Should I Buy a S3 now, latter, never?

[atmuscarella]

Hello All,

My current setup/situation is:


27 in SD TV - no plans to upgrade to HDTV any time soon
Live in a 'Cable Free" zone use OTA and Satellite
Currently watch/TiVo mostly shows from OTA networks
Having problems with OTA analog reception
Based on neighbors reception believe I will get decent digital OTA reception
One of my TiVo's has lifetime


So what would you do?

Thanks,

[HDTiVo]

The only circumstance I would consider buying an S3 is with the Lifetime transfer.

Order the S3, see what you get and keep it or send it back.

Simple.

[MikeMar]

If you are not going to transfer over a lifetime AND do not have a HD TV, no reason to get the S3, wait for the prices to go down

[HiDefGator]

Even after prices go down if you live in a cable free area you need either Dish or DTV, both are incompatible with the S3. No matter how inexpensive it gets it isn't the right solutioin for you.

PS. OTA has just been enabled on the HR20. So you should consider it in addition to the Dish dvr.

[Shawn95GT]

My mother is in a similar situation. No cable, no satellite and doesn't want it (or at least doesn't want to pay for it).

I gave her a lifetimed S2 which is doing off-air right now.

Her S3 arrived yesterday ;).

If you are off-air only the S3's two tuners as well as ATSC will make for a HUGE improvement in your viewing experience, even on a SD set.

A cheaper option than the S3 would be to find a compatible ATSC tuner to add-on to your S2 and tell it that it's a dish box to get your local line-up. It isn't perfect and you likely won't get as many channels in your lineup, but it got me by until the S3 came to market. I used my old Voom receivers.

Personally the S3 is worth it for me - even it just for off-air. 90% of what I record is from the big nets and the dual tuner resolves all but the few three-way conflicts.

[mkempa]

I'd rather own a dead Tivo S3 than than a working Motorola DVR. :)

[Stanley Rohner]

I'd rather own a dead Tivo S3 than than a working Motorola DVR. :)

That makes a lot of sense.
:rolleyes:

At least a dead Motorola DVR is replaced for free, and you didn't have to pay $800 for it. :p