S3 vs HR10-250 experience comparison?

[oldskoolboarder]

Trying to see if anyone has compared the two as an actual user. I have a modded HR10 but the lifetime transfer is appealing.

I have Comcast and understand that the much of the delta is content. I don't need any of the sports packages so that doesn't tie me to D*.

The best pro I can come up w/ is that the S3 will support new s/w features, such as networking and ESATA.

Any reason not to leave D* if I'm OK w/ my local Comcast content?

[BrianCT]

I had the HR10-250, no reason to leave D* other then the HDLite (worst HD picture on the market). ;) I am happy I left D* for cable, the picutre quality has never been better.

[TiVolunteer]

Trying to see if anyone has compared the two as an actual user. I have a modded HR10 but the lifetime transfer is appealing.

I have Comcast and understand that the much of the delta is content. I don't need any of the sports packages so that doesn't tie me to D*.

The best pro I can come up w/ is that the S3 will support new s/w features, such as networking and ESATA.

Any reason not to leave D* if I'm OK w/ my local Comcast content?

I'm running 2 HR10-250's side by side with 3 Series 3's. I love the Series 3's. Besides the networking support, the menus are cleaner (in 720p) and the S3 supports Native mode. If you are OK with your Comcast content, you should be just fine. However, you might want to verify that Comcast is allowing CableCard customers access to the digital versions of their Basic/Standard Tier. I made the mistake of believing Time Warner's website and right now I'm having to do battle with them (see this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=332252)). Right now they are mapping the cablecards to the analog channels instead of the digital simulcast.

[yunlin12]

S3 pros: better HD on cable than the DTV HDLite, limited HME for photos and music. Yahoo and other internet on your Tivo.

HDTivo pros: better categories for wishlist searches.

BTW, are bay area HD locals in MPEG2 or MPEG4 on DTV?

[aaronwt]

The S3 OTA tuner is better than the HDTiVo. At least mine are. I like the S3 better. I wish my Comcast had an all digital tier but mine still has only analog for the majority of channels.
I will be running DirecTV concurrently with Comcast for a while so that I can get HDNet, HDNEt movies, and TNT HD which Comcast doesn't have here locally et. But since I got an excellent deal from Comcast for 12 months my totla monthly bill should be close to what it was before after I drop the Premium channels, protection plan and 3 TiVos from DirecTV.

[oldskoolboarder]

Do you need the digital channels at all if you're using an S3? I plan to replace my SAT T60 with an S2 dual tuner, so I'm sure why I can't just use standard cable, especially if I don't use the ON DEMAND features either.

[btwyx]

Do you need the digital channels at all if you're using an S3? You do if you want one of the best features of the DirecTiVos, direct digital recording. The digital signal sent to you is what's recorded, and its played back exactly. There's no loss compressing the signal, and no messing with recording quality.

I had an HR10, I've now got an S3. I hardly used the HR10 after I got the S3 and I've decommissioned it now. The HR10 with the 6.3 software and the S3 are pretty similar. As noted, the HR10 wins for better wishlist categories, the S3 wins for the OTA tuner. Its much (much, much, much) better. Its cured the reception problems I had. The network connection is nice, you can do online scheduling (but TCO is very lame, and Yahoo TV doesn't work.) There are other network aps you can use.

My problems with the S3 are all with the cable company. I used to think D* was bad till I had to talk to Comcast, and for me Comcast's SD channels are worse that D*'s for me at least. (I get all digital from Comcast.)

I'm happy with the switch, the main reason I switched was the future of HD with TiVo at D*, currently things are pretty much equal, until MPEG-2 HD starts going away. The improved OTA helps a lot with the S3.

[btwyx]

BTW, are bay area HD locals in MPEG2 or MPEG4 on DTV?They're MPEG-4, so not available on a TiVo.

[BruceShultes]

Assuming you can install an antenna, just use that for your major networks.

I get much better quality pictures that way than the ones that come from either DirecTV or my local cable company.

I agree that the OTA tuner is better in the S3. In my case the only difference is that the S3 can receive one additional channel, which is a duplicate of one of my local networks.

[Adam1115]

- Series3 is MUCH faster, even compared to 6.3.
- Menus and guide look MUCH more polished.
- HMO, HME, podcasting is nice.
- HDTV folder group is nice.
- They should be adding recently deleted, kidzone, and tivocasting which is nice.
- Looks nicer.
- Nicer Remote.
- Built in ethernet.
- No Phone line needed.

Only things missing compared to the HR10-
- No dual hard drive support (there just isn't room).
- Analog cable looks worse than DirecTV. Frankly so does digital cable (non HD).
- No PPV without cablecards. (Then, you have to order over the phone.)
- No way to extract video at all.

[jfh3]

I'll agree, except for the non-HD digital looks worse than DirecTV comment.

[aaronwt]

Non HD digital from DirecTV looks like crap here. It is way overcompressed. It didn't used to be that way. I was surprised how much more detail the analog channels have on Comcast here compared with DirecTV. There is a huge differnce here and analog from Comcast easily beats DirecTV. That wasn't the case 5 years ago when I switched from Comcast to DirecTV.

[btwyx]

The quality of SD channels depends on your inividual cable system. On mine analog is total crap, if I were subjected to it, I'd be seeing if Comcast could fix it. Digital SD is only slightly worse than D*'s, which has gone downhill since I switched from cable previously.

[aaronwt]

Even the digital SD from Comcast is worse than DirecTV? I hope when Comcast goes all digital here that the picture qulaity doesn't suffer like that. I guess they need to completely get rid of the analog cable channels to free up the extra bandwidth. The analog channels are bandwidth hogs.

[btwyx]

Even the digital SD from Comcast is worse than DirecTV?It depends on how much Comcast compresses them, just like D*. D* over did it, Comcast has slightly outdome them for some channels. Some channels are not bad, some channels are really bad.I hope when Comcast goes all digital here that the picture qulaity doesn't suffer like that. I guess they need to completely get rid of the analog cable channels to free up the extra bandwidth. The analog channels are bandwidth hogs.One can only hope, but I suspect if people have never complained about the bad compression, they'll think they can get away with it. I should start complaining about the really egregious compression.