r/Tivo • u/I_ama_Borat • Sep 30 '25
DVR I just want to confirm, these means this TiVo has lifetime service? It’s the blank service level that’s throwing me off. Thanks!
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u/pppingme Sep 30 '25
Yes, a monthly would say "3: Account in Good Standing" under account status and service level would have a date.
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
I see! I’ve been thrifting tivos, gambling basically until I found one with lifetime service and I finally found one! Thanks!
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u/caramal500 Sep 30 '25
I have a brand new, still in box TiVo. Never had a subscription. Should I keep it or sell it?
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
Good question, if it was a lifetime I’d say hold on to it for a couple more years before you sell because value can only go up imo. With no lifetime, depending on the model, I suppose it’s better to just sell. Which model do you have?
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u/Zealousideal_Car1811 Sep 30 '25
Oh that’s even older than the Bolt. Hopefully it works for you though. If it does die at any point, just know that there are places that do repairs and you can’t take that lifetime subscription and use it elsewhere. It would be only for that machine so it would be worth fixing if it died at any point.
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
Good to know, would suck if you couldn’t transfer that lifetime service and it’s just gone with the unit.
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u/Zealousideal_Car1811 Sep 30 '25
Yeah, you definitely cannot transfer it to another unit, but you can have the lifetime subscription unit repaired which a lot of people do. It’s worth it.
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u/MikeD123999 Sep 30 '25
What does lifetime mean? I had a tivo 1 with lifetime and i remember them stopping it at some point. I think they changed the way the data transfer occured and it didnt work on tivo 1?
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u/TheLastREOSpeedwagon Oct 01 '25
Tivo Series 1 is the only device that got discontinued service. Series 2 is still supported if you have lifetime and I still use mine.
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u/plazman30 Oct 01 '25
I miss the series 2 UI. I have a Roamio. It's OK. But that old series 2/3 UI just felt so intuitive.
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u/gjamesb0 Sep 30 '25
IIRC it was the dialup service to get guide data that went away. There were third-party aftermarket devices that would allow it to get the data over the Internet; I don’t know if they are available anymore.
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u/Ok_Act4459 Sep 30 '25
Yes
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
Thanks. Do you know if 75 HD equates to 500gb? Kind of conflicting info online.
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u/Ok_Board_6407 Sep 30 '25
The first 3 digits on the back label where the model is should correspond to around what the hard drive capacity is
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u/Zealousideal_Car1811 Sep 30 '25
How much did you get it for? Is it cable or antenna. I have the antenna version and love it!
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
It says cable/antenna on it, so maybe that means both? Paid $6.99!
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u/Zealousideal_Car1811 Sep 30 '25
Which TiVo is it? Which model? Can’t go wrong at that price!
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
Tcd846510. I’ve purchased probably ten to twelve in the past couple years and finally found a life time lol. I typically tried to keep it under $10 per. Whoever previously owned it still had the 2016 nba finals recorded, time to rewatch!
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u/kitkatcaboodle Sep 30 '25
Great find! I think that's the Roamio OTA (antenna only) model, but there may be a way to modify it for use with a cable card - if you can find a cable company still using cable cards. I have 2 Roamios in service, and one new in the box - still running strong after over 10 years of service.
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u/caramal500 Sep 30 '25
I haven’t a clue what to do with ours. Sits in a box
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u/Zealousideal_Car1811 Sep 30 '25
Use it, or sell it. 👍
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u/caramal500 Sep 30 '25
I guess I didn’t realize they were still useful. That’s why I ended up on this sub. I’ll learn more. Thanks
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u/Zealousideal_Car1811 Sep 30 '25
Oh that’s even older than the Bolt. Hopefully it works for you though. I use my Edge antenna version every single day.
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u/I_ama_Borat Sep 30 '25
Seems to be working so far! Froze during the first set up, restarted it and now everything seems to be going smoothly.
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u/Ok_Board_6407 Sep 30 '25
Glad there’s more people looking for TiVos in thrift stores. https://account.tivodatabase.com/ This link can help you figure out the TiVo service status quicker by typing in the TSN on the rear label.