Tivo Series3 $649

[Matt H]

This is after a $100 coupon from Costco.

Linkified

 

[RideFree]

Isn't TIVO going to be dead in the water with the advent of Vista Media and a few of the HD capable vid cards out or on the way?

This is a question that keeps haunting me and keeps me from investing my cash in TIVO.
Mind you, this new HD capable TIVO looks hot and I'm looking hard.
Anyone with ComCrap is probably on the edge, also.

Any help appreciated...what about MythTV?

 

[jammur21]

I'm thinking about it too, but rumors of Tivo DVR rentals from Cox cable in areas served with Motorola cable boxes has me waiting it out.

Gotta decide soon so I can transfer my lifetime suscription to a Series3

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: jammur21
Gotta decide soon so I can transfer my lifetime suscription to a Series3

Yeah, rub it in!

Edited to say: If I had the lifetime, I'd be all over this.

 

[elph]

No joke- those who got lifetime really got a sweet dealio.

 

[maxcom]

Tivo rox

 

[Lark888]

Does TIVO let you transfer subscriptions? Oh, so it does, sort of. Cost $199 to transfer most 'lifetime' units over. I'd like an HD PVR but this cost is still to steep. I will resist....

 

[Dealbuyer]

Originally posted by: jammur21
I'm thinking about it too, but rumors of Tivo DVR rentals from Cox cable in areas served with Motorola cable boxes has me waiting it out.

Gotta decide soon so I can transfer my lifetime suscription to a Series3

Tempting... But I Think I'll Hold Out For Now.

If The Cox Tivo Rentals Materialize, I May Op For That Until Prices Come Down.

 

[torpid]

I have an S3. There are a few bugs here and there but it's definitely the best HD recorder out there. If they ever get permission from cablelabs to enable eSata, MRV, and TTG, it will be a great unit. Right now it's just "really good".

 

[jelifah]

The fact that they have not enabled eSata and TTG have made it easy for me to avoid purchasing. If they ever enable the S3 to do what it should already be able to do, my wallet will fall open.

 

[Kostya17]

What is eSata and TTG?

 

[GTFan]

External SATA drive support and Tivo-to-Go. eSATA ports are present on the box but not enabled, so you can't easily add more show storage cap right now. TTG allows you to transfer shows to another player (like a portable). MRV is multi-room viewing so you can network the Tivos together.

Face it folks, these boxes were crippled and overpriced from the start. Don't be an early adopter of the S3, wait until they (or more likely, the cablecard folks) get a wakeup call for what consumers want with HD. Which is to say, everything they already HAVE today with SD. My 2 ReplayTV's run rings around the S3's in capability-wise EXCEPT for HD. But I'll admit that SD is slowly going away and HD recording is the future, so it's tough to sit on the sidelines.

So your choices right now are to sit this one out, wait for a decent cable or sat HD recorder, or build a Vista Home Premium or Myth PC. But you won't get encrypted HD channels with Myth, you have to have Cablecard for that (i.e. Vista, eventually).
The sat co's have come a long ways, I've heard good stuff on avsforum about the latest Dish (VIP622) and DirectTV (HR20) boxes. Tivo s/w is just around the corner on Comcast boxes, but they are going to charge extra (over and above the normal DVR fee) for the privilege.

 

[TicoAz]

Originally posted by: jammur21
I'm thinking about it too, but rumors of Tivo DVR rentals from Cox cable in areas served with Motorola cable boxes has me waiting it out.

Gotta decide soon so I can transfer my lifetime suscription to a Series3

Don't expect Tivo on Cox Cable boxes for at least a year.....

 

[Kostya17]

Thanks GTFan!

Now I get the idea... And I don't think I will be getting S3 anytime soon. The problem is that S3 gets decrypted HD from the STB and stores it on internal hard drive. TiVo will get sued by MPAA and the likes the second they let that unencrypted signal out either thru eSATA, MRV or TTG. So I would not count on these features without some serious hacking from 3rd party. I agree, without those capabilities TiVo is just an overpriced HD recorder.

I guess I'll just upgrade a hard drive in my PVR7k for now...

 

[GTFan]

You're right except for one thing - the S3 IS the STB (it has cablecard slots). So it saves the decrypted HD feed straight off the cards, which are plugged into the S3. Each S3 will usually have two cards allowing for 2 records at once, so that is basically the nicest feature of the box other than HD. The S3 does not support ANY STB, so it won't work with sat. This is strictly an HD over the air and/or cable solution. So, as I mentioned you'd have to get happy with the Dish or DirectTV HD recorders if you have sat.

None of the cableco's are happy about the S3 since it replaces their STB's, so there's been a lot of confusion and problems with the initial S3 installs. And the cablecard/content providers have no desire to provide HD in the clear like they do with SD today.

There is one more option that I forgot - you should be able to get an STB from the cableco that has firewire output and record HD from that, but even then there is a flag called '5C' that the providers can enable on any channel (mostly premiums like HBO) to prevent copying.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: RideFree
Isn't TIVO going to be dead in the water with the advent of Vista Media and a few of the HD capable vid cards out or on the way?

I used Media Center in Vista RC2. It certainly isn't good enough to kill TIVO but their ridiculous pricing is what will do it.

 

[Kostya17]

Originally posted by: GTFan
You're right except for one thing - the S3 IS the STB (it has cablecard slots)...

So S3 is just like PVR7000, but made for cable? That sounds interesting--PVR7k has some cool 3rd party firmware. Maybe somebody will start "supporting" S3 one day (wishfull thinking, I guess).

 

[Kostya17]

Originally posted by: Staples
I used Media Center in Vista RC2. It certainly isn't good enough to kill TIVO but their ridiculous pricing is what will do it.

The pricing is ridiculous because 50% of the profits go directly to lawers

 

[Gart]

For me, any new TiVo deal is Not Hot.

The other thing to consider is the monthly fees and contract requirements for TiVo now.

Right around Thanksgiving, they completely jacked up their pricing structure.

It's 19.95/month with a 1 year agreement
14.95/mo for 2 yrs
12.95/mo for 3 yrs.

Used to be 12.95/mo for the first unit, 6.95/mo for any more TiVos. For the time being, their honoring the prices for existing customers, but any new Activations are going to the Higher pricing.

From the Terms and Conditions on tivo.com
An early termination fee of the lesser of $200.00 or the amount owed on the remaining term of your monthly TiVo Package commitment will be charged to you if your monthly TiVo Package is cancelled prior to the end of your commitment, except as permitted under TiVo's 30 day Money Back Guarantee.

 

[Jel2h]

Does S3 get rid of or reduce significantly the delay experienced when changing channels while using IR sensors? And is it worth it if you're not going to be using the HD recording ability and just be recording at SD? Would the ability to record two channels and watch a third as well as other features of the S3 offset that?

 

[allisolm]

Would the ability to record two channels and watch a third as well as other features of the S3 offset that?

You can record 2 channels and watch a third with a dual tuner Series 2 TiVo for LOTS less. (Cost of dual tuner 80-hr $69.99, 180-hr $169.99))

 

[GTFan]

And the S3 doesn't have an IR blaster - remember, it doesn't support STBs. You really want a dual-tuner S2 for SD recording, as allisolm said. Or just get whatever your cableco/satco supplies, I think they all have dual tuners nowadays.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: RideFree
Isn't TIVO going to be dead in the water with the advent of Vista Media and a few of the HD capable vid cards out or on the way?

This is a question that keeps haunting me and keeps me from investing my cash in TIVO.
Mind you, this new HD capable TIVO looks hot and I'm looking hard.
Anyone with ComCrap is probably on the edge, also.

Any help appreciated...what about MythTV?

im waiting for vista mce to decide as well. they support cable cards as well as hd...

screw myth tv

 

[torpid]

The reason eSata, TTG, and MRV are disabled are because tivo is still negotiating with cablelabs to get approval for tivo's protection system. It is likely to come quite soon. The reason to purchase an S3 now rather than later is if you have a lifetime sub you want to transfer. Otherwise there's not much reason to get one now, although it is certainly the only good HD DVR that isn't tied to a specific provider. If you can deal with cable company HD DVR bugs galore and lack of features, it's definitely the way to go. I'd rather pay $50/month to own something in a year and a half than $30 and not own it. But that's just me.

If your concern is storage space, it is almost trivial to upgrade the S3 to a larger drive. It would take maybe 2 hours at most for a first timer.

 

[GTFan]

But don't they want $200 to transfer that 'lifetime' sub after you sink all this cash into an S3? Lifetime must mean that they'll keep sucking the life out of you every time you upgrade.

If you buy an S3 now, you're wasting money as an early adopter - it will be half this price (or less) by end of next year. Tivo software should be available on cableco DVR's, and you should be able to get Cablecard Vista PC's for full HD recording. Competition is good.