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:What?

[wawannem]

well, the summary didn't mention the poster of Natalie Portman that comes with it.

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:Losers!

[ArsonSmith]

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?

Re:What?

[phildawg]

What makes this so great and a hacker's dream is because the features it loses that cannot be purchased were worthless. The main reason for the Tivo HD is strictly to be able to record at that quality level. A normal tivo cannot do that.

So what you lose here that cannot be replaced is THX-certification which doesn't mean anything because who has a THX professionally installed, setup, and configured home sound system? The OLED display is no big loss.

The losses that people would miss are the glow in the dark remote (which can be replaced for 50 dollars) and ESPECIALLY the additionally recording space. The 600 dollar Series 3 has a 300GB hard drive and can record about 30 hours of HD content at that quality setting. This will have a 210 GB hard drive which can record about 20-21 hours of HD content.

It should be noted that a typical normal tivo right now comes with about 80 hours worth of programming space, so the 30 and 21 hours of HD quality recording really is a setback, but fortunately you can record programs at lower quality on the HD Tivo's.

However, what makes this is the hackers dream, is for roughly 700 dollars (only 100 dollars more than the top 30 hour tivo HD), you could purchase the remote and replace the 210GB drive with Hitachi's new 1TB drive and turn it into a 100 hour Tivo HD... which is truly awesome! And within a year we will probably see 1.5TB-2TB drives that could be put into this for even more recording volume.

My Tivo Series 3 Perspective

[Hangtime]

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.

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.ph 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.

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.

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.)

Re:Neato keen and all but meh

[feepness]

Very nice, albeit still not enough to justify me getting one. Mind you the reason why I haven't is not an issue with the TiVo itself - more of a matter of nothing being on television worth watching anyway. If they add a "unSuck" button you can count me as the first person in line. Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own a Television

Re:What?

[HTH NE1]

the 30 and 21 hours of HD quality recording really is a setback, but fortunately you can record programs at lower quality on the HD Tivo's.

Only as long as you have the alternative to record HD programs in SD quality on an alternate SD channel carrying the same content. HD can only be recorded in HD. Last I checked, HDNET had no SD alternative. Also, the PBS stations in my area have different programming on the HD and SD channels (e.g. Doctor Who is only on the SD channel).

There's also no IR or serial control by which to use a down-converting cable box on the Series3 platform. For cable programming, you either can record analog and unencrypted digital channels, or you use CableCards.

Re:Hackers dream?

[HTH NE1]

But having units with Lifetime Service still qualifies you for discounted monthly service at $6.95 a month for additional TiVos on the same account.