TiVo, I Mostly Love You

An open letter to TiVo and/or Big Media:

Why are you limiting the export resolutions with Toast? I mean, it's not as if high resolution movies and TV shows aren't available all over the internet. I've got a TiVo so that means I'm probably paying for cable.

So why am I limited to 640x480 low resolution exports on shows I've legitimately TiVo'd? Does it make any more sense to not allow me to transfer podcast type shows off the TiVo that you let me download for free? Why would I pirate a free show?

You're just limiting my choice. Annoying.

Having said that, the new Premiere is pretty slick. It's noticeably faster than the Series 3 I have. Yes, I've got two HD capable TiVos, and my old SVR 2000 I paid $20 for at a garage sale. It had a lifetime subscription and all the cables and remote.

All my TiVos have lifetime subscriptions. I've had that for over 8 years on the first one, which I transferred to the Series 3 HD, so do the math on how much I've saved. FYI, the cheapest month to month plan is $8.30 a month for a 3 year, with lifetime only $100 more. I got a special $199 lifetime price based on the $20 garage sale TiVo or the Series 3. A nice new deal TivO is doing is not removing the lifetime from the box you're upgrading. You get to keep the lifetime subscription now (!).

So why did I buy the Premiere? Simple. I'm using it as a tuner for the DLP TV upstairs. I was paying the cable company $7.50 a month for the digital converter box, and the card to let the TiVo do the same thing was only $2. That means I get all the the capabilities of the box and I save $66 a year on a $548 investment. Three year warranty, so I'll have saved $200 if it doesn't last a day beyond that. If the other two boxes are any indication, this one will last a long time.

My only gripe so far is the Series 3 came with a back lighted remote, and the base model Premiere comes with a non-lit kinda ugly one. Fortunately I had an extra from my Series 3 (I had to RMA one and they sent me a whole new boxed S3) and it works with no setup on the Premiere.

Want one? You haven't lived til you've used the TiVo as a DVR. EVERY other DVR I've seen pales in comparison.

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