TiVo’s out with price cuts across their line…
First, now is probably not the time to buy a Roamio OTA. With TiVo planning a “late July” announcement in regards to their recently acquired Aereo trademark, it’s best for cord cutters to hold off… unless another amazing deal comes along. I also wouldn’t recommend the base Roamio, as it lacks streaming and MoCA bridging — especially when those features, plus 2 additional tuners and 500GB more storage, can be had for just fifty bucks more — assuming you’re OK with cable-only and a warrantied refurb.
But possibly the most unusual aspect of this deal is sale pricing on Lifetime Service. Lifetime is rarely discounted, generally running $500 for new customers and $400 for existing TiVo households. Yet, this promo brings it down to a reasonable $350 price point.
So here are my recommendations and the breakdown, should you not qualify for 10 year customer loyalty pricing:
- Refurb TiVo Roamio Plus (1TB) @ $200 + $350 Lifetime = $550
- Refurb TiVo Pro (3TB) @ $300 + $350 Lifetime = $650
“So here are my recommendations and the breakdown”
Given the price point of 3TB A/V hard drives, it pretty much makes sense to just go with the Pro, and avoid the work, no?
Yes, in this scenario, if your ultimate intent is 3TB of recording capacity – get the Pro. In my scenario, the Pro was $200 more and the recommended 3TB drive was $107. In that scenario it made sense to manually upgrade my drive to save a few bucks and also end up with an extra drive for something.
FWIW, while it all depends on the amount of the savings, which seem quite considerable in this particular case, I generally advise being wary of refurb TiVo’s, based on my one personal anecdotal data point.
I bought my first TiVo as a refurb to save $50, and based on the loose fit of the power plug, it seemed highly likely to me at the time that the refurb had been to fix a defective power supply. And sure enough, once the warranty period passed, we started experiencing intermittent power supply failures that would result in spontaneous reboots. I was able to self-diagnose that it was the power supply due to the fact that the reboots would invariably occur when the TiVo needed a power bump, such as a recording beginning, or switching inputs to the TiVo.
The spontaneous reboots were just barely infrequent enough that we were able to live happily enough with them, rather than repairing or replacing the unit. But it left me vowing to never go down the refurb path with TiVo again. (Obviously, my one personal anecdotal data point does not actually equal “data”, so YMMV. And, again, if the discount is big enough, that can certainly change the equation. But caveat emptor.)
Dave do you know how long the warranty is on the refurb and how does the warranty work if you get lifetime? As far as I know when you pay the $15 per month that includes coverage if your device breaks and you just have to pay a deductible.
I’ve purchased refurb TiVo’s in the past with no issue.
These refurbs come with TiVo’s standard 30 day money back satisfaction gurantee and 90 day warranty with the option to buy a 2-3 year extended warranty. However, most TiVo failures are hard drive-related. Instead of paying the $30 or $40, plus shipping, in the event of an issue, I’d probably just buy a replacement drive or power supply should something bad happen. Or look to Squaretrade for warranty coverage – not sure what they offer in this realm, but I’ve used them before.
Got the following on June 15th:
TiVo Series 5 (Argon 6) Plus refurb $344.49
TiVo Product Lifetime $199.99
2-year extended warranty $ 31.79
Tax: $ 21.30 Order Total: $ 576.27
They also threw in a free Slide Remote :) which I think sells for $50.
I’d really love to know what this July announcement is! I just bought my first TiVo, the Roamio OTA, on the 13th before I read about this July announcement.
Hopefully they drop the news before my 30 day return period has elapsed.
“However, most TiVo failures are hard drive-related. Instead of paying the $30 or $40, plus shipping, in the event of an issue, I’d probably just buy a replacement drive or power supply should something bad happen.”
Yeah. I really didn’t mean my comment to scare folks off this deal. First, there’s a big difference between a refurb saving you $50 and $300. Second, TiVo’s are generally quite reliable, and as Dave sez, when they fail, it’s pretty much always the hard drive or power supply, both of which are easily fixed.
(My refurb unit with a “bad” power supply did 5 years of faithful service. And if your hard drive goes blooey with the Roamio, it’s a pretty simple self-service fix.)
What to do, what to do. I bought my Roamio, not the OTA version for the lifetime service although I only have antenna TV, and have been debating on getting the Stream. It seems Tivo discounts before a new product is introduced. Wondering if this is going to be cloud based subscription, or option to save in the cloud. And if it’s cloud based, would I really need a Stream? Guess I’ll hold off until the big news, but really wish this deal existed when I bought my Tivo in October. Oh well, I have gotten my use out of it, and continue to do so.
I’m in a U-verse house now but I had the base Roamio and a used Stream on eBay was about the best purchase if ever made.
Still no lifetime service on OTA?
Yes, it’s available here. $50 OTA box, $350 for Lifetime – $400 total. Which is $100 more than test pricing that lasted a few days last month.
But is there a lifetime option for existing customers who purchased OTA before the current promotion? I was told a couple of months ago that was not an option for me.
Don’t know. Probably easier for you to check than me – look in your online account, see if you have an option to change your OTA plan?
After much hemming and hawing on Tivo vs. upgrading to Fios Quantum, just pulled the trigger on the Pro/lifetime deal – with two Minis on the way from Amazon. All said and done, my break even should come around month 19. I’m excited, but hopefully I don’t end up regretting this one based on new Tivo releases etc. Thank you Zatz for the great website.
Added a Roamio OTA as backup (& spare parts) for my base Roamio, both connected via Ethernet to the cable modem.
But I sure wouldn’t pay $350 for lifetime for the OTA model – I’ll just deactivate it at the end of my one-year commitment (after copying shows to a spare lifetime Premiere) if Tivo doesn’t offer a more reasonable ($199 or less) lifetime price for the OTA.
I’m planning on buying my first tivo. I am currently between houses as I wait to close on a new home. My dilemma is should I buy a tivo now while they have their summer sale? If I buy it today I won’t be able to use it until after my 30 day return window has expired. Or wait till I have cable that I can use a TiVo box on and potentially miss out on the summer sale? Any idea how long the summer sale typically lasts?
There’s no expiration date on this promo and given other recent deals, it could vanish at any time. In fact, they’ve already changed this one up and started redirecting http://www.tivo.com/roamiopma15 to http://www.tivo.com/roamioai15: which takes away monthly and annual service options, instead bundling Lifetime with hardware for a single option/price.
I got an email offer on June 30 for a new Roamio OTA with Lifetime Service for $399. Same email offer included a base Roamio with Lifetime Service for $499. What’s the difference between the Roamio OTA unit and the base Roamio? I thought the OTA was introduced as the non-lifetime-serviceable option? Are they the same piece of hardware?
OTA doesn’t have the guts to support CableCARD, but they have made Lifetime Service available for new purchases. Base Roamio will do OTA or CableCARD, so you get a little more flexibility. Otherwise, the hardware is the same.
Thank you, Dave! Appreciate the quick reply