If I use a tivo with reguar local tv will I have to pay for it?

Question

If I use a tivo with reguar local tv will I have to pay for it?

Answer 1

Starting with the Season 2 Tivos, you have to pay the service fee - regardless of how you use the Tivo.

Early on, it was possible to get a Lifetime Service subscription, which is coded to the serial number on the motherboard of the Tivo.  The Lifetime Service Subscription is transferable, so you can buy a used Tivo on eBay that has this, and then you won't have to pay additional fees.

Series 1 Tivos also had what fans refer to as "boat anchor mode" which allowed you to use the Tivo without the scheduling service.  This essentially made the Tivo into a slightly fancier VCR as you could only program it to record manually by specifying the channel, start time, and stop time.

Answer 2

no

Answer 3

Yes, unless you get an old Tivo that had a lifetime subscription on it, Tivo charges a monthly fee for their service.

If you want to dedicate a PC to it, there are programs that let you use your PC and its hard drive like a DVR for free.

Answer 4

You can get Tivo service for free if you have a PC with sufficient hard drive space (to store recorded videos), TV tuner card (get ATSC tuner for over the air by February 2009), and DVR application (XP Media Center, Vista Media Center, and there are some freeware apps).