My Experience Using the Series 3 in Canada so far

[Dajad]

Here's the link to my rather extensive blog entry on my experiences using the Series 3 in Canada so far:

http://daledietrich.com/imedia/2006/10/15/using-tivo-series-3-in-canada/

My initial conclusion is as follows:

"While not ready for Canadian prime time, I can certainly recommend it for bleeding-edge, tech-savvy, gadget lovers looking for the best HD PVR available - assuming you have lots of extra cash in your pockets, live reasonably close (within 40 miles) of the local HD transmission towers and don’t mind using it in manual mode until programming guide information becomes available for over-the-air (“OTA”) digital programming in Canada!"

Thanks so much to all the TiVoCommunity Members that helped me with my research!!

The attentive amongst you might also have noticed I have totally revamped my iMedia Law Blog. I gave up reinventing the wheel with my proprietary system and integrated WordPress into my site. It's terrific. I've a bit more integration work to do yet and about 20 back posts to add. Once done, I'll start work on converting my video game law blog.

Cheers.

...Dale

[Dajad]

Guess what folks! My TiVo S3 died!!!

Yupp, applied the paddles, yelled clear, did what I could but its dead. TiVo's customer support also confirmed it was dead. So, I gotta get a new one. Thankfully, its under warranty. Unhappily, after discovering I'm in Canada the happy/helpful Tivo support folks in Albuquerque were less happy and no longer helpful. They effectively told me they can't help me and that I had to go back through the etailer I purchased it from - Weaknees.

Happily, Weaknees has been very helpful and are overnighting me a replacement unit. Should be here on Tuesday/Wednesday.

At first they were going to charge me to ship the replacement but after pointing out my blog entry, they wrote back complementing me on my blog post and saying they'd pay the shipping costs for the replacement unit after all. They also linked my blog entry into the bottom of their S3 cable card table on this page (http://www.weaknees.com/cablecard.php). I still have to pay the shipping fee to send the busted one back, but they said I could send it back via the cheapest/slowest boat back.

They charged my credit card for the second unit and then will credit me back when the defective one arrives.

I'll update my blog entry once the whole saga is over.

While TiVo's no shipping to Canada policy bites, it was pretty much exactly what I expected since TiVo doesn't (for some inexplicable reason) ship to Canada in the first place. The Weaknees guys were MUCH more helpful and responsive than I expected - kudos (or in the current vernacular, "props") to them!.

So, I'll be out an S3 for a few days, have to pay the shipping fees back, I've lost the recordings I had before, and I'll have to set it all up again - but no major calamity. The worst part is I have to keep using the Rogers 8300 HD PVR for another week. I had removed it from my stand under the TV and was replacing it with the S3 when all this happened. I had the original Rogers packaging all ready to wrap it up in and was going to return it to Rogers today! Oh well, another week or so before I can have the pleasure of dumping that thing off at the local Rogers depot!

Check my blog entry in a few days if you are interested in the final results.

...Dale

[Dajad]

My warranty replacement S3 arrived yesterday (Thursday). I have updated my post with all the details of the warranty replacement process:

http://daledietrich.com/imedia/2006/10/15/using-tivo-series-3-in-canada/#warranty_replacement

30+ hours in and everything is working perfectly.

I'll update you here if anything changes?

It's so nice to have an S3 again!

...Dale