Stay with Series 2 Tivo, switch to New HD Tivo, or to TW DVR?

[BCSBuck]

I have had Tivo for a number of years. When my series 1 died, I bought a dual tuner 180 Hr Series 2 last year, and prepaid 1 yr of service. I have TWColumbus standard cable service (no STBs).

I have an HD TV. Obviously, with a series 2, I cannot record any HD shows.

Now my year of prepaid Tivo is up. My understanding is that they will automatically convert me to the 1 yr. commitment rate of $19.95 a month, or I can intervene and go to a 2 or 3 yr. commitment (2 yr: $16.95, 3 yr:$12.95, or I can prepay).

I would, however, like to be able to record HD. So that means getting rid of the series 2, and getting one of the new Tivos, or getting digital cable and the HD DVR from TW.

Leaving aside the upfront cost ($299) of the Tivo, the monthly cost of the Tivo, plus getting at least digital access service and two cable cards, is going to be ~$20 per month and that will be with a 3 year commitment to Tivo.

Adding digital cable and an HD-DVR from TW has a $4.95 upfront cost and then is about ~$21 per month, with no commitment, plus no fear of cable company technology updates obsoleting my equipment, and if the STB fails, I get a new one.

I just don't see any reason not to switch to the TW HD-DVR. I know it is not as nice as a Tivo, but is the HD-DVR (SA 8300HD) from TW so inferior that I should not switch?

I love my Tivo, but I can't justify not switching. Can someone convince me?

[Scott]

Welcome to the forum BCSBuck! There are many TiVo enthusiasts here as well as proponents of the SA8300.

With TiVo, there is always a good deal of cost involved.

I think we had a TiVo vs. SA8300 thread around here somewhere, I'll see what I can dig up.

In the mean time, I'm sure you'll get plenty of info from both sides.

[Scott]

Here is the thread I was referring to... Did not exactly start out as an 8300 vs. TiVo thread--but from about post #6 on, there are arguments from both sides. I'm not sure how relevant the info on the 8300 is now (it's a year old); but I'm sure 8300 owners will be able to chime in about fixes, etc.

[knownzero]

Having had any number of Tivo's over the years and having just bought a new Tivo HD: http://www.hdcolumbus.net/vb-hdtv/showthread.php?p=7283#post7283 and I have an Insight Moto 6412(?) I think I hopefully can shed some light on this.

First, at least for the Insight DVR, it's *awful*. I'm currently on my 3rd or 4th box now since a bunch of them have died (about 1 a year seems to be the norm). The UI is slow, locks up frequently for 10-30 seconds at a time sometimes requiring a reboot to fix, has a horrible search function and once in a while it will record something, the recording will disappear and the DVR will show 100% full until I do multible reboots. To be fair, it's happening less frequently now, my guess is because of software upgrades. But they still happen with a rather alarming frequency. The picture is good to very good most of the time and is the only way to get HD recording and on demand programming (and possibly PPV but I haven't used it on the Insight box or the Tivo w/cable cards yet). The Tivo HD (and all Tivo's) have a fantastically intuitive UI and an even better remote. The search is the best out there and my initial impressions are very favorable. What it comes down to is whether the Tivo offers enough of a set of benefits to you to pay the extra money. For me, it's totally worth it. I don't how your DVR will compare but others will be able to chime in hopefully.

I've had my Series one since I bought it in 2001 and it's still going strong, I've had hard drives in it die but upgrading and replacing them are super easy so I've got 6 years now on that box and it's still going strong (actually it's being decommissioned for the Tivo HD now). The Series 2 is going in the bedroom now although I have to say I prefer the Series 1 because of the speed of the UI, the series 2 is glacial (although I know why it's slow, I can't say why I know it's slow :D )

As far as pricing issues go, that seems to be the sticky wicket over on the Tivo forums at the moment. It's confusing and overly complicated the way it stands. I'm still on my old $12.95/$6.95 multi service discount month to month plans and I was able to easily replace my old series 1 Tivo service number with the new Tivo HD service number with no upcharge on the month to month. I think you should be able to change the old TSN to the new TSN if you decide to change, the caveat being that you have to buy it at retail and change the number on Tivo's website. If you buy from Tivo I don't think there's a way to get out of getting a new plan.

Hope that helps a bit!

[BCSBuck]

Thanks for all of the info. I appreciate it. If I buy an HD Tivo at retail, I could potentially pay only the $12.95 a month? Even so, I would also have to rent two cable cards from time warner, (2x$2/month) and get digital access at a minimum ($4.30/month), so I'm at $21 / month, which is what the TW upcharge is for digital cable and their HD, and HD-DVR, and with the Tivo setup I describe I don't get the digital Variety package from TW, and I don't get PPV.

I'm nervous about it because I love my Tivo, and I know I will be frustrated to some degree by the TW DVR. But I can't justify the $300 outlay when the monthly cost is the same.

Anyone with positive experiences with the SA8300HD?

[Scott]

You could always give the 8300 a shot, and if you don't like it return it (I believe TW is on a leased business model, correct?).

[BCSBuck]

Good point!

[darkfiber]

I have been a Tivo user since 2001. I had a Series 1 (which I still have but don't use much anymore) a Series 2 and as of late December 2006 a Tivo Series 3.

I was using the Series 2 as my main DVR until I bought a new HDTV (A 60" Sony SXRD R60XBR1) in Oct 2005. At that point my only choice of a DVR was going with Time Warner's SA8300HD DVR. I had to use the 8300 from October 2005 until early January 2006. To say I hated it would be an understatment. I counted the days until the Tivo Series 3 came out. While the SA8300 might be a fine starter DVR for those who have never had one, it doesn't come close to the features, expanablity and ease of use that the Tivo's are known for. The SA8300 interface is crap, you only get around 25 or so hours of HD record time and the Tivo blows it away in terms of recording features and options.

I guess you get what you pay for. Going to a Series 3 wasnt cheap. I paid around $715 (shipped) for the Series 3. It came with a 250GB hard drive but I bought a 750GB so I would have around 98 hours of HD record time (I have since added another 750GB via the eSATA port for a total of 1.5TB and around 198 hours of HD recording).

Sadly the Tivo HD wasn't available when I needed one. It would have been nice to pay $300 (or less) for one.

There are some negatives to using a Cable Card Tivo S3 or HD. They don't support Switched Digital Video or On-Demand services. So when the time comes when Time Warner decides to put channels on SDV those with Cable Cards won't be able to get those channels (Time Warner as of July 1st I think has to issue Cable Card based boxes but I think those do support SDV and On-Demand). I personally only care about HD channels so I don't care what they put on SDV as long as it isn't HD.

It wasn't an easy ride with the Tivo Series 3 as there were bugs early on. But since then the software updates have improved things greatly and I am very happy with it.

I think the $300 TivoHD is behind on software versions but it shouldn't take them long to catch up with the Series 3.

I agree with Scott though. Give the 8300 a try for a bit before investing the money in the Tivo S3 or HD. When you get sick of it (and you will being a Tivo user) then consider a Tivo S3 or Tivo HD.