Wow.. my last post to TCF was 7-19-2009.
My S3 has been humming along since I bought it in 2006. 10 years later, a 1TB hard drive, a power supply swap, and keeping it fed with ethernet and electricity I received a notice that Comcast (SF Bay Area) would be discontinuing MPEG-2.
Last night, I noticed many of my HD channels were gone. Reading on the forums, it seems that the HD channels in the SF Bay Area were the first to go.
I have the TiVo S3, Fire TV 2, Apple TV, and Blu-Ray player connected to my 40" Sony HDTV. I am not in the market for a new TV, but could see a compelling reason to upgrade to a 55" or larger in the next year or two. Also not sure about if I'll be in this house in another year, so would want to wait.
So I go to find out what a 2016 model would cost with All-in Lifetime. I called TiVo about a month ago to find out what they'd do for me.
$775 for a refurb 1TB Bolt. Seems pretty steep to me. I like the idea of UHD 4K and my next set will have this and more. So I'd like to purchase a box that will last 10 years or so. If it were justifiable, I'd even outlay for the Bolt+ and a mini for the bedroom.
Today I hardly watch any live broadcast TV. I used to before streaming, load my TiVos with movies. Now I watch mostly watch Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBOgo, and content streamed from AirPlay (iPhone, iPad, Mac).
Options:
#1) Cut the cord. Go OTA with my S3 for ATSC content. Continue to use streaming services.
+ Lower costs. No $700-$1k expenditure.
+ No cableTV bill
+/- May be able to use Sling TV; All my TV's have FireTV and Apple TV
- No cable TV (but likely increase of non-bundled internet + Sling costs (about $25));
- Will have to supplement and pay for HBO stream
- Wife won't be as happy.. but she doesn't watch much CATV anyway
#2) New Bolt or Bolt+ and mini
+ New UI, fast, stream to my iOS devices, access on my bedroom TV with mini
+ 4K UHD when I make the move to a new TV
- About $800-1200+ to DVR CATV in two rooms
- As technology changes (i.e.: from CableCard to IP based TV) I'm left holding the bag.
#3) Suffer and take a non-DVR X1 box for low cost and not worry about recording TV as almost anything I want to watch could be supplemented by #1.
I currently pay about $120/mo for 150Mbps and mid-lower tier CATV with HBO. I haven't looked into what losing CATV would make my bill look like.
Unfortunately, TiVo hasn't made any real compelling case as to why I should invest in their hardware again. I probably paid about $1k for my S3 with lifetime, and got good use of the device. The $549 for Lifetime seems really steep for me. The more I think about it, the more it isn't worth it to me. No deals to be found.
I don't mind paying, but I don't want to feel that I'm getting ripped off. Hence my quest for alternatives. And remember.. it's just TV.
Decisions.. decisions..
My S3 has been humming along since I bought it in 2006. 10 years later, a 1TB hard drive, a power supply swap, and keeping it fed with ethernet and electricity I received a notice that Comcast (SF Bay Area) would be discontinuing MPEG-2.
Last night, I noticed many of my HD channels were gone. Reading on the forums, it seems that the HD channels in the SF Bay Area were the first to go.
I have the TiVo S3, Fire TV 2, Apple TV, and Blu-Ray player connected to my 40" Sony HDTV. I am not in the market for a new TV, but could see a compelling reason to upgrade to a 55" or larger in the next year or two. Also not sure about if I'll be in this house in another year, so would want to wait.
So I go to find out what a 2016 model would cost with All-in Lifetime. I called TiVo about a month ago to find out what they'd do for me.
$775 for a refurb 1TB Bolt. Seems pretty steep to me. I like the idea of UHD 4K and my next set will have this and more. So I'd like to purchase a box that will last 10 years or so. If it were justifiable, I'd even outlay for the Bolt+ and a mini for the bedroom.
Today I hardly watch any live broadcast TV. I used to before streaming, load my TiVos with movies. Now I watch mostly watch Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBOgo, and content streamed from AirPlay (iPhone, iPad, Mac).
Options:
#1) Cut the cord. Go OTA with my S3 for ATSC content. Continue to use streaming services.
+ Lower costs. No $700-$1k expenditure.
+ No cableTV bill
+/- May be able to use Sling TV; All my TV's have FireTV and Apple TV
- No cable TV (but likely increase of non-bundled internet + Sling costs (about $25));
- Will have to supplement and pay for HBO stream
- Wife won't be as happy.. but she doesn't watch much CATV anyway
#2) New Bolt or Bolt+ and mini
+ New UI, fast, stream to my iOS devices, access on my bedroom TV with mini
+ 4K UHD when I make the move to a new TV
- About $800-1200+ to DVR CATV in two rooms
- As technology changes (i.e.: from CableCard to IP based TV) I'm left holding the bag.
#3) Suffer and take a non-DVR X1 box for low cost and not worry about recording TV as almost anything I want to watch could be supplemented by #1.
I currently pay about $120/mo for 150Mbps and mid-lower tier CATV with HBO. I haven't looked into what losing CATV would make my bill look like.
Unfortunately, TiVo hasn't made any real compelling case as to why I should invest in their hardware again. I probably paid about $1k for my S3 with lifetime, and got good use of the device. The $549 for Lifetime seems really steep for me. The more I think about it, the more it isn't worth it to me. No deals to be found.
I don't mind paying, but I don't want to feel that I'm getting ripped off. Hence my quest for alternatives. And remember.. it's just TV.
Decisions.. decisions..
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