firedawg's Full Review: 300-hr TiVo® Series3â„¢ Video Recorder
I’ve been a TiVo fan for about 3 years now since buying my first Series 2 recorder and just got my Series 3 two months ago. My biggest reasons for upgrading was the THX certification and the choices for outputs on the Series 3 (Component video & Optical audio). I have digital cable and have been completely disappointed by the outputs on their digital cable boxes, you pay the extra money and once that signal comes out of the box, it is analog, completely destroying the whole idea of “digital cable”. With the Series 3 box, you get rid of the cable box all together, the signal is decoded through the use of 2 cable cards and is kept digital through the component, optical and HDMI outputs truly optimizing the home theater effect for digital cable.
The dual tuner feature of the Series 3 is awesome, my Series 2 only had the single tuner and I had no clue what I was missing, being able to record 2 shows or record 1 and watch another, now I never miss any shows on the prime time line-up, and find myself drawn into new shows that I could never watch before due to scheduling conflicts.
I do not have a HD television yet, but I am definitely ready with the HDMI output on the Series 3 box, which is definitely a huge advantage. The 300+ hour recording time (for standard definition broadcasts) is extremely nice to have so I can schedule all my favorite shows with a season pass and not have to worry about watching them right away to clear space for the next showing, I truly can watch them at my leisure.
The menus and setup of the unit is very simple, and you are walked through everything making it very hard to NOT know what to do even without reading the owners manual (or viewers guide as TiVo calls it). Throughout the first couple months you will receive messages from TiVo letting you know of features you may not have tried yet, which is nice for the beginner. In addition, you don’t have to worry about missing something when your cable service provider changes it’s channel line-up, as TiVo will send you a message letting you know what channel has been added, deleted or moved, which (at least for my cable provider) is more than the cable company does.
While there isn’t a significant NUMBER of upgrades to the remote between Series 2 and Series 3, the QUALITY of those upgrades makes it worth it. The new remote incorporates a backlight which is nice and bright making it easy to see all buttons in a dark room. The remote overall also just feels very durable. Another very nice thing with the Series 3 is that a very nice selection of cables are provided with the unit, including component video, HDMI and the standard composite a/v cable. Most new A/V products now will just provide you with the standard composite a/v cable to get you started, even some of the highest-end tv's.
The lack of multi-room viewing and TiVo-to-go (2 of the most popular Series 2 features) is a pretty good size downfall however. I was not aware of the lack of these features before buying my Series 3 (seems to be kept mostly in the small print on TiVo’s website). TiVo says they are on their way in a future upgrade though.
UPDATE (12/4/2007)
TiVo has added TiVo to go ability and Multi Room Viewing capability to the TiVo Series 3 units!!!
TiVo Series 3 Tivo HD 1TB Upgrade Kit - New Click to Enlarge Tivo Series 3 HD 1TB Drive upgrade Kit - Plug Play - Simple Installation Anyone Can Do HT...More at eBay
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