No, I think he was saying that if you get a tivo you should get the lifetime service with it for an up-front fee and consider it part of the price. I did that with the original model and used it for more than 10 years before the lack of HD bothered me enough to toss it. I do like the features on the current models but don't think the price for 3 rooms makes as much sense as the ultra tv package.
Let's see, for three rooms the four tuner Tivo setup is something like $1300 plus, for me, an additional storage drive and remotes--let's call it, at retail, an even $1500. (I could also choose the middle level Roamio and get 6 tuners, but I would give up the option of dumping cable and going OTA.) That gets me Netflix, too.
Around here, Ultra hardware for three rooms is $35. That includes the gateway plus two media streamers. So, the breakeven point is 1500/35 or 43 months. It's actually a little less, because I'd have to put Roku or similar at my TVs to get Netflix if I had UltraTV--an expense not needed if I'm using Tivo.
So, the breakeven of rolling your own using the Tivo method is under 4 years.
It's even less if you roll your own using Windows Media Center.