# Looking to re-enter the TiVO world.



## Gregavi (Jan 19, 2003)

Hi everyone,
I was an early TiVO owner. I owned an HDR312 almost 20 years ago. I haven't owned one for many years though but have followed the company's progress over the years. I live in Santa Barbara, which is beautiful but as far as cable companies go, we have only one choice. Cox Cable (which I, like almost every customer they have, hate!). I have their Contour 2 DVR which is actually pretty good. The voice command feature works pretty well and over all, I'm pretty satisfied. I'm pretty sure it has 5 tuners. I have one mother box in my media room and one slave box in my living room. Both work pretty well. I also use their internet service.
I previously had DirecTV with their Genie DVR. The mother box was fine but the slave box was horrible. Every remote command was sluggish at best. Good riddance when I switched to Cox. Cox's slave box works as well as the mother box. The problem I have with Cox is their price increases keep mounting. When I switched from DTV to Cox, they promised me a certain per month amount that would hold for a year, go up 10% the following year and beyond that there were no promises. I was OK with that. It was a good deal. After a few months, I noticed an increase and in a few more months, another increase. Next thing I know, I'm paying almost double what the original promise was. I called a few times and got the runaround before finally giving up.
Here we are today and I'm looking to drop Cox, go back to DTV and purchase a TiVO so I don't have to put up with a substandard DVR. My question is, which TiVO system, new or used, should I be looking at. Mother box and 1 slave box. I don't want to spend a ton of money on this system but would like something similar to my Contour 2 in performance. I believe the my Contour 2 has 2 TB of storage. Advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance.


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## rie28 (May 14, 2017)

I don't know if someone is still using DTV for their TiVo. Series 3 boxes and below cannot be activated/re-activated for older devices. How about stay with Cox and only pay for CableCard, does CableCard cost a lot? You can then purchase a newer TiVo Main DVR and get a TiVo Mini(Slave).


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## powrcow (Sep 27, 2010)

You can find some information about DirecTV TiVos here: THR22 DIRECTV HD TiVo DVR - Upgraded with up to 300 HD Hours. You will have to pay extra for the TiVo DVR service ($5/month?). It also sounds like the whole-home DVR service is not available with DirecTV TiVo. There's also no on demand.

Be warned that AT&T/DirecTV really wants you to buy their Genie DVRs.

I have a TiVo Premiere on Cox. It requires a cable card ($2.50/month) and a Digital Tuning Adapter (free, but almost the size of the TiVo). Cox prices keep on increasing but so do DirecTV's.


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## jpierce237 (Oct 19, 2007)

Don't. They're forcing commercials on us shortly. If they implement it, do what many of us will do, look elsewhere.


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## tenthplanet (Mar 5, 2004)

Beware the FUD, most of so called Tivo alternatives are OTA only. If you want cable stick with a Tivo. Every service is raising/will raise prices because the people who own the content are raising theirs.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

OP wants to dump cable and go to DirecTV satellite. It's really hard to make a case for Tivo in that scenario.


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## Trekkor2010 (Aug 29, 2019)

Gregavi said:


> Hi everyone,
> I was an early TiVO owner. I owned an HDR312 almost 20 years ago. I haven't owned one for many years though but have followed the company's progress over the years. I live in Santa Barbara, which is beautiful but as far as cable companies go, we have only one choice. Cox Cable (which I, like almost every customer they have, hate!). I have their Contour 2 DVR which is actually pretty good. The voice command feature works pretty well and over all, I'm pretty satisfied. I'm pretty sure it has 5 tuners. I have one mother box in my media room and one slave box in my living room. Both work pretty well. I also use their internet service.
> I previously had DirecTV with their Genie DVR. The mother box was fine but the slave box was horrible. Every remote command was sluggish at best. Good riddance when I switched to Cox. Cox's slave box works as well as the mother box. The problem I have with Cox is their price increases keep mounting. When I switched from DTV to Cox, they promised me a certain per month amount that would hold for a year, go up 10% the following year and beyond that there were no promises. I was OK with that. It was a good deal. After a few months, I noticed an increase and in a few more months, another increase. Next thing I know, I'm paying almost double what the original promise was. I called a few times and got the runaround before finally giving up.
> Here we are today and I'm looking to drop Cox, go back to DTV and purchase a TiVO so I don't have to put up with a substandard DVR. My question is, which TiVO system, new or used, should I be looking at. Mother box and 1 slave box. I don't want to spend a ton of money on this system but would like something similar to my Contour 2 in performance. I believe the my Contour 2 has 2 TB of storage. Advice appreciated.
> Thanks in advance.


Don't waste your money on an outdated service model with TIVO. I also had TIVO's for years in the nineties with Directv, and then started using the non-TIVO DVRs supplied by ATT Uverse and the later Directv when TIVO couldn't make deals with them to provide their units. The non-TIVo units were not quite as polished and capable but provided probably 90% of the TIVO capability. In 2015 I decided to try to cut the cord and bought a Bolt OTA (500GB). When i called ATT to cancel, they gave me such a great deal for Directv that it made no sense to use the Bolt and pay for the separate subscriptions to Hulu ($12/Hulu On-Demand without ads) Netflix($9-15/month), HBO ($15/month), Showtime ($12), etc. Plus, internet fees. My $70/month Directv fee was a bargain. And Directv was super easy to use for my wife and mother-in-law. Since I had bought the Bolt, I kept using it for the next year to see if I could wean myself off Directv. But the TIVO solution was still too complicated for my family to use comfortably. And the only advantage it offered was higher quality OTA local channels. So I canceled my Tivo service. That's when I found out that TIVO *won't let you **manually* *record* an OTA channel (like a simple VCR). So I have worthless DVR that I paid $250 for. I find it insulting that I have 20 year old VCRs that I can still use to manually record a program (standard definition), but NOT my TIVO DVR.
Then I was able to buy an Amazon Firestick for $25 and get lots of HD streaming content for *NO *additional cost with my Prime membership. Plus I bought an Amazon Recast with 1TB hard drive for $179.00 (on Prime Black Friday) that provides and records OTA channels. *With NO subscription fee*. And it is fully integrated with the Amazon Prime Video system. And you can stream your recordings to your phone or PC while you travel. The video is 720p. It is rumored it will be increased to 1080p. It has 4 tuners (but the channel you watch counts as one of the tuners). Plus, you can attach an external hard drive.
It is a little clunky to use and get used to, but my family has been using Amazon Prime for a couple of years now, and are not afraid of the streaming experience.
Today, I canceled Directv, and we are now just on the Amazon Recast and Firestick solution. I did Tivo to check on re-subscribing I was told I would have to pay $15/month ($150/year) with a one year commitment, just to be able to use the guide and to record on the DVR that I bought. Or I can buy another new Bolt for $250 and pay $6.99/month (requires a yearly commitment), $69.99/year, *All-In *$249.99. Or $350 for a new Edge and the same subscription fees. 
Now keep in mind, the ONLY programming provided by the TIVO is the OTA local channels. And their guide service. Any other programming you have to pay for separately with the provider (HBO, Netflix, Hulu, etc). For what TIVO wants, I can pay for Netflix or Hulu.
So, as much as I like Tivo, I have no idea why people would stay with them. Ebay is full of worthless TIVO's that will be going to the landfill. Because people know that $15/month for a guide and permission to record on a DVR they bought and paid for can be better spent on a subscription for programming.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Trekkor2010 said:


> That's when I found out that TIVO *won't let you **manually* *record* an OTA channel (like a simple VCR).


Of course you can (albeit, it's done with electronic settings and not physical buttons).


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## pfiagra (Oct 13, 2014)

Mikeguy said:


> Of course you can (albeit, it's done with electronic settings and not physical buttons).


I think Trekkor2010 is complaining that he can't manually record after cancelling his service.

Also not certain his memory is accurate as he states "I also had TIVO's for years in the nineties" when TiVo didn't introduce the first DVR until January 1999.


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

Gregavi said:


> Hi everyone,
> I was an early TiVO owner. I owned an HDR312 almost 20 years ago. I haven't owned one for many years though but have followed the company's progress over the years. I live in Santa Barbara, which is beautiful but as far as cable companies go, we have only one choice. Cox Cable (which I, like almost every customer they have, hate!). I have their Contour 2 DVR which is actually pretty good. The voice command feature works pretty well and over all, I'm pretty satisfied. I'm pretty sure it has 5 tuners. I have one mother box in my media room and one slave box in my living room. Both work pretty well. I also use their internet service.
> I previously had DirecTV with their Genie DVR. The mother box was fine but the slave box was horrible. Every remote command was sluggish at best. Good riddance when I switched to Cox. Cox's slave box works as well as the mother box. The problem I have with Cox is their price increases keep mounting. When I switched from DTV to Cox, they promised me a certain per month amount that would hold for a year, go up 10% the following year and beyond that there were no promises. I was OK with that. It was a good deal. After a few months, I noticed an increase and in a few more months, another increase. Next thing I know, I'm paying almost double what the original promise was. I called a few times and got the runaround before finally giving up.
> Here we are today and I'm looking to drop Cox, go back to DTV and purchase a TiVO so I don't have to put up with a substandard DVR. My question is, which TiVO system, new or used, should I be looking at. Mother box and 1 slave box. I don't want to spend a ton of money on this system but would like something similar to my Contour 2 in performance. I believe the my Contour 2 has 2 TB of storage. Advice appreciated.
> Thanks in advance.


Bolt+ with minis are your best choice.


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## Trekkor2010 (Aug 29, 2019)

Mikeguy said:


> Of course you can (albeit, it's done with electronic settings and not physical buttons).


Thanks MikeGuy. I have been unable to find anyway to use the Bolt to record without having a subscription. I can use it to view broadcast OTA channels with pause and rewind, but cannot record. I understand not being able to use the TIVO guide to search and schedule a recording without paying for the service. But there are times I would like to "hit the record button" to catch something while viewing, or just tell it to start recording at 7:00 on channel 8 for an hour. Like a VCR.


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## Trekkor2010 (Aug 29, 2019)

pfiagra said:


> I think Trekkor2010 is complaining that he can't manually record after cancelling his service.
> 
> Also not certain his memory is accurate as he states "I also had TIVO's for years in the nineties" when TiVo didn't introduce the first DVR until January 1999.


Thanks for jogging my memory! I guess it was early 2000s when I started using the Directv TiVo. I never owned one that I bought straight from TIVO. Just the ones from Directv. Until the Bolt.


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