EngadgetHD is reporting that Comcast TiVo may be coming to the Portland Oregon area sometime in the near future. According to EngadgetHD, one of their readers was told by two different Comcast installers that the Comcast TiVo DVR solution would be available in the Portland area sometime soon. Currently, Comcast TiVo DVRs are only available in the New England area.
Can anybody in the Portland Oregon area confirm this rumor?
Both Dave Zatz and a TiVo Community member have reported that TiVo plans to discontinue their rewards program sometime in the near future. Unlike the TiVo Community thread, Dave Zatz went ahead and contacted his TiVo rep. to get some more details. According to Dave’s rep, April 28th will be the last day that you can earn points and May 28th will be the last day you can redeem your points.
Based on this information, I’ve gone ahead and used up all of my rewards points on a TiVo HD and two TiVo t-shirts (which I’ll probably give away on this site). Prior to this news, I had planned on waiting for TiVo to add new items to the program but, now it looks like that won’t happen. I’ve been meaning to post something about the lack of new items that are available via the rewards program however, it looks like that post is no longer needed….
Thanks to this site’s faithful readers, I’ve been fortunate enough to receive a number of great items from the rewards program. In a little of three years I’ve referred 82 people via the rewards program! That being the case, I’m obviously very disappointed that TiVo is going to discontinue the program. Hopefully TiVo will reconsider this move because, I think if they discontinue the program they’re loosing out on a great opportunity to get new subscribers……
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?
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.
Update 06/29 @ 4:36AM: Dave Zatz found a page over at TiVo.com which allows you to transfer your lifetime subscription. The fine print indicates that the offer is available from June 28th to July 23rd and that it is only valid for lifetime subscriptions which were activated before June 15, 2003. As always, you should read the fine print if you try and take advantage of this offer.
A long time reader to this site (Robert Aitchison) recently sent me some interesting feedback that I thought I should share with everybody. According to Robert, TiVo recently sent him an email indicating that he could transfer his lifetime subscription from his Single tuner Series 2 TiVo to a more updated Series 2 dual tuner TiVo. The email doesn’t say if this offer would apply if Robert owned a Series 1 TiVo.
Interesting E-Mail I got today from TiVo. Seems they are offering me the chance to move my lifetime sub (I have 2 Series2 TiVo’s with lifetime) to a new Series2 DT.
Now since both of my TiVo’s are 80 hour already lifetime there really isn’t a lot of incentive for me to take them up on this offer, but if I had a Series1 I suspect it might be a different thing. Of course who knows if the offer is being sent to Series1 customers as well.
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Thanks for the TiVo rewards referral Jeff! 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.
Several sites are reporting that TiVo has plans to offer a $200 rebate on the Series 3 TiVo. The rebate form (DVRUpgrade.com, PDF) states that the rebate is valid from May 27th to June 16th. If all stays the same, this could mean that you will be able to get a Series 3 TiVo for ~$400 ($606.95
While $400 is a good deal for the Series 3, I think I am going to wait and see if I can get two more referrals so that I can get the Series 3 for free. START_SHAMELESS_PLUG As always, if you want to help me get a Series 3, you can enter my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo /END_SHAMELESS_PLUG.
I don’t normally comment on rumors however, this rumor is almost too good to be true. According to Gizmodo, TiVo may release a sub $300 Series 3 TiVo this coming fall.
My question is this, what would a sub $300 Series 3 TiVo include? What functionality would TiVo have to strip out of the $800 Series 3 TiVo
Will the Series 3 TiVo see a significant price drop by the end of the Q1? The folks over at Gizmodo seem to think so. Gizmodo has posted a tip that they received from one of their readers. The tipster stated that they spoke with a TiVo service rep and that the rep said that the Series 3’s price would drop significantly before the end of this quarter.
I’m going to chalk this one up as yet another rumor however, if it is in fact true, you know I’ll be one of the first individuals to buy one. Although the Series 3 has been available for as little as $588, it’s still too expensive for me. I’d really like to see it for ~$500. Having to watch HDTV live really sucks and because of my situation, I can’t go with a my cable company’s DVR.
As most of you are aware, just a couple of days ago, Roxio and TiVo announced that they had partnered up on a TiVoToGo solution for the Mac. The only problem with this partnership is that you have to pay ~$100 (without rebates) to get this software. For somebody who is cheap like me, this is a lot of money. Especially considering the fact that an upgrade to OS X Tiger only costs $129.
The folks over at tuaw (the unofficial Apple weblog) were able to speak with somebody at the Roxio booth(Macworld 07) about the possibility of Roxio developing a stand-alone TiVoToGo client for the Mac. The nice thing about a standalone client would be that it would cost less since you wouldn’t be getting the CD/DVD burning capability that Roxio provides. According to tuaw, the Roxio folks said that they would consider producing a standalone client if enough people showed an interest.
Update (09/07/06 @ 6:36 AM EST): TiVoCommunity is going wild with people talking about the same offer. I guess it wasn’t just a rumor. Damn, I wish I had bought the lifetime subscription when I had a chance. $199 doesn’t seem like a bad deal (Thanks MegaZone).
According to a submission on Digg.com, TiVo has said that they will allow you to transfer your lifetime subscription to a Series 3 TiVo for only $199. Until my TiVo receives the message that the author mentioned, I am going to chalk this one up as a rumor.
If this rumor is true, it would definitely be good news. I don’t own a lifetime subscription but I’m sure a lot of people would be happy with this news. Stay tuned for any updates (if there are any).
