higher resolution TV. (4x HD resolution) It requires a new TV and as of right now the only content is from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. It's probably going to be a couple years before we see anyone broadcasting 4k because the bandwidth required exceeds what's available for OTA and requires a significant chunk for a cable system. Plus all the equipment is super expensive on the broadcast side.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> It's a new standard for even higher resolution TV. (4x HD resolution) It requires a new TV and as of right now the only content is from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. It's probably going to be a couple years before we see anyone broadcasting 4k because the bandwidth required exceeds what's available for OTA and requires a significant chunk for a cable system. Plus all the equipment is super expensive on the broadcast side.


I'm going to skip right to 8k.


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## NickTheGreat (Aug 31, 2015)

The $300 deal brought me from the Standalone Philips/Maggies to the Tivo World. HD and 5.1 baby!!!


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## DawnW (Nov 28, 2008)

Ah, I haven't been around in a while. I got the promo in my inbox.

I figured there must be a thread about it but didn't see it right away.



dlfl said:


> This promo has been going on for quite a while now and is rumored to be about to end, perhaps around 9/21. There is a huge thread here with many posts from people who took the deal -- which is a great one:
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507790
> I took the deal two weeks ago and I'm quite happy with it.


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## 1985BearsFan (Sep 15, 2013)

DawnW said:


> Thinking of maybe getting another one at this price. I paid far more for my Tivo with lifetime a year or so ago.
> 
> Anyone else jumping and adding a spare or back up?
> 
> ...


I decided this offer was too good to pass up and took advantage of it earlier this week. The plan is to replace one of my aging TiVo HDs with the base Roamio, which should arrive tomorrow. I'm also going to upgrade the internal HD to a 3TB drive.


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## DawnW (Nov 28, 2008)

Is it easy to designate minis to roamios if you have more than one?


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

DawnW said:


> Is it easy to designate minis to roamios if you have more than one?


Guided Setup for the Mini includes choosing the box to grab a tuner from when watching live TV. The Mini then acts almost as if it were the attached box, using the same One Pass (a.k.a Season Pass) list, To Do list, and TiVo Central. If you add new One Pass entries, they will appear on the connected TiVo. One thing you can't do with a Mini is cycle through the tuners, and the Info button does not let you access a list of tuners as it does on the Roamio.

Other Roamio/Premiere/whatever TiVos on the same network will appear at the bottom of the "My Shows" list, and you can play anything recorded on any of the TiVos. You can also pause in one room and resume in another.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

snerd said:


> You can also pause in one room and resume in another.


That's very nice.


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## Welshdog (Jan 4, 2005)

This seems like a great deal, but I'm in a bit of a pickle. I bought a Roamio Pro with Lifetime last September when one of our Series 3 units was dying - right before the new fall shows natch. Total price was around $1000 with an extended warranty. I also got Time Warner to lower our bill and installed a CableCard and tuning adapter. I still have one Series three that records OTA. We also have a Tivo Mini in one bedroom. Everything has worked just fine.

But of course, Time Warner can't leave us alone. The have just raised the bill again. In the last 10 years I think they have raised rates here in Austin at least 8 times. Plus, they have changed their system to a fully digital signal that is not compatible with digital tuners in TVs. This means that each regular TV must have a "digital adapter" connected in order to get any picture at all. For now these boxes are free, but they will charge $2.75 each per month next year. I also get my Earthlink Internet service through TWC and that went up $7 recently - not sure who raised that item.

I am seriously considering cutting the cable but for Internet service. I could get this Tivo deal and sell the Roamio Pro. Then I drop cable and save probably $75 a month Using the new Roamio for OTA and the streaming services. I could then add Hulu Pro to compliment our Netflix and Amazon Prime. With all those services I would still be way under what I am paying TWC. Seems like a good idea, but I am still unsure. I'll take a bit of a hit on the Roamio, but should be able to get $800 on Ebay.

Anyone else tried something like this? Is it working for you? Is Tivo having a fire sale before they release something that is going to be so great, I'll be kicking myself? Again.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Welshdog said:


> Anyone else tried something like this? Is it working for you? Is Tivo having a fire sale before they release something that is going to be so great, I'll be kicking myself? Again.


I'd suggest that this *IS* the fire sale on the OTA and base model.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Welshdog said:


> Anyone else tried something like this? Is it working for you?


I did something similar earlier this year. I wasn't using a TiVo with cable but rather had DirecTV with their Genie DVR. With the proliferation of standalone streaming services, I decided I'd join the cord-cutting trend, so I dumped DirecTV and went with an OTA antenna and a new Roamio OTA with lifetime service which I got for $300 when TiVo was running a semi-secret experimental sale this past spring.

Overall, I'm happy with the decision. Whether you'll be happy probably depends on what you like to watch. I found that my "appointment TV," the shows I really cared about and made a point to watch regularly, were almost entirely on either the broadcast nets (ABC, Fox, etc.) or premium cable (Showtime and HBO). I'm a very casual sports viewer, so didn't care much about ESPN, and I'm not a TV news junkie, so I'm ok without Fox News or CNN. There are non-scripted types of shows on HGTV, Travel, History, Food, etc. that I would watch on cable but no must-see series there. In my mind, I thought of cord-cutting as trading all those basic cable channels I mostly just channel surfed through (USA, TBS, FX, AMC, HGTV, Food, etc.) in exchange for Netflix and Amazon Prime, which are increasingly offering premium cable-quality original series plus some good movies. In addition, they also tend to carry a lot of those basic cable shows about a year after they air on TV, so I still have access to stuff like Love It or List It, Mythbusters, Man vs. Food, etc. I subscribe to the Showtime and HBO streaming services on my Apple TV (hopefully those apps get added to TiVo soon) and I'm enjoying a free trial of Hulu now too. (I'll probably switch between Netflix and Hulu for a few months at a time going forward.) For 24-hr live news, I can turn to CBSN on my Apple TV.

So what I spend on TV + internet is now about half what it was before I cut the cord. I honestly feel like I now have access to more TV that I care about than I did before. My biggest gripe is that Showtime and HBO, where many of my favorite shows reside, are disconnected from the rest of my TV watching on the TiVo.

If I were in your shoes, I'd spend your $300 on the factory-refurbished Roamio base model with lifetime rather than a new Roamio OTA. People say the refurbs are like new (this has always been my experience with factory refurb stuff) and that model gives you the option to return to cable if you ever decide to. I will say that I've spent far more time than I would have liked trying different OTA antennas in various spots before finding a good solution. If you had reception problems, you could always go with the most basic tier of cable TV service (which is just your local channels) for little money, but you'd need the base Roamio, not Roamio OTA, for that.

Oh, and as for the new TiVo Bolt model that will soon roll out, the main thing it will likely add is UHD ("4K") streaming from Netflix, Amazon, etc. If you don't have a UHD TV, it wouldn't benefit you. Other than that, probably only incremental improvements, like maybe a slightly faster system, bigger hard drive, etc. I'd be surprised, though, if you can pick one up with lifetime for $300, ESPECIALLY one that will work with both cable and OTA, like the base model Roamio.


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## Welshdog (Jan 4, 2005)

NashGuy said:


> So what I spend on TV + internet is now about half what it was before I cut the cord. I honestly feel like I now have access to more TV that I care about than I did before. My biggest gripe is that Showtime and HBO, where many of my favorite shows reside, are disconnected from the rest of my TV watching on the TiVo.


I think I feel the same way as you. As far as Showtime and HBO we already watch those through Netflix discs (1 at a time) and that let's us see the wonderful cutting edge stuff those networks create. One year behind everyone else, but I don't care.

The only trick now is to convince my wife that we can do this and that she can live without Food network and Project Runway and The Walking Dead.


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## TazExprez (May 31, 2014)

krkaufman said:


> I'd suggest that this *IS* the fire sale on the OTA and base model.


The heading in this link and the banner ad on the TiVo website main page are kind of a red hot color.


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## TazExprez (May 31, 2014)

NashGuy said:


> If I were in your shoes, I'd spend your $300 on the factory-refurbished Roamio base model with lifetime rather than a new Roamio OTA. People say the refurbs are like new (this has always been my experience with factory refurb stuff) and that model gives you the option to return to cable if you ever decide to. I will say that I've spent far more time than I would have liked trying different OTA antennas in various spots before finding a good solution. If you had reception problems, you could always go with the most basic tier of cable TV service (which is just your local channels) for little money, but you'd need the base Roamio, not Roamio OTA, for that.


I bought two refurbished Roamio Base boxes and one looks brand new and the other looks almost brand new. The one that is looks brand new has absolutely no markings on it. It looks like the plastic covers were never even removed. The one that is almost brand new has a tiny hairline scratch on the bottom of the unit. This was probably caused by the person putting the plastic covering on and using a blade directly on the unit. It also has a small smudge on the top left side that probably came from the sticky residue that is possibly from the plastic cover itself. Both units have been working flawlessly for about three weeks now, after Verizon finally activated and paired the CCs correctly.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Welshdog said:


> I think I feel the same way as you. As far as Showtime and HBO we already watch those through Netflix discs (1 at a time) and that let's us see the wonderful cutting edge stuff those networks create. One year behind everyone else, but I don't care.
> 
> The only trick now is to convince my wife that we can do this and that she can live without Food network and Project Runway and The Walking Dead.


Yeah. You can buy entire seasons of shows on Vudu. The Walking Dead eps are available there the same day or next day after they air on AMC, I think. Although, at $42 for the full season, you're probably not going to want to buy lots of shows that way. But for one or two, you can still come out ahead of paying for cable TV.


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## Barnstormer (Sep 23, 2015)

I bought one last week, the Roamio OTA with the lifetime subscription for $300. And it is setup and working. What a great device! Previously, I was using a Homeworx 150 which actually worked OK, but the interface was for geeks, and it was easy for me to make mistakes when I programmed in a show to record.


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## mickinct (Sep 14, 2015)

Barnstormer said:


> I bought one last week, the Roamio OTA with the lifetime subscription for $300. And it is setup and working. What a great device! Previously, I was using a Homeworx 150 which actually worked OK, but the interface was for geeks, and it was easy for me to make mistakes when I programmed in a show to record.


hi upgrade the hdd to 3tb


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Barnstormer said:


> I bought one last week, the Roamio OTA with the lifetime subscription for $300. And it is setup and working. What a great device! Previously, I was using a Homeworx 150 which actually worked OK, but the interface was for geeks, and it was easy for me to make mistakes when I programmed in a show to record.


Congratulations on joining the TiVo quagmire! 

I do wonder why you didn't go for the refurb Roamio for the same cost since it offers the ability to use a cablecard, should you decide to try that option in the future?


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