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Acct101
Premium Member
join:2011-09-20
Bensalem, PA

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Acct101

Premium Member

[Cable Card] How to do cablecard route?

I am currently paying something like $30 a month for 3 XI boxes. If I went the cablecard route, how much would they cost a month to rent 3 of them?

How would I go about this? Do I then go out and have to purchase 3 TIVO boxes?

Does it matter what kind of TIvo box I buy and where do you get them? Best Buy?

I assume they'll all show HD content too?

Thanks
Patrick
P.S. Are these Cablecards like what DirecTv uses? They pop in the front of the box?
cheeseman
join:2014-06-19
Palo Alto, CA

2 edits

cheeseman

Member

Re: How to do cablecard route?

They're not like DirecTV's plastic cards. They look like PCMCIA cards that you used to use on old laptops to add features.

Cable cards are free for the first one, and then something like $1.50-2.50 for additional ones depending on market.

You also get a minuscule service discount for using them, since the HD tech fee includes your first piece of equipment.

You can get 3 straight-up TiVos, or you could get something like one TiVo and two TiVo minis, which feed off the main TiVo via MoCA or ethernet (and thus don't need their own cable cards). They're sold wherever fine electronics are sold.

The main TiVo comes in 3 varieties ranging from $199 to $599, the main differentiator being size and number of tuners.

TiVo has a monthly cost of $14.99/mo for the full TiVos, and $9.95/mo for the Minis. So it would actually cost more in monthly fees than your current 3 X1 boxes.

You can pay $499 for DVRs/$149 for minis up front for lifetime service, which eliminates the monthly fee and is tied to the BOX, not to the PERSON.

So to eliminate monthly fees completely, you're looking at a minimum (assuming one low end TiVo and two Minis with lifetime) of $1194 (just over 3 years to make up the cost). If you got 3 high-end TiVos, you could spend as much as $3294 (just over 9 years to make up the cost).

I would probably compromise and get one high-end TiVo and two TiVo Minis if I was going this route, for a total of $1594. It would take 4.5 years to pay off the savings assuming $30/mo for X1 boxes.

Caddyroger
Premium Member
join:2001-06-11
To the west

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Re: [Connection] How to do cablecard route?

Here is a link to the features of the 3 models of Roamio's.

»www.tivo.com/shop/roamio

geek
Mad Scientist at Work
Premium Member
join:2002-01-07
Southbury, CT

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There are a few CableCARD devices out there other than a TiVo. Personally, I use an HDHomeRun Prime and I'm thrilled with it. Let us know your setup and what you are looking to do and that might help us in helping you.

Tobin
join:2003-09-21
Burlingame, CA

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Re: [Cable Card] How to do cablecard route?

If you buy TiVo hardware, do yourself a favor and buy a retail employee discount code off eBay. They're good for a couple hundred dollars off each Roamio DVR when combined with lifetime or monthly service. You can also get TiVo Minis, remotes, etc. with the code at the same time with similar discounts.
suggy2004
join:2004-01-07
Conshohocken, PA

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You can also pay for the tivo service as a lifetime w/ one lump payment & never pay it again.

Lifetime of the box not you're lifetime.
cheeseman
join:2014-06-19
Palo Alto, CA

cheeseman

Member

Yes, I covered that in my above post.
Acct101
Premium Member
join:2011-09-20
Bensalem, PA

Acct101

Premium Member

i appreciate all the comments and will read through them this weekend.

Patrick

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad to Acct101

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It might be a good time to get a TiVo Roamio - they're having a special sale right now:

The TiVo Roamio Summer Sale
By Dave Zatz, Zatz Not Funny! - July 17, 2014
»www.zatznotfunny.com/201 ··· io-deal/

jmn1207
Premium Member
join:2000-07-19
Sterling, VA

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As a recent Tivo Roamio Plus user, I have to say that despite the cost, the purchase was well worth it. I did have issues with Comcast attempting to pair the cable card with the Tivo, but the 3rd card was a charm and everything has been working perfectly.

With the latest Summer update, the performance is outstanding and the integration with On Demand, Netflix, and Amazon has been wonderful. I was very skeptical about going the Tivo route, and I was only going to grab the 4 tuner model at first, until I found the 6 tuner model available on sale.

Don't let the cost be the ultimate determining factor. You may not be saving much, if any, especially in the short term. However, the experience is vastly improved in my opinion. It's simply a fantastic product, at least with the current Roamio models.

nightwalker
Nightwalker
join:1999-08-07
Chicago, IL

nightwalker

Member

It should be noted that the 'free' amazon prime is not supported with Tivo. Hulu/Netflix works fine as expected.