I wonder if they'll stop supporting Tivo's with cablecards, once this "WorldBox" system rolls out?
That is the $2 million question. I know the techs don't like dealing with them. I've had a few service calls from unpairing issues.
Claude, you are absolutely correct. It is really a good offer on the triple play and the reason I switched.
They aren't allowed to stop supporting Cable Cards. It's an FCC mandate. That's probably the only reason they ever started allowing it to begin with. My Tivo with Cable Card and tuning adapter has been rock solid in my first month of service. No missed recordings and I haven't had to pair anything since the original install.
Back to the original question, I canceled my Dish Hopper system and went about 15 months with no cable or satellite. I used a Tivo Roamio as an OTA DVR and was happy doing that.
About a month ago I took advantage of Charter's Spectrum Silver package because I wanted cable for MLB baseball and March Madness. My 2 year internet promo was running out and for about $30 more than my new internet price alone they offered me the Spectrum Silver package. This is basically equivalent to Dish AT 250 with HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime included. They gave me a discount so that Silver upgrade only cost $10 more than the Spectrum Select package.
I can't speak to Charter's equipment because I am still using my Tivo Roamio and a Tivo Mini. Using this setup means my only equipment fee is the $2 Cable Card rental. That means I don't have to pay their $19.99 DVR service fee or the $6.99 box rental fee for each of my TVs. That Tivo is saving me about $32 in equipment fees every month and it's much better than Charter's DVRs.
I highly recommend going with a Tivo if you switch to Cable. I say the Tivo Roamio and Tivo Mini setup is at least as good, if not better than my old Hopper and Joey setup.
I use the Basic Roamio with a 2TB hard drive I easily installed so I can switch between Cable service and OTA without changing my equipment. Even that basic model gives you 4 tuners versus the Hopper's 3. It also has Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, MLB.tv, and other streaming services built into the box while the Hopper only has Netflix. If you want more tuners and don't care about being able to use it with OTA get the Roamio Plus. This one has 6 tuners. I would say that the Roamio Pro is not necessary though. All Roamio's are easy to upgrade up to 3TB yourself.
The only things the Hopper has that the Roamio doesn't are prime time anytime and auto-hop. They are cool features but I still say the Roamio is a better overall package.
