[Guest]

I know it might be stepping backward on the technology curve, but I have a decision to make. My wife bought me a AT&T Tivo Series 2 back in March for my birthday. I hooked it up and have enjoyed it, but we only have OTA signal.

My wife has decided that she wants satelite again and we are looking at Dish. Since we a "light-medium" tv viewers, I am seriously considering selling the AT&Tivo on eBay and going with the $149 501 deal with the 50 channel package. The only important factors for us is digital picture quality, time-shift capability and cost. For $150 setup, 3 months free and less than $30 a month including locals, Dish is hard to beat.

Any comments?

Thanks,

Pete Warner

 

[gcutler]

Have you looked at a DirectTiVo for DirectTV? I don't know how easy those are to find right now or the price?

Ultimate TV for DirectTV may be a good deal as well.

 

[hfwarner3]

Originally posted by gcutler
Have you looked at a DirectTiVo for DirectTV? I don't know how easy those are to find right now or the price?

Ultimate TV for DirectTV may be a good deal as well.

Don't both of those have a monthly cost? It costs me $12.95 a month right now for TiVo when DishPVR 501 does not have a monthly cost, right?

 

[arjay]

Overall Dish is usually cheaper than DirecTV for programming.

Dish's 501 has no fee requirement.

UTV and TiVo have a fee requirement; either $10. monthly or TiVo's $250. one time option. There have been some good deals offered on UTV's lately and to a lessor extent TiVo's for DirecTV.

 

[hfwarner3]

Originally posted by arjay
Overall Dish is usually cheaper than DirecTV for programming.

Dish's 501 has no fee requirement.

UTV and TiVo have a fee requirement; either $10. monthly or TiVo's $250. one time option. There have been some good deals offered on UTV's lately and to a lessor extent TiVo's for DirecTV.

Well, let's look at what I get from TiVo with an OTA signal versus Dish 501 for the money:

AT&TiVo Series 2 = $300.00
12 months of Service = $155.40
TiVo Total = $455.40

DishPVR 501 = $148.99
12 months of service = $305.82
Dish Total = $454.81

So, for about the same money, I get the PVR functionality, but (with 3 months free service in the deal) I get 50 digital channels plus locals versus the current 2 clear channels and 5 fuzzy ones. As long as the bugs have been worked out of the 501 (I am told the last software update made it worth buying), it sounds like a no brainer.

As appealing as a second tuner/recording two shows at once sounds, I can't see paying that much more for a receiver upgrade for something I might use once or twice a month.

So is the 501 really fixed yet?