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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."
Why, did they unTivoize the GPLed software?
What exactly makes it a "hacker's dream"?
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
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...
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
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
From TFA, about 11 hours. The "Tivo Lite" will have a 160GB (holds about 20 hours) disk rather than the 250GB (which holds up to 31 hours) disk on the existing Series 3.
It doesn't have 90 GB of storage.
It loses 90 GB of storage.
As to how much HD content it can store, RTFA. (31 hrs for the expensive one, 20 hrs for the new one)
90GB is the difference in disk capacities between the current Series 3 and this new unit. The capacity stated in TFA is 20 hours HD.
And TiVo "jumped on the HD bandwagon" several months ago, when the Series 3 first came out.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
As has been addressed in prior comments, as well as TFA...the new device will have 160GB, which is a 90GB loss in comparison to the current Series-3. A literal reading of the summary gives that information as well, though I can see where a quick skimming would lead one to the wrong conclusion if s/he couldn't be bothered to actually read the article before commenting on it.
That said, if I'm going to get a new Tivo, I have to deal with a lot of new issues:
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.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Let me help you out and parse it with bullet points: ... you only lose:
*the OLED screen (do you need a screen on your TiVo?)
*the glowing remote (which you can pick up for $50 anyway)
*THX certification (worthless)
*90GB of storage
Now, why didn't 'you' parse the submission right?
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
I've configured both knoppmyth http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html and mediaportal for win32 http://www.team-mediaportal.com/.
Each has their caveats. Knoppmyth works better once you get it rolling, but there's lots of fiddly work to get it going. Lots of fiddly work. Once it's up its rock steady. It manages powering down/sleeping between scheduled shows much better than win32.
MediaPortal is easier to set up. Buggy interface though. Not show-stoppers but whacky things that make it hard to use. For reasons I haven't investigated it uses some kind of proprietary file type to store the shows. If someone knows how to set it up to make an mpeg that would be great. http://www.team-mediaportal.com/
Got Trader Joe's? friendwich.com RSS feeds work now!
THX cert means little if your speakers/TV aren't also in a room that is THX certified. Unless you are a serious audiophile, it's like having heated car seats when you live in Florida. Cool feature, but not worth an extra $500 when you will probably never use it (hear the difference).
The smaller HD is a bummer, but if the units are as easy to upgrade as the older units were, it's easy to image/re-image onto a larger HD.
So, upgrade the HD in the Lite and the only "functionality" you give up over the Standard is the THX logo.
It has a 160GB drive, giving an estimated 21 hours of HD recording. The reason for the smaller drive is most likely to that they can still maintain a market for the much more profitable Series 3 Heavy at $799 + monthly programming fees.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I just purchased my Tivo Series 3 (the wife and I are Tivo nuts and we just bought an HDTV so it was required) and here's my notes so far.
h p?t=350510 on how to do so). Then you get yourself a $50 enclosure and $300 1 TB drive and your rocking for approximately the same price.
1. Cablecard installation sucks. Make sure when you talk to the provider that they ALWAYS bring 2 Cablecards. It just took for times for TimeWarner to actually get cable going. None of this is Tivo's fault as much as its lack of understanding on the cable company side. The problems are in two places: one - firmware upgrades can take FOREVER, it literally took my 3 days to update the Cablecards, two: provisioning the TWC head-end folks have not quited figured this out yet and it took the guy talking to a friend to get the cards provisioned correctly. So when they come out make sure they try to flash the cards before they leave HQ and know someone on the other side that knows how to provision.
2. The lost 90 GB is not much of a problem. Tivo Series 3 have an eSATA connection that can be enabled through a backdoor code (see http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.p
3. I wish the OLED wasn't even there and I had $50 back. You can't see it half the time and its so small its tough to read from across the room.
4. THX: I don't have a home theater (working on that but gotta be a little more frugal now) so I wouldn't worry about it.
The $300 price point is the magic number and when it comes in watch out because these will start flying on the shelves.
Plus, it uses ReiserFS.
[Sorry. Now I'm going AC for sure.]
First off, popup ads were never implemented. TiVo tested them on a few people, found they didn't work well and scrapped them. I don't know why people always bring this up since there hasn't been a popup ad on a TiVo in over 2 years. There's far more ads on the cable box Comcast gives me (they're all over the guide), than I ever see on my TiVo.
Second, TiVo is the best known DVR out there and the most successful purchasable one there is. When Comcast starts selling their own HD DVR that's as good as TiVo (which will never happen) I'm sure you'll read it here.
Third, TiVo is one of the easiest DVRs to use which is probably why they won an emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Enhanced Television Programming.