TiVo Premiere spotted in Best Buy with March 28th retail date
By Thomas Ricker 
posted March 18th 2010 4:02AM
posted March 18th 2010 4:02AM
[Thanks, DS]
posted March 18th 2010 4:02AM
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I guess I can finally pack away my VHS rewinder.
Is it weird not to own a TV anymore? I don't have one which makes this less than useful.
@Jon Presco What's weird is that you read Engadget and don't own a TV. Seriously, what the hell do you do all day? Sudoku and crossword puzzles?
@Jon Presco Do you mean you don't own a TV & I now use my computer/Internet for my TV usage?
OR
Don't own and don't watch.
If it's #2 that's pretty amazing.
@Jon Presco
I own a TV but use it almost solely for movies from Netflix Watch Instantly or my Blu-ray player. Most of my TV I choose to get via the Internet (streaming or torrent) because you can watch it in 2/3 the time without paying for a DVR and it also stops you from channel surfing, which I've found is what causes people to waste huge amounts of time in front of the TV watching crap they wouldn't have watched otherwise. I turn the TV on only to watch the show I want, then I turn it back off. But I grew up from age 4 without a TV because my dad decided there were better things to do and took it away. It took me 10 years to realize he was right, but he was.
I don't even own a TV or cable right now because of the internet, which makes these less than useful.
@Jon Presco
You double posted, which makes you less than useful.
@Jon Presco
Me either...i mean i have a nice monitor and verizon fios...dont really need tv anymore
@aaronbustillos
I still have a TV, but it's just a small one for my Gamecube, which I don't play too much anymore.
@Jon Presco
Thats because this comment system is les then useful
I never understand Tivo. Why would I want to pay a monthly fee so I can record TV shows? In the past, we can always record shows on a VCR without any additional cost. What happen to blu-ray recorders?
@pika2000
You're paying for the guide data that TiVo uses to determine what to record. You can avoid the monthly fee by paying a higher up-front price.
@pika2000
What edmcquade said. You're also paying for TiVo's ongoing R&D to keep updating its service and UI (which it didn't for a long time until the Premiere, and even that isn't massive). The lifetime subscription option does avoid the monthly fee, but it's $400 not counting the box itself and takes about 3 years to break even. TiVo also no longer allows you to transfer that subscription to a new box, though they've occasionally resurrected it temporarily as part of an upgrade incentive.
I agree it's steep, but TiVo's only real competition is the cable DVRs, and apparently enough people seem to think those are crappy enough to justify using something else. And the only something else is TiVo, though once Media Center gets CableCARDs....
@pika2000
The don't pay a monthly fee. Pay for lifetime service and think of it as a $700 product.
@scyber
The=Then
Doh!
@edmcquade
The guide data is worth about $20 per year for every Tivo you own.
Best Buy? Uh oh, they will find some way to 'Optimize" the Tivo for a small additional mandatory fee.
Odd... I thought this was old news. The dude at a Massachusetts Best Buy told me last week that it was coming out March 28. Was he not supposed to?
I just order my TiVo through accommodations!!! 99 bucks for the TiVo premiere box!
@KeeganX I assume that is the sellmoretivo.com? or is that something else entirely?
To quote TiVo's website: Connects to your cable service, replacing your cable box." You'll also need a cable card, makes sense to me. So is this ANY cable company? They have a Comcast product already and announce that one is coming for Cox soon. So... will or won't this product actually work with my cable company?
@StMalice
Only services it doesn't work with are AT&T U-Verse and Satellite. Other than that you should be good.
Saw it in bestbuy the other day. Guy told me I could buy one, but I declined. Not enough of an improvement on the series 3.
"pika2000 Posted Mar 18th 2010 5:27AMNEUTRAL
I never understand Tivo. Why would I want to pay a monthly fee so I can record TV shows? In the past, we can always record shows on a VCR without any additional cost. What happen to blu-ray recorders?"
Because a VCR is like a 78 rpm record. Never heard of one of those. They are OOOOOOOLD and in internet years your VCR is as old as that.
And as for the crappy cable and other DVRs, yes they are crappy. People that use them have no clue how crappy they are because they have never used TiVo.
Trying to explain TiVo to people that have used other DVRs is like trying to explain what an elephant is to a blind person because they can only feel small parts of an elephant at a time and can't get the whole picture.
TiVo is just that much better. Yes it is. It is worth paying the fee every month. For what it does you can look at their website. The devil is in the details. Theirs just works better. It's the interface. It's just better.
I almost never watch live tv. It is waaaaaay to frustrating to do that since we got TiVo. My wife says that if we ever gets divorced, the first thing, literally out of everything, will be TiVo on her list. She is getting one (of the two) that we have.
Before we got and she started using it she didn't get the point. Why pay for it. The more she uses it the more she likes it. It's been about five years now.
You are probably guessing that I don't know the other DVRs out there including cable-on-demand and Microsoft's horrible DVR. Well you would be wrong. I have friends that love Comcast on demand and Microsoft's DVR. However, they are seemingly always surprised at how much better the interface is compared to what they use. They just don't get why it is so much better and, in their words, do not want to get used to it because then they would hate what they have. Their words.
@OlsonBW
> Trying to explain TiVo to people that have used other DVRs is like
> trying to explain what an elephant is to a blind person because they
> can only feel small parts of an elephant at a time and can't get the
> whole picture.
...and PC based PVRs are the next step in that comparison.
Tivo is overrated and needs to sue competitors because they aren't innovative enough to compete based on the product itself. If you care enough about the experience to not be satisfied with a provider's box then you will very likely find a Tivo lacking too. (thus the lawsuits)
OK, so BestBuy offers a 30-day price protection where they match the lower price plus 10% of the difference. Go buy it today for $2K. Get and adjustment to $130 (2000 - 1700 - 170) on the 28th. Sounds like a good deal to me!
I currently use a Windows Media Center as my main TV-watching tool, however I was previously a long-time Tivo user. Back then Tivo was great for recorded TV and the occasional Netflix, however that was about it.
Do these new Tivos offer anything more in the way of working with my own digital files? Can I dump a library of ripped media onto the Tivo? What about external storage? I know you used to be able to "upgrade" the internal drive but without hacks Tivo never really supported external media. Do the next generation Tivos compare more favorably to Media Centers?
@Joey the Squid
No, no media extender capability. Tivo will stream music from your network, and stream Netflix, Amazon Unbox, and Blockbuster to your TV, but you can't dump DVD rips or other video files onto the Tivo. External storage is available - the Premiere comes with an e-Sata port for an external hard drive (but you may be limited to the overpriced Tivo branded drive, I'm not sure).
@exposition
Actually pyTivo will allow you to put many media formats onto the Tivo. It transcodes the video and it gets copied to the Tivo. I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it the other day and found out it works on my entire (well everything I tried so far) mkv collection.
I bought a Tivo Premiere on Tuesday from my local BestBuy. The odd thing is that it shipped with the series3 UI. I guess that the new UI will come down as a software update after the official street date.
@pjanthony yeah. this is why TiVo doesn't want them sold. They are still working on the new UI and would rather have it download the new UI the first time you go to use it.
Couple of general replies to the thread
First, if you don't own a TV why are you commenting on a technology related to TV just to tell the world you have no need for it?
Second, try recording HD to a vcr. Would that even work?
Lastly, there are no new features on this Tivo. The only things different is the interface and the integrated search function. And it's based on Flash, oogie :)
Stores in my district no longer do the 10% price match difference FYI (sf bay area)
another thing that the tivo does that a cable dvr doesnt.. let you take the media OFF the tivo.. yes there are torrents out there but not everyone is savvy enough to know how to torrent. For those that want to put thier favorite shows on thier ipod or burn them to a DVD, Tivo is the only option.
Just to clear up the lifetime sub issue... yes it IS tied to your specific TiVO, but there is an option after 3 years (should you want to upgrade the box). There's a $200 "fee" to transfer it to the "new" box.
What I'm not sure of is what happens after 3 years IF you have an issue with the box and get it "fixed" for the $150 fee? I suspect in that case, it's the same, you have to pony up the 200... so it's possible that 3 1/2 years you may be on the hook for at least 350 bucks.
The other issue with TiVO is all these "policies" seem to ONLY be listed on AVS... beyond the very most basic info, nothing appears on their site.
@RiversideGuy
Here is a thing, why would you bother transferring it to a NEW box, you are better off selling your current box with lifetime on it and buying a new one from Tivo, they currently offer $200 lifetime if you are a current customer.
Also for any current customer you can get lifetime for $300 on any additional box.
@jkudlacz
Actually I was talking about something going wrong with the box after the 3 year period and availing myself of the "150/refurb for a broken box." My understanding is that in such a case, they charge you a $200 transfer fee. If under 3 years, they offer a "free" transfer of a lifetime sub to the refurb.
FYI, I use refurb not for a newly purchased machine, but what apparently happens when you have a hardware issue; they take your old box and send a refurb box.
That price tag is an awesome way of stopping early sales.