[dlamet]

I'm looking at purchasing my first TiVo. Does anyone have any complaint (besides hard drive) with the $299 model? Any trouble with an analog antenna? Sorry you ditched the front LED?

 

[jmpage2]

Are you only planning on using antenna? Scientific Atlantic cable card users are still experiencing a problem where there can be severe pixelation of the video every few minutes. Tivo says they have a fix and are 'soaking it' for several weeks before release.

Another update fixed this issue for most Motorola cable card users including myself.

Other issues would be that because Tivo HD is currently on software branch 8.1 several improvements/enhancements in the S3 are not currently available, so for example in the Tivo HD menus, etc, are pretty slow.

Since Tivo fixed the pixelation problem with my HD I've been quite happy with it. I upgraded my HD to 500GB with no trouble at all.

 

[jfh3]

I'm looking at purchasing my first TiVo. Does anyone have any complaint (besides hard drive) with the $299 model? Any trouble with an analog antenna? Sorry you ditched the front LED?

In addition to the above comments:

Analog and digital antenna reception seems fine, though I'm in an area with limited digital signals.

I liked the idea of the OLED on the Series 3, but I can't really read it from across the room so I don't use it as much as I thought (and don't miss it or the front panel controls on the Tivo HD box at all).

I also wouldn't worry about the hard drive - it is very easy to upgrade yourself if you are the least bit comfortable with opening the case (which will void the warranty) and replacing the drive.

Analog picture quality is better than the Series 2 units, so I'd go with the THD over a Series 2 box, if you don't have an issue with the price difference.

 

[Dr_Diablo]

I'm looking at purchasing my first TiVo. Does anyone have any complaint (besides hard drive) with the $299 model? Any trouble with an analog antenna? Sorry you ditched the front LED?

Price difference was the main reason... Yet they are both as close to the same as one can get, cept for the external drive storage on the Tivo HD... It took Tivo about 8 months to enable the SATA port for the Series 3 unit... With any luck it won't tale that long for the Tivo HD...

The pixelation was bout the same on both...

I do like the LED readout on the Series 3, indicating what is being recorded, nice feature the Tivo HD lacks

 

[holligl]

Mine is working great with M card and OTA antenna. If they optioned a 500Gb version for say $399, I wonder what the split would be? HD size doesn't really matter so much to us until you go on vacation.

 

[oldnacl]

I had an S3, returned it over Comcast charges for the CCs. Bought a TiVo HD yesterday, connected to basic cable and OTA antenna. PQ seems as good on HD as I remember on the S3 while SD looks better than the TiVo Series 2 DT that I was using in the interim. If I can't get the CC charges reconciled with Comcast, I'll most likely keep the TiVoHD and just use it as I have it connected now. The better PQ over my Series 2 will be worth the money, IMHO. I miss none of the S3 features that I recall, and my memory is better than Gonzo's.

 

[dlamet]

May I ask how much they charged you for the CableCARD? I'm waiting for Verizon to release their FiOS TV and I expect to have to pay them for cards, but have no idea how much they'll be.

 

[bhaas]

Fios is charging $2.95 per card in MD. No multistream cards up here yet.

 

[markp99]

The OLED display, while pretty, it is nearly unreadable from ~16ft away from my couch. I CAN read the clock from the couch, which is useful, but I could just spring for a cheap digital clock to place somewhere within my AV cabinet...