TiVo Series 3 coming September 17th for $799?

It's no secret that TiVo's on the verge of shipping its HD-capable Series 3 set-top-box -- after all, the company's already notified the FCC, posted a product page, and even ignited a flurry of controversy over Time Warner's CableCARD policy -- but we have yet to hear of a solid release date or retail price for this highly-anticipated device. Well HDBeat's got an inside source at one of the big box electronics stores (to protect his identity, we won't say which one, but he goes by the name Todd and wears a blue shirt to work) who claims that the Series 3 has already been added to their system, scheduled to be in stock on September 17th for a hefty-but-not-unreasonable $799. (Side note: if that price stands, props to our boy Dave Zatz for prognosticating it many moons ago). You first heard about this box all the way back at CES, recently spotted it in the wild, and now it may finally be time to withhold next month's rent as well as ring up your cable provider to make sure they have those precious CARDs all stocked up.

[PN @ Aug 28th 2006 1:42PM]

finally can get rid of stupid cable box. i hate the cable box

[Andrew @ Aug 28th 2006 1:51PM]

Damn way out of my price range...

[Jordan @ Aug 28th 2006 2:01PM]

It will probably come free with your normal $369 per month subscription to Comcast Digital Cable with HD (cable internet not included).

[shirizaki @ Aug 28th 2006 2:03PM]

Bah, I wish it was somewhat cheaper. Guess I'll have to deal with TW and their vastly inferior DVR box. But it does have dual tuners, which has come in handy sometimes.

[bigglare @ Aug 28th 2006 2:38PM]

I'll keep my Comcrap DVR at that price. Or wait until March or April and get an SDTV tivo or other recorder.

[Dirk @ Aug 28th 2006 2:38PM]

I was expecting $999, so this is a bit cheaper for me.

Getting rid of the damn cable box and have perfect quality recordings is going to be sooooooooo nice.

[Matt @ Aug 28th 2006 2:42PM]

This thing could be $1799 and I would still go out and buy it, I can not wait!!!

[Lee Gibson @ Aug 28th 2006 2:48PM]

$800, plus $12/mo? No sale.

[Skierlaw @ Aug 28th 2006 2:58PM]

Although I have been waiting for this device and would love to get rid of the cable box, $799 is too steep considering the additional monthly fee. I love Tivo, but at that price, I can live with the Time Warner DVR tradeoff ($8.00/month). But knowing Tivo, I'm hoping this price drops...much more reasonable at about $399. I was hoping to have thing thing come in between 400-500.

[Jason Anderson @ Aug 28th 2006 3:06PM]

I was anticipating that price. But I'm still not sure if I'll jump right away. I spent all the money on an HDTV itself and a Xbox 360. And soon a computer. But damn this Comcast box sucks. My problem is I'm trying to use it as a TiVo, but it's just not made to be that easy to use. God it's so unintuitive. I hate it.

[Brad Pliner @ Aug 28th 2006 3:10PM]

Finally! I was an early adopted of TiVo and ultimately switched to Comcast's DVR solution since it supported HDTV and could record two channels simultaneously. But their DVR is terrible - the interface stinks, and it's extremely buggy. I look forward to returning back to TiVo w/ two cable cards - finally the best of both worlds.

[Ken F @ Aug 28th 2006 4:16PM]

The Series3 does record two different channels at once. It has six tuners - two analog, two ATSC for SD/HD from an antenna, and two QAM for SD/HD from cable. It features two CableCard slots so it can record every channel that your cable box can tune. With the off-air tuners, it can also record local HD/SD broadcasts that you don't get on cable. The Series3 records the original digital signal off cable and the airwaves so all SD/HD channels are recorded at 100% original quality.

At $799 MSRP, it is pricy. Hopefully, $799 MSRP will translate into $600 at Internet retailers like Amazon.com and Buy.com. Tivo is currently running a $150 rebate for its DVRs, so perhaps that will be available as well. Figure a $650 price at Amazon.com minus a $150 rebate and you're down to $500.

You will have to pay for service -- $12.99/mo if you have one box, $6.99/mo if you have more than one.

Is it worth the price? Obviously that will vary from person to person. There's no question that the Tivo is *substantially* more reliable in its operation and recordings. It also incorporates a much larger hard drive (250+Gb) and supports external expansion with off-the-shelf SATA drives, for virtually unlimited HDTV recording capacity.

If you want a DVR with substantially more capacity, that is very easy to use, and offers a very high level of reliability -- i.e. no missed recordings -- then the Series3 may be for you. Personally, I don't mind paying for peace of mind. Coming home from work and finding that the DVR failed to record my favorite show the night before is not an experience that I care to repeat on a regular basis. With the Tivo, I don't have to deal with such things, and that is worth extra money to me.

I suppose it all comes down to how much you value your time and not having to to deal with the frustration associated with cable DVRs. The Tivo "just works" without the BS.

[brian @ Aug 28th 2006 4:16PM]

Does anyone now think that by the end of Sept., Comcast and T.W. are going to be all out of cable cards!!?? And/or, the hassles we're all going to have to go through when all the stupid CSR's reply with "uhhhhhh, what's a cable card?"

I think I may wait this one out and read on avsforum.com all the early adopter's experiences with it and the cable companies. And someone find a way to dump all the HD recordings off to a HTPC for archiving so that the Tivo hard drive is freed up.

[jo @ Aug 28th 2006 5:20PM]

wow, people pay 800 dollars for HD tivo? I have 3 HD 120 gig DVRs for 3 dollars a month each through time warner. free updates repairs ect....I dunno, just sounds dumb to spend that much cash on that.

[Adam @ Aug 28th 2006 5:26PM]

Now all we need is for TiVo to release it in the UK, so I can finally replace my Series 1.

[Mike P @ Aug 28th 2006 6:28PM]

It's good that it's here. My biggest complaint is that I can't buy a lifetime service with it. I hate monthly fees, especally for what is still basically just programming updates. A service that is free online.

[Will @ Aug 28th 2006 6:51PM]

I love Tivo and have been using their boxes for 6 years now. However there is no way this thing is worth $799. For under $400 you can get the same Tivo functionality with the DirecTV Tivo (HR10-250). I had one and it was slow but worked just fine. It has the OTA tuners and 2 sat inputs. Of course it doesn't work on cable and doesn't have the latest Tivo software, but it is essentially the same functionality as the Series 3. They really need to price the series 3 at $399 or so. Otherwise there is no reason not to buy the HR10-250 at a substantially lower price and go with Sat. I'm using Cable right now because I moved from a house to an apt. and didn't want to hassle with the dish, but I will probably switch back to DirecTV if I can't get the Series 3 at a reasonable price point. I already own the HR10-250, just sitting in my closet waiting to be hooked back up!

[Mark G. @ Aug 28th 2006 7:35PM]

This is a pretty sweet looking box. I don't mind the 799 price tag so much as the monthly fee. I am currently using an MCE 2005 computer which works great with standard cable and obviously has no monthly fees. I may have to give the series 3 a seriously look though based on what I know about Vista MCE. Microsoft is definitely going to be in tough with all the negative press MCE has been receiving lately. i.e. 64 bit requirement for native HD DVD playback. No DVD streaming, no support for multiple media centers. Goyer quitting. etc.

[Ozbone @ Aug 28th 2006 9:17PM]

Tivo! Tivo?!? Are you listening ?
$799 plus monthly ?
Can you hear me, Tivo ?? Well FORGET IT !
Seriously, at that price somebody has got to come along and blow 'em out of the water.

[Danny @ Aug 28th 2006 9:37PM]

Neeeeeeeeee not wasting my money, is a great box but to expensive with that money I buy my Nintendo Wii, or The Playstation 3. I have two Moxi DvR and is more great and I only pay for that $26 dollars. How many I need to pay with the tivo, $800 dollars plus monthly $12 dollars more.

[Max @ Aug 28th 2006 10:18PM]

Any idea on what the storage capacity will be on it?

[Ken Fowler @ Aug 29th 2006 12:22AM]

The box will come with 250Gb, with capacity being expandable by off-the-shelf external SATA drives.

Latest news is that Best Buy lists their cost for the Series3 as ~$500. That leaves room for discounts off the $799 MSRP.

[JamesB @ Aug 29th 2006 9:06AM]

Skierlaw, you just got me re-excited about this. I'm warry about the monthly sub (I have lifetime now on a series 1). But if I could find a $500 deal I could stomach the $13/month. Otherwise it's like $30 bucks a month for 4 years... monthly + ($800/48months)

[Jeff @ Aug 29th 2006 9:15AM]

Do you think this price includes any subscription to the TiVo service?? Year, 3 year, lifetime??? I doubt it, but at 799 I wonder if it does.

[Joey Geraci @ Aug 29th 2006 10:07AM]

I'm sorry, but anybody who says that this price is justified w/ the full monthly fee is a fucking tool. It is as simple as that. If that price included a 3 or 4 year membership, maybe. But if you have to start out from the beginning paying 12.99 per month, hell no. Tivo hasn't seemed to figure out that you can't make a significant profit on the hardware and charge a significant monthly fee. It just doesn't work.

They need to die or be bought out. The current management will never learn.

[Alexander @ Aug 29th 2006 12:04PM]

Lest you people all forget, the origonal Series 1 retailed at this number (or close to it) and quickly dropped off to $250 when nobody bought them.

It will be interesting to see what they fall to in the coming months.

[CJ @ Aug 29th 2006 12:26PM]

$799? then a monthly fee on top of that frankly I don't even know why people pay for such expensive equipment then on top of that pay a monthly fee...

ill be sticiking to my PC with dual tunners to record my HDTV 300$ I paid for my card and no monthly fee beats this deal

[BigD @ Aug 29th 2006 3:41PM]

As good as the TiVo software is and the fact that it is superior to the cable box, why would I spend $800+ for the Series 3? It's way too expensive.

The cable boxes aren't the best, but they're not "waste $800" bad either. I can wait until Cox releases their TiVo software download.

[BigD @ Aug 29th 2006 3:42PM]

As good as the TiVo software is and the fact that it is superior to the cable box, why would I spend $800+ for the Series 3? It's way too expensive.

The cable boxes aren't the best, but they're not "waste $800" bad either. I can wait until Cox releases their TiVo software download.

[John P @ Aug 29th 2006 4:13PM]

That is way too much for a tivo. I would much rather have tivo then my current cable box but that is crazy when the cable companies box is essentially free.

[John P @ Aug 30th 2006 10:35AM]

Is there any chance that the $799 price includes a year of service or maybe 2 years?.......Hoping and waiting. The Mrs. and I decided this is what we are getting each other for xmas.

[John Z @ Aug 31st 2006 3:50PM]

You complain about the cable box that Time Warner provides but remember you are a GEEK!

My 79 year old mother loves her Time Warner DVR and it is the only piece of technology she has never had to ask me how to use! I guarantee if I handed her a Tivo box my phone would not stop ringing. There is a lot to be said about an interface that is intuitive enough not to frustrate a technically challenged little old lady!

Yes you like the Tivo interface but you also learned that one first. And for $800 it would have to do a lot more than just have a pretty interface.

[Aaron @ Sep 1st 2006 10:31AM]

I paid $799 for my Series 1 back in 1998 plus another $299 on top of that for the Lifetime subscription. That machine is still working fine today. I've since bought two more Tivos and am happy with all three of them.

[John Z @ Sep 6th 2006 11:32AM]

P.S.

By the way this box will be obsolete soon since the next generation of cable cards will be released which allows 2 way communications. This will enable you to use the cable companies Pay-Per-View and On-Demand services which this series Tivo box can not do!

[KG @ Sep 13th 2006 4:33PM]

John,

You are so wrong, this unit does allow for 2 way communications with cable company with cable cards.

I received an invite to transfer my lifetime warranty for $199 if I purchased this unit from tivo

Series 3 with lifetime subscription = $1,000...WOW...I am going to wait.

[KG @ Sep 13th 2006 4:39PM]

Sorry,

I meant lifetime subscription...but I am happy using a A/B to record 2 shows a once with a dvd recorder...

I read somewhere the directv hd recorder when first came out was $999, but within a year was $500...so I can be patience...