TiVo’s launched a landing page to court upcoming ReplayTV castaways. As of 7/31/11, the ReplayTV service will be discontinued. At best, owners will be left with a dumbed down digital VCR. Worst case? A brick.
TiVo’s pitch is similar to others we’ve seen recently… and not truly limited to ReplayTV customers. You can grab a Premiere for $0 down with service running $20/month (requiring a 2 year commitment) or pick one up bundled with Lifetime service for a flat $500. The Lifetime option is a better value for those who intend to keep the TiVo DVR for more than 2 years and/or ultimately intend to resell it. However, it remains to be seen if the presumably small number of remaining ReplayTV users are willing to shell out $500 to upgrade from a possibly expense-free SD experience (probably residing in a secondary room) to something a bit more modern.