Tivo vs WMC Discussion

[Ed]

I enjoy no commercials in Netflix, but never even had the fleeting curiosity to ever set up comm-skip software in WMC. Using the fast forward/skip buttons to bypass commercials is less work than even asking myself if I want comm-skip. Besides, more and more people nowadays (myself included) don't even skip over commercials anymore - but simply use commercials as time to check phones/tablets; or also get up to piss or w/e. In the end, I suppose that's a good thing as I don't become shackled to one solution because of its comm-skip abilities or implementation of.

[STC]

Hmmm, personally I prefer one big chunk of time-save. Turning a 1 hour show split into 6 or 7 parts into a 40 minute single watch, saving 20 uninterrupted minutes of personal time.

Again, it's personal preference. Once we started using com skip there is no other way (whilst we use WMC).

[mdavej]

A PC does give you ultimate flexibility with what you can do to manipulate and play back files (detecting/marking/skipping commercials, Madvr, transcoding, etc.). Unfortunately, no other platform can quite match that. Luckily, WMC will probably be functional for years to come.

[adam1991]

Hmmm, personally I prefer one big chunk of time-save. Turning a 1 hour show split into 6 or 7 parts into a 40 minute single watch, saving 20 uninterrupted minutes of personal time.

Absolutely. Those of us who had ReplayTV got used to sitting down at 9pm and turning on the shows that started at 8pm, and by the time 11pm rolled around we were through with all of them.

Being able to start later and watch three hours of broadcast material in two hours? Priceless.

[Ed]

AHA! Roamio OTA does NOT have a lifetime service option. Roamio OTA has ONLY monthly service--not even a yearly option.

The $500 lifetime option is available ONLY by spending ANOTHER $150 on a Roamio that can also take cable input, which I don't have.

So for OTA, the lifetime service comes out to $650--not $500.

Total for one main TV plus three satellite TVs and lifetime Tivo service: $1150. Plus tax.

And for that, I don't even get commercial skip.

What are you talking about? I just went to buy mine (washing my hands that SiliconDust failure after all the shit they have pulled and saying 'so long and thanks for all the fish' to WMC after 9 years of service I'm truly grateful for) and saw the OTA has a lifetime right here (I'm going with the Roamio 4 tuner CC w/lifetime though as it can do OTA too if I ever cancel cable). It just doesn't have the annual plan the regular Roamio has:



https://www.tivo.com/shop/promo/supersavings

Oh well, it's been a fun ride guys. Newfiend gets dibs on all and any of my equipment and then maybe I'll post whatever is left here for people to make me offers on (anything gained is net IMO, so go for those $1 offers; even though I'll definitely shoot those down ).

[mike_ekim]

What are you talking about? I just went to buy mine (washing my hands that SiliconDust failure after all the poop they have pulled and saying 'so long and thanks for all the fish' to WMC after 9 years of service I'm truly grateful for) and saw the OTA has a lifetime right here (I'm going with the Roamio 4 tuner CC w/lifetime though as it can do OTA too if I ever cancel cable). It just doesn't have the annual plan the regular Roamio has:

**picture omitted for brevity**

https://www.tivo.com/shop/promo/supersavings

Oh well, it's been a fun ride guys. Newfiend gets dibs on all and any of my equipment and then maybe I'll post whatever is left here for people to make me offers on (anything gained is net IMO, so go for those $1 offers; even though I'll definitely shoot those down ).

I hope you enjoy your purchase Ed (seriously, no sarcasm) but keep in mind that 'product lifetime service' is just that - service for the life of that particular TiVo. If the TiVo dies in a couple of years and needs to be replaced out of warranty, you will need to pay for lifetime service again. Maybe TiVo has changed that policy, but I don't think so. There are plenty of complaints about that on the internet.

Sort of like, if I buy a car with lifetime oil changes and that car gets totalled in an accident. The replacement car won't have the original car's lifetime oil changes. A few unfortunate people have essentially paid $250 for a couple of years of guide data.

[adam1991]

You linked to the promo page.

Do this: Just go to tivo.com and select Shop and select Roamio OTA.

There's only one service option listed.

Either that's a glitch in their system, or the lifetime $250 is directly part of the promo coupon no matter which unit you buy.

I'm guessing the latter. If you know of the promo, you can get lifetime on the OTA model. If you don't, you can't--you have to buy the OTA/cable model to get lifetime.

[Ed]

What are you talking about? I just went to buy mine (washing my hands that SiliconDust failure after all the poop they have pulled and saying 'so long and thanks for all the fish' to WMC after 9 years of service I'm truly grateful for) and saw the OTA has a lifetime right here (I'm going with the Roamio 4 tuner CC w/lifetime though as it can do OTA too if I ever cancel cable). It just doesn't have the annual plan the regular Roamio has:

**picture omitted for brevity**

https://www.tivo.com/shop/promo/supersavings

Oh well, it's been a fun ride guys. Newfiend gets dibs on all and any of my equipment and then maybe I'll post whatever is left here for people to make me offers on (anything gained is net IMO, so go for those $1 offers; even though I'll definitely shoot those down ).

I hope you enjoy your purchase Ed (seriously, no sarcasm) but keep in mind that 'product lifetime service' is just that - service for the life of that particular TiVo. If the TiVo dies in a couple of years and needs to be replaced out of warranty, you will need to pay for lifetime service again. Maybe TiVo has changed that policy, but I don't think so. There are plenty of complaints about that on the internet.

Sort of like, if I buy a car with lifetime oil changes and that car gets totalled in an accident. The replacement car won't have the original car's lifetime oil changes. A few unfortunate people have essentially paid $250 for a couple of years of guide data.

I already talked to them, $199 lifetime transfer fee if item is out of warranty, none if its replaced within the 3 year warranty. I'm fine with that. I'm not expecting, nor heard of, obscene failure rates. Oh, I have the warranty as well as it was only $40 for 3 years.

You linked to the promo page.

Do this: Just go to tivo.com and select Shop and select Roamio OTA.

There's only one service option listed.

Either that's a glitch in their system, or the lifetime $250 is directly part of the promo coupon no matter which unit you buy.

I'm guessing the latter. If you know of the promo, you can get lifetime on the OTA model. If you don't, you can't--you have to buy the OTA/cable model to get lifetime.

Well, that's kind of the whole point of a promo - to get something you normally can't. So as it stands, right now, you can get it as you can see. But anyone who would want it needs to jump on it while the sale lasts. Again, kind of the point.

[mike_ekim]

You linked to the promo page.

Do this: Just go to tivo.com and select Shop and select Roamio OTA.

There's only one service option listed.

Either that's a glitch in their system, or the lifetime $250 is directly part of the promo coupon no matter which unit you buy.

I'm guessing the latter. If you know of the promo, you can get lifetime on the OTA model. If you don't, you can't--you have to buy the OTA/cable model to get lifetime.

What's wrong with using the promo? When discussing/comparing cost it makes sense to use the lowest cost available at the time. Lots of products have constant 'sales' or promotions to catch the people who do lots of research (they will be more aware of competing products, so a "promo" is used to lure them in), and the non-promo price is really the sucker price for people who do no research (they will be less aware of the competition and will cough up a higher price).

Edit (to avoid multiple posts):

I already talked to them, $199 lifetime transfer fee if item is out of warranty, none if its replaced within the 3 year warranty. I'm fine with that. I'm not expecting, nor heard of, obscene failure rates. Oh, I have the warranty as well as it was only $40 for 3 years.

Ouch. But if you're informed and happy, that's all that matters. WMC certainly isn't for everyone and TiVo seems like a good product.

[Ed]

Ouch. But if you're informed and happy, that's all that matters. WMC certainly isn't for everyone and TiVo seems like a good product.

Yeah, I'm fine with it - by the time I would need to pay it anyway - outside of the 3 year warranty - I will have saved more than that in DVR rental fees (including already recouping the cost of entry for the Tivo HW). So even if I do ever have to end up paying it - it's cool with me. WMC was fine, per se. I just grew board after 9 years of use with no development/it being stagnant for the last 6 of those years (if you don't count it changing by things getting removed). Then, for the whole guide data fiasco - after 6 years I don't expect a frustrating issue like this to be the only development of WMC we see, lol. Plus I already went through the TV setup issue with this new guide stuff (where it says no TV data, blah blah blah). I don't wan't to possibly go through that again if I ever need to reformat for some reason. Then there's the issue of doing all this just to get inferior guide data that causes its own problems. I haven't had to finnick with my WMC for a long, long time. MS now wants me to resume that it seems. I'm choosing to get off the ride instead. If this guide data thing never happened, I might have stuck with WMC - seeing as it's clear now the SiliconDust DVR is a non-starter. Luckily this Tivo sale was there. Gotta give a shout out to all those who brought it to mine and others attention. Oh well. Look forward to my new toy

[mdavej]

Welcome to the other side, Ed. Longtime WMC user here who switched a few weeks ago. So far, so good. Mini performance is vastly superior to extenders. Roamio channel changes are much quicker than on my old Cetons and even HomeRun Primes. It's nice to have quad live buffers and recording from the beginning of those buffers. And no painful updates, rollbacks, editing hosts files, bad guide data, missing Netflix.

I'm very happy with it for the price. I expect it to last 7 years or so (like my old Premiere), which is better than I ever got out of a PC. $300 over that time is a bargain. Even over 3 years it would still be a bargain. Now when the sale is over and the same thing cost $700 again, that's over my limit. But I think heartburn over a $250 lifetime fee is unfounded. In any case, selling all my old WMC stuff more than made up for the money I spent. And I still have my HTPC connected for other purposes. It's just been relieved of DVR duty.

[Ed]

Question for you, Mini parity is 1:1 to the DVR right? I was thinking of making the setup like my current WMC setup - DVR in the spare bedroom (where my headless HTPC is) and then Minis at the TVs in place of the 360s. I could probably Google this in 2 seconds but I'm lazy

[STC]

Yes but the interface is a bit slower. Otherwise it's all the same.

[Ed]

Cool, thanks.

[TheOsburnFamil]

I see the minis have wireless. Is that wireless even for the HD TV playback too?

[adam1991]

You linked to the promo page.

Do this: Just go to tivo.com and select Shop and select Roamio OTA.

There's only one service option listed.

Either that's a glitch in their system, or the lifetime $250 is directly part of the promo coupon no matter which unit you buy.

I'm guessing the latter. If you know of the promo, you can get lifetime on the OTA model. If you don't, you can't--you have to buy the OTA/cable model to get lifetime.

What's wrong with using the promo? When discussing/comparing cost it makes sense to use the lowest cost available at the time.

Not at all disputing that; however, the point is that it is not a fact that "sure, the OTA-only model has lifetime available." The fact is that "as of right now, using this promo code, you can get the OTA-only model with lifetime service--which is not normally available with the OTA-only model."

The route I took, simply going to tivo.com, is the route everyone will use under normal circumstances.

If you want lifetime service with the OTA-only model, understand that it's a limited time offer.

[Ed]

I see the minis have wireless. Is that wireless even for the HD TV playback too?

Yeah but I'm sure that as with the case of Wifi and WMC extenders - very few will probably tell you it works fine for them and most will likely say just go wired. I'm sure for the Netflix and stuff the Wifi works fine though.

[mdavej]

I have 3 Minis, all wired, so far and one DVR. Not sure what the limit is. Looking at the TiVo forums, wifi is discouraged.

If I were OTA only, I'd still get the basic refurb for the same price to get the lifetime deal and have cable capability just in case.

[IownFIVEechos]

I've said in the past a couple of times, I have tried the Roamio and Mini package but sent them back.- Poor cable TV PQ testing two Roamios and three Minis on three different TVs.

Is this still the case? Also is it easy enough to swap the hard drive. I think I read up to 3GB is a simple swap and after that you have to modify the drive with software etc? To those who recently got the $49 cable card version did you replace the stock drive and was it easy?

[Ed]

I've said in the past a couple of times, I have tried the Roamio and Mini package but sent them back.- Poor cable TV PQ testing two Roamios and three Minis on three different TVs.

Is this still the case? Also is it easy enough to swap the hard drive. I think I read up to 3GB is a simple swap and after that you have to modify the drive with software etc? To those who recently got the $49 cable card version did you replace the stock drive and was it easy?

Doesn't look bad to me, but I'm not the stickler some HTPC users are. I also wouldn't put up with anything egregious though. I have warranty with mine for 3 years, so I didn't swap the drive (don't need to anyway - aside from being a watch and delete guy - we watch less and less via TV/Rec TV here anyway). It is as easy as just installing it, and you need to do it first thing to save yourself some time (you'll lose all settings and rec settings and recordings - obviously - if u do it later; and will have to do it/adjust settings/schedule recordings all over again if you swap the drive at a later time).