TiVo has just informed us that customers looking to do the VIP lifetime service transfer can now do so with Series 3 TiVo DVRs purchased from WeaKnees. The lifetime service transfer means that if you have a unit with lifetime (standalone, Series 1 or Series 2) and you wish to move that lifetime over to a new Series 3 unit, you can do so for $199. Until now, TiVo has only allowed this special deal to apply to units purchased directly from TiVo at TiVo.com, but now they are extending this offer to WeaKnees Series 3 TiVo DVRs also. So now you can get a Series 3 HD TiVo with 100 hours and lifetime service. It’s the best of all worlds. Thanks again TiVo!
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Early News on the Series 3 Upgrades
We expect to have these on the site later today for pre-order with orders shipping sometime next week. In the meantime, here are some screen shots from a Series 3 TiVo with a 750 GB drive.
Here’s the System Information screen:
And here’s the Recording Quality screen for SD recordings:
So you get up to 98 HD hours or up to 927 SD hours, or a combination of both, depending on all of the usual factors.
As of now, there is no external drive support, so this is the only way to get more than 32 hours of HD recording out of these units.
Watch here for more info as we have it!
It’s finally here – the Series 3 TiVo.
We expect to be releasing upgrade information soon. In the meantime, anyone who wants a stock unit can pre-order on now here:
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We’re on a Google Blog!
We were offered a chance to do a guest posting, and here it is:
As I’ve mentioned before, we’re huge fans of the new Google service!
TiVo has announced that customers who have lifetime service on standalone TiVo boxes will be able to transfer the lifetime service to a Series 3 HD TiVo for $199. In addition, the older unit will get one year free of TiVo service. This was announced via downloads to applicable units.
There is a lot of information on the web about this offer, so here’s our take. First, this means you can get lifetime service, even if you have nothing at the moment. Lots of our customers really hate paying monthly fees (we hear from them every day) and this keeps them from buying a TiVo. So while it may not be worth it in strictly economic terms, they can get comfort if they want to spend the money. Here’s how: buy a Humax (not from TiVo, since those can’t get lifetime) and get lifetime service. Then transfer it over. Expensive, but doable. The cheaper method is to buy a lifetime TiVo on eBay, but, as always with eBay, you’re certainly taking your chances.
Next, is it worth moving service, assuming you plan to keep the older box in service? The answer depends in part on the price of monthly TiVo service going forward. Currently, assuming that the Series 3 monthly fees are the same as for any other standalone TiVo, then you’ll pay $6.95/month since the unit will be secondary (at least) on your account. Moving the service is $199, less the cost you’d pay for the year during the overlap, or $83.40. So in a sense, you pay a premium of $115.60 to move the service over. Now why would you bother doing that? Because you may want to deactivate the older unit after the year.
This analysis is based on the assumption that monthly fees won’t increase, or decrease. We think a decrease is unlikely, but an increase is certainly possible, especially for the Series 3 unit. Prices have only gone up for lifetime and monthly service. So if you’ll later stop using two units, and you want to lock in the lifetime on the new unit, this makes sense.
One final issue: the rebate for the Series 2 units relies on service. So if there’s a rebate for the Series 3, will it work with this offer? That may be a deal breaker, so keep your eyes peeled.