Every once and a while I browse Amazon.com to check out the latest prices on TiVo hardware. Today I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed before. Currently on Amazon’s website you can get the TiVo HD for $285.51
Why am I pointing this out you ask. Well, based on these prices you can get two TiVo HDs ($571.02) for less than the price of one Series 3. The Series 3 has more storage and a cool OLED display however, if I could save $287.37 I think I would go with the TiVo HD. $287.37 could get me a lot of things including a 400GB upgrade drive so that my TiVo HD would have more storage than a Series 3.
Ever since the TiVo HD came out I’ve had a tough time recommending the Series 3. I’d like to hear from you if you purchased the Series 3 instead of the TiVo HD. What made you buy the Series 3?
I bought the S3 late December last year when the first discounts were being offered. The discount wasn’t as much as what you could get now. But part of the motivation was the lifetime transfer offer from my S2 to S3.
Although I wouldn’t have mind saving more cash on the S3, I can’t say I made a bad purchase being an early adopter. I’m a high-end home theatre enthusiast with other THX-certified equipment. I think I’m the consumer the S3 was aimed at.
And it was really great having an HD TiVo all this time especially with some of the great HD programming over the past few months (I still have all of Planet Earth on it’s hard drive).
Also, the free year on my S2 will run out in a few months and I plan to retire that machine then. Hopefully the TiVo To Go feature will be turned on for the S3 before then.
For me it was because I was lead to believe it was the only option available to transfer my lifetime subscription over from my Series 1. That was a big investment for me and so the TivoHD is a little insulting. It shows how they COULD have created a Series 3. They duped extra $$$ out of me by making me purchase a “premium” product I didn’t really want or need through implying the loss of the investment I had initially made in purchasing that lifetime subscription way back in the day.
Value? meh. The LED text is so tiny you can’t see it from your couch and while the remote and extra hard drive space are nice, they are hardly worth the added cost. I only just managed to save up for a HDTV and while that is quite amazing. . . I’m still left with a feeling that I was forced into this purchase by TiVo Inc. My crazy Tivo Fanboy loyalty has waned.
Being an early adopter ain’t economical. :/
I am still sitting on the fence. As far as I can see the eSata port is not enabled on the TiVo HD, which means that you cannot take advantage of the simple external drive storage upgrade.
Can someone tell me different?
When is a “transfer your lifetime subscription for $100″ offer going to be available?
It was rumored that the eSATA would be enabled with TiVoToGo on the S3. I think that was to happen “end of the year” sometime.
Unofficially, the S3 has a simple boot-up hack to add such a drive (I have a 750 GB hanging on mine now). Has anyone tried the S3 hack with the TiVo HD yet?
I haven’t bought an HD TiVo yet, since they don’t work with my DISH Network HD service, but a friend just bought a Series3 refurb shortly after the TiVo HD came out. For $513 with the Glo remote and a free wireless adapter, the higher-capacity refurb S3 is suddenly a reasonable deal compared to the TiVo HD.
Being an early adopter is definitely not the way to save money, though early adopters of the S3 did get the opportunity to transfer their lifetime subscriptions from old machines, which TiVo HD owners don’t, and reportedly won’t, have.
I bought the Series3 before the new TiVo HD was even announced… back when that $200 rebate was floating around.
I got my S3 on Amazon for $600 ($400 after the rebate), and ended up selling my old Series2 TiVo for $400, so my final total cost was $0 out of pocket.
I think the new TiVo HD is great, but I’m still glad I got my S3. The from display is great when I get home from work and can see whats being recorded without turning anything on. The light-up remote is also a lifesaver, considering I do all my TiVo watching between midnight and 4:00 am, and I like to have my lights off (or very low).
I wasn’t able to transfer my old S2 lifetime subscription like many other people… but having the lifetime still attached to my old S2 box helped me sell it for a really good price. Plus I kept the S2 on my account, and adding another TiVo subscription (with the 3 year contract), I only pay $6 a month!
On another note – I canceled my $100+ a month cable subscription and now use a $25 HD antenna to get all my local HD shows. So again, $0 out of pocket, and saving $100 a month… getting my Series3 TiVo was the best decision I ever made.
[...] new price now makes the Series 3 a reasonable purchase when compared to the TiVo HD. If you’re thinking about getting a Series 3 you might want to wait until this rebate is [...]
[...] honestly not that surprised by this news. On a number of occasions I’ve questioned whether or not the Series 3 was worth the higher cost when compared to the [...]