Demand for DirecTV TiVo Units Reportedly Exceeding Supply in Some Areas
Yesterday, PVRblog mentioned that DirecTV is having difficulty meeting demand for their TiVo-enabled set top boxes thanks to a holiday promotion that has lowered the price of each unit to $99, including installation. No wonder they are having trouble keeping up-- that's a great deal.
The shortage of "DirecTiVo" boxes came to light as a result of a sad story of the death of a stand-alone TiVo. From what the author said, this will have a tremendous impact on his family, who has become used to being able to precisely control their TV viewing experience. God forbid the TiVo in my living room fails in this fashion.
If you are interested in taking advantage of the $99 per-set-top-box deal from DirecTV, keep in mind that it expires on December 31, 2003. Right now, we have Comcast at home, but I will probably place an order next week if I find out that the promotion is not going to be extended into the new year.
Comments
I have TIVO now, and I'm going to be hard pressed to use it when I get a HDTV and digital cable. Comcast will include PVR features with digital cable.. So it seems like a layup..
Posted by: HDTV | December 23, 2003 8:19 PM
Sure, if you want to pay a premium. As I said in "The Achilles Heel of Cable Companies' DVR Plans: Monthly Cost" (http://www.operationgadget.com/2003/12/the_achilles_he.html):
"DVR fans talk about cable company DVR offerings without any idea how much the cable companies will charge for the priviledge of renting a DVR unit to us. It's pretty safe to say that Comcast will charge more than the $3.75 per month that they currently charge me for each settop box and remote control. How much more?"
I'm a Comcast customer and I'm paying $73.37 a month without their DVR. I'd like to have HDTV at some point also, but, I don't think Comcast digital cable is worth what I'm paying for it. From the comments I've gotten after making these statements, a number of people agree with me.
Posted by: Dave Aiello | December 24, 2003 8:29 AM
"DVR fans talk about cable company DVR offerings without any idea how much the cable companies will charge for the priviledge of renting a DVR unit to us. It's pretty safe to say that Comcast will charge more than the $3.75 per month that they currently charge me for each settop box and remote control. How much more?"
Well, I'm paying about $12 per month for Tivo now.. So I think I make out there.. The problem is a lot of what I want to do is tied to comcast. HDTV, Broadband, Vonage.. etc.. they really have me by the you know what. Maybe I should go with Dish Network, TIVO and DSL? Does Direct TV have an HD tuner??
Posted by: HDTV | December 24, 2003 10:44 AM
I have a hughes directv tivo, and I just moved and switched from directv to cable. Does anyone know if there's any way to use my directv tivo with my cable? Even if I had to manually program it like a vcr, just without the hassle of tapes. Thanks.
Posted by: Kush | June 6, 2004 6:42 PM