According to numerous friends – and I say this only half-jokingly – the “TiVo revolution” has been underway for years. The sales pitch is this: like other digital video recorders (DVRs), TiVo lets you stop making appointments to watch your favorite TV shows. Instead, you just turn on your TV whenever you want, and the shows are sitting there waiting for you. Think VCR, only 20+ times more powerful, with the bonus that you can also pause and rewind live TV.
Up until now, I haven’t been won over to TiVo for only one reason: price. And I’ve either owned or used many of its competitors. Urged on by one persistent, evangelistic friend this past week, I found a really superb deal, gave in and bought one. Since I’m happy with the TiVo and the deal’s still active for a little while, I wanted to share it – and some iPod-related details – with you. Click on Read More for the story and the deal.
Though I’m not going to dive into the TiVo-versus-the-world story in depth, there are a few facts that need to be summarily noted up front. So here they are.
40% said they’d sooner give up their cell phones than TiVo. Many own more than one TiVo box.
So here’s the deal, and I ask only one thing if you take advantage of it – use my e-mail address [email protected] as your referrer, just as I used my friend’s name when he referred me.
This is the TiVo I bought.
It’s an 80-hour, TiVo-branded model that sells for $59 $89* after rebate through Amazon.com, the same place I ordered from. Now Circuit City is offering the same box for $40 after rebate. The $150 rebate process is painless, and best handled through this web link. It’s much easier than filling out a form by hand, and trackable.
When the box arrives from Amazon, which is very quick – four days in my case – or you get it elsewhere, you contact TiVo and activate it. This step must be done by phone, rather than through TiVo’s web site. The telephone number is 1-877-367-8486. This takes between 5 and 10 minutes, and the people are friendly.
The cost of a lifetime subscription – until it disappears on April 15 – is $299.99. In other words, the total cost of the TiVo hardware and a lifetime membership is $360 plus a $10 Amazon shipping fee, which comes out to $7.70 per month over only four years of ownership. In my humble opinion, that’s a much smarter buy than TiVo’s new prepaid packages, which are:
You can do the math yourself, but it suffices to say that this deal is as good as I could find – the one I’ve been waiting 5 years to see. You’ll need to ask the TiVo rep for it, and you’ll get it without a hassle. Call before April 15th, or you’re stuck paying monthly fees.
It should also be noted that Circuit City is offering a second $40 TiVo – one with half the storage (40-hour).
Why prefer 80 hours of recording to 40? Two reasons.
