March 09, 2011

500Gb TiVo on its way

Virgin are going to be launching a 500Gb TiVo box shortly, no dates yet but I'm reliably informed by Square Eyes that it will be £49.95 with the £40 install, customers must also sign up for 12 months Tivo (£3 a month). All subject to last minute price adjustments of course, but expected to launch very soon. Mr Eyes reckons that the V+ is likely to be phased out, and the Tivo style box will take its place - that would seem to be borne out by the fact that the lucky few who have had TiVo installed have been allowed to keep their existing V+ boxes as a second box - Virgin dont' appear to be recovering them for redistribution.
For those who want to go TiVo but haven't fancied the price of entry, this cheaper box would appear to be a mighty fine deal.
I'd imagine the hardware will be the same as the 1Tb TiVo only with a smaller drive. I've also heard that a third box, with a 250Gb drive may complete the lineup later in the year. No idea on pricing or dates.

15 comments:

brooza said...

Well, that could be the thing that pushes me to get Tivo. Was interested, but can't justify the £240 buy-in

Dan said...

Fantastic news! I will happily upgrade from my Samsung V+ box for £80. I may even be able to convince a friend to give me £40 for my existing box (which can record, unlike his receive-only HD box) He doesn't care about TiVo. It's win-win. Hope this happens soon,

Be even nicer if VM started advertising the TiVo - if only to rub Sky's face in it. Their latest advert looked fairly expensive, but they seem reluctant to just state, very simply, why VM's better than Sky.

Anonymous said...

Not sure what drive the Tivo uses but a quick trawl of retail (1 off) prices for WD 3.5" AV drives showed prices as follows from one vendor:

1TB £46
500GB £32
250GB £38

Prices varied a bit, but the trend was pretty consistent.

Can't see much benefit in introducing a 250GB model unless, god forbid, they found some distressed stock somewhere at a knock down price. I can see the marketing benefit of having a 500GB and 1TB option, but the cost differential at OEM pricing is probbaly no more than £10. Not usre what the support cost of two models might be, maybe not much less.

Maybe they'll end up shipping everyone a 1TB model and limit it in software/firmware to 250GB, with a price premium for 1TB?!

Anonymous said...

Not sure what drive the Tivo uses but a quick trawl of retail (1 off) prices for WD 3.5" AV drives showed prices as follows from one vendor:

1TB £46
500GB £32
250GB £38

Prices varied a bit, but the trend was pretty consistent.

Can't see much benefit in introducing a 250GB model unless, god forbid, they found some distressed stock somewhere at a knock down price. I can see the marketing benefit of having a 500GB and 1TB option, but the cost differential at OEM pricing is probbaly no more than £10. Not sure what the support cost of two models might be, maybe not much less.

Maybe they'll end up shipping everyone a 1TB model and limit it in software/firmware to 250GB, with a price premium for 1TB?!

Unknown said...

I'd go for it at that price...but only if (when?) it comes with all three tuners enabled.

Anonymous said...

Not sure what drive the Tivo uses but a quick trawl of retail (1 off) prices for WD 3.5" AV drives showed prices as follows from one vendor:

1TB £46
500GB £32
250GB £38

Prices varied a bit, but the trend was pretty consistent.

Can't see much benefit in introducing a 250GB model unless, god forbid, they found some distressed stock somewhere at a knock down price. I can see the marketing benefit of having a 500GB and 1TB option, but the cost differential at OEM pricing is probbaly no more than £10. Not sure what the support cost of two models might be, maybe not much less.

Maybe they'll end up shipping everyone a 1TB model and limit it in software/firmware to 250GB, with a price premium for 1TB?!

Unknown said...

What does this mean in hours of HD recording?

Square eyes said...

@brooza

Where do you get the £240 from, the 1TB box £149

@Hen Broom

The 3rd tuner will be active for the roll out of Tivo to evryone

@Neil

the 1TB box will record between 100 & 125 hours of HD = so the 500mb will do....have a guess...erm thats right 50-60 hours half the amount

I do agree with Dan, VM really need to get statrted on some agressive marketing, it's about time Sky got some of it's own treatment

spudgun055 said...

Tivo box is £149 i am having mine installed this week call 0161 282 5044 if you want one (the Top Secret Tivio sales office)

Also box holds 500Hrs of standard def tv FYI

Ro-me-ro said...

I'd take 2 at this price (if they didn't charge activation for both!)

brooza said...

@Square Eyes

Is it? I thought it was £200. Maybe that's just new customers

brooza said...

Virgin Tivo blog has this at the side:

How much for Virgin Tivo?
One off costs:
Standard price of £199, plus £40 installation fee.

Plus monthly costs:
£26.50 per month XL TiVo package (with phone line)
OR
£32.50 per month XL TiVo package (without phone line)

DaveM said...

I don't see how they could offer a 500gb model at £100 less than a 1TB model. presumably the only difference is the drive. cost price 500gb HDD = £32+vat 1TB HDD = £49+vat If they are charging early adopters of the 1TB Tivo box £149 then they are clearly funding the later and presumably mass adopters of the smaller model. I'll certainly wait if this is correct.

Colin said...

Hard drives are much cheaper than that when bought in bulk by large manufacturers (in this case, Cisco)

Jez24 said...

Yes it does seem a little daft. The price difference to them must be small and it puts Tivo into Sky + territory.