Comments on: Cord Cutters: Simple.tv, the DVR for cord cutters, reviewed

By: ricky ricardo

ricky ricardo — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:22:29 +0000

i have simpletv. believe me when i tell you it is not ready for prime time.

By: KCMark

KCMark — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:42:34 +0000

Have you looked at getting an HD Homerun with multiple tuners? It’s cheaper than the Simple.TV box, requires no subscription and you can output to a Roku device if you don’t have your TV’s connected to a computer.

By: KCMark

KCMark — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:38:58 +0000

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Silicon Dust’s HD Homerun as an alternative to Simple.TV — we use a Tivo Premiere which outputs to 2 of our 3 TV’s and I still almost bit on getting the HD Homerun Dual on Woot for $50. It has 2 tuners (vs. Simple’s single tuner) and has no monthly subscription cost. It integrates very well into WMC for Win7 desktops and laptops or you can use other 3rd party DVR solutions (Sage, BeyondTV, Next, etc…) I’d like to hear in what ways people view Simple.TV as better than the Silicon Dust products.

By: KCMark

KCMark — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:33:59 +0000

It can’t stream directly (you have to buy a Tivo Stream, which just came out and is WAY overpriced) but you can download shows from your Tivo Premiere via the Tivo desktop software (which is free) or via other third party open source software and then convert it for whatever use – archive on a HD, burn to DVD, convert and watch on portable device/phone.

By: Byron Sanford

Byron Sanford — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Not necessarily, I’ve hear from someone else that just received their box and the setup was a little painful since it couldn’t be done completely from the SimpleTV and they had to switch between the box and the website during setup.

By: GNS

GNS — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:32:50 +0000

Nice review Janko. But feel bad for Simple TV. This could be huge if they got it right. Sounds like they struggled.

By: Patti

Patti — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 02:18:16 +0000

Patti The main problen I have with these type of streaming dvr is that you cannot skip commercials.I consider watching commercials torture.

By: pattiwack

pattiwack — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:17:46 +0000

I considered both tivo and simple.tv. I wanted a dvr that could be used on 3 tv’s plus a couple of PCs and an ipad. One simple.tv + 3 rokus + HD drive gets you there. With Tivo i’d have to buy 3 dvrs and they would be independent of each. And then more money to stream to other devices.

Where are you seeing a new tivo for $70? The price I see for the low end tivo is $149. And that unit only will record 75hrs of HD. A $100 HD buys 1TB, simple.tv can record ~400hrs with this much storage.

My biggest hangup with simple.tv is the single tuner. But I already have an antenna feed going to each tv so essentially I have multiple tuners that way. I figure if I really like the simple.tv box then in a few months once they start supporting ganging units together for more tuners I’ll pickup another unit.

By: dullgeek

dullgeek — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:22:51 +0000

@Janko:

So let’s compare lifetime to lifetime.

$70 TiVo Premiere
$400 Lifetime Sub
Included Hard drive
Included HDMI out
$470 Total

$300 Simple.TV
Included Lifetime Sub
$100 Hard Drive
$50 HDMI out (via Roku)
$450 Total

I’m not seeing the dramatic price difference that you’re seeing.

Now let’s compare monthly to monthly

$70 TiVo Premiere
Included Hard drive
Included HDMI out
$70 Total Upfront
$15 Monthly Subscription

$150 Simple.TV
$100 Hard Drive
$50 HDMI out (via Roku)
$300 Total Upfront
$5 Monthly Subscription

The upfront difference is $230. The monthly difference is $10. So for the first 23 months, TiVo is cheaper. After that simple.tv is cheaper.

Couple this with your conclusion that simple.tv has a *LOT* of functionality gaps, and I’m just not seeing how you so easily dismiss tivo as a cost effective DVR for cord cutters. When I cut the cord (July 2010) I spent a year trying to find a more cost effective DVR than TiVo and couldn’t find one, as a result I went with TiVo as my solution. I am still looking for a fully functional alternative to tivo that costs less than tivo, and haven’t yet found one. And it surprises me that you seem to come to very different conclusions on this topic.

@Awara: Tivo does require a subscription. They offer two subscription options: monthly at $15/mo or a one-time lifetime subscription which normally costs $500, but if you know someone who already has a Tivo you can get it for $400. IMHO, the lifetime subscription is really the way to go. Because if you search ebay you’ll see that used tivos with lifetime resell for much higher prices than those without lifetime. Which is to say that if you ever resell your tivo, you can recoup some of the amount you put into the subscription cost. If you pay monthly you can’t ever recoup the subscription costs.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:27:05 +0000

Unless you already have a roku box, then no.
Also the same case if you already have an HTPC or even an iPad.
So unless you have none of those, then yes – you can call it a ripoff.