What do you think of TiVo? can you buy one without contract the service?

Question

i'm a beginer in this stuff, so basically, can you by a TiVo and tape your programs, but without contracting the service, or you gotta contract the service and pay a cost

also what do you think of it? can i bought one and apply it to a TV outside the U.S.? will it still be working?

thanks for your help

Answer 1

You can no longer use a Tivo without a service contract.  You can, however, go onto Ebay and buy an old series one Tivo that can be used in what fans refer to as "boat anchor mode".  In this case, the Tivo is little more than a VCR with a hard drive in it.  However, you can buy DVD recorders with a hard drive in them for less than what it costs to get a Tivo - and you won't have to pay a service fee either.

Also, since Tivo relies on being able to obtain the TV schedule for your local area, be sure that the area you will be moving to outside the US will still be covered. At this time, I think they only cover the US, Canada, and parts of the UK.  

Then again, if you're going to be going to Europe, your US Tivo won't work anyways because the tuners are only for NTSC, and Europe uses PAL.  In this case you'd be better off buying a DVR once you get to whereever it is you'll be moving, rather than dragging the Tivo with you.