Falling right in line with the news
TiVo CEO
Tom Rogers hinted at
back in March, the
struggling company is readying the highly anticipated HD Series 3 "Lite," which will target a much wider range of consumer with a price point of around $299. Some tenacious (and possibly connected) fans posted specs and pics on the TiVo Community forums, much to the delight of broke DVR users across the globe. The new model will axe the OLED display and THX certification, and swap the deluxe remote for a standard model, but the specs remain fairly close otherwise. Here's a geeked-out rundown to keep everyone psyched: BCM740x DVR CPU with integrated MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoders, 1x dual MPEG-2 encoder, 2x Samsung S5H1411-based tuners, 128Mb DDR SDRAM, and a 160Gb SATA HD (down from the Series 3's 250GB drive). All in all, a pretty attractive package when you don't have a lot of cash to burn.
posted Jul 17th 2007 5:49PM
Sweet, I can't wait!
@Tim:
It's got two cablecard slots, on the front under a little door that drops down. They're side-by-side instead of on top of eachother. Cox installers accidentally left a copy of the installer instructions for this new unit when they were putting cablecards into my current Series 3 unit.
Any word on cable card support?
It has to have cable card support for each tuner otherwise the device is useless.
In real world terms, what does the lack of THX cert mean? Anyone? Anyone?
I am THRILLED to see this device. Bye bye Scientific Atlanta EvilVo. You'll never cut off the ending of my shows again.
Lack of THX pretty much means, TiVO and ultimately the end user, doesn't have to pay the licensing fee to slap the pretty little THX certification sticker on the unit.
THX certification is just a standard. Supposedly a product has standards that they are suppose to meeting according to THX. They submit their product, pay and fee and essentially get the product THX certified.
I personally think THX is a joke these days, just a way for THX to get money and manufactures to milk more money out of us. THX used to be reserved only for super high-end gear, a status symbol. It has since been "dumbed down" to meet a larger market of average mid-end products. Sure, it is nice to have a standard, but many manufactures don't even bother with it due to the fee and their products would easily meet the standard.
The long and short of it is, you will never miss it.
Pretty much what the Series 3 should have been in the first place. Those of us who hide our gear in cabinets and use universal remotes don't care about the OLED display or the fancy remote, and the THX certification is just plain silly.
I balked before. I'll seriously consider this one (especially if they offer a lifetime transfer, though I'm not holding my breath).
How about a new TiVo for the Uk then....Best thing i ever bought...
If this Tivo box offers multistream support they better offer an upgrade path for current TiVo owners.
"They better offer an upgrade path."
Are you for real?
The Series3 was designed for M-Card, it just needs a software update. If the new box has M-Card first, so what? It makes sense to develop and test a new feature on a new product, then roll the code into the existing product.
About time someone else found this - I found it on July 4th, but agreed not to post about it. ;-) http://www.tivolovers.com/2007/07/17/more-tivo-series3-lite-leaks/
I'd take those tech specs with a grain of salt, but the general details seem accurate based on the various pages in Google's cache and the photos.
I'm wondering if it will still have all the other cool features like eSATA.
I just wish there were more attractive options out there for those of us who go it OTA only. Anymore, your options are either a DVD recorder (or in some cases hard drive based) but no real guide data. Then there's TiVo to the tune of $100/yr minimum for service, or something homemade like a Myth or Sage box, but now some of those are having issues with Zap2it ending XML guides.
Please please please PLEASE figure out some way to give us HD with the series 2 networking features TIVO! I think it's a bigger deal even than the price of the Series 3 for a lot of people.
Which generation atsc chip is that?
Because like the latest samsung boxes use 5th generation.
i wonder what this means for the regular TiVo Series 3 price. i hope that it doesn't go back up since the Series 3 now has two price points. i know i'll want a TiVo Series 3 Fat someday...
So, those of us that were stupid enough to drop $799 on our S3 paid $500 for 90Gb, a remote, OLED display and a THX sticker.
Thanks Tivo!
Sucker
Oh waaaaaah. Why do people do this? Buyer's remorse is just stupid. If you can't afford something and you're going to regret it when the price comes down or the next newer, better, faster, cheaper box comes along, then don't buy it.
The S3 was always marketed as a premium product and expensive. A lot of people, myself included, said early on NOT to buy it if you would have ANY regrets. Because the price *would* come down. How about just last month when the very same S3 you own was selling for ~$400 after rebate for Father's Day? Or the fact that it has been selling for ~$600 fairly constantly for months, and right now $500 for a refurb.
Don't be an early adopter if you aren't willing to live with the costs, it is simple.
Scooby, if it makes you feel better, i have been cursing every day for the last year because the cable wiring in my apartment wouldn't let me keep my series2 and i've been stuck with the crappy Moto DVR that comcast gave me. It blows, whereas you've been enjoying beautiful HD (which I couldn't with my Series2) and the TiVo interface. What price would you put on a year's worth of TiVo? Me, I probably would have dropped the $700 a year ago if I knew how much I would hate the Moto DVR piece of garbage. I envy you.
-p-
Um, yeah? I'm so glad there are people who like to be early adopters.
You were mad to pay that much for it regardless. Series 3 was incredibly overpriced.
Tivo will be bankrupt in two years, if not less; mark my words.
We've been hearing for years that Tivo will be "broke in x months/years". Thanks anyways doofus.
PS, I would still happily buy one of these even if they did go broke in 2 yrs.
Cable/Sat DVRs are the suck.
Thanks for your intelligent rebuttal. Unfortunately, when you are LOSING customers, have increasing competition from HTPCs and Cable/Sat DVRs (which will inevitably get better and not have a service premium, etc.), and also have outstanding debt, the prospect of bankruptcy becomes rather tangible.
Jugglenuts, how do you figure TiVo is losing customers when their software will be incorporated into Comcast's DVRs in starting in August?
-p-
Tivo could be bankrupt, but their board could also instantly approve a merger with apple or netflix. especially since their board is heavy with those folks. Only issue I see is sony's stake in them. Which as always been a sleeping with the devil issue imo.
why not just buy the Series3 when there is a rebate available? I bought a Series three at the end of May from Amazon and it wound up being around $425 after the rebate.
$299 is for the light version? I must be a cheap SOB.
"I'd take those tech specs with a grain of salt, but the general details seem accurate based on the various pages in Google's cache and the photos."
The same specs were posted on the Tivo Community Forum. You can also find the new model on Buy.com. I have a Series 3 and one HDTV. I have no use for an addtional box. *Yet* Once I move I'll buy another set and the $299 price point is perfect!
I know the specs were posted on TC - that's where Engadget got them in the first place for this post. (See the 'Read' link.) And that's why I say take them with a grain of salt - they're unsubstantiated, and in that very thread at TC there are previous posts now proven incorrect - like no analog tuners.
I got mine for $550. No regrets here.
160 Gigs is not very much storage for HDTV. That's the same amount as my Motorola DVR from Cox.
The TiVo Series 3...
Sure all these new features make this hot, but I'm thinking that this comes at the expense of this device to be compliant on all cable providers video networks.
Yes, I paid more than this but I was able to transfer my lifetime subscription from my Series 2. Lifetime subs are no longer available.
There's a big problem here: Storage Capacity.
160gigs is only like 15 hrs of HD programming or less counting the OS space.
The problem is that they shorted me on my Series 3 with only 250 gigs, and now they can't put that in the lite, because then S3 owners would be seriously upset. I know I would. I like to think I paid 3x the price for SOME reason.
Paying what we did for the S3, they need to offer the lite at 250gigs (30hrs) and offer S3 owners a free upgrade to 750 gigs or so. When we trade our drives, they could use them as refurb drives on the lites later on.
I'm betting you'll still be able to surgerize it and throw in like a 600GB hd later if you want.
What about us Directv people? We need HD Tivo!!! I'm stuck with 3 plain old regular tivo's that record everything I'd ever want, but just not in HD.
I know there is a directv hd box, but tivo doesnt upgrade it anymore, nor does it have all the cool network features like the regular one does. Make one for satellite
So hit ebay and buy a HR10-250. Boom: HD DirecTivo.
How about TiVo bringing back lifetime subscriptions?
That'd be the _ONE_ thing holding me back from getting a S3 lite.
My friend showed me his TIVO. Inside I was laughing. I rent my dual HD tuner box for less a month than he pays TIVO for the monthly subscription and his single tuner (can't easily access premium content) box. And if anything happens to my box? I go swap it. Yeah, I don't have the nice interface and other (bla bla bla) stuff of the TIVO but that stuff just isn't worth the cost.
And thise new box of theirs will still require you to rent 2 cable cards from your provider.
If TIVO wants my business, either charge a reasonable price upfront (no monthly subscription fee) or rent me the box monthly for the same as my cable company does.
Last time I checked, TIVO lifetimes were a joke. Many people got duped. The lifetime was attached to a specific hardware serial number. If it broke, you upgraded, etc, you lost your subscription. That's a joke. I remember a zdnet review once were the reviewer called it 'a slap in the face'. By the end of that day, that comment was removed from the review. I wonder who TIVO called to get that comment removed.
Let's face it. TIVO is a company that either needs to wake up or just hurry up and DIE.
My Series 2 TiVo is one of the few items I own which works as it should. It's not as high maintenance as a computer, doesn't require batteries or cleaning or filters. I love it and would pay anything for it, if Canadian cable companies would support CableCard, or M-Card or whatever. I am a bit disappointed this model doesn't come with the TiVo Glo remote that the Series3 comes with, 'cause I have one and it's sweet.
You can always buy the Glo remote separately - and I agree, it is a MUCH nicer remote. If I bought one of these new Lite boxes I'd probably pick the Glo remote up too. Still not a bad deal.
I finally posted the stuff I captured on July 4th: http://www.tivolovers.com/2007/07/18/july-4th-series-3-lite-leak-images/