I cut the cord

[primestar31]

I just picked up a 3TB upgraded WD30EURX drive for this from Amazon. $70.43 TOTAL!. It was normally $118, but I applied for their store card and got $40 gift card to use instantly. Plus I had $7.57 points on my regular Amazon card.

$402.98 Tivo and Lifetime + $70.43 upgraded drive = $473.41 all complete.

How's that for smart shopping?

 

[osu1991]

I just picked up a 3TB upgraded WD30EURX drive for this from Amazon. $70.43 TOTAL!. It was normally $118, but I applied for their store card and got $40 gift card to use instantly. Plus I had $7.57 points on my regular Amazon card.

$402.98 Tivo and Lifetime + $70.43 upgraded drive = $473.41 all complete.

How's that for smart shopping?

It works well. I put that drive in the one my Dad and stepmom use. I believe it's 470hours of HD recording time. It takes a #8 torx for one screw on the back and a #10 torx for the other screw on the back and the screws holding the drive bay in place. Took about 10 mins to swap drives and button it back up and about 30-40 mins to go through the entire Tivo software download and setup again. I'm waiting till closer to the fall season premieres to see if any sales come up, then I will order one for myself and the one I have at my lake house for my mom.

 

[primestar31]

Well, if I go with Charter, I hear it's messy doing the cable-card pairing. If you do it with the original 500gb drive installed, it has to be re-done from scratch when the drive is upgraded. I don't want to go through that twice.

 

[osu1991]

Yes if upgrading drives, do it before you have a cable card paired, otherwise you have to do it again. Same for OTA, you will lose settings and have to rerun setup.

For our Las Vegas account, Cox sent a tech out the next day after my dad called. He said the tech showed up at 3pm and had the card and Tivo paired, reran setup for cable and was gone in 40 mins.

The other 2 Basics I have and the Roamio OTA my dad uses at his house here are all OTA.

 

[navychop]

Any idea how long their sale is going to last this time?

That "renewed" Roamio basic for $49.99 + Lifetime service at $349.99 is MIGHTY tempting! I'm not quite ready for it yet (I have to do some work on my OTA antennas), but those prices can't be easily beat.

Personally, I prefer factory "renewed" devices to brand new. At least you know they were (supposedly) gone through by a human, and they made SURE they worked before selling them. As opposed to being boxed on an assembly line without testing, and shipped to a store...

Think factory "renewed" - by Dish!

 

[primestar31]

Think factory "renewed" - by Dish!

You got me there. Ok, "factory renewed" by anybody EXCEPT Dish!

 

[concord]

I'm curious if any owners of the TIVO, Tablo, CM+ and other OTA devices have asked the manufacturers whether their devices will be upgrade-able when OTA stations switch to ASTC v3.0 in the future . I've asked HDHomeRun and their current OTA devices will not be compatible nor upgraded-able due to the drastic changes from ATSC v1.0 to ATSC v3.0.

 

[osu1991]

I'm curious if any owners of the TIVO, Tablo, CM+ and other OTA devices have asked the manufacturers whether their devices will be upgrade-able when OTA stations switch to ASTC v3.0 in the future . I've asked HDHomeRun and their current OTA devices will not be compatible nor upgraded-able due to the drastic changes from ATSC v1.0 to ATSC v3.0.

None of them will, as ATSC 3.0 will be an entirely new system and new chips and tuners will be needed. I don't see ATSC 3.0 being a problem for at least 5 years. Too much cost for most stations and the public in general, no matter what Sinclair and some others are saying. The Tivo Roamio will do Mpeg 4 now, for any cable systems that are moving to that.

 

[navychop]

ATSC 3 hasn't even been formalized.

 

[Titanium]

Hopefully ATSC 3.0 is never formalized. Big money and corporate greed at it's finest! Let's get with the rest of the world and use a standardized format that is developed, scaleable, proven, in distribution and works, DVB!

Terrestrial, mobile, cable, satellite all able to be defined and scalable in a single signal. Less expensive equipment for both the broadcaster and the viewer. Yes, I can dream! Sinclair would never allow this to happen.

 

[barleyguy]

I second (third?) the recommendation of the HDHomeRun. For software, though, I recommend NextPVR. It's better than Windows Media Center IMO because it supports ComSkip for automatic skipping of commercials, has multiple choices of guide services, and has a plugin for XBMC/Kodi.

For hard drives, I got a 4 TB Fantom external for $109.

For guide services I use schedules direct. It's $2 a month. There are free alternatives, but I couldn't be bothered to set them up when schedules direct is cheap and easy.

$.02.

 

[jegrant]

Hear, hear! Let's just all standardize on DVB and then we would finally have the competitive set top box market that CableCard was supposed to provide.