November 19, 2013

I Should Have Bought a Tivo

Its now been over 5.5 years since I wrote about Why spending $700 on a HD TIVO is a good idea 
At the time I could have bought a HD Tivo with lifetime subscription for $700 total.   My Comcast DVR was running me $12 a month.   I figured the break even point would be 3.5 years.   That was about 5.5 years ago.

Then a couple years ago I wrote $449 for a Tivo with Lifetime service and Why I should have bought one 4 Years ago  My Comcast DVR was running $16 a month.   I figured I"d break even in 3 years if I bought the Tivo.   At that time you couldn't get on-demand content via the Tivo so that was one legitimate way the Comcast DVR would be better.  

If I'd bought a Tivo in 2008 I would have spent $700 and I could probably resell it for $100 today.  So that would be $600 total out of pocket cost.   In that time I've spent something around $800 to $900 on fees for my comcast DVR.   (I'll have to estimate it cause I"m not going to go try and find all the past bills and and it up even if I could.)   I would have saved myself $200-$300 total if I'd bought a Tivo in 2008.

Then the last time I looked at it 2 years ago I'd have spent $449 for one and could also resell it for $100 today.  So that would be only $349 for the past 2 years.   I've easily spent that much in Comcast fees in that 2 year period.   So my estimate of 3 years to break even was high and its only been about 2 years.

Should I buy a Tivo today?   Well of course I should.

The current Tivo Roamio box is $200 plus $500 for lifetime subscription so its once again about $700 to buy the box.   The Tivo will also record 4 shows which is better than our Comcast box.  Plus you can now get on demand content from Comcast with a Tivo.   So its the same $700 outlay for a Tivo versus now about $20 a month for my DVR and the Tivo is even better than it was 5.5 years ago.  


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