We have 3 tivos. Our newest tivo, is the HD Series 3 that we got with the new HD tv in our basement. We struggled with the whole, “Do we stay with DirecTV and use their (inferior) DVR for HD? Or ditch DirecTV altogether and hope we have more options with our cable company in the next year?”

We ditched DirecTV. We just couldn’t not use a tivo DVR, it’s as simple as that. The thought of having to go through a menu screen that wasn’t tivo’s? AGONY. So, right now, we have little to no HD shows, but hopefully that will change in the next few months. We had a lifetime subscription with our original (non-working) Tivo, that we transfered to the HD Tivo box using a very old grandfather “you can transfer lifetime subscriptions one time!” clause.

Our other two tivos we bought about 2 or maybe even 3 years ago. Series 2, I think 40 hours. They’ve served us pretty well. Until one day in December when our family room Tivo showed the blue Tivo screen of death. It would cycle on and show a “we’re trying to see about the problem screen” and then turn off and repeat, over and over. I called Tivo and sure enough, it was a dead hard drive.

At the time, they offered us a new box for around $150. We checked the only place for all your geeky tivo hard drives and tricked out tivos (weaknees.com) and found we could get a new hard drive for around $120. We opted to not upgrade, move our bedroom Tivo (not used THAT much) to the family room and planned to buy a new hard drive sometime in the future.

I neglected, however, to stop service on the dead Tivo, so today, in anticipation of that $10 charge to my credit card at the beginning of next month, I called up Tivo to cancel service.

They offered me a $69 upgrade to a dual tuner 80 hour Tivo! New, not refurbished!

I quickly called James, he agreed it was a great deal, and now, we have a new Tivo which will be shipped to us soon. We’ll probably move the family room box back up to our bedroom where it will not be used that often (I use it to watch Friends reruns while I fold laundry), and put the new dual tuner tivo in the family room.

I just love Tivo. Our first Tivo box was purchased for Christmas in 1999 for $500, with an additional $300 going for the lifetime subscription (which is still earning it’s money back today). $800 for a dual income couple with no kids was still a lot of money, but I must say out of all the useless gadgets that have come through this household (I’m talking about you, cat litter box that was supposed to scoop the poop for me) TIVO HAS BEEN THE BEST.

The end.