# Comcast MPEG-4 upgrade



## HDRyder9 (Aug 2, 2007)

Has anyone tried to get Tivo to move a Tivo HD lifetime subscription to a Premier or Roamio DVR when Comcast orphans Tivo HD DVRs due to the upcoming MPEG-4 upgrade?

It would be awesome it Tivo would.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Doubtful that TiVo will do this, especially considering that a TiVo HD can still be used to record local and SD channels on Comcast and OTA.


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## HDRyder9 (Aug 2, 2007)

lpwcomp said:


> Doubtful that TiVo will do this, especially considering that a TiVo HD can still be used to record local and SD channels on Comcast and OTA.


That turns a Tivo HD into a Tivo SD, though. I bought it to record HDTV from Comcast and it no longer will.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I could see some sort of promotion for the box, but not on the service. Sell it now before the bottom drops out of the market. Used lifetime premieres are not too expensive, or try for a cheap one and $99 lifetime...


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

HDRyder9 said:


> That turns a Tivo HD into a Tivo SD, though. I bought it to record HDTV from Comcast and it no longer will.


The HD locals will still be recordable from Comcast and of course OTA still works. Besides, I'm pretty sure you've already gotten your money's worth from your lifetime service.

Did you see any offers to S2DT owners when the switch to all digital turned it into a single tuner?

What really irks me is that they could enable full mpeg4 support on the S3s. They just choose not to.


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## Sevenfeet (Jun 24, 2000)

Tivo is doing a promotion (just got an email yesterday on the subject) that they will only charge $99 for lifetime for old customers still on Tivo S3/HD like myself if they haven't already upgraded to Premiere or Roamio. I may go ahead and take the upgrade now since that's probably my best and most economical upgrade path forward.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Sevenfeet said:


> Tivo is doing a promotion (just got an email yesterday on the subject) that they will only charge $99 for lifetime for old customers still on Tivo S3/HD like myself if they haven't already upgraded to Premiere or Roamio. I may go ahead and take the upgrade now since that's probably my best and most economical upgrade path forward.


Awesome to know. I have an old HD sitting on my account, wonder if I'll get this deal or not. Was it given a specific name?


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## nazopo (Dec 21, 2014)

Is Tivo only sending out these emails to customers in the areas where Comcast is going strictly MPEG4? If not I really wish I hadn't upgraded from a Tivo HD to a Premiere XL4 lifetime this past January.


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## grantsa4 (Jun 14, 2007)

If we didn't get the email, but still have an old Tivo HD and would be interested in the promotion, is there a link to use?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

You have to call.


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## dowobeha (Aug 6, 2015)

Sevenfeet said:


> Tivo is doing a promotion (just got an email yesterday on the subject) that they will only charge $99 for lifetime for old customers still on Tivo S3/HD like myself if they haven't already upgraded to Premiere or Roamio. I may go ahead and take the upgrade now since that's probably my best and most economical upgrade path forward.


I just got an email from TiVo today about the upcoming Comcast upgrade.

I called TiVo, and they said if I bought a new Roamio they would offer lifetime service for $200. I asked about the $100 offer mentioned above. The representative went and talked with his manager, who said that no such $100 offer existed.

How many years were you a customer when you called? Maybe that's the difference.


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## steveliv (Mar 9, 2006)

What about those of us who had to upgrade sooner since our market (Augusta, GA) moved to MPEG-4 first?


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## emfinlay (Sep 21, 2008)

Steve, if you had Lifetime on your Serie3, I'd give Tivo a call. You should be eligible for 99.99 Lifetime on a newer unit.


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## emfinlay (Sep 21, 2008)

dowobeha said:


> I just got an email from TiVo today about the upcoming Comcast upgrade.
> 
> I called TiVo, and they said if I bought a new Roamio they would offer lifetime service for $200. I asked about the $100 offer mentioned above. The representative went and talked with his manager, who said that no such $100 offer existed.
> 
> How many years were you a customer when you called? Maybe that's the difference.


I have a confirmation number from Tivo for the 99.99 Lifetime offer; it does exist.


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## steveliv (Mar 9, 2006)

emfinlay said:


> Steve, if you had Lifetime on your Serie3, I'd give Tivo a call. You should be eligible for 99.99 Lifetime on a newer unit.


i did have lifetime on it. i still do! i bought the Roamio Plus in OCtober of last year since our market was switching to mpeg-4 early.


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## steveliv (Mar 9, 2006)

Does anyone have a copy of the email that tivo sent out? Or a promo name or number?

I spoke with a tivo rep who said that no such promotion existed. He was pretty unprofessional. When i asked to speak with a supervisor, he told me that he could do that, but that they wouldn't be able to help me either. Which unfortunately actually turned out to be true, she said the exact same thing. The promotion does not exist and that she can't do anything for me. She kept referring to the 10 year promo (which come march , i'll have 10 years with tivo). Perhaps that is the promotion that the poster above actually qualified for.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

It seems that while TiVo is offering Lifetime on a new unit for only $99, you still have to pay either full or slightly discounted Roamios. Of course the more desired Plus and Pro are gonna really cost you, even with a discount. Also, factor in having to buy some Minis (the cheaper option to replacing multiple S3, HD, or HDXL units), and this can be a very expensive change-over. I really feel TiVo should be doing more, but the sale of hardware is the only place they are gonna make money from this change, since almost everyone is going to take the $99 Lifetime option. TiVo just can't give away the TiVo boxes, unfortunately. It would be a near total loss to them. Still, it seems no the "love" TiVo likes to talk about and certainly this change is for the rich. I can see a lot of people--who don't even know this forum exists--evealuating the costs and just giving up on TiVo and going with the far more economical MSO DVR's and MSO whole home systems.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

I'm probably OK, if I understand things.

We only subscribe to limited basic for the Locals in HD and thus we should be ok. Yeah, we may lose the ancillary channels like meTV and all that stuff, but that's not too important to us.

I would consider the upgrade to a Roamio but the WAF is a little low for something like that now. Box + LT + likely HD Upgrade adds up.

But again, unless something is totally different than how I understand it, we should be fine for the locals (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, etc....)


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