In reply to:


It makes no money from the sale of TiVo hardware units.



Well, that may be the case, but those mail-in-rebates that Tivo gave out to folks came from Tivos pockets and no-one elses.
Tivolutionary confirmed that some time ago.
The only way for Tivo to make that back is with subscriptions.

In reply to:


Therefore, TiVo has no interest in selling units without the TiVo service."



Thats right, and what better way for Tivo to make even more money, than by selling two subs for folks (like you) who want to record two programs at once?
If you bought only 1 Tivo that could record two programs at once, then you should have to "pay" at least twice as much in sub-fees as a Tivo that records only one show at a time?

Would you pay 2x your current subscription fee for this feature, assuming the hardware was available?

I doubt it.

Tivos business model was to sell *subscriptions* to subscribers/Tivo owners (and viewing information from your Tivos to advertisers).
I don't see that that model has changed much with the series two models coming out.

I think you're going to have to have 2 Tivos and 2 subs for the forseeable future - if you want to record two analogue channels at once.

Its what I do [except I don't pay the sub or use the guide service, but thats another story].