My TiVo has actually been one of the most worry and maintenance free things I’ve bought in the last few years – which is surprising to me as an IT person because the TiVo really is basically a PC.

Although, in case it’s not clear, I’m speaking hypothetically; I know those stats would be difficult or impossible to actually gather, and probably more work than is worth it. I’m just saying that *ideally* I’d prefer to have access to all that information before I can decide what price I personally think makes sense for a lifetime subscription.

I plan on evaluating what the overall cost will be over a 3 year period. Which ever comes in cheaper (with a bias toward the Windows machine due to the additional functionality as a PC) will get the purchase.

If my box dies thats $499 down the drain. Heck keep the life time and raise it to $399 Id still pay that.

Any unit signed up for lifetime before the cut-off will remain on lifetime forever.

However, my original Series2, from February 2002, is still in use – more than four years along. This box was upgraded a couple of times, first just after I got it, and then last month the friend who owns it updated the drive again. I purchased a Series1, also in February 2002, and immediately swapped in two large drives – and that unit, as far as I know, is still in use. And I got it used, so it is more like 5 years old. My second S2 was from December 2002, and that one is still in use – 3.25 years later. I didn’t upgrade it, but I sold it to a friend last fall and I think he has.

People still have working S1 boxes from 1999.

Hmm, let me check… March 3, 2002 then March 24, 2002 and finally December 14, 2002. So I guess sometime in March the price went up. My next was February 5, 2004 – and that was $299.

Lifetime is equity in the box – it is the rent vs buy argument. I liked lifetime because, when I felt it was time for something new, I could see the old box and it was worth that much more.

A used 40 hour TiVo without lifetime is just about *worthless*. You could get new units for $50, and refurbs for free. It makes it hard to sell a generic used box for anything. But lifetime adds intrinsic value to the box. Last fall I sold a used 40 hour box for $250 – because it had lifetime – and I’d used it for 3 years or so. Not only was I ahead because lifetime is the cost of *2* years of monthly, so I got 1 year ‘free’, but I then recouped a lot of the cost when I resold the box.

That’s why I’m sad to see it go. And why if they’d raised the price to $499, even $599, I would’ve still bought lifetime – because that would just make the resale value that much higher anyway.

But if you go to a random 3rd party, or just buy a new one yourself, then the policy is not to transfer the lifetime.

And I strongly disagree on them being greedy. I’ve said, for quite a while now, that the lifetime was a *very* good deal, and I expected it to go away. If you look at the financials, lifetime was just not worth it for TiVo, and potentially an overall loss. They were lucky to see $100 on just an operational basis, and in reality less than that, and that’s before the corporare overheard. Lifetime hadn’t changed since 2002. They aren’t being greedy at all, they’re trying to be profitable and remain in business.

I mean, I only bought a new one b/c my series 1 hadn’t ever worked properly with the sat. dish reciever. Of course I didn’t know I could probably have covered the entire front with black cloth or whatever it was the series 2 book suggested and now I’m left wondering if I had done that, would it have worked.

Oh well.