Most of the 2-year deals are LESS than before too. So 2- or 3-year deals will save you money over before, and they’ve always been better than 1-year deals.

And even the 1-year deals only went up a few bucks for the most part – $13.60 to $15. That’s not a huge jump. A couple of them went up more, sure, but just a couple.

Nothing about this change suddenly means only 3-year deals are worth it. See the tables I did and you can see the change is mostly a few minor increases and some major decreases.

Sure, if you want the best deal, that’s 3-years. But that’s always been the best deal.

As for satellite – frankly, I don’t think we’ll see an HD TiVo solution for satellite. Ever. (Well, aside from the soon-to-be-obsolete HD DirecTiVo.) Satellite systems are closed and neither DirecTV nor Dish will allow TiVo to produce DVRs for their systems. *Maybe* if TiVo wins the suit against EchoStar on the appeal, they may license the TiVo code, but even then I doubt it. They’d probably just license the patents to make their box legal.

If the FCC ever forced them to open up, like cable and CableCARD, maybe it’d happen. But recording HD from HDMI or component isn’t going to happen any time soon, and I doubt it will ever. HDCP is supposed to prevent it on HDMI anyway. And compressing componet is a major task.

So if you’re committed to satellite, you’re stuck with the vendor’s DVR.

So, yes, the move to HDTV DOES mean something in relation to this. The current Tivo hardware offering is useless to HD satellite users such as myself, and jumping on board now will probably mean another forced Tivo upgrade if they decide to offer a unit for folks in my situation.

So, as I stated previously, why would I lock myself into a 3 year contract when I’ll need to buy more Tivo hardware down the road, including the risk that any future mail-in rebates could only be offered to new subscribers only? That’s the direction I see Tivo go towards…

Don’t get me wrong, I love Tivo. But it sure sounds to me like they’re bowing to shareholder pressure for short-term gains while slowly chipping away at their long-term viability. A few months ago, it wasn’t too hard to convince people that Tivo was worth the money. Now, I have to convince folks that it’s worth the money FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS. That’s a tough sell, and now Tivo will be forced to make such sales pitches on their own…

I know that I can probably buy a new box in a couple years and move my contract over, etc, but why deal with that? For the privilege of promising Tivo my business for the next few years, I get to buy hardware that won’t work with all my HD equipment, and if I want to upgrade, I need to spend more money than the value of my contract. Insane….

At this point, I’m going to keep using my lifetime Tivo S2, go with another DVR technology (like Myth or Sage), and wait out the wave of changes that are going to occur during the next 36 months. At that point, once things settle down and if Tivo is still around AND has something better to offer than a seriously over-priced S3, I might think about jumping back onto the bandwagon. Until then, Tivo’s recent push towards long-term contracts is simply going to keep me on the sidelines, looking at something else.

Meanwhile the 2-year and 3-year plans are almost all better deals. Most people are going to use the box for at least 2-years.

I don’t consider 2-years ‘long-term’. 2-years is a fairly standard term for things like cell phone contracts, etc. (Heck, I don’t personally consider 3-years ‘long-term’. My 30-year mortgage is long-term. For me long-term probably starts around 5 years. But I can see the psychological jump from two to three for some users.)

Even if people choose to go with 1-year, except for a couple of cases, they aren’t going to be paying that much more – $13.60 to $15 over the year. That shouldn’t be a big deal.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4560883&&#post4560883

Thanks for this, it was helpful, but I’m still not at all happy.

…Dale/Dajad

The secondary market has been fairly dead for a while now for anything other than lifetime, because the price on new S2s has been, effectively, free. Why would you buy a used, unrefurbished unit when you can get a new one free? Unless the box has been hacked or upgraded, or it has lifetime, they don’t haven’t had much resale value. The DVD boxes have more resale because they are no longer produced, and there are still people who want one. Supply and demand.

MSD has always effectively been a $6 discount off the going rate, and that’s what it remains. The most loyal users shouldn’t have a problem with the longer term commitments. TiVo has allowed people to swap hardware as long as the contract remains in effect.

I own 3 S2 boxen. 1 paying $12.95 and the other two paying $6.95, monthly.

I can’t even begin to figure out if it makes sense to change my plan, especially because I’m waiting for the next gen of hardware to go HD.

Sigh.

IMHO – What they should do is say “Give us $400 now for you services and if your Tivo Still works after year 3 we will let you have your service free for life after that.”