I am jumping on the deal. $300 for a new Bolt with lifetime? You seriously cannot beat that. They are out of stock on the 1TB model, so I will have to settle for the 500GB, but we rarely keep anything on there after we watch it, so the space limitation is not bad. Plus I have the Tivo eSata expander which adds 500GB. It probably could use replacing too since it is as old as my TivoHD.

The hardware is pretty robust. My TivoHD was bought in 2005. There were a couple of years that it sat unused because I thought the HDD died and I had no reason to have it operational. I dusted it off, did a process where it detects and "deletes" bad sectors on the drive, and it has worked fine again for 2 years+ now.

There is a strong community online and a couple of places that still specialize in Tivo repair and upgrades. You can pretty easily replace hard drives in old units and get them back up and running. This is handy because a new unit with a lifetime service plan starts at what, $800?

I got my HD when lifetime was $499....but you could by 1 year, or 2 year plans as well. I bought the 2 year plan for $199. When the end of the 2 years rolled around, they offered me lifetime for $99. I did it. So I was into it $599 I think....at it has lasted ~12 years. So $50/year, give or take. That is easily worth it compared to what I would have had to live with from the cable co. And although I did have cable TV service for a few years of those 12, most of them have been with just OTA.

So, yes, it is a good deal for anyone with OLD Tivo units that have lifetime, but users want an upgrade at ~1/2 price.

And yes, the lifetime service is attached to the box. You can sell the box, give it to your son, put it in storage for 20 years, then dust it off. The service plan is attached to that box. Sure, Tivo can make exceptions if the situation warrants it. If your box dies under warranty, they will transfer the service to a replacement unit.

I do not think this is a "grasp for cash" as was mentioned. This deal only runs until the 10th, and is only good for series 2 or 3 replacements. If they wanted a LOT more mileage out of it, they would offer it to everyone....I am sure there would be plenty of people dumping series 4 hardware just to get something that can handle 4K.

At any rate, I am taking their offer and not thinking twice about it. It is not much more than the current OTA deal, plus I get 4K streaming, faster processing, the stylish shape, etc. ;)