New to Tivo and the forum

Hi!



I just signed up on the forum and I'm brand new to the Tivo realm. The reason I am looking into Tivo is because I have Verizon FiOS and I found out they are changing their pricing around and I'm sick of renting their boxes.



I currently have a TIVO Premier that I use in a guest room that is not activated (Bought for $30 from Best Buy in Nov.), but is still able to tune all the channels with the FiOS cable card. I do like the interface, but paying the monthly fees seemed pointless since it's basically the same price as FiOS.



I'm looking for any advice that anyone may have on what route to take. I'm thinking of trying to find a good deal on a series 3 or Tivo HD with lifetime to see how I like it. The only thing is I've heard they are not MPEG 4 compatible so I wouldn't get a couple of channels (But it's not all that many). As of now I'm wanting to spend around $200 ish. I would love to buy a used Premier and be able to jump on the $99 lifetime promotion I've heard about, but since I have no active Tivo boxes I doubt that would happen.



Thanks in advance for your help!



~Lee