$300 TiVo Roamio OTA DVR with lifetime subscription

Well I tried even installed te abp plugin in chrome no go. Hopefully someone else has better luck. I did notice that they did some updates on the site tonight. before you could select monthly annually and lifetime now monthly is all that shows up for me.

I think they finally pulled the plug.

[OK seriously, last edit as my question has been answered, but I want my numbers to be correct. Changing the HD to a 500GB WD Elements for $50]

[Edited with $300 for the tablo, rather than $200 i had by mistake. Also added full price TiVo since the $300 deal is most likely gone. The old numbers make more sense now, new (real world) numbers still don’t]

I have seen some comments about how unbelievably cheaper the Tivo deal is. Can someone tell me where my math is wrong? Of course these numbers assume you have NO existing hardware and do not take into account the UX difference between the Roku Amazon/Netflix/Hulu apps and the ones offered on the TiVo mini.
This is what I come up with in comparison:

Tablo = $300, Lifetime Service $150, 500GB Hard drive = $50, Roku = $100, Total = $600
TiVo OTA w/lifetime = $300 (a deal which I believe is now gone), Tivo Stream = $130, Total = $430
[adjusted TiVo price to reflect non-deal numbers] TiVo Roamio = $200, Lifetime Service $500 New Total = $700

Add a second tv:
Tablo = $700
Tivo = $580
Non-deal Tivo = $850

Add a 3rd tv:
Tablo = $800
Tivo = $730
Non-deal Tivo = $1000

4th tv (I think the TiVo can support up to 3 minis):
Tablo = $900
Tivo = $880
Non-deal Tivo = $1150

@MotobikeMan, the deal is considered cheap because the price is now competitive with the Tablo. Before now, the $50 OTA Tivo required a $15 per month subscription with no lifetime option. The only way to get a lifetime Tivo was to buy their $200 device plus purchase the $500 lifetime subscription.

So now instead of paying $700, it is only $300 to get a lifetime OTA Tivo.

Tivo is a 4-tuner model, so start with 4-tuner Tablo at $299 instead of the 2-tuner model. Also, $150 is full-price for a Tivo mini which is fine for comparision, but I only paid $114 for mine on Amazon. I have 5 TVs connected to mine – 4 minis and a Roamio OTA. You can have up to 6 mini’s, though you can only have 4 active tuners at a time, so you can’t watch TV on all 6 at a time.

oh yes, i messed up the Tablo price, $300 rather than $200.

all other prices were full price for ease of the arithmetic. If i adjusted the mini price I would have to do the same for the Roku.

For those of us with no Tivo experience, suppose someone wanted Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu (not atypical for cordcutters), would a TIV user need Roku’s (or substitutes) to get those or are those directly available from the Tivo hardware. If not, then there would be extra hardware costs that should be added on to your math?

Those are available with Tivo. As long as you have a good Antenna signal Tivo is good. However, I would say that the upgrade or improvements for Tivo come VERY slowly. Some people may say, including me, that Tablo is slow to roll out new features also. But Tablo is WAY faster than Tivo at doing so.

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Also at some point they stop supporting older hardware all together. My Tivo HD was basically stuck in the old world with no upgrades to any software including improvements or fixes…

Take it with a grain of salt :wink:

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Jestep is right.

Having been a Tivo user for something like 12 years, and still having a soft spot for them. (heck Tivo is the Kleenex of DVR’s) Their updates were quite slow back in the day, and the best review I have heard about their Amazon app is ā€œwell, its usable nowā€

Did not mean to suggest I was abandoning ship. Certainly not the case. I have already rewritten my will to require that I be buried with my Tablo. I was just curious about what the competition offered.

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well Tablo works on Wifi, so it might work 6 feet under lol :smile:

Yea, I do miss the super fast channel changing, but for what I can do now, watch via web browser, iPad, phone, etc I do not miss the Tivo other than fast live TV channel changing.

Plus upgrading the hard drive on Tivo was much more of a chore. However, using some utilities you can keep all your recordings and settings doing so, something Tablo needs to support in the future. Plus you can add a drive for more space, again Tablo needs to support and will at some point

I have seen mention of the slow channel switching. My setup, I have my antenna in the attic and wired to the whole house. I surf on the TV tuner itself, only using Tablo if there is something that I wold specifically want pause/replay functionality on… (I don’t watch a whole lot of live TV on mobile devices, yet) I’m only 3 weeks in, so I am sure that will bite me in some way. Its a world better than they MythTV/Plex setup I had between my TiVo and Tablo

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@MotobikeMan

Here’s my math from earlier sans taxes:

TiVo Roamio OTA DVR 4 tuner + TiVo Mini (for 2nd HDTV) + TiVo Stream (to stream away from home on smartphones and tablets) = $580 (300+150+130)

Tablo Quad tuner + 500 GB USB HDD + Lifetime Subscription + 2 Roku 3s = $700 (300+50+150+200)

That is for a home with a 2 HDTV setup and support for mobile devices with both the TiVo and Tablo.

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Wait, I’m missing something.
Are you saying the TiVo Roamio OTA DVR 4 tuner costs $300, including a lifetime subscription?
I thought the TiVo lifetime subscription cost $300 all by itself.

@Radojevic

Yes the previous deal was $300 for the actual DVR device and lifetime subscription.

I think the deal is gone as I cannot get it to load anymore. Was able to load it multiple times for co-workers to place their orders.

Random Q for everyone - does TiVo even work in Canada for OTA? Aka does the guide support the Canadian channels?

Yes it does. Quite well