Recently I’ve been thinking about next year and how it may not make sense for me to keep my heretofore beloved Tivo.
It’s not because the Tivo service stinks–may that never be said. It’s all about how the bottom line. You see, Tivo is like $12.95 a month. Two months of Tivo yields a single iTunes season pass for a show like The Office. Since I only regularly watch a precious few shows on TV (or at least, I could cut back on some shows) I could get away with cancelling my television and Tivo and just use iTunes for everything.
Of course, it would help if I had some sort of headless iPod to connect to my TV
BLASPHEMER!!!!!!!!!! *crosses self*
The only problem with jumping to iTunes is not everything’s on it yet that I like. LOTS of things are on it, sure, but not EVERYTHING. TiVo has EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING I TELL YOU!
Actually, Jason and I looked at the Apple iTV. We talked about it, but for us right now it makes sense to stick with TiVo. He’s got a lot of “hardware” shows that he likes, like New Yankee Workshop and such, that we wouldn’t be able to get online.
Plus, TiVo is partnering with NetFlix for rentals delivered to your TiVo. We’d have to do the math for rental vs. buying on iTunes and owning to see what would make more sense.
But I definitely think that Apple’s iTV is going to emerge a large competitor for TiVo and the like.
Actually, it’s Amazon, not Netflix (there was a deal between Netflix that they backed out of a few years back). The Amazon thing my indeed be good news for Tivo, but for me it just makes more sense to rent stuff from the Movie fan or grab a season from iTunes.
So I may end up behind a season on House, but that’s okay. At the very worst I’ll simply miss out on some fads.
As for the Apple TV, I personally would wait for the second version of it (unless it’s a gift). It’s a neat idea that should work great, but until it comes out…
I’ve been pretty happy with just using Netflix. I watch a combination of movies and TV shows and spend a lot less than I would on cable plus movie rentals.
I have no desire to go back to commercials, or to thinking about when shows are broadcast and worrying about missing them. Tivo certainly helps with that, but still I’d rather only use broadcast for things like sports and news.
I just registered my TiVo with the Amazon Unbox thing. You get a free $15.00 credit to rent just by registering. No monthly fees, either, so I’m looking for the catch. When I went to new rental releases? There was the catch! $14.99 to rent a new release!! Yikes. But I’m wondering if I can send the movie from my TiVo to my computer and just keep it, or is there something in it that won’t let me have it after 90 days? More information is needed! *switches to CSI mode*
But at least I can get at least one new release for free. Suh-weet.
I’ve been meaning to tell you about that for the past week.
And it’s only $3.99 for a rental, $14.99 is for a purchase (unless you’re looking at some expensive movies!)
I rented “Idiocracy” as my first rental, I think you’d like it (or completely hate it, but nothing in between).