I used to own a TIVO back in the old days. Now, I run mostly dish. However, I do have OTA reception in a couple of rooms, and am thinking about hooking up an HD tuner.

two products stand out:

the tivax lx1000---is it any good? at $79, it seems affordable.

the tivo hd---I would be ok paying $299 for it, but I do not want to pay for a subscription to their program guide. can it read the OTA program guide? is it usable without a pay-for-guide subscription? my old Tivo was more than braindead without a description. I found it totally unusable.

anyone tried either?

advice?

regards,

/iaw

The TivoHD will not work without a subscription.

Never seen the Tivax before, so can't comment on that.

There are certain models of TiVo that have a "TiVo Basic" option, so you can get partial functionality without a subscription. The TiVo HD is not one of them (nor is any current model).

You could always get a lifetime subscription...

Actually no you can't anymore unless you are transferring an existing one. The most you can purchase is a 3 year plan now.

3 years may be a lifetime subscription for TIVO---that is, TIVO's lifetime, not my lifetime.

ok---this excludes TIVO.

There are several ways to get a lifetime subscription on a new Tivo for $399. None are straightforward.

Check the Tivo Series3 and Tivo HD threads on AVS Forum. I think the section is HD DVRS or HD Recorders... look around you'll find it.

I'm just annoyed that when I bought my TivoHD in July 2007 from tivo.com I asked if they had a lifetime subscription I could purchase, but they said no. Now they offer the lifetime subscription but will not upgrade my three year plan to lifetime until I have completed the three year subscription. I would like to know if anyone else has experenced this with TivoHD.

BTW, My lifetime subscription to ReplayTV 4508 is still working fine, too bad ReplayTV was not able to stay in the game and develop a HD box, their product quality, features and customer service was so much better than Tivo.

The Original question was about TiVo vs Tivax and is Tivax any good. These are two different products.

Tivax (see w w w . t i v a x . c o m) is a simple DTV downconverter box. It will receive OTA DTV signals and downconvert them to NTSC standard definition analog signals. It's purpose is to allow one to use older TV's after Feb 2009 without needing cable or sat. It does NOT record the signal for later viewing. You can find other boxes like these at WalMart for 49.95. If you have a need for this type of converter to enable your older TV's to continue to work at Feb 2009 you can go to w w w . d t v . g o v and request a $40 coupon good toward the purchase of this type of device.

TiVoHD is a HD digital video recorder (DVR), it receives the same OTA DTV signals as well as Cable DTV signals and records them for later viewing maintaining their HD quality. It will also downconvert to Analog TV.

Someone mentioned that there is basic TiVo modes, I think some units you can use like an old style VCR without a subscription, which means, no program guide, you must manually setup the channel and time and duration of what you want to record, and if the network changes the schedule, you have to change the record time manually to match the change.

Sorry, the STB-T9 is just a downconverter box, the LX 1000 is an HDTV receiver, but it still does not record shows like Tivo. You will be able to use the LX 1000 on HTDV monitors that don't have tuners. I don't know how good the EPG is.

Later this year Echostar will be introducing their TR50 (?) model High Definition tuner/DVR. It supposedly will not require any subscription fees and is intended for OTA reception only.

I may have some details wrong but you can search the forum for better info.