My wife and I currently have a TiVo HD with lifetime subscription that we purchased roughly around 2009 when Comcast switched to all-digital. We have a dual-channel CableCard from Comcast that allows us to record two channels at once.
We recently received a letter from Comcast stating that some tuners/DVRs would no longer work starting at the end of June because they are switching some channels to MPEG-4 encoding. My wife determined that our TiVo HD should be able to handle MPEG-4 encoded video, but it has us thinking about the possibility of an upgrade.
Unfortunately, it looks like TiVo now charges $599 for a lifetime subscription, possibly on top of $200+ for the DVR itself.
In order to compare apples-to-apples, how much extra am I likely to pay on my monthly Comcast bill for an X1?
Assuming a TiVo BOLT would last us another ~7 years, the break-even point would be about $10/month.
TiVo pros:
- I own the box
- Shows support for CableCard
- We're familiar with it
- Enables cord-cutting via HD antenna recording features
X1 pros:
- Can record more than 2 channels at once (helps sometimes with avoiding clipping of the first/last minute of a show)
- Can stream missed episodes of TV shows over my Xfinity connection
- Easier to trade out for a new box if something goes wrong
- TiVo's UI kind of sucks (TiVo HD is awful at recording alternate showings, switching season passes between SD and HD channels, explaining why something didn't get or won't be recorded, etc.)
- TiVo drops support for older models like a hot potato
- TiVo's subscription-driven business model sucks (made sense in the 1990s when people didn't have dedicated internet connections, but now it's just a giant below-the-line fee).
I'm open to other DVR options too, if anyone has opinions.
Note that Netflix etc. support is not particularly useful because I have a smart TV (hooked a TOSLINK cable back to the A/V receiver and we watch 1080p 5.1 stuff regularly).
Thanks!
↧