In light of the announcement of the TiVo Premiere, we thought this would be a good time to recap the various service plans available at TiVo!

At WeaKnees, we really recommend the lifetime service option (PLS, or Product Lifetime Service) for your TiVo DVR. At $399 for your first unit (and less for additional units – see below) this pays for itself in 31 months versus the monthly plan option at $12.95.

TiVo Service Plans

Compared to the Annual service plan, the Product Lifetime plan pays for itself in just over three years. You just have to come up with the $399 up front. But if you’re considering Lifetime, make sure you don’t pay for any monthly service first; that money would just be wasted.

Another benefit of Lifetime Service is that, since it’s tied to that box, it’s transferable. So if you decide, down the road, to upgrade to a newer TiVo, you can sell the old one with the lifetime attached. In many cases, that’s what makes the upgrade to a new box financially viable.

Next, for existing customers with TiVo DVRs, or for customers activating more than one DVR, the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth DVR on one account qualify for discounted service – called MSD or Multi Service Discount.

So instead of the pricing as above, these second-through-sixth TiVo DVRs (on the same account, at the same address) qualify for $100 off Product Lifetime Service and other discounted options:

TiVo Multi-Service Discount (MSD)

We make the same argument here that lifetime service is worthwhile, for the same reasons. Again, the lifetime option pays for itself in about 30 months, versus the monthly option.

So how do you activate your new TiVo DVR? Click over to TiVo! and choose the “Activate a TiVo box” link on the very bottom left of the homepage.

Here’s an email we get a lot – and something I always forget to post on the blog: auto-record of TiVo Suggestions.

When customers get a new hard drive from us (we’ve got them for every model TiVo) and they install it and set it up, they find that it’s recording a lot of shows that they haven’t requested. And, shows they don’t want.

This is happening because TiVo Suggestions is on by default – and the new drive is using the default settings. And why are they shows you don’t want? Your thumbs-up and thumbs-down history was on your old drive. So the new drive has very little info to offer to the Suggestion engine.

OK – here’s how to turn it off. Go to:

Settings -> Recording -> TiVo Suggestions

and choose No!

That should do the trick. Now you can just delete the accumulated shows. If you have folders on, you should see them all in a folder marked “TiVo Suggestions”.

There have been several blog posts about TiVo HDs being out of stock at TiVo and at BestBuy.

TiVo does have them in stock if you want a refurbished unit.

If you want a new one, we have them – all shapes and sizes. See our complete line of TiVo HDs.

Come today at about 3:30 PM Pacific, the last UPS truck will leave WeaKnees. So that’s your last chance to order from us and have us get the package to you in time for Christmas!

You’ll need overnight shipping to make it happen, and please get your order in with time to spare for us to build it (if necessary) and pack it properly. If in doubt – call! 888 932-5633.

All TiVos, upgraded and stock, and all DirecTV DVRs are in stock and can be shipped out today!

There’s no question we get asked here at WeaKnees more than “When is the new DirecTV TiVo HD coming out?”

Man, do we wish we had a good answer.

Both DirecTV and TiVo have generally only gotten as specific as “2010.” And that’s all we’ve been able to repeat to everyone.

But, recently, DirecTV has posted a couple of tweets that narrow down the 12 month window to, maybe, a four month window. They’ve used the terms “early next year” and “first part of 2010″ in their posts.

Yes, this is important breaking news, and it’s definitive.

Now, if only we had some clue as to features, pricing, looks, availability, etc. . .