Dear Tivo: It’s not me, it’s you.

Posted on 09 March 2010 by


Tivo and I have been together a long time. Almost four years, which in the electronic world is practically a lifetime. Sadly, Tivo has begun showing signs of dementia; mainly, stuttering and freezing occasionally, and insisting on attempting to record from every HD channel FIOS offers, despite our distinct lack of an HDTV. Constantly playing whack a mole with removing HD channels from the lineup settings is not my idea of a good time, nor is it fun when I come home from a long weekend and discover Tivo has helpfully recorded the Verizon screensaver instead of actual TV.

So it’s time to start researching alternatives. My cable is through Verizon FIOS, and for one DVR they want $14.95 a month. Tivo is currently $12.95 a month, so the difference is minimal. It really comes down to features and the cost of the digital video recorder itself. Verizon’s is rented through my service, and Tivo is an up-front sunk cost.

Here’s where I start to wonder about value…check out Tivo’s offer to loyal customers:

It’s great that Tivo offers me a 20% discount. But that’s still a crazy expensive DVR. And on top of that, I’m still paying a monthly fee! But wait, Tivo offers this lovely chart explaining why I should spend 1/2 an iPad on a Tivo DVR…

So basically, Tivo found six different ways to say “Look, Tivo with HD, but better than the last Tivo HD. Please pay lots for this.” Except for a very occasional Amazon UNbox download, I don’t use the streaming or on-demand services, so those aren’t much of a draw. And even if they were…is it worth $240 plus a monthly cost?

I’m starting to think the answer is no. It makes me sad, because I love the little dancing Tivo man, and the “ba doop ba doop ba doop” noises as I fast forward through commercials. But there’s only so many services and awesome tech toys that can command my attention. And my co-worker today told me about an LG BluRay player he grabbed from Best Buy that could handle Blu-Ray, streaming Netflix, even Pandora, all for $179.99, no extra monthly fees! So why do I need Tivo again?

What you do if you were me? Spend the extra for the Tivo Premier HD, or grab the FIOS DVR and augment it with a second set-top box for Netflix, Pandora, etc?

This post was written by:

- who has written 925 posts on Gear Diary.

Carly has been a gadget fiend for a long time, going back to her first PDA (a Palm M100). She quickly went from researching what PDA to buy to following tech news closely and keeping up with the latest and greatest stuff. She loves writing about ebooks because they combine her two favorite activities; reading anything and everything, and talking about fun new tech toys. What could be better?

Contact the author


  • http://darkglass.org/ tamaracks

    I agree. I have the FIOS DVR. It’s really pretty decent. The worst thing about it is the lack of hard drive space, but so far, that doesn’t justify the extra expense of a Tivo for me, since the XL version costs so much. Especially since one has to give up the VOD, and deal with the hassles of obtaining cablecards and hoping everything works. I know Tivo used to have issues with the signal Fios sent, it was too hot, or something.

    The only thing they’ve got going for them now is that at least the low end HD Tivo offers more space at 45 HD hours. Before I think the Tivo HD was only about 20, which was almost the same as the Fios box.

    I want to like Tivo, I do, but with the hardware costs, it would be quite a while to break even with the Fios box, and if your Tivo breaks, that’s likely additional costs.

  • http://darkglass.org/ tamaracks

    Plus, there’s cable card costs, which a quick google search shows are currently $3.99 per card, and many reports of them being single stream, so you need two. Although it looks like there are more reports of M cards being available these days. Tivo claims their Premiere box would average 11.65 per month after 5 years, but of course they don’t include cable card costs, since that varies.

    I did a spreadsheet including the hardware costs, the various subscription plans, and cable card fees. Assuming 1 M card, it shows you wouldn’t break even on a plain Tivo Premiere with lifetime service until after 64 months compared to the Fios rental. If it’s 2 single stream cards, it’s not until after 8 years.

  • http://www.geardiary.com Carly Z

    @tamaracks

    Thanks! That confirms my suspicions, and I did not realize there was a cablecard charge too!

  • Pingback: Allistair Lee

  • DavidB

    That depends on your provider Carly. For example Comcast says they will provide 1 Cablecard free of charge “per outlet” that you are paying for, but the info on their web site doesn’t commit to providing an M-card. It does say a 2nd cablecard “per outlet” is $2.05/month each. And the new TIVO requires M-Card right?

    If I were you I would use the Verizon DVR and get a Roku. Too bad Verizon won’t allow expanding their DVR capacity, but I guess you just have to decide if the ~20 hours of HD you can store on the Verizon DVR is enough.

  • http://darkglass.org/ tamaracks

    Sorry I didn’t specify, but I was providing the costs for cablecard for Verizon Fios, since it is my provider, too. At least what I’ve googled of the situation, since I have stuck with the Verizon DVR.