Here we are now

December 16, 2004 7:50 AM

Free TiVo.If you are an American consumer and live in the Bay Area, the TiVo company on Friday will give away 40GB Series 2 recorders to Comcast customers who bring their cable bill and a gift for The Family Giving Tree charity to TiVo headquarters in Alviso, Calif. The giveaway will last from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until they run out of units, and will be limited to one recorder per household.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket (22 comments total)

You get to live in the Bay Area, *and* you get to have free TiVos? That's just not fair.
posted by mojohand at 7:54 AM on December 16, 2004

The giveaway will last from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until they run out of units

So really the giveaway will last from 11 a.m. to 11:02 a.m.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:58 AM on December 16, 2004

Service fees are not included the giveaway, which is only for first-time TiVo owners.
posted by tpl1212 at 7:58 AM on December 16, 2004

Couldn't you just donate to the Family Giving Tree without also donating to the Tivo company coffers?
posted by tpl1212 at 8:15 AM on December 16, 2004

The whole idea of giving away the device so people will subscribe to the service is such a good idea; I'm shocked it has taken this long to come into existence. Or have there been examples of this in the past?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:16 AM on December 16, 2004 [1 favorite has favorites]

have there been examples of this in the past?

In September 2000 they were raining from the sky.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:25 AM on December 16, 2004

You beat me to it, Flanders. I think I was the only one who went through with the plan to sell the free TiVo on ebay.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:29 AM on December 16, 2004

not that a free tivo wouldn't be great...but you'll have 40 hours filled up in no time. (we have an 80 hour one and it stays full)
posted by Hands of Manos at 8:37 AM on December 16, 2004

Well you'll save $99 bucks. That's what the going rate for a 40 hour Tivo is. OF course if you want the lifetime service that's another $299.

I have and 80 hour Tivo that I added a 160 GB drive I had laying around. Now its a 240 Tivo. I know with the new ones it's possible to add 2x300 GB drive for a 600 hour Tivo.
posted by jeblis at 8:54 AM on December 16, 2004

I won four TiVos in that contest, gave three away as gifts. That, my friend, was an FPP.

/reminisces
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:56 AM on December 16, 2004

Last time a company did that in my neck of the woods (In the 1980's, Free TVs to the first 100 customers lining up at the opening of Majestic Warehouse) people camped out for an entire night in line. Seriously.

This is going to make some FUNNY news. I want pics.
posted by shepd at 9:33 AM on December 16, 2004

I wish I'd gone for the bigger Tivo when we joined the revolution. I'm gonna replace our first box with the big boy DVD burner before too long.

This is a cool idea.

Jeblis, got an URL on how to do the upgrade or is that something I should be able to find on the Tivo site? I've definitely got the spare hard drives to stack if I can do it!
posted by fenriq at 10:01 AM on December 16, 2004

Nevermind, I went to Matt's PVRblog and found some excellent info!
posted by fenriq at 10:04 AM on December 16, 2004

Is the new model with new DRM attached?
posted by infowar at 10:27 AM on December 16, 2004

infowar, whether or not it's "DRM-crippled" is irrelevant. TiVo can push a DRM-enabling update to all the TiVos via the regular dial-up service calls.
posted by pmbuko at 11:11 AM on December 16, 2004

A warning on upgrading with infinite HDs: Your storage will quickly outstrip the processor's ability to seek data over all that space. I had 2 120GB drives in an HDVR2 (DirectTiVo) and it took so long to pull down the Now Playing list, or even to get back to the main menu, that I had to pull one of the drives out just to get my sanity back. It was like a full minute after each button push. There's a cachecard that's supposed to help that (google cachecard and weaknees) but I haven't tried it.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:34 AM on December 16, 2004

The cache card only works with series 1 tivos, flanders.
posted by mathowie at 12:29 PM on December 16, 2004

pmbuko: isn't it easier to give something away without the feature being there rather than face a potential backlash of taking something away? Can you tell I'm not into DVRs?
posted by infowar at 2:30 PM on December 16, 2004

I was thinking TiVo, but then COmcast kicked their asses in my area.

The Comcast PVR costs me $5 a month, no service fee, dual tuners aready in it and it works tuned all my digital cable, premium and HD channels (yes, it will record HD).

Why would I pay TiVo for this service and have to play connection / tuner games again?
posted by soulhuntre at 8:49 PM on December 16, 2004

Why would I pay TiVo for this service and have to play connection / tuner games again?

Because, knowing comcast, they let tvguide design, build, and plaster the interface. I doubt the experience of the comcast pvr is anywhere near as enjoyable as tivo.
posted by brian at 10:19 PM on December 16, 2004

Actually it's pretty good - looking at the TiVo's my fellow geeks use (several friends have them) nothing is missing.

* There are no adds on it- in fact the interface is much cleaner than the regular digital cable guide

* Series recordings are easy and obviously timed and one shot is trivial

Honestly it looks good. Besides, for $5 why not?
posted by soulhuntre at 6:15 AM on December 17, 2004

Just to follow up on what happened as reported in today's Mercury News. TiVo gave out 2,000 units and when more people than that showed up, they gave (most of, apparently) the overflow coupons for a $50 rebate if they purchase one on their own, plus some TiVo-branded promo items like the plush doll. Anticipating the long lines, the marketing staff also showed up prepared with coffee, cookies and Port-A-Potties. Nice jab in the face to Comcast.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:12 PM on December 18, 2004