#2 Why would I have to pay a subscription fee to TIVO for OTA reception?
You pay a subscription fee to TiVo for the use of the TiVo service that provides the guide data to the box for TV listings for the upcoming 2 weeks as well as for software updates to the box which usually includes new features, fixes for problems and updates to apps such as Netflix. Windows Media Center does provide the guide data for free for people that watch TV on their computer. And to do that you would need either a cable subscription feeding into your PC and/or then connected to your HDTV or with no cable/satellite sub you need a OTA tuner installed on your PC to pull in the free channels. TiVo Roamio includes the OTA 4 tuners, the guide data, software updates, DVR functionality and apps like Roku, Netflix and Hulu all in one device. If can find a TiVo Roamio OTA DVR w/Lifetime service for between $300-$400 its worth it in my opinion.
