Retailers Leak New TiVo HD Specs and Price

Brent writes "Retailers goofed and posted most of the specs of the forthcoming TiVo Series 3 Lite, which Ars says may be called 'TiVo HD' at launch. A comparison with the standard Series 3 shows that for a savings of $300, you only lose the OLED screen (do you need a screen on your TiVo?), the glowing remote (which you can pickup for $50 anyway), THX certification (worthless) and 90GB of storage. Looks like it may be a TiVo hacker's dream."

Comments

*sigh* no satillite connectivity...

[Itninja]

I would we willing to pay an extra $300 for a Series 3 that could record HD from my satellite service (Dish Network). Having been a Tivo user for nearly 10 years, I finally had to dump my Tivo and start using the Dish Network ViP622 HD-DVR. It's not bad, but the user interface is no where near as tight as a Tivo. maybe someday Comcast will grace me with cable in my area...

Re:*sigh* no satillite connectivity...

[Constantine XVI]

What exactly prevents it from recording HD?

Finally!

[mjpaci]

I've been waiting for the T3 to drop in price to something my better half won't cringe at. That $700 price point was murder. Also, I am so freakin sick of the cruddy Motorola DVR that Verizon rents me that I am just peeing my pants with this pseudo press release. It will actually cost less for me to have a Tivo than that crappy DVR. (not factoring in purchase price, of course, so it will cost more, i just won't let myself believe it)

--mike

Still doesn't change a big price difference

[rsborg]

Disclaimer: I'm currently owner of a Tivo Series2, unhacked, unmodified, connected to a SDTV, 5.1 receiver, and receiving analog cable (so I don't have to futz around with the channel blaster or deal with a cable box). I pay approx. $55/mo for this.

That said, if I'm going to get a new Tivo, I have to deal with a lot of new issues:

1. $$$: A new HDTV-compatible receiver and display
2. $$: Cost of upgraded Cable services
3. $: Cost of cable-card rental fee (x2 if I want to record 2 channels at a time)-or- dealing with the channel blaster again (yukk!)

So in addition to the upgrade to HDTV, I will have to shell out probably another $30-$50 a month, which I really don't see as being necessary, and for what? HDTV? Forget it.

On the other hand, this newsseems promising, if Comcast doesn't f$ck it all to hell.

Re:Hackers dream?

[infaustus]

When they first came out, you could buy lifetime service instead of paying monthly. I have a Series 1 Tivo with Lifetime Service. For awhile they had a deal where you could transfer the license to Series 3, too.

Re:My Tivo Series 3 Perspective

[HTH NE1]

1. Also, CableCards seem to be really picky about how many splitters there are in the cable. My TWC really wanted the TiVo to be the only thing connected to the wall, but could tell from my setup that that simply was not feasible. I did determine that one splitter was blocking some frequencies and had to ditch it.

2. eSATA port is unconfirmed. (BTW, I hate that people selling cables try to sell "internal eSATA cables". I almost bought the wrong kind because they haven't learned that the "e" stands for "external".)

3. Even if you can't read the OLED display from across the room, you can still tell from a glance (on a unit not in Standby mode) whether what's recording on a tuner is a scheduled recording of yours or not (Suggestions are not named on the OLED; scheduled recordings are).

4. I wish earlier models included an Emmy symbol the year TiVo was awarded one.

I'm waiting for my $300 rebate, but I won't use it to buy another one. Eight TiVos are enough for me right now. (Heh, my first two 14hr Series1 TiVos also had $300 in rebates, making them cost -$0.01 after rebate, not considering taxes on pre-rebate price.)