Review: TiVo Series 3 HD Digital Media Recorder

Even though the TiVo Series 3 has been out for a few months, we haven't seen many reviews out there yet. We guess the lack of exposure has to do with how many people are willing to spend almost $800 on a box that requires a contract. Anyway, here's a small but decent review at HolidayGadgetGuide.FederatedMedia.net:

About six weeks ago, a Comcast truck rolled away from my house and I finally had my new Series 3 TiVo up and running. For the past year, I’ve been using Comcast’s HD DVR and it’s been a bear to use, buggy, and unreliable (my review). I bought a Series 3 TiVo on the day it was released just to get away from the old box. What follows are my impressions from my time so far with the new device.

Here's a couple of the high points that the article notes:

• Hands down, still the best interface in recordable TV. I realized I was watching less TV and not marking new programs to be recorded on my old Comcast DVR because the interface was so cumbersome and time-consuming. The TiVo is just natural to use.
• HD video quality is perfect, standard def at high quality looks great too, much better than the default Comcast DVR recordings. Since the 250Gb drive can record hundreds of hours of standard TV, I set it to High Quality (2nd highest) and was impressed as it was much better than my Comcast DVR’s standard def recordings.

And of course, one of the biggest low points:

• The price is high. No doubt, the biggest drawback to the Series 3 TiVo is the price. Suggested list is $799 and if you shop around you can save about $100 off that price. On top of the high cost of hardware, you also have to pay for a monthly subscription in 1, 2, and 3 year increments (that range from $12.95-19.95, depending on length). This is definitely high end gear and it carries the price to match.

We definitely agree with this low point but we expect to see the price of the Series 3 to start slowly come down after the Holidays. Be sure to read about all of the high and low points in the article:

At HolidayGadgetGuide.FederatedMedia.net

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