# How much was Lifetime service in 1999?



## Evilmumrah (Dec 15, 2002)

The subject line says it all.


----------



## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

Back in 1999 i was with directv and i bought 2 tivos at circuit city for $99.00 each and i think i paid $199.00 for lifetime service which i think included both tivos!


----------



## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

$199 was probably the cost of lifetime service for a stand-alone TiVo back in 1999. On May 1, 2001 it was raised to $249. At some point in the future it was raised to $299 and around 2005 they stopped offering it altogether (though would occasionally have special offers where it was available for a short time).

The DirecTV TiVo lifetime service was sold for $199, and it covered all the receivers on your account, and was attached to your account, not the receiver.


----------



## eatswodo (Nov 28, 2000)

I'm also pretty sure it was $199 back then - I had lifetime on my original Series 1.


----------



## heyted (Mar 4, 2012)

In 2012, lifetime service is $150 (on a simple.tv dvr  ).


----------



## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Celtic and Doug have it right. I paid $199 for lifetime on our 1st S1 in June 2000 and $249 for lifetime in our our 2nd S1 in May 2002. We transferred both of those lifetime activations to S3 OLED units for $199 each in January 2007. 

Coming up on 6 years now and still happy with both!

Scott


----------



## Leon WIlkinson (Feb 13, 2000)

My 30GB TiVo was IIRC $899 + $199


----------



## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

HerronScott said:


> Celtic and Doug have it right. I paid $199 for lifetime on our 1st S1 in June 2000 and $249 for lifetime in our our 2nd S1 in May 2002. We transferred both of those lifetime activations to S3 OLED units for $199 each in January 2007.
> 
> Coming up on 6 years now and still happy with both!
> 
> Scott


The OP is asking about 1999. What you paid the next year and the rest of your life story isn't relevant to the question.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Well lifetime was not alot back in 1999 but the TiVos were extremely expensive. That is the reason I never got a TiVo when they first came out. And I only got TiVo as an after thought when I got DirecTV and found out how inexpensive the TiVos were. Especially since I was able to buy ten, and sell seven to cover the cost of the three DirecTV TiVos I kept including upgrading them.


----------



## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

I won my 1st TiVo in an essay contest & believe I paid $99 for lifetime on it. I then bought another standalone with lifetime service & think I paid $198 for both the unit & lifetime service. After that, I started buying DirecTiVos when they first came out & paid $99 for lifetime then bought others that I haven't had to pay any fees on. 
I'm grateful that I saw the advertisement in a magazine & decided to enter the contest.


----------



## ah30k (Jan 9, 2006)

scandia101 said:


> The OP is asking about 1999. What you paid the next year and the rest of your life story isn't relevant to the question.


Just as irrelevant as your post.


----------



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Just look at post # 3 that is the OPs answer


----------



## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

Maybe we can get Tivo to party like it's 1999 and roll back prices.


----------



## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

ah30k said:


> Just as irrelevant as your post.


Just like your post, my post is relevant to the post I was responding to, which wasn't relevant to the post he was responding to.


----------



## aepman (Oct 3, 2000)

Well, on the bright side, post 15 makes all the other posts seem more relevent than they originally did.


----------



## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

aepman said:


> Well, on the bright side, post 15 makes all the other posts seem more relevent than they originally did.


Yes, but now a statement classifying the relative relevance of post #15 is almost as irrelevant as my commentary about the relevance of post #16.


----------



## MurrayJimW (Apr 21, 2004)

$199... I've still got a series one running with lifetime originally purchased in '99. It's been modded with a network card so it doesn't need a phone line, but it's still happily doing its job after all these years...


----------



## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

MurrayJimW said:


> $199... I've still got a series one running with lifetime originally purchased in '99. It's been modded with a network card so it doesn't need a phone line, but it's still happily doing its job after all these years...


Yeah, I bet that Tivo didn't expect the boxes to last this long. Two of my introductory boxes were S1s with Turbonet cards that I sold within the past year.


----------



## Evilmumrah (Dec 15, 2002)

Thanks for all the replies. Especially relevant are the ones about how relevant everything was. LOL


----------



## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

Evilmumrah said:


> Thanks for all the replies. Especially relevant are the ones about how relevant everything was. LOL


You could always enlighten us by letting us know why it mattered to you what lifetime cost in the past? Did you buy it? Did you not but wish you did? Are you writing the definitive history book of the DVR ?


----------



## WO312 (Jan 24, 2003)

I got lifetime for $99, on two boxes. IIRC correctly, it was late Nov. 2000 and Tivo had a $100 off sale on lifetime. Those were the good old days.


----------



## Evilmumrah (Dec 15, 2002)

smbaker said:


> You could always enlighten us by letting us know why it mattered to you what lifetime cost in the past? Did you buy it? Did you not but wish you did? Are you writing the definitive history book of the DVR ?


Nope. I bought two boxes -- one in 1999 and one in 2001. For some reason my husband, who keeps track of literally everything, didn't keep track of that. I get to transfer the older one to a new box and just wondered how much that was worth then. Sadly, the other one is not transferable so I am probably going to go month-to-month on a new box. I am leaving DirecTV and have two new boxes on order.


----------



## mr_smits (Dec 17, 2009)

heyted said:


> In 2012, lifetime service is $150 (on a simple.tv dvr  ).


I had never heard of simple.tv. Besides the low price, it allows remote streaming (like Slingbox) and it allows in house streaming to more devices than just iOS devices:



> At launch, Simple.TV will have apps for the following platforms:
> Roku
> iPad*
> Your PC desktop browser (Chrome and Firefox only)
> ...


Source: http://support.simple.tv/customer/p...what-playback-devices-will-simple-tv-support-

Android support is still missing right now, but Roku and desktop browser playback? Yes, please.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

mr_smits said:


> I had never heard of simple.tv. Besides the low price, it allows remote streaming (like Slingbox) and it allows in house streaming to more devices than just iOS devices:


SINGLE TUNER, cannot watch ON A TV&#8230; Doesn't seem inexpensive to me&#8230;
Clear QAM (or OTA) *ONLY*


----------



## Leon WIlkinson (Feb 13, 2000)

Old man is that you... j/k


----------



## Kingpcgeek (Feb 6, 2012)

mr_smits said:


> I had never heard of simple.tv. Besides the low price, it allows remote streaming (like Slingbox) and it allows in house streaming to more devices than just iOS devices:
> 
> Android support is still missing right now, but Roku and desktop browser playback? Yes, please.


Might want to watch the review in this show: 



 before you give simple.tv a try.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

ferrumpneuma said:


> 1999
> 
> lifetime = $199
> 
> ...


Ummm... In 2012 lifetime is $499, or $399 with MSD.

When TiVo decided to discontinue lifetime a few years back I actually bought like 10 of the lifetime cards from BestBuy ($299 each) and then waited 3 months and sold most of them for $500-$700. I used 3 myself, but I made enough profit on the others that those 3 were essentially free.

Dan


----------



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

ferrumpneuma said:


> 1999
> 
> lifetime = $199
> 
> ...


Why don't you compare the cost of Lifetime to the cost of a 32" HDTV??, your comparison makes no sense as silver has nothing to do with the product category TiVo is in.


----------



## lujan (May 24, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> Ummm... In 2012 lifetime is $499, or $399 with MSD.
> 
> When TiVo decided to discontinue lifetime a few years back I actually bought like 10 of the lifetime cards from BestBuy ($299 each) and then waited 3 months and sold most of them for $500-$700. I used 3 myself, but I made enough profit on the others that those 3 were essentially free.
> 
> Dan


When did TiVo decide to discontinue lifetime? I haven't heard anything about that as I was just able to get lifetime on my Premiere a week ago.


----------



## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

lujan said:


> When did TiVo decide to discontinue lifetime? I haven't heard anything about that as I was just able to get lifetime on my Premiere a week ago.


This was back when the original Series 3 was released.
TiVo discontinued offering lifetime service at the time, and FUD ensued on whether or not TiVo would bring it back. 

I would have purchased an original S3 if lifetime service had been available.
That's $800 TiVo didn't get from me. I wonder how many other people stalled getting an S3 because lifetime wasn't available?
Bad decision IMO.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Lifetime *transfer* was available then.


----------



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

mattack said:


> Lifetime *transfer* was available then.


At some point you could xfer Lifetime to another box and keep your current box for a year don't remember the details, but for new customers they could not purchase Lifetime Service from TiVo. There was a trick that one could do to get lifetime for the original $299 from TiVo, all you wanted for any TiVo you wanted, the trick came from this form and a post from TiVo about the new no lifetime service anymore. This trick does not work anymore.


----------



## tvmaster2 (Sep 9, 2006)

ferrumpneuma said:


> I changed the data. The point still stands. A TiVo lifetime subscription is a better value now than it was in 1999.


No. it isn't - actually. In 1999, Tivo's were SD. Those units still record from cable companies with the same quality they did then.

I have just found out that my TivoHD, purchased with Lifetime just three years ago, is now a boat-anchor, since cable companies are changing their HD transmission technology so as to render the TivoHD incapable of receiving and recording HD channels. Tivo, from what I understand, plans to do absolutely nothing to correct this.

So, as far as I can see - the 1999 value was far greater.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Many of those cable companies don't have analog channels or only a handful now. So that 1999 box doesn't have much use. The TiVoHD would still be able to access more channels. Not many channels are in MPEG4 from the cable companies.

Sent from my HTC ReZound using Forum Runner


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

tvmaster2 said:


> I have just found out that my TivoHD, purchased with Lifetime just three years ago, is now a boat-anchor


Send me your lifetime Tivo HD. I'll make use of it.. even though I already have 6 tuners, another lifetime Tivo HD would be useful for something...


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

tvmaster2 said:


> No. it isn't - actually. In 1999, Tivo's were SD. Those units still record from cable companies with the same quality they did then.
> 
> I have just found out that my TivoHD, purchased with Lifetime just three years ago, is now a boat-anchor, since cable companies are changing their HD transmission technology so as to render the TivoHD incapable of receiving and recording HD channels. Tivo, from what I understand, plans to do absolutely nothing to correct this.
> 
> So, as far as I can see - the 1999 value was far greater.


Sounds a little melodramatic to me. 

As of today your TiVoHD is not a boat-anchor
You have no idea if, when, or how many channels your cable company is going to convert to MPEG4
You have no idea if TiVo will respond with a software update or not. 
My guess is TiVo will do nothing if only a few channels on a few cable system are converted to MPEG4 however if many companies changed most of their channels it might be different.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

aaronwt said:


> Many of those cable companies don't have analog channels or only a handful now. So that 1999 box doesn't have much use.


Actually they can use a cable box as a source so they can record just as well now as they ever did. The only ones that are truly crippled are the S2DT units since they effectively become single tuner units when cable goes all digital.

I think one of the biggest reasons TiVo increased the price on lifetime is because TiVo boxes got more tuners and people needed less boxes to accomplish the same goal. These days you can buy a 4 tuner box for $250 + $500 for lifetime and record the same number of channels that 4 single tuner units with $199 lifetime could record. TiVo was effectively losing revenue to innovation and they had to adjust their pricing to compensate.

Dan


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> ...
> 
> I think one of the biggest reasons TiVo increased the price on lifetime is because TiVo boxes got more tuners and people needed less boxes to accomplish the same goal. These days you can buy a 4 tuner box for $250 + $500 for lifetime and record the same number of channels that 4 single tuner units with $199 lifetime could record. TiVo was effectively losing revenue to innovation and they had to adjust their pricing to compensate.
> 
> Dan


I have often thought that part of the reason TiVo was loosing subs was the conversion from single to dual tuner units and now dual tuner to quad. But honestly a TiVo's price with lifetime has been fairly consistent for awhile.

When lifetime came back in 2008 I paid $500 for a TiVo HD with lifetime, since the Premiere was released existing users have contently been offered the Premiere in the $470-$500 range with lifetime either through upgrade offers or vis MSD. All that has changed has been how much of the $500 was for hardware and how much was for service.

Just for reference back in 2005/2006 if you waited for the right rebate single tuner TiVos with lifetime could be had for $300 (which is what I paid) if you double that you get $600 which is more than I paid for any one of my 3 dual tuner TiVos with lifetime.


----------



## tvmaster2 (Sep 9, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> Many of those cable companies don't have analog channels or only a handful now. So that 1999 box doesn't have much use. The TiVoHD would still be able to access more channels. Not many channels are in MPEG4 from the cable companies.
> 
> Sent from my HTC ReZound using Forum Runner


I just lost 25 channels to mpeg4. that seems like quite a few to me.


----------



## tvmaster2 (Sep 9, 2006)

atmuscarella said:


> Sounds a little melodramatic to me.
> 
> As of today your TiVoHD is not a boat-anchor
> You have no idea if, when, or how many channels your cable company is going to convert to MPEG4
> ...


I read here that Cox plans to convert all channels from 1100 up to h.264 by the end of 2013. They just yanked 25 HD channels this month


----------



## tvmaster2 (Sep 9, 2006)

mattack said:


> Send me your lifetime Tivo HD. I'll make use of it.. even though I already have 6 tuners, another lifetime Tivo HD would be useful for something...


it's for sale


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

tvmaster2 said:


> I read here that Cox plans to convert all channels from 1100 up to h.264 by the end of 2013. They just yanked 25 HD channels this month


Ya that does change things I didn't know any cable company was moving that fast and that many stations to MPEG4. TiVo has offered the original Premiere with lifetime for $400 recently as a upgrade offer they should do something like that for anyone on Cox cable if they don't intend on doing a software update soon.

A TiVo HD with lifetime makes a great OTA DVR given what is happening to some of the other OTA DVRs guide data availability, when you market your unit I would look for OTA users. I see many owners of other OTA DVRs on the AVS forums are now picking up TiVos new and used so there might be a slight bump in demand right now.

Good Luck,


----------



## HockeyFan (Oct 9, 2010)

Everything goes up. 1979 school lunch Tacos were 3 cents and Good humor ice cream was 15 cents. There was an out roar years later when tacos and good humor both went to 50 cents.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

tvmaster2 said:


> it's for sale


But wait, if it's a boat anchor, it's useless (except for holding a boat steady).. so you should be giving it away for shipping.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

People still buy boat anchors. They don't just give them away at the boat store. 

Dan


----------



## flashedbios (Dec 7, 2012)

scandia101 said:


> The OP is asking about 1999. What you paid the next year and the rest of your life story isn't relevant to the question.


theres no need to be a jerk. what are you? a dalek?


----------

