# Is the difference between TiVo premiere and HD big?



## m_ghuloum (Nov 29, 2009)

Is the difference between TiVo premiere and HD big? My TiVo HD box is less than a year old.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

In my opinion, no, not at this point. Premiere is a decent box for new customers or Series 2 owners. Those with Series3 or HD units aren't missing much.


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> In my opinion, no, not at this point. Premiere is a decent box for new customers or Series 2 owners. Those with Series3 or HD units aren't missing much.


Or series 1 owners.


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## m_ghuloum (Nov 29, 2009)

Thanks ..


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

The only functional "significant" difference I've found is in SD menu speed. No big deal, but my HDXL units now seem a bit slow.


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

Series 3, and hd work most of the time. Premier is still in beta.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Videodrome said:


> Series 3, and hd work most of the time. Premier is still in beta.


For many of us, the Premiere works all the time. Just like the Series 3 did and the series 2 did.


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## alokkola (Apr 18, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> For many of us, the Premiere works all the time. Just like the Series 3 did and the series 2 did.


What Tivo did with Premiere is similar to what Microsoft did with Vista. It "works as a basic DVR" but leaves a lot to be desired!! Older Tivos delivered on their promise but Premiere is a DUD.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

alokkola said:


> What Tivo did with Premiere is similar to what Microsoft did with Vista. It "works as a basic DVR" but leaves a lot to be desired!! Older Tivos delivered on their promise but Premiere is a DUD.


Vista was excellent for me on the 6+ PCs I had it on. And Win7 is even better.
Vista was many times better than XP was. And I had no issues with Vista like I did with XP.


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## alokkola (Apr 18, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> Vista was excellent for me on the 6+ PCs I had it on. And Win7 is even better.
> Vista was many times better than XP was. And I had no issues with Vista like I did with XP.


I guess some people are different. You might like Vista more than XP but this article will give you a reality check. Here it what "most people" in the world think of it.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/its-official-windows-7-is-a-hit-and-xp-is-finally-in-decline/2324

Anyhow, I was a diehard fan of Tivo and still agree there is no DVR better than a Tivo but the fact is Premiere is a DUD I have waited for 4 months for Tivo's Premiere promise "Millions of possibilities, one screen, one remote, one box". My $700 (300 for box and 400 for lifetime) is a total waste and I will go back to my TivoHD. I will sell you my Premiere box in a heartbeat and will give you a 10% discount for my 4 month used Premiere.


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## bsmith1051 (Nov 15, 2009)

m_ghuloum said:


> Is the difference between TiVo premiere and HD big?


With only a few exceptions the only difference is the *future promise* of the Premiere. I don't think it's as well-built as the HD but only time will tell on that point. It's got a much faster processor but the new software (to take advantage of that) is incomplete and effectively 'beta' quality -- albeit a usable beta!

I've owned just about every model of Tivo since the S1 so I decided to 'take the leap' with the Premiere. After selling my S3+Lifetime I expect the whole upgrade to only cost me about $100.


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> Vista was excellent for me on the 6+ PCs I had it on. And Win7 is even better.
> Vista was many times better than XP was. And I had no issues with Vista like I did with XP.


Don't you ever get tired of "everything is wonderful!" ?????


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## simon7 (Mar 26, 2008)

aaronwt said:


> Vista was excellent for me on the 6+ PCs I had it on. And Win7 is even better.
> Vista was many times better than XP was. And I had no issues with Vista like I did with XP.


Really? I mean, really? The Vista/Premiere analogy is brilliant. They both are bloated, slow, and disappointing. Hopefully Tivo releases a Windows 7 before they alienate their fan base.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

ltxi said:


> Don't you ever get tired of "everything is wonderful!" ?????


If you were getting paid you would not get tired of "everything is wonderful!"


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

lessd said:


> If you were getting paid you would not get tired of "everything is wonderful!"


Paid by whom?

My Vista statements are based on my personal experience with at least six of my PCs running Vista and those same PCs that were running WinXP. 
I now haven eight PCs running Windows 7.

Most people's Vista problems were from their graphics drivers. I make sure all my drivers are fine before installing them, so I don't typically have any issues with them.

I had only one minor issue with Vista. when I would would delete thousands of files at one time it would take a long time. that was fixed with the service pack. Otherwise I had zero issues. No Nvidia graphics issues nothing. Unlike my XP machines which had many problems. Of course XP was excellent when compared to WinME or Win95.
And Win95 was great when comapred to Windows 3.1. I used all those Operatings systems on multiple PCs over the years.

And of course Win7 is even better than Vista.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ltxi said:


> Don't you ever get tired of "everything is wonderful!" ?????


I just don't have issues with my electronic devices very often. that has always been the case going back to the early 1980's when I first started buying my electronic devices from mailorder. Which was replaced by the Internet in 1995.

Of course I always did my research before buying any of my electronics which helps in what to purchase. But I grew up in an electronics family. We had a TV in every room in the early 70's, and also had many electronics devices when they were first available since my Dad got them at cost from working part time at an electronics/TV store. Or people would balk at the $200+ cost to repair something in the 70's so he would fix it himself with of course his free labor and bring it home.


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## alokkola (Apr 18, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> Paid by whom?


Would you mind telling us how much did you pay for the Premiere and how many of those did you buy because for me it is about the money? I spent $700 (300 for box and 400 for lifetime) and if Tivo had give me me the same for $400, I would be all gaga!!



m_ghuloum said:


> Is the difference between TiVo premiere and HD big? My TiVo HD box is less than a year old.


For for OP!! Premiere Hardware is awesome but as you must have heard a million times by now, the HDUI software is POS so you have to switch to SDUI. If you have a single Tivo, like I do, you won't even benefit from the faster networking. I use Premiere with SDUI and for me it is like TivoHD on steroids. Of course there is some benefit from the larger HardDrive. Other than that it is NOT an upgrade from TivoHD.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

alokkola said:


> Would you mind telling us how much did you pay for the Premiere and how many of those did you buy because for me it is about the money? I spent $700 (300 for box and 400 for lifetime) and if Tivo had give me me the same for $400, I would be all gaga!!
> 
> .......


I had nine S3/tiVoHd units including one TiVoHD with no service.
I used the generous upgrade offers. so with my S3 Lifetime units, i could upgrade to a regular Premiere with Lifetime and a 3 year extended warranty for around $554 after tax. Then I got back around $50 for each from fatwallet bringing that total close to $500. And i sold my old S3 Lifetime units(or gave away) for between $400 and $500. And sold my non Lifetime units and non service unit too.

For a premiere Xl with lifetime(and 3 yr extended warranty) the cost was around $740 after taxes and then I got back $60 from Fatwallet. So I got six Premieres with Lifetime and two without. I sold my old S3 units and two of my Premieres to cover the cost of the remaining six. I got around $640 for an unopened lifetime Premiere.

Bottom line, with the generous upgrade offer TiVo had, plus with me selling/giving away my old S3/TiVoHD units, the Premieres cost me close to nothing. Which is why I upgraded all my units to Premieres. The offer was to good to pass up. And I am so glad I did since I can't stand using an S3 tiVo any more.

My only problem was I initially did not plan on upgrading the internal drives so i purchased two XL units. But in the end I did purchase two Upgrade drives from DvR Dude. I would Have saved money if I had not purchased the XL units and had just purchased the regular version and a 1TB drive from DVR_Dude.
But those drives were not available back then either so I could only base my purchase on info available at the time.


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## alokkola (Apr 18, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> Bottom line, with the generous upgrade offer TiVo had, plus with me selling/giving away my old S3/TiVoHD units, the Premieres cost me close to nothing. Which is why I upgraded all my units to Premieres. The offer was to good to pass up. And I am so glad I did since I can't stand using an S3 tiVo any more.


My point exactly. Tivo helped you upgrade to Premiere for a cost, which is "close to nothing". If I was in the same situation as you are, I too would go around defending Premiere. But try convincing someone to spend $700 for a new Premiere with Lifetime. I am one of those who had TivoHD on monthly basis and in all excitement I upgraded and now I am regretting. I did not return it within 30 days because I had high hopes from Tivo on the fixes.


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## Jeeters (Feb 25, 2003)

alokkola said:


> Would you mind telling us how much did you pay for the Premiere and how many of those did you buy because for me it is about the money? I spent $700 (300 for box and 400 for lifetime) and if Tivo had give me me the same for $400, I would be all gaga!!.


TiVo has a current promotion where those with an old Tivo can upgrade to a Premiere with Lifetime for $468. If the old TiVo already has lifetime, it can keep it. (Although I'd be willing to give up the lifetime on my old HD for even more of a discount.)


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

alokkola said:


> What Tivo did with Premiere is similar to what Microsoft did with Vista. It "works as a basic DVR" but leaves a lot to be desired!! Older Tivos delivered on their promise but Premiere is a DUD.


Agreed.


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

alokkola said:


> My point exactly. Tivo helped you upgrade to Premiere for a cost, which is "close to nothing". If I was in the same situation as you are, I too would go around defending Premiere. But try convincing someone to spend $700 for a new Premiere with Lifetime. I am one of those who had TivoHD on monthly basis and in all excitement I upgraded and now I am regretting. I did not return it within 30 days because I had high hopes from Tivo on the fixes.


I was in the same boat. When I called to cancel within the 30 day window, I was offered another 30 days in which to cancel. I decided not to take a change that the CS rep was blowing smoke and canceled anyway. If or when they actually get the Premiere working at the level it was advertised for, I may try again. But for now I am happy with my THD.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

gamo62 said:


> I was in the same boat. When I called to cancel within the 30 day window, I was offered another 30 days in which to cancel. I decided not to take a change that the CS rep was blowing smoke and canceled anyway. If or when they actually get the Premiere working at the level it was advertised for, I may try again. But for now I am happy with my THD.


+1


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Jeeters said:


> TiVo has a current promotion where those with an old Tivo can upgrade to a Premiere with Lifetime for $468. If the old TiVo already has lifetime, it can keep it. (Although I'd be willing to give up the lifetime on my old HD for even more of a discount.)


They also have factory renewed Premieres available for $199 now.
The best thing to do if you want multiple TiVos is to get one off ebay with lifetime service for your first TiVo. Then you will qualify for the multi service discount. And you can get the others directly from TiVo or from ebay again.

The prices on ebay are pretty good right now. I am holding off selling my last Premiere since the prices are currently depressed. I'll look again during the holidays to see if it's worth me selling it. If not then I'll sell it to someone I know for a good price.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

alokkola said:


> My point exactly. Tivo helped you upgrade to Premiere for a cost, which is "close to nothing". If I was in the same situation as you are, I too would go around defending Premiere. But try convincing someone to spend $700 for a new Premiere with Lifetime. I am one of those who had TivoHD on monthly basis and in all excitement I upgraded and now I am regretting. I did not return it within 30 days because I had high hopes from Tivo on the fixes.


Me defending my Premieres has nothing to do with the price I paid for them. I defend them because all my Premieres work well for me. If they did not, then I would say so as well.

If someone was having issues and even if they got the Premieres for free, why would they say anything otherwise? That would make no sense.


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## alokkola (Apr 18, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> If someone was having issues and even if they got the Premieres for free, why would they say anything otherwise? That would make no sense.


I can prove it to you why it makes sense. Give me your Premiere with Lifetime for free or even $300 and then I give you my word I will never complain about Premiere ever again  and I will join you in praising how awesome Premiere is and all the amazing features it offers. Knowing that I paid $700 and you paid "close to nothing" for the same DUD makes all the difference.

Well no one from Tivo seems to care what I say here and it won't change a thing. So this is my last comment to you. I just cannot believe how can anyone defend a disaster like Premiere but I can see the reasons now.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

alokkola said:


> I can prove it to you why it makes sense. Give me your Premiere with Lifetime for free or even $300 and then I give you my word I will never complain about Premiere ever again  and I will join you in praising how awesome Premiere is and all the amazing features it offers. Knowing that I paid $700 and you paid "close to nothing" for the same DUD makes all the difference.
> 
> Well no one from Tivo seems to care what I say here and it won't change a thing. So this is my last comment to you. I just cannot believe how can anyone defend a disaster like Premiere but I can see the reasons now.


I guess I have better morals than you. No one is going to make me lie about any product i own. Or pay me to be silent. if it's good I'm going to say it's good, if it's bad I'm going to say it's bad.

If I were having problems with my premieres, everyone would know about. I've had plenty of issues in the past, but not with the actual boxes, problems with TiVo support/customer service and I cetainly did not hold back when posting about it here.

But bottom line I can only go by my own experiences with the Premieres. I use them every single day, and mine are not rebooting(although I did make it reboot once on purpose with netflix by pulling the ethernet cable) or freezing.
They have been just as relaible as all the TiVos I've used since 2001.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> I guess I have better morals than you. No one is going to make me lie about any product i own. Or pay me to be silent. if it's good I'm going to say it's good, if it's bad I'm going to say it's bad.
> 
> If I were having problems with my premieres, everyone would know about. I've had plenty of issues in the past, but not with the actual boxes, problems with TiVo support/customer service and I cetainly did not hold back when posting about it here.
> 
> ...


I would love to come to your home with my Premiere and put it next to yours and compare the operation, it hard to believe that your TPs are sooo much better than the one i got, or waiting a seconds between commands doesn't bother you, and you don't care about a re-boot or two (yes i know you don't have re-boots), I guess we all have our own definition of what satisfies us OR you got TP that work great and I did not ((TiVo does not like me so they sent me the B units when you (and a few others) got the A units))


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

lessd said:


> I would love to come to your home with my Premiere and put it next to yours and compare the operation, it hard to believe that your TPs are sooo much better than the one i got, or waiting a seconds between commands doesn't bother you, and you don't care about a re-boot or two (yes i know you don't have re-boots), I guess we all have our own definition of what satisfies us OR you got TP that work great and I did not ((TiVo does not like me so they sent me the B units when you (and a few others) got the A units))


Well for one, do you use it with an internet connection with 99.999% uptime like I have?(only minutes of downtime during the last thirty six months on FiOS) Do you have five Multi stream Motorola cable cards on FiOS? Do you have an OTA connection like me? Do you have a gigabit backbone? etc
All these factors might make a difference.

Obviously some people have problems and some don't. And there has to be a reason for that. I just know that I have now used seven Premieres at home, all with the same environment and all seven have been very consistent in how they work. Now all those Premieres were also made within two weeks of each other so maybe that is also a factor. I have no idea, I can only speak for what I have seen with *my *Premieres.

And I check for reboots from my router log. When it hands out the IP I've assigned for my TiVos it shows up in the log. So the only reboots I see are for the TiVos I'm using for other stuff.
seconds between commands is ambiguous. Some things are almost instant and some things might take a few seconds depending on what is being done. What I do not see is a spinning green circle for 10, 20, 30 seconds etc.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> Well for one, do you use it with an internet connection with 99.999% uptime like I have?(only minutes of downtime during the last thirty six months on FiOS) Do you have five Multi stream Motorola cable cards on FiOS? Do you have an OTA connection like me? Do you have a gigabit backbone? etc
> All these factors might make a difference.
> 
> Obviously some people have problems and some don't. And there has to be a reason for that. I just know that I have now used seven Premieres at home, all with the same environment and all seven have been very consistent in how they work. Now all those Premieres were also made within two weeks of each other so maybe that is also a factor. I have no idea, I can only speak for what I have seen with *my *Premieres.
> ...


I have used only the TiVo wireless adapter on my Comcast Internet service (about 16Mb download speed) using a Netgear WNDR3700 router, all my TiVos are on fixed IP addresses, my TiVo Series 3 works without any frustration on my part, if i need to change out my Internet service, router, and TiVo wireless adapter to get acceptable service on the TPXL, my TPXL will stay in the closet. My Internet has gone down about once every 2 to 3 months at about 2am for Comcast repairs/upgrades, in the last 5 years it went out once in the afternoon for about an hour, and that was about 3 years ago.
You have much more network experience than i do, but to operate any TiVo I should not need that type of network expertise, that what Plug&Play is all about.


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## yunlin12 (Mar 15, 2003)

What I like about my Premier XL over my Tivo HD
1) HDUI, fast enough since 14.5
2) Nicer looking slimmer than my Tivo HD
3) Faster SD menu than my Tivo HD
4) quieter than my Tivo HD, much. I don't know what some people say that the Premier is not as well built, I think it's much better built than Tivo HD
5) alphabetic entry with USB keyboard

Is it worth the $745 I paid to get a lifetime XL unit? It replaced a Tivo S3 which was coming off it's service plan anyway, so take away the $300 for the lifetime I would have to pay anyway, I just paid $450 for the box, for me it's OK. Mine hasn't rebooted since May and has worked equally well as my Tivo HD, if not counting the slightly faster SD menu.

If you already have working and paid-for S3 or THD's then no way you need to buy a Premier/XL. But if you need a new HD-capable Tivo, then Premier is everything that S3/THD is, and a little better, and getting better every 1-2 months, for pretty similar prices, so why not?


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