TiVo offers HD for lifetime service holdouts

(Credit: TiVo)

There may be some sweet justice in the air for longtime TiVo holdouts. If you purchased the company's old lifetime service for a one-time fee years ago--and have refused to upgrade your box for fear of the dreaded monthly payments--you may want to take note of this new deal.

TiVo is now offering an HD recorder for $300 and will let you transfer your lifetime service for $199--that's just $20 more than a single year of prepaid annual service under the standard plan offered to new customers. We're still trying to sort out the details, but the offer appears to apply to its so-called HD DVR box, which provides fewer hours of high-definition recording than its Series3 model (20 hours vs. 32 hours). Still, it's cheaper ($300 vs. $600) and, if you get it by November 8, you can transfer that precious lifetime service.

Of course, TiVo needs to stay in business for this to pay off, but that's the subject for another item.