# Selling my Tivo



## Catch22 (Oct 1, 2006)

Hello all,

My GF has forced the issue and now want sky plus, so the Tivo has to go.

It is totally standard and has the later remote? if that makes sense. I have also recently bought a network cachecard and the 512mb ram stick to go with it.

Whats it worth?

Cheers,

Wayne.


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## Raisltin Majere (Mar 13, 2004)

More than your girlfriend, I know which I'd get rid of


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## Mike B (Sep 16, 2003)

If you take a look at completed auctions on a certain popular four-letter auction site, you'll find that units go from <£100 to >£400 (if they are lifetime subs, have big drives and network connectivity). I'm sure someone on here will make you an offer though, if you don't want to put it up for auction.....


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## terryeden (Nov 2, 2002)

Without a lifetime sub, it's worth about £100. With a sub, you're looking at £250.

That's assuming it has all the leads etc.


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

Tell the GF that because it is so old it has no residual value so you may as well keep it as a backup. Then when you get tottally peed off with $ky+ you can use Tivo for reliable recordings.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Catch22 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> My GF has forced the issue and now want sky plus, so the Tivo has to go.
> 
> ...


And why does your girlfriend want to go to Sky+? Is she wrongly under the impression that because it is new it is better? Do you realise you have to pay at least Sky £37 per month in subs so as not to pay an extra £10 per month Sky+ sub charge for a rubbish recording service that regularly doesn't work and misses recordings. Even then you have to pay £99 or more if you already subscribe to Sky to upgrade.

So far as Tivo secondhand prices are concerned an unmodified unsubbed box is now only fetching about £50 on Ebay. A subbed unmodified box is fetching about £190 and a subbed box with a larger hard drive and Cachecard with 512MB of RAM is fetching about £310. But no one really wants a Cahcecard and RAM with a box that is unsubbed so my advice to you would be to sell the Tivo on its own then sell the Cachecard and RAM as a separate item on Ebay where it would probably fetch around £80 or so.

But I would still beg you to reconsider letting your girlfriend scrap your Tivo upgrade project and suggest you go ahead with it and then see how much better and more fantastic a Tivo you now have.

See the following for details of the upgrade process and the extra features you get from an upgraded box with TivoWeb and a larger hard drive size. This girlfriend sounds a bit of a fearsome demon to me if she doesn't defer to you on technical matters. 

www.steveconrad.co.uk/tivo

http://tivo.lightn.org/

www.ljay.org.uk/tivoweb/

www.garysargent.co.uk/tivo/hacking.htm

www.beaconhill.plus.com/TiVo/tivohacks.htm

http://www.arielbusiness.pwp.blueyo.../TiVo/HowTo.htm

http://alt.org/wiki/index.php/TiVoWeb Modules

http://thomson.tivo.googlepages.com

http://tivo.stevejenkins.com/network_cd.html

http://thomson.tivo.googlepages.com/tivowebplus

http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/?search=oztivo&x=0&y=0

www.tivohackman.com


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Do you realise you have to pay Sky £37 per month in subs to Sky so as not to pay an extra £10 per month Sky+ sub for a rubbish service that regularly doesn't work and misses recordings.


Without a word of a lie I was talking to a guy at work last week who is unfortunate enough to be saddled with Sky+ and he told me that in 2 years it has crashed 4 times so badly that the only recovery was to do a "full reset" which wipes out everything, including all the recordings 

Remember, that's not a hardware problem like a dead or dying drive, just a bug in the software.... :down:

As somebody else said: if you have to appear to comply to keep the peace with your GF, don't sell the TiVo, just keep it as 'a backup' until she sees the light and starts begging you to reinstate it. On the basis of the dire user interface alone I'd give it a fortnight...


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

blindlemon said:


> Without a word of a lie I was talking to a guy at work last week who is unfortunate enough to be saddled with Sky+ and he told me that in 2 years it has crashed 4 times so badly that the only recovery was to do a "full reset" which wipes out everything, including all the recordings


I think this could be a killer argument with the girlfriend. She is clearly sadly labouring under the misapprehension that Sky+ is a better, more modern and more reliable system. 

Why not take her down to the local Currys or Comet and get one of the nice salesmen to give you a demo of the Sky+ interface or better still let you and the gf have a play with it.

Also explain to her how Tivoweb means being able to set recordings from work on the Tivo.


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## Jimus (Dec 28, 2005)

When Sky+ first came out my wife insisted we change. We boxed up the TiVo ready to put up for sale.

After 2 days she phoned sky to cancel our Sky+ and went and got the box containing TiVo and told me to get on with putting it back in!

Warnings : 

Keep your options open pending that most dangerous of female moves 'I changed my mind'

Remember : whatever happens it will be YOUR fault

LOL

JImus


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Jimus said:


> When Sky+ first came out my wife insisted we change. We boxed up the TiVo ready to put up for sale.
> 
> After 2 days she phoned sky to cancel our Sky+ and went and got the box containing TiVo and told me to get on with putting it back in!


Does your wife run the bank account too then?


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## Jimus (Dec 28, 2005)

Pete77 said:


> Does your wife run the bank account too then?


Yup!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Jimus said:


> Yup!


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

I've given a freeview box a trial run this month, and am happy to say my Sky sub will be canceled soon. The box only cost 23 quid delivered from Amazon, so why not keep the TiVo running on a aerial until she comes to her senses?

p.s. My spare TiVo upgraded to 240GB went for 63 quid, a turbonet card fetched 36 quid.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Pugwash said:


> I've given a freeview box a trial run this month, and am happy to say my Sky sub will be canceled soon. The box only cost 23 quid delivered from Amazon, so why not keep the TiVo running on a aerial until she comes to her senses?


Are you upgrading to Sky+ or Sky HD then or merely cancelling Sky altogether here? You don't seem to have any other posts in this thread that make this clear.

If cancelling Sky altogether then retaining the box as a Freesat box with Tivo makes more sense than getting a Freeview box as there are a lot more channels in total on Freesat than there are on Freeview. Of course you don't get E4 More4, UK History, FTN, TMF, The Hits and UK Bright Ideas free on Freesat but then Freeview doesn't have CNN, Euronews, TrueMovies 1 and 2, Zone Horror, Zone Reality, Zone Thriller, Movies 4 Men 1 & 2 and a bunch of minor music, sport and single interest (eg Golf, Wine and Property channels) that are free on Freesat but not on Freeview. Why do not as I do and have a dual source Freesat and Freeview setup with the Sky box on the Scart and the Freeview on the RF input. You will only be recording stuff from the 6 Freeview channels at most.


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## Wooky (Mar 2, 2003)

katman said:


> Tell the GF that because it is so old it has no residual value so you may as well keep it as a backup. Then when you get tottally peed off with $ky+ you can use Tivo for reliable recordings.


Also when you get fed up with Sky+ and downgrade your service they lock you out from ALL your recordings unless you pay them £10 a month to watch them, so you might as well pay Tivo the £10 and have the bonus of being in control of you system!

Wooky


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## londonelf (Dec 25, 2006)

Hi Catch22 - 

I may be looking to purchase a second-hand TiVo in the next couple of weeks, to use with my Homechoice. I used TiVo for years in the US and miss it so much - nothing in the UK compares. Been using $ky+ but it is miles behind. Please let me know if you're still selling. 

Happy Crimbo to all!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

londonelf said:


> I may be looking to purchase a second-hand TiVo in the next couple of weeks, to use with my Homechoice. I used TiVo for years in the US and miss it so much - nothing in the UK compares. Been using $ky+ but it is miles behind. Please let me know if you're still selling.


There's usually also plenty of units being sold on www.ebay.co.uk, especially since Sky HD launched and some misguided people foolishly perceived it as a replacement for Tivo. Not many being sold on Ebay over xmas though for predictable reasons.

Ideally you want a unit with a Lifetime subscription, a Cachecard + 512MB of RAM and an enlarged hard drive and TivoWeb already installed. That would give something not far off Tivo S2 spec minus of course the second tuner facililty.

secondhand non upgraded Tivo with no Lifetime Sub = approx £60
secondhand non upgraded Tivo with Lifetime Sub = approx £170 to £200
secondhand heavily upgraded Tivo with Lifetime Sub, Cachecard, 512MB RAM and 250Gb hard drive = approx £290 to £320

The £300 machines are the best buy in terms of functionality and what it would cost to upgrade to that spec from an unsubbed non upgraded unit. A Lifetime sub alone would cost £199.


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## PaulWilkinsUK (Mar 20, 2006)

Raisltin Majere said:


> More than your girlfriend, I know which I'd get rid of


Oh man that made me laugh - top points to Raisltin :up: :up: :up:


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## londonelf (Dec 25, 2006)

Thanks, Pete77 - that is very helpful. Glad to know there are usually a few on eBay -- there have not been many recently, but I will be patient - and so helpful to know what to expect to pay. thx!


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## doubledrat (Aug 24, 2001)

I'd echo what the others have said. Keep the tivo until you're sure sky+ is what you want! Now is not a good time to be selling a tivo. I've seen them go for much more than they are at the moment.


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