Comments | tivolovers: What would you pay for lifetime?

zonereyrie in tivolovers

What would you pay for lifetime?

Mar 09, 2006 03:29

Since TiVo just dropped lifetime because, at $299, it was too good of a deal to be economical for them, I'm curious how much people would be willing to spend on lifetime if TiVo were to re-introduce it at a higher price. Note, this is 'service-only' - the price of lifetime without a bundled unit, to make it apples to apples with the current (and ( Read more... )

pricing, poll

Comments 23

mamajoan March 9 2006, 15:44:40 UTC

To answer this properly I would want to know what the monthly fee is and what the average lifetime of a TiVo box is. If the lifetime fee is $480 and the monthly fee is $10 (just using numbers that make the math easy), that means the lifetime subscription is basically the cost of four years; if the average box dies after three years, it's no bargain, but if the box can last ten years, it's a great deal. That's how I look at it.

trinnit March 9 2006, 21:06:56 UTC

My box has 5 years on it and seems to not be an exception. The most common failure is the hard drive and those are replaceable.

zonereyrie March 9 2006, 23:31:45 UTC

The current monthly service-only fee is $12.95, or %6.95 for additional units. TiVo amortizes the lifetime fee over four years, so you can consider the official expected service life to be 4 years.

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.

mamajoan March 10 2006, 17:03:26 UTC

I know all that. Heck, I'm still using my first and only TiVo, which I got in early 2002. But a couple of anecdotes don't qualify as data, and the folks whose TiVos died after just a year or two probably aren't posting on this forum. So I'd prefer to see actual statistics.

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.

notspam March 9 2006, 16:24:02 UTC

I used to be mildly interested in the lifetime subscription but then I had TWO series II boxes not even last a year.

sinsofdesire March 9 2006, 23:39:55 UTC

i just added a new tivo unit today and it gave me the option of lifetime, however i didn't do it. it was a unit i had purchased from someone in the forum and i had wanted to do a month of normal subscription first before the lifetime to make sure that it worked perfectly. so what you are saying is that if we want a chance at lifetime we have to do it now? will it remain a lifetime subscription, etc?

zonereyrie March 9 2006, 23:45:08 UTC

Lifetime will be available for sure until 3/15. It will be no longer available at some point after that.

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

sinsofdesire March 10 2006, 00:23:18 UTC

thanks, i just signed up!

wickerdotus March 10 2006, 02:08:41 UTC

Depending on what the mothly fee is when the Series3 comes out, this will be a huge factor in determining if I go with a Windows Vista machine or not.

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.

Looking back... sentineljones March 22 2006, 01:08:00 UTC

Looking back on it now, when I bought my series2 about 4 years ago, I wish I would have bought the lifetime. At the time of purchase, I didn't know enough about my TiVo to realize a) how much I would end up using it b) that I could easily replace/upgrade the harddrive and c) that it would last this long. I figured the box would last for a year or so - when in reality it would have taken what, just 24 months to break even?

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.