Current SA TiVo owners, a question...

[gcutler]

As a current SA TiVo owner, I love the features, but while I contemplated getting 2nd unit (Series II for $199), the cost of a 2nd $250 Subscription made me forget the idea and go with a E* 508. If they had a free or $50 additional unit per household lifetime fee then I might have gone for it instead of the 508.

How many of you SA TiVo owners have not gone for a 2nd unit because of the $250 additional cost. How many would go a 2nd unit if there was no additional Sub cost (like the DTiVo) or if there was a much smaller sub cost ($50 or so)

[Maniacal1]

I have both a standalone TiVo and a 501. I prefer the TiVo for recurring recordings because of the Season Pass feature and the ability to choose first-run recordings only. I use the 501 for one-off recordings such as movies and sporting events.

If TiVo offered a reduced rate for subscriptions for multiple units, I would probably have added a second TiVo instead of the 501. But I got the 501 for free through a promotion Dish was running last year, so the question was moot for me.

[gcutler]

How did you get a freebie? New Sub (thought you were around longer???) Or just the right CSR and the right complaint at the right time. I wanted a 501 for $99, never got that offer, but felt the 508 for $199 was worth it.

[Maniacal1]

Last summer, Dish was running a promotion where, if you got 5 people to sign up, you got four $50 credits and a free 501 for the fifth subscriber. I passed my clunky old Dishplayer on to a friend and replaced it with the 501.

[gcutler]

Ah, Ok, I could never have met those requirements :) . Actually if I was a D* sub, I might have gotten credit for people to sign up as several of these people went DirectTiVo crazy as new D* subs.

[Jacob S]

How many hours of storage do you get for that?

[Maniacal1]

Jacob, if you mean the 501, E* advertises 35 hours, but the practical storage is around 30 hours or so. (I've actually had up to 40 when I had a lot of highly compressed, black-and-white programs stored.