[Mars]

I've seen people posting about S3's and now about TiVo HD. Did I fall asleep while a new model was released??

 

[atmuscarella]

Did I fall asleep while a new model was released??

I think so - check out the Series 3 forum or just go to tivo.com.

Thanks,

 

[Dan203]

The biggest difference is it costs nearly 1/3 the price. However they made some compromises to get there. It no longer has the OLED display on the front, it has no front panel controls, it is no longer THX certified and it no longer comes with the nice "Glo remote". However on the other hand it has some advantages as well. The biggest one being that in contains hardware which could possibly, one day, be used for realtime HD to SD transcoding. If implemented properly this could make it possible to transfer HD programs from the unit to a regular old S2 unit. Although at the moment that's all just speculation.

Dan

 

[jrm01]

Did I fall asleep while a new model was released??

Good morning.

Check out the new model here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=359947

 

[Jstkiddn]

I've seen people posting about S3's and now about TiVo HD. Did I fall asleep while a new model was released??

I'm glad you asked this question! I've been trying to figure out the $500 difference for a couple of days now and all I can really find is that the HD has a smaller hard drive, no backlit remote and no buttons on the front....but there HAS to be more than that to make up the price difference.

For $299, I would be tempted to finally make the jump to HD. It would be nice to take advantage of my hdtv after all these years. But now I'm all confused on the pricing structure. I wish TiVo wouldn't make this so hard.

I currently have 2 S2's and I'm paying $6.95/mo. per unit (retention plan I was offered a long time ago when I was going to cancel to try out our cable companies unit). For the life of me I can't figure out what is going to happen if I replace one of the S2's with a TiVoHD. I feel like I'm back in high school and having to study for a test.

 

[Wizard66]

Your pricing plan should not be tied to your particular S2 boxes. If you want to replace one of them with the new Tivo HD all you have to do is go to "Manage My Account" at Tivo's site and select "Change Service Number" on one of the Tivos to the service number printed on the Tivo HD box. Then just run the guided setup on the Tivo HD and skip the activation part since you already have an account with Tivo.

 

[Jstkiddn]

Your pricing plan should not be tied to your particular S2 boxes. If you want to replace one of them with the new Tivo HD all you have to do is go to "Manage My Account" at Tivo's site and select "Change Service Number" on one of the Tivos to the service number printed on the Tivo HD box. Then just run the guided setup on the Tivo HD and skip the activation part since you already have an account with Tivo.

Really?!?! It's that easy?

 

[atmuscarella]

Really?!?! It's that easy?

Maybe, maybe not, because you were given a special retention pricing plan changing service numbers might tricker a price increase. If you are replacing one of your existing TiVos I would replace the one that had MSD before they reduced the second one. I would expect that if you replaced one TiVo and canceled service on the other that they would increase the remaining TiVos costs to at least $12.95/mo.

Let us know what happens if you do it.

Good Luck,

 

[Jstkiddn]

Maybe, maybe not, because you were given a special retention pricing plan changing service numbers might tricker a price increase. If you are replacing one of your existing TiVos I would replace the one that had MSD before they reduced the second one. I would expect that if you replaced one TiVo and canceled service on the other that they would increase the remaining TiVos costs to at least $12.95/mo.

Let us know what happens if you do it.

Good Luck,

But you don't think it would be any worse than one unit going up to $12.95....leaving one at $6.95?

 

[MickeS]

It's actually just a $300 price difference, unless you buy it from TiVo.com

 

[atmuscarella]

But you don't think it would be any worse than one unit going up to $12.95....leaving one at $6.95?

I don't think so because that's what I would expect you to be paying if they canceled the special retention offer.

Good Luck,

 

[Jstkiddn]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm pretty sure this is the last question.......if I were to do this today, then what happens to the stuff already on the original s2 that will be replaced? I should be able to still hook it up temporarily and watch things that are already recorded on the unit, right? I'm specifically interested in an Amazon Unbox movie I just downloaded earlier today. Even though it was 99 cents, I'd hate to just throw it out.

I'm excited!! I'm seriously thinking about running up to the cable comp. and picking up a couple of cable cards before they close their office (I've already called and they said that would be fine.....they are $1.99/month each in case anyone is interested, plus I get to drop the $6.95/month cable box. HD tier is only $5) and then driving the hour to Little Rock to pick up a TivoHD at Circuit City.

And to the OP: sorry about hijacking the thread!

 

[alansplace]

It's actually just a $300 price difference, unless you buy it from TiVo.com

isn't that a $500 difference?

$ 799.00
$-299.00
-----------
$ 500.00

--
Alan

 

[aadam101]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm pretty sure this is the last question.......if I were to do this today, then what happens to the stuff already on the original s2 that will be replaced? I should be able to still hook it up temporarily and watch things that are already recorded on the unit, right? I'm specifically interested in an Amazon Unbox movie I just downloaded earlier today. Even though it was 99 cents, I'd hate to just throw it out.

I'm excited!! I'm seriously thinking about running up to the cable comp. and picking up a couple of cable cards before they close their office (I've already called and they said that would be fine.....they are $1.99/month each in case anyone is interested, plus I get to drop the $6.95/month cable box. HD tier is only $5) and then driving the hour to Little Rock to pick up a TivoHD at Circuit City.

And to the OP: sorry about hijacking the thread!

yes you would still be able to view programs that were already recorded. you just can't record

 

[DeathRider]

isn't that a $500 difference?

$ 799.00
$-299.00
-----------
$ 500.00

--
Alan

Tivocommunity store, $579.99 - $299.00 = $280.99 difference. (Pretty sure you were joking

I kinda grown attached to the OLED display and seeing what is being recorded. I still have never used the buttons on the S3 (doubt I will ever lose the remote). I do like the Glo mote, but use the S2 remote interchangeably (have S3 as unit 1 nad S2 as Unit 2 on both remotes).

I still don't have a THX setup, so for me is unused.

Bigger HD is nice to have, but guessing you could just install a bigger one. If you can/are just going to be installing a bigger one anyway, saving money getting a smaller one initially is a nice benefit.

 

[mattack]

Did I fall asleep while a new model was released??

Rip, you heard there was a US Revolution too, right?

 

[jtreid]

I kinda grown attached to the OLED display and seeing what is being recorded. I still have never used the buttons on the S3 (doubt I will ever lose the remote). I do like the Glo mote, but use the S2 remote interchangeably (have S3 as unit 1 nad S2 as Unit 2 on both remotes).

Upgrade to 1TB using esata and the S2 is obsolete. The S3 could be a black box since it is behind closed doors and I have the IR-2-RF system (via Next Generation or via Weeknees at http://www.weaknees.com/rf-remote-details.php). Buy a one-for-all learning remote and the tivo remote becomes useless.

 

[MickeS]

Upgrade to 1TB using esata and the S2 is obsolete. The S3 could be a black box since it is behind closed doors and I have the IR-2-RF system (via Next Generation or via Weeknees at http://www.weaknees.com/rf-remote-details.php). Buy a one-for-all learning remote and the tivo remote becomes useless.

I have an RF remote too, and the TiVo in a cabinet. The external features and the remote are useless to me. But it's nice to know it can be out in the open if it needs to.

 

[jtreid]

I have an RF remote too, and the TiVo in a cabinet. The external features and the remote are useless to me. But it's nice to know it can be out in the open if it needs to.

It just depends on your needs. We don't all have the same.

 

[bkdtv]

Repost...

TivoHD Features Overview @ Tivo.com (same as Tivo Series3)

Official TivoHD Specifications (TCD652160)

• Broadcom BCM7401 DVR CPU w/ integrated MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoders
• 256MB DDR400 SDRAM (4x NANYA NT5DS32M16BS-5U)
• 160GB Western Digital WD1600AVBS SATA hard drive
• 2x ATI Theater 314 QAM/VSB demodulators (for tuners)
• 2x Philips/NXT SAA7138CHL ADCs
• 1x VIXS XCode 2115 IC w/ dedicated 32MB DDR400 SDRAM (2x NANYA NT5DS8M16FS-5T)
  • CableCard interface
  • [email protected] encoders
• Silicon Image SiI5723 Dual SATA controller
• Xilinx Spartan-3 XC3S200 FPGA
• 10/100Mbps Ethernet
• Standard Tivo remote
• $299 MSRP

TivoHD Advantages

• MSRP is $500 less ($299 vs $799) thanks to newer, more integrated components
• TivoHD has ~7% faster CPU (450 MIPS vs 420 MIPS)
• TivoHD has twice the usable system memory (256MB vs 128MB)
• Supports MCARDs out of the box.
• Consumes less power.

TivoHD Disadvantages

• TTG and MRV throughput is less than Tivo Series3 (as of 9.2 software).
• The "plug and play" eSATA drive expansion only works with "Tivo Verified" eSATA drives, while the Tivo Series3 works with any eSATA drive.
• Smaller hard drive (160GB vs 250GB).
• No THX certification.
• No piano black enclosure with OLED display.
• No slick, learning remote (sold separately for $50).
• No bundled HDMI cable.
• Drivers for new components potentially less mature / optimized.
• Ships with older 8.1.x branch of Tivo software, which doesn't have all the performance improvements of the 8.3.x branch on the Tivo Series3.
• Potentially slower disk I/O, which may hurt responsiveness.
  The Broadcom BCM7401 in the TivoHD has a single 1.5Gbps SATA channel that is "split" for the internal SATA and eSATA connections using the Silicon Image SiI5723. In contrast, the BCM7038 in the Series3 had a dual-channel SATA controller, so no "splitting" was required. This may negatively impact disk I/O when both internal and eSATA drives are used, and Tivo responsiveness is highly dependent on disk I/O. The SiI5723 does support several RAID modes that could potentially improve random I/O.