Ben Drawbaugh has posted a wonderful review of TiVoToGo and MRV (multi-room viewing) on the Series 3. Overall, the review is rather positive however, Ben did say that his transfer speeds are rather slow.

Granted, the transfers were pretty slow — in fact, they were about twice real time — and our understanding is that the hardware is the bottleneck, so upgrading to a gigabit network probably won’t help.

My transfer speeds aren’t as slow as what Ben is experiencing. For example, a 30 minute HD shows takes around 43-45 minutes to transfer. I don’t know why there is a difference between what I’m experiencing and what Ben is. At first I thought it was because both of my TiVos are wired but than I noticed that Ben’s TiVos are wired as well. Whatever the case may be, I’m happy that my transfers are faster :).

How fast are your transfer speeds? Are they more in line with what I’m reporting or are your recordings transferring at a speed similar to what Ben is reporting?

Earlier today, Stephen Mack announced that Viral on Veoh has been added to the growing list of TiVoCast programs.

You can subscribe to Viral on Veoh via TiVo central online or by accessing the following menu item on your TiVo: TiVo Central –> Find Programs –> TiVoCast.

Just today, TiVo announced that they are offering some promotional prices for the Holiday season. From now until Feb. 3rd, you can get the TiVo service for as low as $8.31/month (if you prepay for 3 years). Along with the discounted service fee, TiVo also announced that existing customers can purchase a an additional TiVo and get a lifetime service subcription for $399 (offer good until Feb. 13th). If you interesting in seeing a summary of what has changed, you might want to head on over to TiVoLovers.

I don’t think I am going to take advantage of the $399 lifetime subscription offer mainly because I’m still concerned about the SDV issue.   What do you think?  Are you planning on taking advantage of this offer?

Ben Drawbaugh has posted a wonderful article in which he compares the Series 3 TiVo to the TiVo HD. You are definitely going to want to check out this post if you are thinking about getting either a Series 3 or a TiVo HD.

In my opinion, the TiVo HD is a better deal now that TiVo has enabled the eSATA port on both the Series 3($358.59, after mail-in rebate) and the TiVo HD($234.68). In the end, it all comes down to whether or not you want THX certification, a little more built-in storage, a better remote and a nifty OLED front display.

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As a side note, I would like to thank Charles for putting me down as his TiVo rewards referrer. If you’d like to put me down as your referrer, all you need to do is enter my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo. Thanks Charles. It really is appreciated!

bkdtv has posted a great FAQ about TiVoToGo (TTG), Multi-Room Viewing (MRV) and TiVoToComeBack (TTCB) on the Series 3 and TiVo HD. The FAQ answered several questions I had about TiVoToGo including why TTG on the Series 3 is faster than TTG on my Series 2 DT.

Check it out if you have some questions about TTG, MRV or TTCB on the Series 3 and TiVo HD.

TiVo has reduced the number of points that are required to receive a TiVo HD via the TiVo Rewards program. Now, you can get a TiVo HD for 35,000 points (7 referrals) instead of 50,000 points. The Series 3 could use a price cut since the DVR still requires 75,000 points.

If you have 35,000 reward points, you might want to consider getting the TiVo HD especially since you can now easily expand the DVR and since TiVoToGo & MRV is also available.

As always, I would appreciate it if you would enter my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo so that I can get the reward points.

In my opinion, TiVoToGo is a great alternative to the iTunes store especially if you don’t mind waiting for a show to air on cable TV. Also, compared to iTunes, TiVoToGo is a lot cheaper. One movie on iTunes will cost you $9.99 - $14.99 whereas TiVoToGo is free once you’ve paid your monthly TiVo subscription ($6.95 - ~$12.95).

What do you think? Is TiVoToGo a viable alternative to the iTunes store when it comes to movies and TV shows?