You Got Your S3 - Are You Completely "Sat & Cable" Free?

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Yeah, between the networks and Netflix we have plenty of TV watching. I think my wife would categorize TV as "unimportant" while I would say "moderately important." We're certainly not as harcore as several TC members -- we didn't have 3-way conflicts or more than 11 SP's between the two of us. In competitve timeslots it's painless to kick shows to the curb.

We already made the decision that we could wait for the HBO/FX/etc shows to come out on DVD (although I'm already getting the shakes about missing BSG). For ESPN/sports I'll use my savings from dropping D* to go to sports bars or buddies' houses.

I guess the question boils down to "Is the ability to Timeshift and set up Season Passes worth $30.55 a month?" At least with the current set up we can still pause and play the "catch up to live" game. I almost wish TiVo would come out with an S3 "lite" for OTA-only, no need for cablecards and a cheaper service plan since you only need guide data for a tiny fraction of the channels.

 

Have the stations considered broadcasting the digital signals from a facility with electric power?

 

This is a great thread, gives me hope to drop a bad habit (D*).

I guess living in Colorado Springs is a block away from the tower then, because I now get HD for ABC, CBS, NBC & FOX via OTA.

I like the idea of keeping the HR10 for dual live buffers. I had thought of selling it off before mpg4 takes over and it becomes worthless. Selling the HR10 could also offset the cost of the S3.

BTW, I love the S3-lite idea. Dump the cableCards and lower the price. Let's sell Tivo on the idea before I buy an S3.

 

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If we do get the S3, we will definitely sell our HR10-250 to offset some of the cost. Looks like they are going for between $150-$300 on eBay.

Having the dual live buffers is nice. For the month before I plugged the box back in, I can't count how many times I wanted to pause live TV. Still, cash is better.

It's weird because I was willing to plunk down so much $$$ for the HR10-250 but now I'm hesitating on the S3. I guess we're really hung up on the service charge for 5 free channels. Let's start the S3-lite campaign tomorrow!

 

The stations can't put the new facilities where the existing towers are, so their hands are somewhat tied.

 

Somebody here MUST know the answer to this: how long does it take for program descriptions to show up for a new HD station?

When I called Tivo c.s., they said it's a day or two...but not so if they're based on zap2it listings.
Our PBS HD station just started b'casting last week, but it's not shown. Older ones in our state are.

Anyone know what the wait time is typically?

 

S3 lite would be perfect. I'll take 2, please.

Pony? Can't you build a few special edition boxes for us?

 

S3-lite with s-Video inputs, like the S2 standalone would be perfect for me.

RF in for ATSC/NTSC dual tuners + Composite, S-Video, L/R audio + TOS input

Skip CableCards, Skip Sat

Priced at or below $499 with a 3 yr prepay option for service

 

They had a prototype OTA only TiVo, but nobody (in the CE business) was interested. Since cable is a large part of TiVo's subscriber base, it only makes sense to make cable compatible, and that means cablecards.

My vision of an S3 lite would be a single source digital tuner only, or a single tuner DVR.

 

LOL I want a box with only the digital cable QAM tuners (sort of like my old Motorola 3412, only better). Maybe Tivo could design a box that had "a la carte" tuner slots so you wouldn't have to pay for unused options. I wonder how much of the cost of building the S3 is directly related to the 3 different types of tuners it has.

I've always thought that cable was the way to go. Signal propagation over unflat terrain and through/around buildings is just too random for my liking (especially ince I live in a valley). Fibre/Coax/QAM is far superior. Now if they could only make it free haha

 

Add a couple more you 'need', 'want' or 'wouldnt mind having' and you're in the realm where a la carte will start costing MORE!

 

I'm only basic cable and OTA.

It's only been a day but for me the TiVo tuner seems much better than my TV's.

 

My kid (about to turn 5) has been growing fond of the shows offered on PBS and chooses them over the Noggin/Disney shows.

-Roll

 

My brother uses a Sony box that does dual tuner HD OTA. It gets the guide data OTA as well. He loves it. Dual HD with no fees. Not sure why more stand alone, no monthly fee boxes are available.

 

I just received the S3. For the moment, I am using it antenna-only, while I still have a 10-250 that I'm using for satellite. I'm waiting to see how the tuners compare (the S3 signal certainly seems stronger), but my expectation is that I'll use the S3 for OTA and the 10-250 for satellite, with the possibility of selling the 10-250 and going to S3+cable at some time in the future.

 

I'm currently using my S3 for OTA for HD programming and cable for SD. I was going to upgrade my cable service to HD, since I wasn't able to receive any OTA signals. That is, until I found the perfect angle to set my antenna and now I get ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, PBS, MHZ and all their sub-channels. My signal strength is roughly 60-70% with a signal amplifier, but I still get stable picture and sound 99% of the time.

This works a whole lot better than my HTPC setup (WinMCE with an ATI HDTV Wonder), which couldn't get a stable HD picture longer than an hour or two no matter what I tried.

 

Are you sure it's dual tuner? If so, what's the model #?

There was one (no I don't know the model # of this one either!) Sony HD recorder that's already been discontinued that people talk about, but it is single tuner.