TiVO - must you subscribe?

Question

I have a DVR I rent from my cable company. Can I use a Tivo bought in the store in another room, rather than pay for a second DVR.

I don't want to have to subscribe to any additional services at TiVO. I am hoping that because I subscribe to this service w/ my cable company I could just get a few TiVO boxes and they would work on my other TVs.

Anyone ever tried it?

Answer 1

There *is* a TiVo unit that works (in a limited mode) without a subscription. It's the Toshiba SD-H400, which is a TiVo with a DVD player (not a recorder). It downloads a schedule of a few days (3 or 4 I think), that you can access via an on-screen channel guide to program shows. Or you can program it manually.  

I'm not sure if you can still find it in stores, but you can probably get one on eBay.

Answer 2

I have a TiVo, and just dropped my subscription a few months ago.  It doesn't work quite as well -- I have to manually enter the channel and recording time, and the shows aren't labeled -- but since I usually watch shows within a week or so, this hasn't really been an issue.