WeaKnees is asking $1,599 for the device, and that's after the $200 mail-in rebate. And while we can appreciate the modding they've done to slip in the extra internal terabyte drive, that eSATA requires all of one minute of user installation.

We'll pay for convenience all day long, but at that price, we'd rather just pony up for a full-blown media PC...or pay someone to invent this thing. [weaknees ] Thanks James!

Big Brother, Meet Little Brother
Although the TiVo HD is built on the Series3 platform, it's not exactly an update. Here's the breakdown:

• The original Series3 can record 300 hours of standard-def video and 32 hours of HD on a 250GB internal; the TiVo HD can record 180 hours of SD and just 20 hours of HD on a 160GB drive.

• It's not THX certified, but it's got the coaxial cable and antenna inputs, plus all the requisite outputs: HDMI, component, S-Video and composite. It also has an optical audio out.

• As you can see in the gallery, it has a dual CableCARD slot so you can record two shows at once (and watch a third, too). One of the slots even supports M-Card, for multistreaming, so you wouldn't need two separate cards. I am not entirely sure if you can use it to go hog wild and record three shows at once—it may not surprise you that Cablevision never mentioned it as an option when I ordered the CableCARDs.

• Instead of the original Series3's glowing OLED display, TiVo HD has an array of multicolored status-indicator LEDs. That's the extent of the glowing, too—unlike the pricier Series3, this one has a standard TiVo remote, happily unchanged these 10 long years.

• TiVo HD has an eSATA port on the back, same as its big brother, so expansion will be easy. It also has hardware support for AVC (H.264) and VC-1, though there still isn't any software implementation of this talent. We're waiting!

• As I just sort of alluded, nothing is different on the software side of things. Any rumors suggesting that TiVoToGo is available in the TiVo HD are incorrect at this point, though we'd love to see someone wave a magic wand and make that happen. The few screenshots I included in the gallery are intended to show you the similarities: it's all there, even though you're paying less than half the price.

Hands On
Though I had been suffereing at the hands of the loathed Explorer 8300HD for some time, I dreaded calling Cablevision and asking for CableCARDs. Fortunately, they knew what I was up to, and—after a couple of visits—were able to make it work. The trouble was not technical. The cards worked just fine. The trouble was that Cablevision installers are not allowed to be in your house when you go through the 20-minute setup, which they claim takes between 4 and 24 hours. In truth, the most time-consuming part of the process is waiting for the CableCARDs to take hold once they are installed. That took hours, but required the cable guy. Can I just say that I hate when people who don't know squat make up dumb rules? Well, I just said it.

The rest of the setup was super easy. TiVo provided the $60 Wi-Fi USB dongle, though you can use others, or just connect via Ethernet. I always love setting TiVo remotes to control the TV; it's a simple thing that any remote in the world can do, but I rarely do it with my cable remotes. Having that reassuring wizard is just a better incentive.

Once all of that was working, I was back in TiVo Country. I could search for shows without growing a beard in the process, jumping to Swivel Search to do stream-of-consciousness browsing. I ended up jumping from The Daily Show to a TiVoCast channel of content from The Onion. Everything we've discussed in the recent past is there: Amazon Unbox downloads, One True Media video and photo sharing, Yahoo! and Fandango. But most of all, it's a $300 way to unlock the HD cable subscription I pay a ridiculous amount of money for but can't navigate using standard cable boxes.

OK, it's not all perfect. My guess is that, since I had an early unit, there was some bugginess that will be fixed in the near term, including:

• Messed-up video decoding; I often got that that weird psychedelic MPEG frame lag, and some entire scenes of standard-def video had a bad iridescent quality, though that could have been due to a crappy analog source.

• At least one HD channel remains scrambled, and not a premium one. OK, I admit, it's CBS. I just got caught off guard by how funny The New Adventures of Old Christine is.

• Worst—though perhaps most fixable—of all: when I fast forward through lengthy stretches of content, the cursor jumps and skips, so that I end up way far away from where I want to be. Again, though I'm a bit traumatized, my guess is that it'll be fixed in the next firmware update.

• Also, as you know, decommissioning your cable box means no one-touch VOD. I like VOD, I will admit. But I am trying to figure out if I like it most because it's a way of getting around the frustrating user interface of cable DVRs.

How to get one
As you know, TiVo still has a monthly fee, one that can be as high as $17 per month if you don't commit to anything over a year, or as low as $9 per month, if you pay, up front, $299 for three full years of service. (That's a special offer. It's been around a while, but it might disappear at any time.) I figure if you're already saving $500 in not buying the deluxe Series3, might as well pay $300 of it back for the better service plan.

TiVo is taking pre-orders starting right this second. (According to one tipster, they actually started taking orders earlier, but quickly stopped.) The units themselves will start showing up in early August. If you are one of those sorry sons o' guns who recently bought a full-priced Series3, I really hope you can dig up the receipt.

TiVo Unveils New Attractively Priced TiVo® HD DVR—the Ultimate Companion to HDTVs

The new TiVo® HD DVR seamlessly combines ease of use, new content and affordability.

ALVISO, Calif.– July 24, 2007 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today the launch of a new TiVo high definition DVR, delivering a premium HD experience at an affordable price. Starting today, consumers can pre-order TiVo HD at www.tivo.com for just $299.99, with product expected to arrive on retail shelves in early August. The new TiVo HD DVR is the ultimate HDTV companion, maximizing the HD cable experience by combining a new popular price with the clarity of HD programming and our Emmy® award-winning TiVo™ service. The new TiVo HD is also a Digital Cable Ready set-top-box that works seamlessly with any cable provider in the U.S. Moreover, the new product also enables the latest and greatest exclusive TiVo service features such as Movie & TV Downloads from Amazon.com, Home Movie Sharing and universal Swivel™ search, delivering the best of broadband video directly to the television set.

"TiVo HD extends the TiVo experience to an even wider audience than ever, giving sports and entertainment enthusiasts the ultimate companion to their HDTV set," said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. "It is the ultimate media centerpiece for the living room with the broadest selection of broadband content, right alongside your favorite broadcast and cable programs, giving HDTV viewers more choice and control than they've ever had before. And it can be used in place of the customer's existing cable box."

The TiVo HD is designed to fit seamlessly with home entertainment centers, replacing cable boxes while complimenting other entertainment devices. It is compatible with digital cable, analog cable and digital antenna (ATSC). TiVo HD offers 20 hours of HD or up to 180 hours of standard definition content. The new TiVo HD DVR allows users to record two HD channels at the same time, while watching a third previously recorded show. With a built-in Ethernet jack, two CableCARD™ slots and USB ports, TiVo HD also provides advanced connectivity and easy networking, making it simple to access an additional suite of exclusive TiVo features.

"TiVo HD is a perfect complement to the HDTV sets that are quickly becoming the standard for home entertainment," said Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo. "With an affordable price and uncompromised quality, TiVo HD is an obvious choice for anyone with a passion for home entertainment and HD programming."
TiVo HD includes access to a number of renowned TiVo features, furthering the difference between the TiVo service and generic DVR competitors, such as:

• Movie & TV Downloads - In partnership with Amazon.com, TiVo brings you Amazon Unbox™ on TiVo®, allowing you to download thousands of movies and TV shows straight to your TiVo DVR. Amazon Unbox on TiVo allows you to rent or buy movies from Amazon Unbox using your remote, download them to your TiVo box over your home network, and enjoy them right on your television set whenever you want. The movies you want are always in stock and new releases are available for purchase the same day they arrive on DVD. Best of all, order with your TiVo remote from the comfort of your living room and your rentals and purchases end up in your Now Playing list, right where you'd expect them to be. It's like having an entire video store connected to your TV.

• Universal Swivel™ Search - Exclusive to the TiVo service, universal Swivel search lets you quickly find everything you want in the world of broadcast and broadband television with a single, powerful search. It's the first truly TV centric onscreen search tool that allows subscribers to explore and discover broadcast, cable, and broadband content in an easy-to-use experience. TiVo subscribers can search using the way they intuitively think about television; that is, by starting with a program they currently enjoy and using elements of that program to find more of what they like. Universal Swivel search allows viewers to seamlessly link from descriptions of one program to all others that have common elements, including program name, actors, or suggestions based on other viewers' feedback.

• TiVoCast - TiVoCast delivers original video programming directly to your TiVo box over your broadband Internet connection from a variety of media brands and producers, including the New York Times, CNET, iVillage, The Onion, and many others. The content appears in your Now Playing List, alongside regular broadcast programming as well as your Amazon Unbox rentals and purchases and even Home Movies. It's all seamlessly integrated into the entire TiVo experience.

• Home Movie Sharing - Instead of burning your home movies to DVD and mailing them to friends and family, now you can share them through a private TiVo channel of your own. Simply upload your video footage or photographs to One True Media (www.OneTrueMedia.com), get a channel code, and send the code out to your audience. Your home videos will show up right in the Now Playing list on their TiVo boxes, so they can enjoy them on their own TV. No need to huddle around a computer screen anymore, home movie sharing delivers those precious moments directly to the TV.

• Online Services -With your TiVo box connected to your broadband home network, you can access a variety of online services right on your TV, including Yahoo! Traffic and Weather, Fandango movie tickets, live radio, podcasts, games and more.

• TiVo KidZone - Only TiVo-branded DVRs give you total control over what your kids see on TV. With TiVo KidZone, you get to choose which shows your children can watch and record. It also helps you discover great new shows for them through recommendations from leading national children's organizations. TiVo KidZone provides a customized Now Playing List for your children that displays only the shows you pre-approve, keeping their shows separate from your own shows. TiVo KidZone relies on your own personal settings and password to ensure your kids only see what you want them to see, keeping TV as safe as possible.

Pre-orders begin today with the first boxes being shipped in early August. See www.tivo.com for details on ship dates. A subscription to the TiVo service is required and sold separately. TiVo HD will be available starting early August at Best Buy, Circuit City and other retailers for $299.99.

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Sold through leading consumer electronic retailers, TiVo has developed a brand which resonates boldly with consumers as providing a superior television experience. Through agreements with leading satellite and cable providers, TiVo also integrates its full set of DVR service features into the set-top boxes of mass distributors. TiVo's DVR functionality and ease of use, with such features as Season Pass™ recordings and WishList® searches and KidZone have elevated its popularity among consumers and have created a whole new way for viewers to watch television. With a continued investment in its patented technologies, TiVo is revolutionizing the way consumers watch and access home entertainment. Rapidly becoming the focal point of the digital living room, TiVo's DVR is at the center of experiencing new forms of content on the TV, such as broadband delivered video, music and photos. With innovative features, such as TiVoToGo™ and online scheduling, TiVo is expanding the notion of consumers experiencing "TiVo, TV your way.®" The TiVo® service is also at the forefront of providing innovative marketing solutions for the television industry, including a unique platform for advertisers and audience measurement research. The Company is based in Alviso, California.

TiVo, Season Pass, Swivel, TiVoToGo, WishList, the slogan 'TiVo, TV your way.', Series2, Series3, and the TiVo logo are trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2007 All rights reserved.

CableCARD™ is a trademark of the Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This is a demo unit we have been provided so the actual units they put into retail may differ (they haven't said one way or another) but for their sake, I certainly hope the actual units look better than this. I personally have a current S3 box at home and can say that this unit is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper looking and is lighter in overall weight (feels substantially so for some reason). Just my first impressions though&mdas;haven't fired this unit up yet to see what other differences might be. The remote that came with it is also 'cheap'—is lighter and not as good looking as the original shiny unit that comes with the current S3. As you can see the cable card slots have been moved up front and one slot supports the new m-card while the other supports only the traditional s-card.

Come July 1, when the government mandate that says all set-top-boxes need to have CableCARD support goes into effect, cable companies will be rolling out M-Card bi-directional cards that can activate dual-tuner DVRs from just one slot. But still, the problem is on the software side, which means TiVo Series 3s and Vista CableCARD machines won't be doing bi-directional support until a standard is there.

So the actual headline should probably be "There is no CableCARD 2.0...yet." – Jason Chen

There is no CableCARD 2.0 [Engadget HD]

Product Page [Buy.com - Thanks Jody!]

Do you go with a cheap $9 a month rental from Comcast and put up with all its flaws to save money? Do you plunk down a couple hundred bucks and a monthly fee for a TiVo Series 3 because it just works the way you want it? Do you go all out and spend a couple grand for a Vista Media Center that has every single extra feature you could possibly want in a PC? Or do you go to the other extreme and build your own MythTV/SageTV/XP Media Center machine out of spare parts?

Here are the ten things you should know before you decide.

0) Do you have HDTV cable and an HDTV set? The pre-requisite to even getting an HD DVR is actually having high def cable and an HDTV. Make sure you're signed up for high definition cable from your cable provider (it's usually $5-$15 more a month) and have an HDTV to watch it on. The super-cheap EDTV sets you find at Costco won't support up to the 1080i resolution that HD cable brings, which means all those extra pixels are going to waste. Make sure you have the necessary equipment before you go and spend the money on an HD recorder.

1) Are you cheap? This is the biggest and most important question. Admit it, you're cheap. Hell, I'm pretty cheap too. Do you really need to spend $500 or $2000 for a system only to have to keep on paying rental or subscription fees of nearly $100 a month? Do you really want to watch that much TV? If not, then renting a HD DVR from your cable company or building your own Myth TV or XP Media Center Edition box with an over the air (OTA) HD recorder could be for you.

2) Are you familiar with Linux/PCs? If you are cheap (see #1), then you're probably contemplating salvaging an old PC and building a media center out of that. The only problem is that MythTV requires anywhere from slight Linux knowledge (installing some packages) to uber haxor Linux knowledge (recompiling kernels, fiddling with code and compiling), depending on what PC components you already have and which ones you can get your hands on. Even if you're going for a Windows XP MCE-based box, you might still have to go out and look for drivers and download updates to your current software. It's not nearly as easy as buying a TiVo or a pre-built Vista Media Center box.

3) Does someone nontechnical need to use it? If you or your wife/husband/roommates don't know the first thing about computers, you're going to want to go with TiVo. Although Vista's CableCARD HTPC is pretty easy to use (as we saw in our TiVo head-to-head), it's still a PC and still suffers from the same old PC problems like freezing or crashing. If you want the absolute simplest interface while still keeping features intact, you'll want a TiVo Series 3. Also, if you've already owned a TiVo before, you're going to want to stick with TiVo. Learning another system, even if it is easy like Vista's Media Center, is unnecessary if you're already an expert at one.

4) Do you need DivX/XviD playback? If you're often downloading TV shows and movies off of BitTorrent, you're going to want a way to watch them on your TV. And if you don't have an upscaling DVD player that supports DivX, a Vista CableCARD HTPC or a do-it-yourself Myth/XP machine can do the trick. However, most of the time HDTV encodes you find on BitTorrent are of poorer quality than the feeds you get from your cable provider—because they've been re-encoded, naturally. You'll want to watch most of your TV programming from your DVR instead of from BitTorrent if you can help it.

5) Do you have Satellite TV? If you have Dish or DirecTV, your own provider has a box made just to cram down your throat, so you're usually stuck with those. The DIY solutions like MythTV or XP MCE won't work with satellite, but Microsoft and DirecTV said they're going to integrate an app/plug-in into Vista Media Centers that allow reception of DirecTV. In this case, the receiver is your Vista HTPC, which brings with it all the benefits that HTPC systems have.

6) Do you need photos and music? Gaming? Internet browsing? Vista Media Centers trounce TiVo when it comes to viewing photos and playing back your music. To a slightly lesser extent, so do MythTV and XP MCE boxes. If you're going to want to play games or browse the Internet from your couch like some kind of non-shitty WebTV, a PC is the way to go.

7) Do you need On Demand? HD cable in general? This one's a little tricky. For On Demand, the only HD DVR that supports this is the one from your cable company. Both TiVos and Vista machines don't. Also, if you want HD cable, that totally rules out home-made machines like MythTV, which don't have CableCARD support and can only get cable over the air using an ATSC card. Depending on where you live, how big an antenna you use (yeah, you'll have to use an antenna), and what channels your local stations broadcast in HD, you may or may not have the same experience as HD cable.

8) Do you watch a lot of TV? If you record a lot of TV, you're going to need a lot of space. The DVRs from your cable company only have 120GB of space (the Comcast Motorola box), TiVo only has 250GB unless you upgrade it with an external hard drive, but Vista Media Centers and do-it-yourself solutions are almost infinitely expandable thanks to the fact that they're PCs. In fact, you could even store the recordings on another server over the network, or burn them to DVDs if you want to archive them.

9) Can you stand a PC in the living room? We're fine with it, but many people hate the sight of a PC in their home entertainment setups. This is a huge win for TiVo, since it looks like it belongs in your media center. However, you can technically get an extender like an Xbox 360 and get the exact same experience as if you had the Vista Media Center in your living room. This way, you can house your machine in another room and have a (relatively) quiet front-end. The same is true for MythTV systems, which can also be extended with smaller front ends and have larger servers in the back room.

10) Do you love Macs? Although we prefer to go with a TiVo 3 or Vista Media Center, we know of a couple people that are so tied into the Apple ecosystem of iTunes music and movies that they really want that experience in the living room as well. Using something like a Miglia TVMini HD+, you can turn your Mac Mini into a DVR that even records in DivX. Add to that the fact that you have a Mac with Front Row attached to your TV—so you can easily watch iTunes movies or listen to iTunes music—and you have the perfect setup for a Mac head who wants DVR features. The only caveat, like the issues MythTV systems run into on #7, is that you can only record over the air HD and not stuff from cable. (Of course, TiVo's desktop app is well supported on the Mac, so you can stream music and photos from your Apple, and a MCE PC can still run iTunes.)

With all these options, it's probably tough to decide which one is right for you. There's no perfect solution right now (neither TiVo nor Vista HTPCs are great for everyone), so you should pick the features you really, really need to have and choose the DVR that meets most of them. – Jason Chen

I compared the TiVo and Vista machine with CableCARDs this week. And I think you'll be surprised to know that the Media Center PC has a better user interface when it comes to recording shows, channel surfing, and watching TV. And playback of music, videos, and photos. The TiVo's OS just feels aged compared with the slick Vista Media Center interface. Did that surprise you?

I just wrote that Microsoft's interface is better than the TiVo's. Madness, I know.

The Media Center is better by almost all measurements. But for reasons I don't fully comprehend, I used the TiVo more. It's mysterious, but maybe I can shed some light on why:

For one thing, TiVo didn't crash. But it's more than the issue of stability that pushed me to TiVo (it's a big issue for TV recording, I know). Despite the OS being aged, it made me enjoy watching TV. I liked that it would recommend shows based on my viewing habits, and I liked that it didn't feel like I had too many other things to play with while I had it on. (A benefit to the TiVo sucking at most other things?) The main thing on the TiVo is that all my efforts were funneled towards couch potato non-action. The Media Center made me want to start using the keyboard, playing with the photos slideshow, and constantly switch between everything. The TiVo wasn't faster than the Media Center, and it wasn't slicker, but it was effortless. I don't know why.

Here's the breakdown on both:

The Guide and Flipping Channels
Media Center wins. The Media Center's guide is the fastest thing ever. Like TiVo, you can flip through by channel or by page. But scanning is ultra fast, without any refresh display.

Pressing up and down on the d-pad shows a mini onscreen guide, which shows guide detail of current shows, one channel at a time, without changing the channel until you select it. Massively useful.

Although the TiVo's UI has aged, it's still brilliant. The guide's listing is laggy, but it has the neat listing of a particular channel's shows on the right-hand side, show by show, instead of in half-hour increments. That way, it fits more on screen at once. If they fix that speed issue on the guide, the sensation of channel flipping would be a lot better.

Both show the current channel through the guide's transparent background.

Quick Recording
The Media center is faster. The Media Center can record with one click, and record a series of shows with a second click.
TiVo wins for being smart. There's some lag here, when shows are set to record, but that's not a big deal, merely an annoyance. TiVo's season pass just picks up the shows I want, knowing which are dupes, etc. MCE, I haven't developed that trust that it'll pick up the right shows.

Searching for shows
Media Center wins...if you have a keyboard, or not. Searching for shows is faster.
The TiVo's lag hits every time you click on a new letter, basically so that the TiVo can poll for matching shows as you type.

Photos and Music
Media center DESTROYS TiVo. TiVo desktop allows a PC or Mac to stream photos and music to the TiVo, but it's UI can't match the Media Center's handling of each. You can sort and create playlists and slideshows, and even edit photos. It's all thumbnailed and extremely slick. Using it makes me think about divorcing myself from iTunes, iPhoto, and make a Vista living-room PC my media server. (See the gallery for more understanding of why I love this system.) There's also a hookup for your online Yahoo's photos (not Flickr), but MCE has this too (not in the main photo menu, but under online).

Media Center can basically be loaded up with any codec...and double as a torrent machine.

Remote Scheduling
TiVo wins for ease of use. TiVo has their website, and MCE has an underdocumented MSN plug-in that allows it via the Web. TiVo has a Verizon App. But chances are a phone with a decent Web browser can sludge through the MSN site and remote schedule.

Recommendations, Movie Listings, Sports Features and More
TiVo's recommendation system is amazing. You give shows you're watching or have recorded between one to three thumbs-up or thumbs-down signs. And TiVo uses your spare space to get shows it think you might like. Amazing to find new shows this way, even if some people have voiced privacy concerns.

Media Center has a neat feature that grabs art and metadata for all the movies playing now or soon, and tiles them on a movies page. It's an easy way to find flicks.

TiVo has a movie rental hook in with Amazon's Unbox. Last time I checked, Unbox has ~5,000 movies. I'd like to see HD movies here. Movies expire 24 hours after you hit Play. MCE has all sorts of hook-ins for movie rental from services like Movielink. It's a PC, after all.

TiVo has weather and traffic maps via Yahoo, as well as a ticket-buying feature via Fandango. I like both.

Expandability
TiVo continues to release new features, like their Swivel search last week, which let's you search through a show's metadata to find similar content. But the Media Center's plug-in community is pretty extensive. There's tons of stuff for iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, weather, and more. Chances are, there aren't many partner features TiVo has that MCE can't somehow replicate, via plug-ins or via Windows itself.

Stability and Messes of Cables
It had to be said, but it's obvious. The Vista Machine is a Windows PC. It crashes, and sometimes the external USB tuner needs to be restarted. The Dell I'm testing lost connection with its ATI external tuner several times, needing to be rebooted, and crashed a few times over the week, too. Fantastic machine or not, a DVR has to be alive to record shows. And to match the twin HD tuners of the TiVo, you need 2 external ATI tuners, each using a USB port, power plug, and a cable coax. Very annoying. (Velocity Micro is shipping internal tuners in their boxes now.)

Mobile Devices
Media center can sync to Plays for Sure devices. TiVo can use TiVo to Go. I'm sure there are differences here, but it's pretty much a wash.

Price
A new, Cable Labs certified PC costs several thousand dollars, a TiVo Series 3 costs $600 plus ~$15 a month, and a crappy DVR from your cable goes for about $15/month, too. The TiVo and PC in these situations are luxury for the people insane enough to spend a lot of money on gadgets. The TiVo wins, but you already knew that.

I like the idea of the CableCARD PC a lot. So if the prices were closer together, I'd recommend it over the TiVo. But given the undeniable fact that I used TiVo 85% of the time (and I'm not a TiVo fanboy), and that its cheaper, I'd recommend that for couch potatoes, and the PC for ultimate media geeks. I just wish its fans would stop whirring. I feel like this thing uses a lot of juice to run 24/7. – Brian Lam

For people like Dave Zatz, the choice is clear—TiVo all the way. It's cheaper, has an easier-to-use interface, doesn't require a PC in the living room and people just like it more than a Windows machine.

But for others who want DivX playback, gaming, more than two TV tuners, larger storage and all the benefits of a PC, they'll definitely go with a Vista system.

But what do you think? The ease of use and lower price of the TiVo or the better customizability but higher cost of the Vista HTPCs? – Jason Chen

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Top of the list is that 30-second skip function, where TiVo slyly hides a capability that can only be activated with a certain combination of key presses (Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select while you're playing a recording), thus avoiding lawsuits but retaining one of the box's best functions. Once you've entered this combination, you can blast through commercial breaks with a few presses of the ->| button. It's is the lowest effort/highest return hack on the list.

There's more!

Zatz also explains how you can expand your TiVo's storage (a bit more difficult than the other hacks), transfer video to TiVo (which, alas, is not possible with our Series3 HD TiVo), removing TiVoToGo DRM (also not possible on the Series3 yet), and streaming music over your home network.

This is a useful list for those who aren't comfortable performing major surgery but are beyond wearing TiVo ears on a blind date. – Charlie White

Top 5 TiVo Hacks (for non-hackers) [Zatz Not Funny]

TiVo has had hard times: the competition costs just $7 or $8 per month, no money down, and records HD without a Cable Card, or worse, the freakin' special permission you need from your cable provider to even get your hands on a Cable Card. TiVo says that it is in 4.4 million homes. According to a November 2006 eMarketer stat, DVR penetration will surpass 20% this year; that's over 22 million DVRs. You can bet the remaining 18+ million DVRs aren't ReplayTVs.

Today, TiVo puts on William Wallace face paint and shouts, "They can take our market share but they'll never take our playful, endearingly human personality!"

Launching the "My TiVo Gets Me" campaign, the company reminds us that we fell in love with it for a reason, a friendly user interface that has never been copied. The press release, excerpted below, seems targeted at those of us who have begun to ponder a return to the original DVR, especially since the Series 3 has begun to come down in price.

I know Lam is considering a Series 3. Soon, maybe I'll be ready to order one up too, then beg and plead for a Cable Card. The last time I asked, Time Warner Cable was my provider. The installation involved a "truck roll" plus a request for seemingly unnecessary info about my setup. Now I have Cablevision, so it might be different. If you have a Cable Card—either for a Series 3 or some other DCR product like a HDTV—please tell us if your experience has been positive or negative. Seriously, lay it on us, no matter how ugly (or pretty). – Wilson Rothman

From the TiVo release:

The vast majority of technology lacks essential human warmth and character. But there is a technology that represents a dramatic departure from this standard: TiVo, the original Digital Video Recorder (DVR), which its creators endowed it with a playful, endearingly human personality, in the tradition of beloved movie icons such as Kitt the talking car from Knight Rider. The result? People instantly connected with it.

Since its introduction, an entire pop culture movement has anthropomorphized the TiVo brand to the point where people regularly refer to the "TiVo man" as "him" and the company often hears examples of subscribers thanking their TiVo box as if it were a human being. Picture the average owner of a photocopier or standard VCR having that type of relationship with those devices. Then compare that to how passionate TiVo subscribers are. The difference is undeniable.

Today, 8 years after TiVo pioneered technology with the human touch, it stands at the forefront of an emerging new generation of technology distinguished for its unique ability to connect with people, inspiring enthusiasm and loyalty, rather than frustration. It has sparked a pop culture phenomenon and given birth to an incredibly passionate following eager to sing its praises, often in uniquely human ways. Parents have created home-made costumes to dress their children up as "the TiVo man" for Halloween. Mothers have written to TiVo touting its benefits as a tool to help them breast-feed and potty train. A fun-loving couple in the Bay Area named Tina Kwan and Andy Szeto are having their wedding cakes specially designed to showcase TiVo bride and groom characters on top. Their entire wedding theme is a celebration of their love of TV and of TiVo—and in the ultimate tribute, TiVo is "invited" to the wedding and will be given a place of honor just like a member of the family when they walk down the aisle on May 12.

Not only do 4.4 million households rely on TiVo to "get" them every day, but TiVo has spawned numerous blogs, including 237,000 entries, as well as popular fan-generated websites such as TiVoLovers.com. There are currently 535,000 references to TiVo on MySpace.com and 450 YouTube videos spotlighting TiVo. Google search yields 22 million TiVo hits. Over 12,300 references have been made to TiVo on TV within the past year alone—not paid ads, but editorial mentions, including thousands of organic references by everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to Carson Daly, whose creative team dreamed up weekly segments called "Fun with TiVo Freeze Frames" capturing everyone from Larry King to Paula Abdul. In the popular Colbert Report on Comedy Central, TiVo is practically a regular on the program—organically cited 54 times on the program since February 2006. The episode of the popular CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother which aired the day after the Super Bowl was a virtual homage to TiVo, featuring the main characters praying to the "TiVo gods" to capture every minute of the Super Bowl for them while they were obligated to attend a funeral on the day of the Big Game. This was not the result of a heavily orchestrated product placement campaign but instead a completely organic occurrence attesting to the extent to which TiVo has penetrated pop culture.

We're not the only ones who dig this first-rate recorder—the Poguemeister from the New York Times also had a few choice loving words for the machine. If you're sick and tired of waiting for those CableCard-equipped Windows Media Center PCs, this might be the way to go. Get 'em while they're hot. – Charlie White

UPDATE: Unfortunately, our sources at Amazon say that rebate was applied to the TiVo Series3 in error. It's been removed. Dang! But you can still get it for $659.99, a far cry from $489.99 but still not as bad as $800. -CW

Product Page [Amazon]

But there are some things both systems can do, and that's where we'll compare Apple TV versus TiVo. For example, how well does the TiVo Series3 display photos compared to the Apple TV? How about playing music, or displaying downloaded content from iTunes compared to TiVo's downloaded content from its latest partnership with Amazon and its Unbox service?

Downloaded Content
It's now possible to download TV shows and movies with TiVo, using Amazon's Unbox service. Both Unbox and the iTunes Store don't have enough movie and TV show content for our taste, and both can't deliver HDTV movies or TV shows. So in our mind, for now, they both suck. In fact, the content from both is hardly even DVD quality. We downloaded this season's first episode of 24 from both Amazon Unbox on the TiVo (pictured above, at left) and the iTunes Store (both were $1.99). Take a look at one versus the other, and you might agree that both are just fugly. TiVo has a slight quality edge, where its widescreen picture isn't scaled all the way out to the edges of the screen, but had decidedly better color saturation. The Apple iTunes TV show we downloaded looked washed out by comparison. Advantage: TiVo

User Interface
But when I looked at their attendant software and user interface, Apple sucks less. It has better-looking graphics and a pleasing subtlety that's missing on the TiVo user interface. For instance, when you push the Play button, Apple TV dissolves to the program, and then dissolves out the position indicator bar after a few seconds. Not so with the TiVo, which merely takes the shot from one source to the other, and pops out the superimposed titles. Advantage: Apple TV

Remote Control
What about the remote? Apple has made a valiant effort with its tiny pack-of-gum-sized remote, but it doesn't come close to that of the TiVo, with its famed ergonomics and lightning-quick response. Apple TV's remote responds quickly, but it's about a half-second behind TiVo's remote. However, both remotes are exceedingly powerful, not requiring you to point them directly at the box in order to control it. Still, TiVo wins in the battle for the remote. Advantage: TiVo

Photo Display
Displaying photos is a clear win for Apple TV. Where TiVo lets you team up with its TiVo desktop software and import pictures (and a beta version will soon let you import HDTV-rez pictures), Apple has this photo display thing down pat. TiVo's interface just feels downright clunky next to Apple's smooth and artful photo display routine. You can pick a music playlist as accompaniment, and then Apple TV will show you a beautiful Ken Burns effect with each of your photos in a slide show that's extensively configurable. Plus, your photos show up in a beautiful montage screensaver effect throughout the Apple TV interface. It's gorgeous, and slam-dunks TiVo. Advantage: Apple TV

Playing Music
Here's another win for Apple TV, where music is easier to get to with Apple's ergonomic sliding-style interface, with better graphics and easier classifications. Even when you don't have any album art, the Apple TV looks better than the bare-bones TiVo music interface, if you could even call it that. However, it's clumsy to get to large music libraries on either the TiVo or Apple TV, and add to that TiVo's disadvantage of not being able to play back any songs you bought on the iTunes music store. Advantage: Apple TV

HD, DivX and XviD Files
We're not crazy about the fact that neither can handle XviD or DivX files right out of the box (yeah, you can hack them, but that's not easy to do), and both are locked up tighter than a drum with DRM. Apple TV files download faster from iTunes than the Amazon Unbox ones do (notice the "Can't Play Now" label on the TiVo screen above). That said, both seem to be taking baby steps toward bringing online content to the living room, and both are shying away from HDTV downloaded content now, which is almost a deal breaker in our book. Both are full of potential, but are relatively lame so far, compared with what they someday will be able to do. Advantage: Neither (Xbox 360)

Verdict: Which is Better?
Playing music, displaying photos, and playing video files via a network seems to be an afterthought for the TiVo, and Apple TV bested it in each of these categories. However, TiVo completely outclasses Apple TV when it comes to having two CableCards on board, being able to record HDTV and play it back perfectly. TiVo Series3 is a PVR, and is a far more versatile machine, as its $800 price tag reflects, versus the $300 price tag of Apple TV. Advantage: Not Comparable

Which to Buy?
Apple TV and TiVo can coexist in a home theater system, and it's not a zero-sum game. If you're interested in watching downloaded video from iTunes, seeing photos and music in your home theater, and don't care about HDTV, Apple TV would be a great addition to your playback arsenal.

But if you care about HDTV, TiVo Series3 would be your best choice now, and maybe its comparatively plain user interface will serve your needs as far as Internet television, photos, and music are concerned. Apple TV just feels like an unfinished box that's full of potential, and as soon as it's able to download and play back HDTV, all it'll need is a couple of CableCards inside to seriously challenge TiVo's Series3.

Until then, we're thinking the ultimate solution is to have both these set-top boxes sitting side by side in your home theater. Advantage: You Need Both. – Charlie White

Check out this gallery with enlarged views of the user interfaces and more comments and captions:

Product Page [via TiVo Lovers]

TiVo also says a number of bugs and issues have been addressed, of which we've noticed few in our Series3 we bought six months ago. TiVo started trickling out the software this week, making sure there are no major problems before rolling out the update to everyone else beginning next week.

Although we're disappointed there's still no TiVoToGo or multi-room viewing support, the slight slate of new features and bug fixes are certainly welcome. – Charlie White

TiVo Series3 8.1 Software Rollout Begins [Zatz Not Funny]

Today, a Gizmodo reader heard directly from a TiVo customer service rep that the mega expensive Series 3 DVR would receive a significant price drop by end of Q1. As always, we'll take it with a grain of salt, but the reader's wrote from a work email of a well known mega corp, so it weighs a bit more in my mind than the average random hotmail.

This could be good news for TiVo's sales of the series 3 boxes, and good news for the TiVo fanboys. (That's us.) Now, just get those Comcast TiVo boxes out into the marketplace, and DVR nerds will be gulping down the TiVo coolaid like it's 2001 all over again.

Tivo [Gizmodo]