All too often I hear people say that TiVo’s monthly subscription fee cost too much and that a Cable Company DVR is a much better deal. Being the geek that I am, I decided to call my local Time Warner Cable in order to figure out whether or not a cable company DVR is in fact a better deal. Here’s what I found out…
Time Warner Cable (TWC) currently charges $10.95/month for DVR service plus $7.21/month to rent their hardware. Therefore, the total cost of Time Warner’s DVR service is: $18.16 per month. Unlike TiVo, TWC charges the same fee if you’d like to have two or more DVRs in your household! Now, take a look at the following table where I’ll compare this cost against what TiVo has to offer…
Time Warner DVR | TiVo DVR | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Fee | $10.95 | $12.95 (monthly) | $10.75 ($129/year) | $8.30 ($299/ 3 year service) |
Rental Fee | $7.21 | NA | NA | NA |
Cable Card Fee | NA | $2.54 | $2.54 | $2.54 |
Total: | $18.16 | $15.49 | $13.29 | $10.84 |
As you can see from this table, the monthly subscription fee for a TiVo DVR costs a lot less than a Time Warner DVR. In fact, the three year service option will save you $7.32 per month!
Now before you get all worked up, I know what you’re about to say. A Time Warner DVR doesn’t require an upfront cost whereas a refurbished TiVo HD will cost you $199.99. While this is true, I’d think it’s worthwhile to point out that a TiVo DVR provides a number of features which make the upfront cost well worth it. For example, how much you would you pay to be able to stream Netflix Watch Instant content to your TV? A lot of people seem to be happy with paying $99 for a hardware device which provides the same functionality (ie: Roku Netflix box). I could go on and on with all the features that TiVo has to offer however, I think you get the point. $199 really isn’t a lot of money when you add up all the benefits that you get with a TiVo DVR.
What do you think?