Rich Fiscus
27 Jul 2007 21:22
This week TiVo Inc. officially announced a new, lower priced, version of it's Series3 DVR. The company will begin taking pre-orders for it on its Web site Tuesday, and units are expected to hit retail outlets by early August.
"It won't suddenly unlock the door and sell millions," said James McQuivey, a vice president and analyst at Forrester Research. "But this seems like a good way to satisfy people who want the high-quality experience that TiVo is known for - with a product that will move off store shelves."
The TiVo HD DVR has many of the same technical features as its higher-priced Series3 cousin. It has two tuners, so subscribers can record two different shows in HD at the same time while watching a third, prerecorded show. It also has two built-in slots for CableCARD, allowing users to access digital programming without a separate device from the cable TV provider.
As reported on Afterdawn earlier this month, the new model will have a smaller hard drive than the original (160GB vs 250GB), as well as a simpler remote control.
Contrary to rumors earlier in the month, The device does have an external hard drive port for expanded storage, but TiVo officials say that feature won't be activated until later.
Source: Associated Press