EngadgetHD has published an interview that they had with Jim Denney (TiVo’s VP of Product Marketing). The interview includes a lot of great information about the TiVo HD as well as other features that TiVo plans to enable. In the interview, Jim talks about how TiVo would like to enable TiVoToGo for the Series 3. According to Jim, TiVo has plans to release TiVoToGo with HD support the only caveat is that the shows will have DRM attached so that you can’t share them illegally.

TiVo is also working to ensure TiVoToGo will not be resolution-restricted, only copy-flag restricted. (Read: TiVoToGo will work for SD and HD content.)

To get more information, you should read EngadgetHD’s interview. It’s definitely worth your time.

Spotted on ZatzNotFunny.

MegaZone has already posted a lengthy review as well as several pictures of the newly released TiVo HD DVR. Instead of trying to summarize what MegaZone has said, I suggest you head on over to his site for the complete review. There’s a lot of information in the review some of which I didn’t know….

Nice job MegaZone (you lucky *##%##$).

TiVo has officially launched the much anticipated lightweight HD DVR that I’ve been blogging about since March of this year. The DVR is pretty much as we expected. In terms of the specifications, the TiVo HD includes two CableCARD slots, an ATSC tuner (so that you can record OTA content), 180 GB HD, HDMI output & an eSATA port. In my opinion, the TiVo HD is essentially a Series 3 with a smaller hard drive and without the features that you really don’t need like a glo remote and a LED front display. The TiVo HD is currently selling for $299.99 on TiVo’s website.

If I didn’t own a Series 3, I would definitely pick this DVR up. $299.99 is a reasonable price for a HD enabled TiVo.

If you decide to purchase a TiVo HD, I would appreciate it if you put me down as your referrer (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo.

Engadget has published a post which states that they have some reliable information about upcoming TiVo hardware as well as some new features. According to Engadget, the lightweight TiVo DVR that I reported on last week may in fact be released as early as this week. Engadget states that the DVR will cost $300 and that it is expected to have the following features: 160 GB HD, two CableCARD tuners and possibly an ATSC tuner.

Along with this news, Engadget is also reporting that TiVo has plans to enable the eSATA on the Series 3 and that Best Buy will be the exclusive provider for external drives.

In case that wasn’t enough TiVo news for you, Engadget is also reporting that TiVoToGo will be enabled on the Series 3 sometime in the near future. There is one caveat however, TiVo plans on enabling TiVoToGo for SD content only :(.

I would be I’m extremely excited if just one of these rumors ends up being valid. I’d love to see TiVoToGo on my Series 3 even if it were only for SD content. I currently use my Series 2 mainly for TiVoToGo. As far as the eSATA rumor is concerned, I’d be delighted if TiVo were to officially enable this feature. You can never have enough storage when recording HD content. The “TiVo HD” sounds like a nice DVR especially since it won’t cost $800. I’ve always thought that $800 was too much for the Series 3 and it prevents a lot of people from buying one.

What do you think about these rumors? Do they seem legit to you?

Update (7/19 @ 11:12PM):  The site is back up and I don’t see any changes.  Sorry if I got you excited ;).

I just noticed that www.tivo.com/rewards is currently down for maintenance. Could this mean that we are going to see new products added to the rewards program or is this just wishful thinking? I’ll be sure to check back tomorrow morning.

Dave Zatz recently sent me a link to a post on TiVoCommunity in which the author (lessd) talks about why you should be cautious about buying a used TiVo. According to lessd, a friend of his (I assume Les is a guys name) purchased a used TiVo at a yard sale only to find out that the TiVo could not be activated since the previous owner owed back service charges. A TiVo CSR is looking into getting the problem resolved but according to lessd, the rep doesn’t know if the situation can in fact be take care of. No matter how this situation turns out, you might want to consider this problem before you go ahead and buy a used TiVo.

Has anybody else encountered this problem?

Spotted on TiVoLovers.

Update: This feature has been out since March ‘07.  I don’t know how I missed it but apparently I did :).

Remember back in March of 2006 when I blogged about a partnership between TiVo and Verizon wireless? Well, TiVo and Verizon have finally launched their new service called TiVo Mobile. According to TiVo’s website, TiVo Mobile offers the following features:

TiVo Mobile, a brand-new application from Verizon Wireless, lets you see
what’s on TV, and schedule TiVo recordings from almost anywhere.

Familiar TiVo menus on your Verizon Wireless phone* also let you:

• Browse your TV listings
• Get the TiVo “Daily Picks” and “Most Popular Shows,” rated by real TiVo subscribers
• Search programs by title, actor/director, keyword
• Browse by category

I don’t think I will be signing up for TiVo Mobile anytime soon mainly because I don’t see myself needing to schedule or browse TV listing from my cell phone. If the feature were free, I probably would use it but, since it’s not I don’t think I am not going to sign up. In any case, it thought I would report on this since I’ll bet there are some people out there who are excited about this new feature.

Let me know if you signup for TiVo Mobile. I tried to access it on my Verizon phone however, I couldn’t seem to find it….

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Thanks for the TiVo rewards referral Jack and Scott! I really do appreciate it. As always, you can send me a referral by entering my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo.

Remember back in March when Tom Rogers mentioned TiVo’s intention to release a lightweight version of the Series 3 TiVo? Well, last week Gizmodo published some pictures of the much anticipated DVR and just yesterday, somebody over at TiVoCommunity.com released some unofficial specs. Along with the unofficial specs, several websites have the product listed for purchase (they’ve since been pulled).

Unconfirmed Series3 “Lite” Specifications (TCD652160)
- BCM740x DVR CPU w/ integrated MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoders
- 1x dual MPEG-2 encoder (BCM7041 or possibly an encoder from LSI)
- 2x Samsung S5H1411-based tuners (analog/QAM/8VSB)
- 128Mb DDR SDRAM
- 160Gb SATA HD
- Smaller, lower-cost PCB
- Cheaper power supply
- No THX certification
- No OLED display
- Standard Tivo remote
- $299 MSRP

Based on all this “chatter” it looks as though we may hear an official announcement of the Series 3 lite any day now. If I remember correctly, the same kind of thing happened with the Series 3 before it was official released. Stay tuned for more news and information….

Spotted on HDTiVo and TiVoLovers.