Tivo Series 3 $699 no tax Free Shipping

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: Staples
Do these things have an ATSC tuner in them?

I believe it has 2. There's a pretty good FAQ on it here, although the Tivo.com links don't work. You can find those pages at tivo.com, but the information is better in the tivocommunity thread.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Fasil
Time is money and who wants to waste a bunch of time and a big hunkin computerhooked up in thier living room to thier tv? or in thier bedroom? It's louder and yes you can tinker with it more but it's like saying why buy a dvd player when my computer has a dvd player and can play divx, or why buy a reciever because my computer has a nice sound card, or why buy nice speakers because my computer speakers are really nice. The Tivo Series is much much better and that is why it's well worth the money and the monthly fee. can you mow the lawn your self? sure but it's much nicer to have it done for you so you don't have to think about it and an expert can do it better. If you want to waste your time building a pc just to act as a DVR and then edit the shows yourslef and put them on dvd's or whatever to watch them...you can do it but why spend all that time?

Maybe that's the difference. I refuse to pay someone else to mow my lawn, and I always build/upgrade my PC's myself.

 

[jjmIII]

Where do you live? I have heard this $5 renal charge more than once and I still don't believe it exists. Time Warner in San Antonio charges $19 for a HD DVR.

Canton, Ohio....also a test market for TWC.
Even at the $19 a month in your market, I'd rather have the TWC HDTV DVR.

Alot of $19's go into $700!! And, no subscription fees.

 

[keeftea]

Originally posted by: allisolm
You can transfer your lifetime subscription to a new series 3 unit if you buy before the end of the year and when you transfer it your old box will have a year prepaid.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I remember reading it costs $199 to transfer the lifetime sub to a series 3.

Thanks, been waiting for confirmation on this b/c over the years i have bought 3 tivos and imo Twc an Comcast DVR's stink. Longo story short, my first tivo was sony/tivo direct tv bought the lifetime and when i switched back to cable.......u know the rest, no transfer.

I will be purchasing a tivo series 3.

Anyone know how these work with dish or direct tv?

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: cmv

Originally posted by: Fasil

Originally posted by: Ike0069
For these prices, wouldn't it be alot better to just build a HTPC?

Actually no because to build a pc that can record two HDTV programs at once would require nice video cards not to mention a dedicated box as well as nice dual processors and a large hard drive. Even a rig like that would cost over $699 and wouldn't be capable of watching a program while it's recording 2 shows unless you have a monster of a pc. Most importantly you don't have the ease of use of a tivo (the tivo service is unparrelled) It's well worth the money. It's hard to explain to someone who's never seen it or used it. It's like going from analog cable to HDTV or dialup to broadband. Until you experience it you won't understand. Tivo frees you up to do everything and anything you want without having to worry about missing any show you would like to watch. Pausing your show when your son calls from college and resuming it whenever you go back to it exactly where you left off is priceless. Never planning around your shows.

Most powerful HDTV video capture cards will skip some frames and have trouble coming close to the quality of a tivo series 3. Also the OTA reception is far superior to most stand alone OTA HDTV tuners not to mention the ability to remove channels from your lineup that you don't watch and never want to flip to.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzttt.... What is HDTV? HDTV is *broadcasted digitally*. Your PC doesn't need to encode anything. It simply needs to write the stream to disk. I've got a MythTV with 3 ATSC (over the air) HDTV tuners and it works great. I can record and watch at the same time. No big deal. I don't plan around my shows -- I tell MythTV what I want recorded and it gets done. Pause, commercial skip, etc. No problem.

Minimum you'd need for HDTV is ~ 2.8 Ghz and accelerated playback via XvMC on nVidia is helpful. So a Celeron D 340, a couple of hard drives, a couple of $40 ATSC tuners (see eBay for Air2PC), a nVidia MX4000/FX5200/6200 card with whatever output you want, and MythTV and you're golden.

Of course it takes time to setup. MythTV is version 0.20. Not as polished as Tivo but can do much more. All trade offs. But it is certainly possible.

http://www.mythtv.org/

That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: jjmIII

Where do you live? I have heard this $5 renal charge more than once and I still don't believe it exists. Time Warner in San Antonio charges $19 for a HD DVR.

Canton, Ohio....also a test market for TWC.
Even at the $19 a month in your market, I'd rather have the TWC HDTV DVR.

Alot of $19's go into $700!! And, no subscription fees.

I think what he means is its probably $5 on top of the regular box for the DVR.

For me with Cox cable here in Tucson AZ.
A SD cable box is $6
A SD DVR box is $11
A HDTV cable box is $15
A HDTV DVR box is $19

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: jjmIII

Where do you live? I have heard this $5 renal charge more than once and I still don't believe it exists. Time Warner in San Antonio charges $19 for a HD DVR.

Canton, Ohio....also a test market for TWC.
Even at the $19 a month in your market, I'd rather have the TWC HDTV DVR.

Alot of $19's go into $700!! And, no subscription fees.

I'd rather rent a TWC DVR too. It isn't as responsive or nice as my Series 2 TIVO but I can live with the performance issues. The price difference between the two is huge.

$700 up front
$13/month for TIVO
$18/month to rent two cable cards

$19 < $31

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: keeftea

Originally posted by: allisolm
You can transfer your lifetime subscription to a new series 3 unit if you buy before the end of the year and when you transfer it your old box will have a year prepaid.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I remember reading it costs $199 to transfer the lifetime sub to a series 3.

Thanks, been waiting for confirmation on this b/c over the years i have bought 3 tivos and imo Twc an Comcast DVR's stink. Longo story short, my first tivo was sony/tivo direct tv bought the lifetime and when i switched back to cable.......u know the rest, no transfer.

I will be purchasing a tivo series 3.

Anyone know how these work with dish or direct tv?

If you have DirectTV, they give their DVR's (all are dual tuners and they come with or without TiVo software) away for free and the monthly fee is $5.99 no matter how many you have hooked up.

 

[KAMAZON]

Originally posted by: Fasil

Originally posted by: Ike0069
For these prices, wouldn't it be alot better to just build a HTPC?

Actually no because to build a pc that can record two HDTV programs at once would require nice video cards not to mention a dedicated box as well as nice dual processors and a large hard drive. Even a rig like that would cost over $699 and wouldn't be capable of watching a program while it's recording 2 shows unless you have a monster of a pc. Most importantly you don't have the ease of use of a tivo (the tivo service is unparrelled) It's well worth the money. It's hard to explain to someone who's never seen it or used it. It's like going from analog cable to HDTV or dialup to broadband. Until you experience it you won't understand. Tivo frees you up to do everything and anything you want without having to worry about missing any show you would like to watch. Pausing your show when your son calls from college and resuming it whenever you go back to it exactly where you left off is priceless. Never planning around your shows.

Most powerful HDTV video capture cards will skip some frames and have trouble coming close to the quality of a tivo series 3. Also the OTA reception is far superior to most stand alone OTA HDTV tuners not to mention the ability to remove channels from your lineup that you don't watch and never want to flip to.

You really wouldn't need a dual processor PC. All In Wonder has been able to record 2 shows for a long time w/o 2 CPUs. There are many other benefits such as what you mentioned still tho.

 

[Fasil]

Direct TV's HDTV feeds are lower quality then OTA or Cable (most cable) HDTV feed are. You might rather rent a TWC becaue you already have a tivo to look up all the programs and keep track of everything you like as well as record your most important shows but when it comes down to it your not gonna trust the TWC dvr to record anything you really find important like LOST episodes or a single airing show that follows a sports event because the only DVR that will get it all right is TIVO. Plus if you already have a series 2 another box will not cost you $13 a month it will only cost you $7 a month. For time warner it's only 1.75 per cable card your your inflated $18 a month for cable cards is wrong, in fact 2 cable cards will run you less than a regular box. In my area the TWC DVR costs me $11.95 a month and cannot be upgraded and will stop a show if you wathing it while recoring it as soon as the recording ends, you can't save where you have left off so you have to fast forward everytime and it erases stuff without warning. Well I just ditched that piece a week ago when I got a Series 3 and I'll never go there again. The only feature the twc box had was HDTV and everything else about it sucks so now I have HDTV in a Tivo and I love it.

 

[Modular]

Originally posted by: Fasil

Originally posted by: Ike0069
For these prices, wouldn't it be alot better to just build a HTPC?

Actually no because to build a pc that can record two HDTV programs at once would require nice video cards not to mention a dedicated box as well as nice dual processors and a large hard drive. Even a rig like that would cost over $699 and wouldn't be capable of watching a program while it's recording 2 shows unless you have a monster of a pc. Most importantly you don't have the ease of use of a tivo (the tivo service is unparrelled) It's well worth the money. It's hard to explain to someone who's never seen it or used it. It's like going from analog cable to HDTV or dialup to broadband. Until you experience it you won't understand. Tivo frees you up to do everything and anything you want without having to worry about missing any show you would like to watch. Pausing your show when your son calls from college and resuming it whenever you go back to it exactly where you left off is priceless. Never planning around your shows.

Most powerful HDTV video capture cards will skip some frames and have trouble coming close to the quality of a tivo series 3. Also the OTA reception is far superior to most stand alone OTA HDTV tuners not to mention the ability to remove channels from your lineup that you don't watch and never want to flip to.

Yes, it makes more sense to have a HTPC at this price. What Fasil wrote, shows that he doesn't understand how a HTPC works. Most HD-TV capture cards will have encoding hardware on the card itself. So you could record as many channels in HD as you wanted as long as you have enough HDTV cards in your rig, and use virtually NO cpu resources. This means that you can watch a HDTV program while recording others. Also, many HDTV cards have decoders, so while you are watching and recording those HDTV stations, you are using about 5% of your CPU resources. Building a HTPC also only costs you one time. There's no monthly fee. So lets say you build a HTPC for $700 (which would be a decent PC): that's your last expense. Because you aren'y paying a 13.99/Month fee, in 4 years the HTPC has paid itself off, whereas the Tivo owner has now invested $1400 for the same thing.

Spend a little time, research the software (which is free GB-PVR is good) and you will learn that Tivo is a waste of money.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

Yep, that's why Series 3 is so great. Sure you can build a decent HTPC for $700 or so, but without the CableCARD functionality, it is a waste (IMHO). I do OTA HD as well but out here in the sticks there is a very limited supply.

Series 3 rocks ... the price is steep, but the latest and greatest always is.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Fritzo
That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

Yep, that's why Series 3 is so great. Sure you can build a decent HTPC for $700 or so, but without the CableCARD functionality, it is a waste (IMHO). I do OTA HD as well but out here in the sticks there is a very limited supply.

Series 3 rocks ... the price is steep, but the latest and greatest always is.

Why do you think they're jacking the price of these Tivos and trying to push them out the door? Vista (and perhaps even OS 10.5) plus CableCard...Check out ATI's Ocur (which is actually done. Just waiting for Vista). Yes, it might take 6 months or so to get the kinks worked out with the software, but for $699, we're talking about a major purchase.

The reality is, by this time next year -- at least in my opinion -- Tivo will be pretty much obsolete.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: scootermaster
Why do you think they're jacking the price of these Tivos and trying to push them out the door? Vista (and perhaps even OS 10.5) plus CableCard...Check out ATI's Ocur (which is actually done. Just waiting for Vista). Yes, it might take 6 months or so to get the kinks worked out with the software, but for $699, we're talking about a major purchase.

ROFL, if you are relying on ATi to get it right, you might as well quit.

They still can't get decent software for their AIW cards or HDTV adapters, let alone something vastly more complicated like CableCARD.

The reality is, by this time next year -- at least in my opinion -- Tivo will be pretty much obsolete.

Nah, the average Joe can throw a Tivo on the shelf, push a couple buttons, and be ready to roll. The same can't be said for building an HTPC.

 

[Fasil]

Originally posted by: scootermaster

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Fritzo
That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

Yep, that's why Series 3 is so great. Sure you can build a decent HTPC for $700 or so, but without the CableCARD functionality, it is a waste (IMHO). I do OTA HD as well but out here in the sticks there is a very limited supply.

Series 3 rocks ... the price is steep, but the latest and greatest always is.

The reality is, by this time next year -- at least in my opinion -- Tivo will be pretty much obsolete.

Yeah you are very intelligent as we all can see. This statement is on par with Bill Gates statement that "640 K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

People don't want another freakin ugly box they have to spend time messing with they want easy to use home theatre device that will record the shows they want and allow them to enjoy the channels they pay for. Building a HTPC can technically do most a tivo can but noone can argue it's close to as easy to do this and that is takes the same amount of time. It takes more time to do the HTPC solution period. Unless your for $5 an hour then I would guess the extra time it would take you to do the same things on tivo on a HTPC you would be losing money. Take a basic economics class and learn about opportunity cost. There are a ton of now tivo lovers who tried several HTPC solutions and they all agree it's a pain in the @$$ compaired to tivo and most have never used thier HTPC setup after buying a tivo s3.

 

[scootermaster]

Originally posted by: Fasil

Originally posted by: scootermaster

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Fritzo
That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

Yep, that's why Series 3 is so great. Sure you can build a decent HTPC for $700 or so, but without the CableCARD functionality, it is a waste (IMHO). I do OTA HD as well but out here in the sticks there is a very limited supply.

Series 3 rocks ... the price is steep, but the latest and greatest always is.

The reality is, by this time next year -- at least in my opinion -- Tivo will be pretty much obsolete.

Yeah you are very intelligent as we all can see. This statement is on par with Bill Gates statement that "640 K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

People don't want another freakin ugly box they have to spend time messing with they want easy to use home theatre device that will record the shows they want and allow them to enjoy the channels they pay for. Building a HTPC can technically do most a tivo can but noone can argue it's close to as easy to do this and that is takes the same amount of time. It takes more time to do the HTPC solution period. Unless your for $5 an hour then I would guess the extra time it would take you to do the same things on tivo on a HTPC you would be losing money. Take a basic economics class and learn about opportunity cost. There are a ton of now tivo lovers who tried several HTPC solutions and they all agree it's a pain in the @$$ compaired to tivo and most have never used thier HTPC setup after buying a tivo s3.

I'm not going to argue with you, especially about my intelligence. In my opinion -- as I stated -- once you can build a HTPC that will do CableCard, there's no reason for me to buy a Tivo and pay those crazy monthly fees.

If you want to buy one, go right ahead. It probably just means you're "smarter" than me.

 

[KenAF2]

There are a ton of now tivo lovers who tried several HTPC solutions and they all agree it's a pain in the @$$ compaired to tivo and most have never used thier HTPC setup after buying a tivo s3.

Have to agree here.

I just got a Tivo Series3 to try, and I would never go back to my MythTV box. MythTV works better for some things, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper if you already have a PC in your living room, but it simply can't match the usability and time-saving features of the Tivo.

Like the poster above says, how much do you value your time? If you make $50/hr at work, you should care a hell of a lot more about your time than a $12.95/mo fee, which barely covers lunch, unless your idea of lunch is McDonald's or Burger King.

I'm not going to argue with you, especially about my intelligence. In my opinion -- as I stated -- once you can build a HTPC that will do CableCard, there's no reason for me to buy a Tivo and pay those crazy monthly fees.

I considered this before I got the Tivo. However, then I found out that you won't be able to build your own PC with CableCard support, because CableLabs is only certifying entire prebuilt systems. Your cable company won't activate any CableCard or box unless it is CableLabs certified.

I was still planning to buy a new CableLabs' certified PC from Dell when I ordered the Tivo, but now I see no reason to bother.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: scootermaster

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Fritzo
That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

Yep, that's why Series 3 is so great. Sure you can build a decent HTPC for $700 or so, but without the CableCARD functionality, it is a waste (IMHO). I do OTA HD as well but out here in the sticks there is a very limited supply.

Series 3 rocks ... the price is steep, but the latest and greatest always is.

Why do you think they're jacking the price of these Tivos and trying to push them out the door? Vista (and perhaps even OS 10.5) plus CableCard...Check out ATI's Ocur (which is actually done. Just waiting for Vista). Yes, it might take 6 months or so to get the kinks worked out with the software, but for $699, we're talking about a major purchase.

The reality is, by this time next year -- at least in my opinion -- Tivo will be pretty much obsolete.

...and how much is the card going to cost?

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
...and how much is the card going to cost?

More than I'd pay to rent a pair of CableCARD's for several years, guaranteed

 

[Rickten]

Originally posted by: Fritzo

Originally posted by: scootermaster

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Fritzo
That's for over the air. Most people watching HDTV have a cable box or cablecard. Find me a PC setup that can use cablecard and I'll buy two.

Yep, that's why Series 3 is so great. Sure you can build a decent HTPC for $700 or so, but without the CableCARD functionality, it is a waste (IMHO). I do OTA HD as well but out here in the sticks there is a very limited supply.

Series 3 rocks ... the price is steep, but the latest and greatest always is.

Why do you think they're jacking the price of these Tivos and trying to push them out the door? Vista (and perhaps even OS 10.5) plus CableCard...Check out ATI's Ocur (which is actually done. Just waiting for Vista). Yes, it might take 6 months or so to get the kinks worked out with the software, but for $699, we're talking about a major purchase.

The reality is, by this time next year -- at least in my opinion -- Tivo will be pretty much obsolete.

...and how much is the card going to cost?

exactly, he fails to relize. Vista == money, all new hardware that is hdcp capable == money, cable card adaptor for pc == money, still must pay rental for cable card from cable company == money.

PLus how many months more does he have to wait as opposed to ship tomorrow to your house.

So how long exactly is it going to take before you break even and realize the potential of your investment was a better deal than tivo??? how many years??? Something new will be out by then.

 

[jjmIII]

Again......TIVO lovers.....

WHY are you not just using the FREE boxes from your cable / sat provider??

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: jjmIII
Again......TIVO lovers.....

WHY are you not just using the FREE boxes from your cable / sat provider??

Um, maybe because the boxes aren't free?

And because the interface and performance of them SUCK compared to any Tivo?

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: jjmIII
Again......TIVO lovers.....

WHY are you not just using the FREE boxes from your cable / sat provider??

Um, maybe because the boxes aren't free?

And because the interface and performance of them SUCK compared to any Tivo?

From DirectTV they are, and they are TiVo driven. Though I realize that DirectTV is the only one that uses TiVo, and they are now making their units with their own software. Have to wait and see how it is.

I have 2 dual tuner DVR's from DTV, one standard and one HiDef, that are TiVo based and were both delivered free of charge. I really wanted a HiDef DVR for quite awhile, but I just wasn't willing to even buy one when they fell to $300. I patiently waited, and got in on the free hiDef deal and could not be happier. And the best thing is that I only pay $5.99/month for the TiVo service. I don't think I'd ever be willing to pay $20/month for TiVo sevice. That just seems outrageous to me.

 

[quikah]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

From DirectTV they are, and they are TiVo driven. Though I realize that DirectTV is the only one that uses TiVo, and they are now making their units with their own software. Have to wait and see how it is.

I have 2 dual tuner DVR's from DTV, one standard and one HiDef, that are TiVo based and were both delivered free of charge. I really wanted a HiDef DVR for quite awhile, but I just wasn't willing to even buy one when they fell to $300. I patiently waited, and got in on the free hiDef deal and could not be happier. And the best thing is that I only pay $5.99/month for the TiVo service. I don't think I'd ever be willing to pay $20/month for TiVo sevice. That just seems outrageous to me.

Well, that is great, but what am I supposed to do now? They don't make DTV TiVo anymore.

 

[allisolm]

If you go to the TiVo Community store, you can get the Series 3 for $679.99 ($799.99 less 15%) with free shipping until sunday. See this for details.

They also have the new Harmony 1000 remote for $400 (after the 15% off). Sigh. Want it. Still too expensive for me.