Best Buy and TiVo are running a promotion that lets you get an 80-hour Series2 TiVo for free after rebate, or a dual-tuner box for $50 after rebate. They'll even through in a free Wireless G adapter.

What's the catch? You've got to sign up for high speed internet service through Best Buy. And you've got to print the coupon and take it into a store. This deal is not available through the TiVo or Best Buy websites.

No word on how long this promotion will last, but if you sign up before July 31st, you can get your first three months of TiVo service for free.

[via Troy on TiVo]

So there are any number of ways to resolve conflicts on a PVR. Some rudimentary PVRs won't know what to do if you've got two shows set to record at the same time -- even if one program ends at 9:01 and the next begins at 9:00. So they just skip the second recording.

But many PVR boxes or software packages now let you automatically cut off the beginning of the next show so that you don't miss the end of the first show.

Of course, if you have multiple TV tuners in your set-top-box or computer, conflicts don't arise as often. But what if you've got multiple Windows Media Center PCs throughout the house -- each with just one TV tuner? Wouldn't it be nice if they would talk to each other and resolve conflicts together?

The developer behind DVRMSToolbox has released a program that does just that. Recording Broker lets you schedule all your recordings on one box running Windows Media Center. If you're out of tuners on that PC and there's another PC on the network with a free tuner, Recording Broker will send the scheduled recording over to the second computer.

TiVo has update the rebates available for Series2 boxes yet again. First up, the single-tuner Series2 box is back, and it's free after rebate (with a one year service plan) yet again.

Or for $50, you can pick up an 80-hour dual tuner box. $130 gets you a 180-hour dual tuner box.

All of which is to say, you can still get a standard definition TiVo for a whole lot less than a Series3 HD TiVo, which still goes for $800.


[HDTiVo Blog]

TiVo is giving away one Series2 dual tuner TiVo unit per month for the next six months. Drawings will be held on the 8th of March, April, May, June, July, and August. You can enter by submitting your email address or by sending in a post card.

Okay, great, you're thinking. I can win a box that's worth about $70 (which is what TiVo's selling these units for after rebate). Well, sort of. These 80-hour TiVo's also come with lifetime service, which is something TiVo doesn't really sell separately anymore.

According to the fine print, the approximate value of the package is $549.98. So if you don't take the rebate into account, that means if TiVo were still selling lifetime service plans, they'd be worth about $350. That happens to be the same price as a 3-year service plan, although the odds are pretty good that you'd want to replace your Series2 TiVo with a hi-def capable Series3 or something else within three years, so the difference between a 3-year plan and lifetime service might really not be that great for most users.

[via Dave Zatz]