Is the Cost of a Cable Box Really Too Darn High?

[Spire3660]

I've been a Tivo user for over a decade now. The upfront cost is pretty startling, especially if you buy the lifetime service, but if you amortize it out, depending on the model you can pay it off in few years based on dvr cable box rental rates. and IMO Tivo is superior to almost all cable company provided dvrs that I have encountered.

FUCK NO. The 'lifetime' service is for the life of the device, and they charge you to transfer it to new hardware.

 

[commissioneranthony]

Roku+ Pluto TV.
Has old time channels

No cost. 200 channels.
Profit
Pluto TV runs on Pi too but looks better on Roku.

I'll totally look into this. Thanks!

 

[Tweak42]

FUCK NO. The 'lifetime' service is for the life of the device, and they charge you to transfer it to new hardware.

While that it's true the lifetime service is bonded to the device, Tivo in recent years only does "paid" transfers as special limited promotions, typically when phasing out 3+ generation old lifetime units.

We still have functioning Tivo series 2 and 3 from 18 and 10 years ago, mind it's hard drives were replaced twice and we took the discount they offered on a new unit + lifetime service. The cost, savings and features were quite worth it compared to anything "rented" monthly from the cable company.

So while binding to the life of the device typically sounds bad, in practice they last pretty long, and offer incentives to upgrade when the device is quite old in tech years.

 

[kju1]

While that it's true the lifetime service is bonded to the device, Tivo in recent years only does "paid" transfers as special limited promotions, typically when phasing out 3+ generation old lifetime units.

We still have functioning Tivo series 2 and 3 from 18 and 10 years ago, mind it's hard drives were replaced twice and we took the discount they offered on a new unit + lifetime service. The cost, savings and features were quite worth it compared to anything "rented" monthly from the cable company.

So while binding to the life of the device typically sounds bad, in practice they last pretty long, and offer incentives to upgrade when the device is quite old in tech years.

Meh still too expensive for me. I am a cheap bastard.