Tivo Premiere Elite - Page 3

That's a caveat I mentioned quite early in the thread:

"Only 2-tuners. Only 160GB HDD. But other than that..."

Please pay attention.

[I'm gonna bow out of this thread now, as stragglers are starting to reply to a single post.]

You most certainly can make that comparison. Too bad the Elite or even the Premiere XL models add so much added value to the comparison/discussion making status quo dvrs such a horrible value proposition - not to mention reliability and performance nightmares.

Apples and oranges, man. If you want to compare a cable DVR, stick with Premiere for the comparison. An Elite with lifetime will run you $900 or more.

I'll continue to politely disagree. At the end of the day it's about the "dollars" spent or invested and what you get for it over a - 4, 5 year and beyond - period of time. The money I've spent previously for the various comcast dvrs over a period of 6+ years easily offsets the cost of owning a TiVo and what you get in return is a much higher quality experience all-around. Isn't that what entertainment expenditures are all about anyway?

So you would need to compare two, two tuner DVRs to one Elite Premiere.
Either way it's cheaper to have the TiVos with lifetime. I would have spent much, much more money if I had used FiOS DVRs over the last 4+ years instead of TiVos.

That's absolutely right. I paid a total of $880 for my TiVo S3 with a lifetime subscription. That was more than five years ago, though, so what I paid averages out to less than $15 a month for the box and the service and it gets to be even less than that with each passing month.

Exactly my point - you have to compare two cable DVRs to the overall cost of an Elite, but it's not really a valid comparison because one serves two TVs and the other does not.

The Elite can serve two TVs as well. You just need a 1x2 HDMI box. I have some old ones I used years ago that worked with the Elite when I tried it on the box.

I got an email from TiVo earlier this week notifying me that they have knocked $100 off the price of the Elite. This means that I could get an Elite plus a lifetime subscription for less than I paid for an S3 plus lifetime five years ago. I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

And with a coupon from BestBuy you can save even more. I have a 10% off coupon but I'm trying to hold out for a 12% off coupon before I get my second Elite.
I'm hoping to get the IP box they plan on offering later this year so the IP box and a second Elite will replace my last two lifetime, two tuner Premiere boxes.

My daughter and her family surprised me with a Premiere Elite for my birthday. I am loving it! It took only a few minutes to buy a lifetime subscription online yesterday, and I then ran guided setup, which also went well. Today, I got an M CableCARD from Cox OKC and finally got it configured. I had some trouble but have come to expect it with any new card installation. The young lady who answered my tech support call was patient and after about an hour, an unpairing and repairing of the card, and 3 or 4 reboots of the box everything came up and has been working well ever since.

If I decide to leave my S3 connected to my HT system, I will have a total of 6 tuners and 3.25TB of disc storage to work with. I should not run short very soon.

My daughter and son in law told me that the Elites are backordered most places but they finally found one at a local Best Buy.

That's a sweet B-day present.

I bragged too soon about my CableCARD configuration. This morning, I discovered that I had lost about half of my HBO, CINEMAX, and Showtime channels. The tech couldn't fix it over the phone, so Cox is sending someone to my house tomorrow afternoon. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

The weird part about losing those channels is that I had them all at first and even recorded programs on three of them (Thriller MAX, 5 Star Max, and HBO Zone) yesterday evening. Nevertheless, this morning, the box told me to call Cox because I didn't have authorization for them. Go figure.

Make sure that the cable company provides all the channels you want to watch in digital. Not all systems are 100% digital yet. I knew that I couldn't use it for OTA service and was under the impression that all I needed was a cable card and adapter- wrong. So I had to send the XL4 back which was an experience I don't care to repeat. I wasn't too happy with paying return shipping but hey. The biggest pia is the refund for the warranty, it's been over a month and the money still is not in my account. TIVO's customer service and problem resolution is the worst I've experienced in many years.

That's too bad. As noted in my earlier posts I got a Premiere Elite in early April, Because of some incompatibility between Cox OKC's software and the TiVo software, I wasn't receiving about half of my premium movie channels, although I was getting the rest of the channels perfectly, Cox's so called Plus Pack. Fortunately, though, TiVo rolled out its spring software update in May and the Plus Pack channels all appeared and have been fine ever since. I love the Elite's 4 tuners and 2TB hard drive. I had lost track of how many times I couldn't record something at the time I wanted to record it because two programs were already scheduled to play on my Serie3's 2 tuners. Needless to say, that doesn't happen on the Elite.

if they would drop the listings to about $5 a month I would sign up tomorrow.

I can't see that happening. My one, two tuner premiere, still on monthly is only $6.95 a month. Maybe the IP STB will be $5 a month but I can't see the regular boxes being that low. But even with the new lower monthly prices, it's at least double $5 a month.

Was it my imagination or did Tivo announce some kind of an extender earlier this year?

So does anyone know when the extender will be released, what it will cost, and whether it will have a subscription requirement? If I knew the IP-STB would be reasonably priced and not need a subscription, I'd go ahead and buy a Premier Elite now. It's very likely that I won't buy a Tivo at all if the IP-STB is overpriced or requires a monthly fee.

TiVo has not given any details on pricing.

I finally purchased an Elite when Woot had them on sale for $299.99, It has been up and running now for 10 days and so far I have had no issues with the Elite or Cisco Tuning Adapter, It has been a flawless experience. I had held off on the purchase due to some issues reported by others of rebooting and loss of channels and missed recordings. I have experienced none of those issues, (knock on wood).

Here are the detailed specs of the set-up and signals.
Cable Provider: Cox
City, State: PHX, AZ

Bluetooth Adapter: No

MoCA in Use: No
MoCA POE Filter Installed: No
MoCA POE Filter Installed at Modem: No

CableCARD Make: Scientific Atlanta (SA/Cisco)
CableCARD OS/Firmware Version: Cisco PKEY1.5.2_F.p.1601

Tuner Signal Strength: Range 2dBmV to -5dBmV (2dBmV @ 147MHz to -5dBmV @ 921MHz)
TiVo Signal Strength Meter: ~86-92
Tuner SNR: Range 32-38dB
OOB SNR: 34dB

RS Uncorrected: ~5000 not increasing
RS Corrected: ~50-200 not increasing

Tuning Adapter: Yes - Cisco
Tuning Adapter OS/Firmware Version: Cisco STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1601
Tuning Adapter Coax: RF Pass-though used
Tuning Adapter Signal Strength Downstream (FDC): -5dBmV
Tuning Adapter Signal Strength Upstream (RDC): 29dB

No issues so far with signal or picture,

Bryan,

I have been having issues with some channels lately, like 1104 ID Discovery. Right now it is unwatchable. Can you check your stats on this channel so I can see if its just an issue with me? In general I have been experiencing quite a bit of pixelization and drop outs on live and recorded material lately. I am wondering if it is time for Cox to install a new amplifier or splitter. The last time I was having problems like this,a port was bad on one of the Cox supplied splitters. My Cox supplied boxes seem to be working OK. I was noticing some drop outs on 1104, but it was at least watchable.

Channel 1104
TiVo Signal Strength Meter: 67
Tuner SNR: 26dB

Sample of other channels
Channel 1027
TiVo Signal Strength Meter: 79
Tuner SNR: 31dB

Channel 1043
TiVo Signal Strength Meter: 86
Tuner SNR: 34dB

OOB SNR: 24dB

Tuning Adapter Signal Strength Downstream (FDC): -5dBmV
Tuning Adapter Signal Strength Upstream (RDC): 54dB

First your signals don't look very good you want/need TiVo Signal Strength Meter: >80, 85-90 would be better and SNR needs to be >30, 35-40dB would be better.
IMO, Your actual signals should all fall between -5dBmV to 5dBmV for the best quality.

What do your RS Uncorrected: and RS Corrected: look like? (in DVR Diagnostics)

Both 1104 - IDHD and 1137 BBCAHD are both SDV channels and both are located at 147MHz for me, so if one channel is having issues both will probably exhibit the same behavior, typically.

In the Past BBCAHD and the 147MHz channels where typically the worst signal level of any other channels, and a Cox Tech acknowledged that it was an issue all over the East Valley. But for the past several months that seems to have been corrected.

Here are my tuners:
1104 - IDHD
147MHz
Signal Strength: 88 (1dBmV)
SNR: 35dB
RS Uncorrected: 4729
RS Corrected: 55

1137 - BBCAHD
147MHz
Signal Strength: 88 (1dBmV)
SNR: 35dB
RS Uncorrected: 4640
RS Corrected: 50

1027 - FXHD
777MHz
Signal Strength: 90 (-1dBmV)
SNR: 36dB
RS Uncorrected: 4789
RS Corrected: 18

1101 - HUBHD
915MHz
Signal Strength: 88
SNR: 35dB
RS Uncorrected: 5613
RS Corrected: 35

Tuning Adapter Signal Strength Downstream (FDC): -5dBmV
Tuning Adapter Signal Strength Upstream (RDC): 41dB

BTW, I am currently splitting the Coax between the Elite and the Cox DVR, once I return the DVR and remove the splitter my signals should rise by 3 to 4dBmV
Edited by Bryan_CoxPHX - 7/13/12 at 1:28pm

Thanks for the info.

I'm at work, but I do remember the approx RS numbers for 1104

RS Uncorrected: 300,000 and climbing
RS Corrected: 10,000,000 and climbing.

There is an 8-way splitter and amplifier at the dmarc. I am also splitting the Coax between the TiVo and the TV. That is a hold over from being limited to the two tuners with the Cox DVR and having to use the TV tuner from time to time.. I need to get back behind the equipment and remove that splitter. That obviously isn't my only problem.

Also your Upstream Power Level for the Tuning Adapter (RDC): @ 54dB is a bit high. but that should come down as you remove splitters and the signals come up.

Just for comparison you should check your cable modem signal levels @ http://192.168.100.1/
If the modem is a DOCSIS3 the signals must be between -10dBmV to 10dBmV, closest to zero or slightly over is best.
Signal to Noise Ratio should be >30dB, 40-50dB would be better.
The Upstream Power level should be between 35-45dBmV anything over 50dBmV is too high.

My cable modem is comes off of a 2-way splitter from the street.. One line goes goes to the cable modem, the other to the amplifier and 8-way splitter.

Signals are 0dBmV to 2dBmV.
SNR is 37dB
Upstream power is 40dBmV to 44dBmV

At the dmarc I have a amplifier that has three outputs, two going to two 4 way splitters, and one going to a TV on the patio. I connected the TiVo coax to the output the the patio TV was one. Channel 1104's power went from 67 to 81 signal strength. Then I took out the splitter at the TiVo and now All channels, including 1104 are 90-92 channel strength.

Thanks for the help Bryan

Hi guys,
I am a long time Tivo user since 1999 with a series 1. Just got my TiVo Premiere Elite XL4 model TCD758250 which is my 5th TiVo!
I am very happy with it and did a review on Squidoo. Rather than copy the whole review here I will just give a link.
http://www.squidoo.com/tivo-premiere-4-xl4-4-tuner-dvr
I am disappointed though that I still cannot set default options for season passes so I can save 8 clicks for each one.
If I set them up online I can set defaults so why not on the TiVo itself.
Ed

P.S. If anyone likes the review and has a Squidoo account I would appreciate a like and comment.
Thanks,
Ed