# Roamio OTA (pennywise pound foolish)



## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

So a Roamio OTA ($50) looks like a regular Roamio ($200 now on sale for $150) which is partly disabled. Both cost $540 ($15*3*12) over 3 years or $500 lifetime. The extra price of the regular Roamio will probably be recoverable if you resell in 3 years, and the OTA will be useless if your situation changes and you want cable.

Am I missing something? Is it just pennywise and pound foolish?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Pacomartin said:


> So a Roamio OTA ($50) looks like a regular Roamio ($200 now on sale for $150) which is partly disabled. Both cost $540 ($15*3*12) over 3 years or $500 lifetime. The extra price of the regular Roamio will probably be recoverable if you resell in 3 years, and the OTA will be useless if your situation changes and you want cable.
> 
> Am I missing something? Is it just pennywise and pound foolish?


The OTA Roamio is geared towards people who only want to pay monthly and wouldn't buy lifetime even if it was available. Once you understand that then it becomes easy to understand that most people will look at the $50 cost and consider it a throw away device when they stop using it.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Pacomartin said:


> Am I missing something?


No



Pacomartin said:


> Is it just pennywise and pound foolish?


Yes


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## phone man (Nov 4, 2011)

I was interested until I found out I couldn't carry my $9.99 subscription for OTA only with me but no dice.


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## replaytv (Feb 21, 2011)

I watch a lot of 1/2 hour time shifting when watching the news, so a OTA Roamio without a subscription works out good. I jump back and forth from 4 tuners as commercials come up. For $50 it works out good after starting the service then canceling it before 30 days. During that time I filled the hard drive with yoga and other stretching type of programs that I watch over and over each day. 
I am currently watching the PBS night business report, and when they get to topics I find uninteresting, I put that tuner on pause, and then jump over to the nightly national news, or some other show that I have left on 'pause'. Then I fast forward to the point I want to watch. In that way I don't have to watch segments about shootings, royalty, weather, and other useless #$%^ I have no interest in.


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

replaytv said:


> ... so a OTA Roamio without a subscription works out good...


Very clever. You are probably corporate's worst nightmare, someone who figured out how to make good use of the device for their money losing $50 equipment charge.

I've always felt that there was a market for the "trick play" functions of a DVR.

Did you figure that out before you bought the equipment, after you bought the equipment, or did you read it on a forum?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

There are a lot of people who pay monthly for TiVo service regardless of the device they have because $500 up front for lifetime is just too much. In fact the vast majority of DVR users rent a DVR from their cable company for $20-$50/mo and don't own the equipment at all. While it may make long term economical sense to buy a regular Roamio with lifetime service a lot of people simply can't afford to lay out $650 in one shot. $50 + $15/mo is a lot easier for them to pallet. Those are the target audience for the OTA.


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

Dan203 said:


> There are a lot of people who pay monthly for TiVo service regardless of the device they have because $500 up front for lifetime is just too much.


I understand that companies target prices at people who care about monthly payments instead of overall price. I am not saying that you shouldn't offer the rate.

But a 
1) 3 year note at 9.99% (rate from credit union) for $500 is $16.13/month.
2) 5 year note at 12.75% (rate from credit union) for $650 is $14.71/month.
3) 3 year note at 9.99% (rate from credit union) for $650 is $20.97/month.

But in general, if you were to make this purchase you should buy the Roamio for $200 and $500 lifetime and take a signature loan (option #2 or #3 above). The device is more useful and with a much higher resale value.


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## replaytv (Feb 21, 2011)

Pacomartin said:


> Very clever. You are probably corporate's worst nightmare, someone who figured out how to make good use of the device for their money losing $50 equipment charge.
> 
> I've always felt that there was a market for the "trick play" functions of a DVR.
> 
> Did you figure that out before you bought the equipment, after you bought the equipment, or did you read it on a forum?


Before.

I own a bunch of TiVos with Lifetime or Evaluation, but none of them have over 2 tuners. So I wanted the OTA primarily for the 4 tuners for the 1/2 hour skip feature.

I probably am the only one using a OTA like that, but after reading on this forum, it sounds like a lot of people bought the OTA just to use for a parts box for their Roamios. I myself don't own another Roamio.

On another topic, I have tried to give lifetime TiVos to all my friends and family and none are interested. I guess I am the worst salesperson in the world.


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

replaytv said:


> I probably am the only one using a OTA like that,...


It seems like it would take some planning. You would have to record 2 or 3 hours a day for the first month of things you want to keep for years. So you would have to plan out your recording schedule carefully.

Frankly it never occurred to me to use the four tuners to keep some shows on pause while you circle around at the other stations.

Where I live we only receive one Over the Air HD station with scripted program (PBS). There are 7 standard def stations with religious, business, Spanish children's programs, and some very very old reruns, but they are not the type of networks you normally want to time shift (Heroes and Icons).

While I like PBS, I can watch it on Roku or Chrome, but my 80 year old parents have various degrees of trouble operating Windows and Roku. I thought it would be nice to record PBS as they have no trouble with TiVo interface. But I think $50 +$15/month is a lot to get one channel.

Right now they have cable, but they spend as much money as they do on food. If there is a significant price jump in August, I will have to find an alternative for them.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

If you are committed to the Tivo universe, lifetime is the lower cost, long-term option. However, if you believe a better option will come along (in less than 3+ years), and you are a cord cutter, OTA and monthly could be the better option, as it minimizes your sunk cost.

Either decision may be logical, depending on your assumptions, and not a sign of stupidity.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Pacomartin said:


> I understand that companies target prices at people who care about monthly payments instead of overall price. I am not saying that you shouldn't offer the rate.
> 
> But a
> 1) 3 year note at 9.99% (rate from credit union) for $500 is $16.13/month.
> ...


I understand the economics of it. I've owned at least a dozen TiVos with lifetime over the years. But the average Joe is not going to take out a $650 loan to buy a TiVo to save $0.29/mo. If they don't have the $650 then $50+$15/mo is a viable alternative. As is the $0+$20/mo plans they offer. They're more expensive then lifetime in the long run, but they're still typically cheaper then what you'd pay the cable company for their sh*tty DVR.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

phone man said:


> I was interested until I found out I couldn't carry my $9.99 subscription for OTA only with me but no dice.


Thanks for the post. I have that rate on one of my TiVo's as well, and that is good to know, although I never expected TiVo to ever let me carry it over because it is too good a monthly rate for the Premieres.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

phone man said:


> I was interested until I found out I couldn't carry my $9.99 subscription for OTA only with me but no dice.


TiVo to transferred a 9.99 sub, to a Roamio Basic last week.

The OTA tuner is very good too.
Roamio will tune all Los Angeles OTA channels, connected to a 4 bay bowtie antenna that is indoors!


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Pacomartin said:


> So a Roamio OTA ($50) looks like a regular Roamio ($200 now on sale for $150) which is partly disabled. Both cost $540 ($15*3*12) over 3 years or $500 lifetime. The extra price of the regular Roamio will probably be recoverable if you resell in 3 years, and the OTA will be useless if your situation changes and you want cable.
> 
> Am I missing something? Is it just pennywise and pound foolish?


Correct. The OTA is for people who can't do math.


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## phone man (Nov 4, 2011)

Pound foolish? Maybe. At $9.99 per month since November of 2011, I'm into this for $380 so far. That doesn't include the initial purchase of the Premiere of course. In another year I'll reach the point where the $500 lifetime would have been paid for. My main concern back in 2011 was how long is this Tivo Premiere going to last? Is Lifetime worh it? I was a Time Warner customer for several years. We had more than a few DVR's replaced by TWC in that period of time. Right now I'm having occasional freeze issues with the Tivo. Not sure what's up with that. Possible hard drive problem? Don't know but for now I don't think I'm wasting money by not purchasing Lifetime up front. If the Tivo is reliable beyond the next 12 months then yes I would have been money ahead with Lifetime but $9.99 per month isn't much of a hardship. I still smile knowing I'm not paying TWC $90+ every month.


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## phone man (Nov 4, 2011)

Teeps said:


> TiVo to transferred a 9.99 sub, to a Roamio Basic last week.
> 
> The OTA tuner is very good too.
> Roamio will tune all Los Angeles OTA channels, connected to a 4 bay bowtie antenna that is indoors!


Very curious about that. Were you using a Premiere before the Roamio? I occasionally use my Sony's TV tuner when the two Premier tuners are busy. There are some very weak stations I use for comparison. The Premiere tuner has always been virtually as good as the Sonys. None of the multipath or other issues I read about elsewhere. If the Roamio tuner is better I'd like to see it.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

phone man said:


> I still smile knowing I'm not paying TWC $90+ every month.


Comparing a DVR that only does OTA to a giant pay TV package is a complete false comparison. The appropriate comparison would be Limited Basic, which is usually $12-$18/mo, depending on the market, plus the $20/mo for DVR, again depending on the market. Then subtract out the un-bundling fee for internet, and Limited Basic with a DVR ends up being about $20/mo. Sure, TiVo on OTA is probably a better product and a better experience, but you have to be fair as to what you are comparing. $15/mo plus $50 for TiVo Roamio OTA isn't really any different from $20/mo for a cable DVR, when you can swap out the cable DVR if it breaks. Once you look at a Roamio Basic with Lifetime, then there's an actual cost savings over Limited Basic with a cable DVR.


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

Bigg said:


> Comparing a DVR that only does OTA to a giant pay TV package is a complete false comparison.


OK, my cable company gives you the OTA stations (i.e. "limited basic") for free if you purchase 25 Mbps internet for ($40/mo 1st year, $50/mo, $60/mo years 2 & 3). But they are encrypted.

I presume they do this because you must pay at least $10 per TV to unencrypt the TV signal. For $30/mo the cable company offers a TV Series4 500 Gb with 4 tuners and a mini. I presume this last option is the most popular, so people have nearly doubled their first year payment.

Now I can't get anything but PBS with an antenna. But presuming I was located somewhere with better signal, do I have the option of using a mini with Roamio OTA, or do I have to purchase two of them? Presumably I would still want internet.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The Mini works with the Roamio OTA.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Pacomartin said:


> OK, my cable company gives you the OTA stations (i.e. "limited basic") for free if you purchase 25 Mbps internet for ($40/mo 1st year, $50/mo, $60/mo years 2 & 3). But they are encrypted.
> 
> I presume they do this because you must pay at least $10 per TV to unencrypt the TV signal. For $30/mo the cable company offers a TV Series4 500 Gb with 4 tuners and a mini. I presume this last option is the most popular, so people have nearly doubled their first year payment.
> 
> Now I can't get anything but PBS with an antenna. But presuming I was located somewhere with better signal, do I have the option of using a mini with Roamio OTA, or do I have to purchase two of them? Presumably I would still want internet.


Could you get those channels for no additional cost with the CableCard? That would be a good deal with a Roamio Basic then for those who only want basic channels.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

phone man said:


> Very curious about that. Were you using a Premiere before the Roamio? I occasionally use my Sony's TV tuner when the two Premier tuners are busy. There are some very weak stations I use for comparison. The Premiere tuner has always been virtually as good as the Sonys. None of the multipath or other issues I read about elsewhere. If the Roamio tuner is better I'd like to see it.


I have a Premiere XL4, but it does not tune OTA.
I was using a Series 3 648250 and MhHD 130 pc card. 
Neither would tune channels 7, 9, 11 or 13 after the digital conversion was complete.
The Roamio Basic does so I'm happy. 
Saves me from buying and installing a new OTA antenna.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Pacomartin said:


> OK, my cable company gives you the OTA stations (i.e. "limited basic") for free if you purchase 25 Mbps internet for ($40/mo 1st year, $50/mo, $60/mo years 2 & 3). But they are encrypted.
> 
> I presume they do this because you must pay at least $10 per TV to unencrypt the TV signal. For $30/mo the cable company offers a TV Series4 500 Gb with 4 tuners and a mini. I presume this last option is the most popular, so people have nearly doubled their first year payment


CableCARDs are cheaper then DTAs. Most cable companies only charge $2-3/mo for them. And with Minis you only need one to feed several TVs.


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## im2blue (Jan 2, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> There are a lot of people who pay monthly for TiVo service regardless of the device they have because $500 up front for lifetime is just too much. In fact the vast majority of DVR users rent a DVR from their cable company for $20-$50/mo and don't own the equipment at all. While it may make long term economical sense to buy a regular Roamio with lifetime service a lot of people simply can't afford to lay out $650 in one shot. $50 + $15/mo is a lot easier for them to pallet. Those are the target audience for the OTA.


While I can see that being an issue for some folks, for me the OTA just makes good sense BC "we will never ever get back together" with TWC/Comcast. maybe I'll shelve the Tivo OTA and get back in bed with DirecTV and if that's the case then I'm only out $49.99 and a really nice OTA Antenna.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

Bigg said:


> Correct. The OTA is for people who can't do math.


If buying lifetime is absolutely not an option in the budget, the choices are $200 up front plus $15 per month or $50 up front plus $15 per month. OTA always comes out $150 better in that scenario. (Obviously the $0 down $20 per month option costs more than the OTA after 10 months.)


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## phone man (Nov 4, 2011)

im2blue said:


> While I can see that being an issue for some folks, for me the OTA just makes good sense BC "we will never ever get back together" with TWC/Comcast. maybe I'll shelve the Tivo OTA and get back in bed with DirecTV and if that's the case then I'm only out $49.99 and a really nice OTA Antenna.


Exactly! I cut the catv cord because the content was so bad and so many reruns. I was not getting my money's worth IMHO.
I seriously doubt I'll ever be a catv or sat tv subscriber again. And I can draw direct comparisons in cost when I never watched 90% of those channels. A smorgasbord isn't such a great deal if you aren't very hungry or the food is terrible


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

dcline414 said:


> If buying lifetime is absolutely not an option in the budget, the choices are $200 up front plus $15 per month or $50 up front plus $15 per month. OTA always comes out $150 better in that scenario. (Obviously the $0 down $20 per month option costs more than the OTA after 10 months.)


For people who can do math, $700 up front and $0/mo is a much better deal than either of those two options. And if they can't afford a TiVo, they shouldn't be buying a TiVo. Channelmaster has a much cheaper option for recording OTA, and there's also MCE if you have an old PC laying around.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

Bigg said:


> For people who can do math, $700 up front and $0/mo is a much better deal than either of those two options. And if they can't afford a TiVo, they shouldn't be buying a TiVo. Channelmaster has a much cheaper option for recording OTA, and there's also MCE if you have an old PC laying around.


Don't forget that you can convert to lifetime in the future--while lifetime is not an option up front on the OTA, there is no reason to think that they wouldn't take your money down the road to retain you as a customer, the same way you can pay $99 for lifetime service on a Premiere today. Might have slightly lower resale value, but should be enough to cover the $50 investment.

And just because you can't afford the equivalent of a mortgage payment on day one doesn't mean you can't afford Tivo.


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## DawnW (Nov 28, 2008)

And if you want more than one TV hooked up, you would def. be better off paying the $700 and getting minis than doing two or three OTA boxes and paying $15 each on them.

Dawn



Bigg said:


> For people who can do math, $700 up front and $0/mo is a much better deal than either of those two options. And if they can't afford a TiVo, they shouldn't be buying a TiVo. Channelmaster has a much cheaper option for recording OTA, and there's also MCE if you have an old PC laying around.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

DawnW said:


> And if you want more than one TV hooked up, you would def. be better off paying the $700 and getting minis than doing two or three OTA boxes and paying $15 each on them.
> 
> Dawn


Mini works with OTA... incorrect info at launch started the rumor that it didn't.


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## phone man (Nov 4, 2011)

dcline414 said:


> Don't forget that you can convert to lifetime in the future--while lifetime is not an option up front on the OTA, there is no reason to think that they wouldn't take your money down the road to retain you as a customer, the same way you can pay $99 for lifetime service on a Premiere today. Might have slightly lower resale value, but should be enough to cover the $50 investment.
> 
> And just because you can't afford the equivalent of a mortgage payment on day one doesn't mean you can't afford Tivo.


Thank you for pointing out the $99 lifetime possibility for my Premiere. I've had the premiere just over three years at $9.99 per month. Today I called and confirmed my eligibility for $99 lifetime. They said yes. So, as of this month, no more monthly Tivo charges. Total subscription paid to Tivo since Nov 2011 including the $99 lifetime purchase... $469.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

phone man said:


> Pound foolish? Maybe. At $9.99 per month since November of 2011, I'm into this for $380 so far. That doesn't include the initial purchase of the Premiere of course. In another year I'll reach the point where the $500 lifetime would have been paid for.


AS was said, monthly is for people bad at math.


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

Bigg said:


> Could you get those channels for no additional cost with the CableCard? That would be a good deal with a Roamio Basic then for those who only want basic channels.


I believe that you can. There is a $4 Broadcast TV Surcharge, a $2 Sports TV Surcharge and a $2 Franchise Fee, but you could avoid the equipment charges by renting a cableCARD for $2.

The big incentive to lease the TiVos from RCN, rather than retail TiVos with $2 cableCARD is that you lose the free Video on Demand (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Univision, UniMas, but not CBS and CW). Plus if your TiVo goes bad, the cable company will swap it out. Frankly I think people will pay $30 rent for two TV's rather than $15 to Tivo + $2 for cableCARD. In addition they frequently discount the equipment rental for the first 1-3 years to lure you in.

I think RCN figures if they can get any equipment in your house, there is at least the possibility that you will get HBO, Showtime, Starz through them.


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## phone man (Nov 4, 2011)

trip1eX said:


> AS was said, monthly is for people bad at math.


I read that. I also read that not everyone has $650-700 to plunk down on a new Tivo and lifetime subscription. That was my situation in 2011. Paying monthly for three years and then buying lifetime for $99 saved me $30 over buying lifetime from the start. Pretty good for someone who's "bad at math"


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

trip1eX said:


> AS was said, monthly is for people bad at math.


Well, $500 for lifetime upfront or $15 a month for 36 months is $540. At that point TiVo *should *offer you lifetime for $99. If you pay the $99, and can sell the equipment for $140, then you can view it as free financing.

But frankly it is just bad form for TiVo to collect $15 forever. They should automatically give you lifetime at 5 years on the argument that 5*12*$15=$900. That way the sap would get something for re-sale


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

phone man said:


> I read that. I also read that not everyone has $650-700 to plunk down on a new Tivo and lifetime subscription. That was my situation in 2011. Paying monthly for three years and then buying lifetime for $99 saved me $30 over buying lifetime from the start. Pretty good for someone who's "bad at math"


Well if you're bad at math then it always comes out to whatever you want it to come out at. And there's no telling you different.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

trip1eX said:


> Well if you're bad at math then it always comes out to whatever you want it to come out at. And there's no telling you different.


Let's all agree that if you have the capital up front then lifetime is always the best way to go.

If you cut the cord because you are on the Dave Ramsey program and paying down debt, not running it up, then $15 per month is way better than $60+ per month for cable. A $700 investment to save $60 per month would be counterproductive to the goal of aggressively paying down debt.

Once all our debt is paid off then we will be able to enjoy things like a $900 Roamio Pro w/ lifetime and premium cable package... all debt free.


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## houman (Aug 2, 2007)

I was thinking about this discussion in the morning. Currently I am with a Tivo HD w/ lifetime and I've been thinking to get the Roamio basic with lifetime as an upgrade (returned the Pro when I realized it wouldn't do OTA). 

Then experimenting with the new TV's tuner this morning, I decided to unplug the Tivo HD altogether since the PQ was much better on the Samsung, and thought that the only shows I record lately are:
The Blacklist
Arrow
The Flash
The 100
Big Bang Theory (but I am starting to dislike the show)

Taking the last one out, all those shows are available on Hulu+ the day after airing. So theoretically if I didn't want to record sports games, then the Tivo is pretty much useless to me.

Going back to the $15 a month. I am pretty much sure, "some" people would be better off just getting Hulu/Netflix for that price (I know it's a bit more). Of course if you add Amazon Prime and if you had a Smart TV/Roku/Apple TV combination then really the Tivo becomes useless for those set of people...

Just a thought...


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

phone man said:


> I read that. I also read that not everyone has $650-700 to plunk down on a new Tivo and lifetime subscription. That was my situation in 2011. Paying monthly for three years and then buying lifetime for $99 saved me $30 over buying lifetime from the start. Pretty good for someone who's "bad at math"


If you bought a Premiere in 2011 and paid 3 years of monthly service and then $99 for lifetime, the only way that could have cost less than buying the Premiere with lifetime from the start was if you got the $10/mo OTA only promotion deal and you are comparing that to lifetime at $500 which no one had to pay as there was (and still is) a $100 of lifetime discount code (PLSR). All that said that OTA only $10/mo service for a $100 Premiere was a very good deal.


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## moedaman (Aug 21, 2012)

houman said:


> I was thinking about this discussion in the morning. Currently I am with a Tivo HD w/ lifetime and I've been thinking to get the Roamio basic with lifetime as an upgrade (returned the Pro when I realized it wouldn't do OTA).
> 
> Then experimenting with the new TV's tuner this morning, I decided to unplug the Tivo HD altogether since the PQ was much better on the Samsung, and thought that the only shows I record lately are:
> The Blacklist
> ...


The big problem (for me at least) is that you can't skip the ads from Hulu. And if you go to the network sites to watch programing not available on Hulu, the ads are even worse. I've been using a dvr of some kind (started with a Panasonic dvd recorder w/hdd and TVGOS) since 2005. I've grown to hate ads in that time. While I do subscribe to Hulu Plus (for anime and other things not available elsewhere) I sure wouldn't want to depend on it as a dvr solution.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

houman said:


> ... Tivo becomes useless for those set of people...
> 
> Just a thought...


I agree TiVo is primarily a DVR if you don't want/need a DVR there is NO reason to buy a TiVo. IF all one needs/wants is a streaming device you can buy several that do better at streaming than TiVo for under $100.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

dcline414 said:


> And just because you can't afford the equivalent of a mortgage payment on day one doesn't mean you can't afford Tivo.


You can't count on an offer later on down the road that may or may not come. And yes, it does mean you can't afford it. The cell phone companies are doing the same thing with financing programs. If you can't afford a $650 phone, you can't afford a $650 phone. Period. But they keep pushing them down people's throats, even when there are pretty decent phones that you can buy outright for $200, like my Moto G. I certainly could have afforded to drop $650 on a new phone, but it's also my 3rd phone, and is sort of a toy, so I'm rather happy with it, and eventually I'll probably get a $650 Android phone and pass this one on to someone else.



trip1eX said:


> AS was said, monthly is for people bad at math.


Correct.



Pacomartin said:


> I believe that you can. There is a $4 Broadcast TV Surcharge, a $2 Sports TV Surcharge and a $2 Franchise Fee, but you could avoid the equipment charges by renting a cableCARD for $2.


Do you only have to pay the broadcast fee if there is a box connected? That's sort of a weird way of billing, although it's possible. The Sports fee wouldn't apply to limited basic, since there's no ESPN, RSNs, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, etc.



> The big incentive to lease the TiVos from RCN, rather than retail TiVos with $2 cableCARD is that you lose the free Video on Demand.


Yeah, VOD sucks anyway. I have it through Comcast, and it never gets used. If you really wanted RCN VOD, you could rent one Premiere, and link it with the rest of the house on owned TiVos and use that one TV if for some reason you had to access VOD once in a blue moon.



> I think RCN figures if they can get any equipment in your house, there is at least the possibility that you will get HBO, Showtime, Starz through them.


That might be part of it, part of it also is sub numbers for their shareholder reports. I think that's why Comcast is getting so aggressive with phone service, and basically bundling it at $10-$20/mo. It's still profitable for them, but the biggest thing is that they can add more sub numbers to their reports.



dcline414 said:


> Let's all agree that if you have the capital up front then lifetime is always the best way to go.
> 
> If you cut the cord because you are on the Dave Ramsey program and paying down debt, not running it up, then $15 per month is way better than $60+ per month for cable. A $700 investment to save $60 per month would be counterproductive to the goal of aggressively paying down debt.
> 
> Once all our debt is paid off then we will be able to enjoy things like a $900 Roamio Pro w/ lifetime and premium cable package... all debt free.


Or, instead of buying something you can't/don't want to afford, you could go on Ebay and buy a Premiere with Lifetime and use that instead. Or buy something cheaper like the Channel Master DVR. Or if you can get the money together, do that instead of paying down debt, and then pay more debt down in the following months, and you'll come out ahead in the end.

Although the kind of person who has toxic consumer debt likely isn't the person who's very good with math and making consumer decisions in the first place. The only kinds of debt that are any good as future investments are mortgages and student loans. Everything else ranges from mediocre, like car debt, to just toxic, like credit cards. I don't believe in financing cars, paying monthly for TiVo, or borrowing money for anything else except school and real estate.

The whole cord cutting discussion and money hinges a lot on that market you're in. If you have one cable company and U-Verse internet available, U-Verse internet and OTA might save you close to $100/mo over having cable. If you're in an area with a cable company and FIOS, you might only end up saving $40/mo or less, since they bundle so aggressively and you can bounce from 2-year deal to 2-year deal if cost if your main objective. Or use the cable company to threaten Verizon to get cheaper rates from them.


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