Update 03/31: As somebody pointed out in the comments for this post, Amazon.com has since removed these DVRs from their website. It sure does look like TiVo doesn’t want the public to know about these new DVRs just yet….

Here’s what I’ve been able to come up with on the new dual tuner TiVo. Until TiVo announces something this is all just speculation.

• Amazon.com says that the unit will be available starting: May 15, 2006.
  Now the site has “date first available as”: March 29, 2006. I don’t know what to think…

• This post on TiVo Community has a supposed picture of the new DVR (shown above). The picture hasn’t been confirmed however, the individual who posted it said that he got it “through TiVo’s distribution chain”.
• It appears as though there is going to be a 180 hr (TCD649180) and 80 hr (TCD649080) version available.

Does anybody else have any more information that they would like to share? This is all I’ve come up with thus far.

Disclaimer: Just so you know, all of the links above use my Amazon associate account…

Dave Zatz (digg link) is the first to report that TiVo is offering a new 180 hour Series 2 TiVo (TCD649180) with built-in ethernet and dual-tuners! A number of sites including Amazon(associate link) & Buy.com allow you to pre-order the device. I haven’t found information anywhere which states when the DVR will start shipping.

Amazon.com lists the following specs:

• Does not support recording from two digital cable or satellite channels at once
• Record shows from two basic cable channels, or one basic cable and one digital cable channel, at once.
• Up to 180 hours recording capacity
• Includes Ethernet and USB ports, so connecting to your home network is a snap
• Only TiVo offers exclusive features like WishList searches, Season Pass recordings, TiVoToGo transfers, plus new online services like music, photos, and more!

This is truly a dream come true for all you TiVo users who would like a TiVo with dual-tuners. I definetly didn’t expect TiVo to offer an updated version of the Series 2 TiVo. Just two days ago I put up a post saying that TiVo should release a lightweight version of the Series 3 TiVo for those users who don’t need all the features that the Series 3 TiVo will provide. Apparently this update is exactly what I was asking for….

I’m not sure that I am going to buy one because I am waiting for the Series 3 TiVo. If however, you want dual-tuners and don’t care about HD support then I would recommend going with this DVR. Amazon(associate link) & Buy.com are currently taking pre-orders for around $331.55.

Update (4:49PM): Amazon also has an 80 hour dual tuner available for $236.55 (spotted on ZatzNotFunny).

Stay tuned to this site for more news and information on the new dual-tuner TiVo. As soon as I hear more I will let everybody know…

If you follow this site then you probably already know that TiVo is supposed to release an updated version of their DVR known as the Series 3 TiVo. Pricing and official details on the features have not been released however, based on some pictures that we saw from CES, it looks as though the Series 3 TiVo is a dream come for all you tech geeks. The device is supposed to have dual tuners, the ability to record HD, CableCARD 1.0 & 2.0 support, external storage, built-in Ethernet…. The list goes on and on. As you can see from some of these specs, the Series 3 TiVo is going to be loaded with everything you will need.

With that being said, should TiVo consider making a lightweight version of the Series 3 TiVo for those users who don’t need all of these features? Let’s face it; my Mother doesn’t care about built-in Ethernet or CableCARD 1.0 & 2.0 support. All my Mom would like to be able to do is record two shows at once. Also, with all these wonderful capabilities, what do you think the price tag is going to be? Some people including myself have estimated that the price will be $500 or upwards! Do you really think that my Mom who simply has a Series 2 TiVo that I gave her will be willing to pay $500+ for a Series 3 TiVo that has more functionality then she needs?

Do get me wrong, I’m extremely excited about the Series 3 TiVo and when it is released I will be one of the first to buy one. I’ve already started to save up for it :). All I’m trying to say is that it might be smart for TiVo to develop a lightweight version of the Series 3 TiVo that doesn’t include all of the features. Two versions would allow TiVo to target a much broader audience. What are your thoughts? Do you see a market for two version of the Series 3 TiVo?

More then likely TiVo has already considered this. Let’s face it, they know a lot more about the DVR market then I do. I’m simply just another geek who is addicted to his TiVo.

It looks like TiVo has extended their lifetime subscription option beyond the previously reported on date of 03/16. Here’s a post on TiVoCommunity which announced the extension:

We know that there have been retail advertisements which refer to product lifetime, and there have been requests here for a longer opportunity to purchase lifetime before it’s discontinued. As a result, we have decided to offer product lifetime as a subscription option through 4/15/06, even for those that have purchased since 3/15 (you do have to call to activate lifetime service though, and lifetime is not applicable for systems purchased via a bundle plan).

Thanks TiVo for the extension!

Hat Tip: Mike Sayre (fatwallet.com)

I recently purchased and installed a TiVo branded wireless adapter (review here). Like the super geek that I am, I wanted to know how well this adapter compared to my previous wired setup. I hope that this post will help you decide whether or not you should go with wireless as opposed to a wired setup. For me personally, I decided to switch to wireless simply because I didn’t want to run CAT5 to my living room (call me lazy).

In order to perform this comparison, I transferred a 1/2 hour show (773 MB) to my computer using my wired adapter (Linksys USB200M). The transfer took from: 7:55AM - 8:34AM (~39 minutes). Once the transfer was complete, I powered down my TiVo and installed the new adapter. I also restarted my computer after I deleted the transfered show. Once the new adapter was installed, I performed the same transfer using my new wireless adapter. The wireless transfer took from: 9:00AM - 9:47AM (~47 minutes). As you can seem from these results, the wireless adapter took ~8 minutes longer than the wired adapter.

Unfortunately, since I don’t have another wireless adapter I was not able to see how well the TiVo branded adapter performs compared to another wireless adapter. In any case, comparing a wired adapter to a wireless adapter is really kind of useless other than the fact that it shows you whether or not a wireless setup is ideal for your situation. For my situation, I am willing to sacrifice 8 minutes. Normally I setup a transfer using TiVoToGo and then walk away from my computer. When I come back later in the day my transfer is complete. So for me, it doesn’t matter if the transfer took 8 minutes more.

Here’s a summary of what I’ve concluded based on this unscientific test: Go wireless if:

• You’re not concerned about your transfers taking a couple extra minutes
• Running a cable is difficult or you’re just lazy
• You already have an 802.11g network. I tried 802.11b before but I was unhappy with the performance.

Go wired if:

• You transfer a lot of shows from you TiVo and every minute counts
• You tend to watch your shows while they are being transferred. I didn’t test to see if I could watch the show while it was being transferred however, a wired connection would obviously perform better under this circumstance.

This past weekend, I finally got the chance to install my new TiVo branded wireless adapter. Prior to installing this adapter, I had my TiVo connected to my network via a Linksys USB200M adapter. The Linksys adapter has worked fine however, I recently moved my TiVo into the living room and I’ve been too lazy to run a new network run. Also, I’m going to be moving soon and I don’t think that I am going to run wire in the new house. I use to have a 802.11b wireless adapter for my TiVo however, when TiVoToGo was about to be released I upgraded to a wired connection.

Upon taking the new adapter out of the box, I was extremely surprised with how small and sleek it is. As you can see from the picture below, the adapter is smaller and thinner them my iPod Nano with a silicon case. Since it’s so small, you really don’t notice it even if it sits directly on top of your TV.

Installation was a snap. All I had to do was plug the new adapter into my TiVo and everything just worked. In my opinion, the biggest drawback with using a wireless adapter is that TiVo does not currently support WPA encryption (there are ways to do this however; I didn’t want to bother with a bridge). Because of this, I had to downgrade my wireless security to WEP (128 bit). Come on TiVo lets fix this.

Other than the WPA issue, I am extremely happy with my new wireless adapter. Transferring shows from my TiVo to my PC was speedy (more to come on this later). Also, to my surprise I didn’t have any noticeable speed issues when I tried to play my mp3s and view my photos. In the past when I had an 802.11b adapter installed I remember thinking that it was a little slow whenever I tried to perform these operations. TiVoToComeback was also fast. I tried transferring an episode of The Office back to my TiVo. I was surprised that I was able to watch the show while it was being transferred without any pauses or delays. In fact, I was even able to fast forward through some of the commercials.

I would definitely recommend this adapter to anybody who is thinking about connecting their TiVo to a wireless network. The adapter costs a little more than other wireless adapters however, it’s nice to be able to plug it in and have your wireless connection work right away. Since the adapter is “TiVo certified”, you don’t have to worry if you purchased the right version or anything like that.

In the near future, I plan on putting together a post which will compare the TiVo wireless adapter to my old Linksys wired adapter. Check back if you are interested in reading this comparison.

The other day I received the following question via email:

Will the tivo series 3 box work with pay per view and video on demand or will I need the cable company’s box and the tivo box? Comcast is my provider. THANKS!

Just so I don’t provide misinformation, I thought it would be a good idea for me to post my response on this site. If I say anything that is not correct, please set me straight.

The answer to this question depends on the status of CableCARD 2.0 when the Series 3 TiVo is released. Based on the pictures from CES, it looks as though the Series 3 TiVo will support both CableCARD 1.0 and 2.0. CableCARD 1.0 supports only one-way communication.  CableCARD 2.0 will support two-way communication however, as far as I know the standard for 2.0 is still being developed. So, I guess my answer to this question is yes and no. A Series 3 TiVo will not require a cable box for pay per view and vod content however, I’m not sure that CableCARD 2.0 will be available when the Series 3 TiVo is released.

For more CableCARD information, you might want to check out this write up.

Thursday at around 5PM EST I had the opportunity to talk with the one of the creators of CozmoTV.com, Alex Rowland. Alex and I had a wonderful 50 minute conversation in which we covered a number of topics. Most of the time we talked about Alex’s new web application known as CozmoTV. Alex and his business partner, Jason Solinski, have gone ahead and created an amazing web application that allows you to manage your TV watching experience. CozmoTV is still in beta so there are a number of features and improvements that Alex would like to make. The current version of the site has only been available to the general public for about one and half weeks. In this short amount of time, Alex & Jason have received a lot of praise from both their users and the blogging community.

Currently, Cozmo is really kind of basic. Upon creating an account you will be asked for some simple information including the types of programming that you are interested, your zip code (so that it can figure out your cable provider) and your TiVo login information. Once your account is active (which literally takes 20 seconds), you will be presented with a wonderful looking web app which allows you to search, tag (this is sweet), rate, recommend and browse TV shows that are available via your cable or satellite provider.

The current version of CozmoTV is really cool however; I don’t consider it a replacement for TiVo Central Online (TCO) or Yahoo TV. This may change when version 2.0 of Cozmo is released. Alex and his buddy Jason have some wonderful near-term plans for the future of CozmoTV. In the near-term (before the end of the year), CozmoTV users will be able to record internet video content directly to their TiVo with a couple of mouse clicks. Alex and I both agree that the current method for getting internet video content onto a TiVo or MCE box is extremely difficult if not impossible. The average user doesn’t want to go through the hassle of downloading content and then converting it into the proper format so that their DVR can display the video. CozmoTV hopes to eliminate this problem by allowing the user to push content to their DVR with a couple clicks of the mouse. Version 2.0, is supposed to provide this capability. Along with this capability, CozmoTV 2.0 will also provide a number of other Web 2.0ish features including the ability to share which shows you’ve recorded and the ability to add channels of people who may have similar interests to you.

For anybody who would like to try out CozmoTV, you can head on over to their website and sign up now. As I said before, the sign up is extremely quick. Also, if you want to keep up to date on CozmoTV news, you might want to visit their blog.

Thanks Alex for taking the time out of your busy day to talk with me. CozmoTV is really a wonderful application! I look forward to CozmoTV 2.0 and the new features that you will provide.

Dave Zatz was lucky enough to take part in a recent road show in the DC area. The purpose of the show was to talk about TiVo’s new KidZone feature and make some announcements. Dave has done a wonderful job covering the show. His coverage is broken down into three posts which talk about the people involved, the product and his opinion on KidZone.

Nice job Dave! You lucky bastard :).

UPS dropped off my TiVo branded wireless adapter yesterday.  When I ordered it the item was on backorder however, it only took 10 days to get it!  I plan on writing a review in the next couple of days.  Stay tuned…