Best Buy and others are advertising a new 80-hour Tivo on sale, for free after rebate. I was considering calling my brother and suggesting we get my parents one for Christmas. I had recently read a post on PVRWire that gave 10 suggestions to enhance the Tivo experience, and was intrigued at the possibilities of a machine in your living room that could handle almost everything you have to walk back to your desktop computer to do.
Tivo officially messed that up today, announcing a HUGE rate increase, from $12.95 to $19.95 (1-year subscription). Given the option between the well-received interface of Tivo and the sub-par interface of a cable company’s DVR (with High-definition available) for somewhere around $9, who is going to pony up the hardware cost AND massive monthly charge for a Tivo?
There has to be another company to step forward and offer what Tivo offers, for much less.