To go along with today’s Rhapsody announcement, TiVo has launched a new promotion. Buy a TiVo HD or Series2DT, sign up for monthly TiVo service, and get three months of free TiVo and free Rhapsody service - and a free refurbished TiVo WiFi adapter.

The 80-hour Series2DT is $99.99 and the TiVo HD is $299.99, then you need a monthly 1-, 2-, or 3-year service plan for $16.95, $14.95, or $12.95, respectively. This special runs from October 9, 2007 through December 31, 2007.

If you plan to use Rhapsody and need to pay monthly for TiVo, this is a decent deal. Note the three free months of Rhapsody are only good for new subscribers, not existing Rhapsody users.

However, if you don’t plan to use Rhapsody or if you can pre-pay for 3-years of service for $299 (which comes to $8.31 a month), that’s much better. You can get the 80-hour S2DT for $50 through October 23 through this affiliate deal, $70 through Big Lots (remember, it was confirmed TiVo does not consider those eligible for rebate), or $86.98 (after rebate) from Amazon.com.

Amazon has the TiVo HD for $249.00.

And the TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter is just $44.99.

You can buy a new TiVo HD and a new WiFi adapter for less than the HD and refurb WiFi bundle. You don’t get the free service - but if you pre-pay 3-years you far more than make up for it. Even if you were silly and went $279 for 2-years instead of $299 for 3-years (really, why would you)? You’d come out ahead compared to the 2-year monthly bundle. At one year the monthly plus the three free months puts it slightly ahead.

So if you can’t swing the pre-payment and want to pay monthly, and you’ll get some use out of Rhapsody, this promo is worth a look.

TiVo’s CEO Tom Rogers spoke at the Natixis Bleichroeder Hidden Gems Conference today and I had it on in the background while working and caught a few things. Again, there wasn’t really a lot new - just repetition of things that were said in the past.

He says that Comcast should “very, very shortly” deploy the TiVo software to non-Comcast employees. And while he wouldn’t disclose the fee for the TiVo service, he said it would only be “a modest up-charge” over the standard Comcast DVR. (Speculation has been in the $3-5/month range.) Cox is planning a ballpark time frame of six months after Comcast deploys the software. Originally Comcast was going to deploy in early summer and Cox by the end of the year, but now it looks like Cox will not deploy until 2008.

As for the EchoStar appeal, TiVo isn’t expecting a ruling for 4-6 months.

Rogers re-iterated that the TiVo HD is not subsidized when sold directly from TiVo.com, but it does have a small subsidy at retail.

And, again, he made several comments hinting that DirecTV and TiVo may cozy up again once Liberty Media completes the acquisition of DTV later this year.

Amazon has dropped the price on the TiVo HD to $249.00. That’s $50.99 off the $299.99 MSRP.

Amazon also has the TiVo Series3 HD for $574.99, $225 off the $799.99 MSRP. PLUS, there is a $200 rebate which brings the cost down to $374.99. That’s less than half the MSRP.

And if you plan to use the unit on WiFi, don’t forget the TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter.

If you get a new box, the TiVo Rewards Referral is always appreciated.

EngadgetHD managed to get a couple of screenshots of the forthcoming TiVo HME Rhapsody interface. It is nice to see this is making progress, and hopefully will be released soon. The partnership with Real Networks was originally announced at CES back in January, and it has been mentioned a couple of times since.

It is especially nice to see this coming to fruition, since TiVo’s first partnership with Real Networks, announced way back in 2001 along with the Series2, fizzled out. For those who weren’t following TiVo back then, when the Series2 was first announced TiVo announced three partnerships to bring network content to the unit - Real Networks for music and video, Radiance for movies, and JellyVision for games. That was long before TiVo acquired Strangeberry in 2004 and used their technology to develop Home Media Engine.

Edit: Well, as soon as I posted this I saw a post pop up on Gizmodo with more detail. This isn’t releasing soon, it is releasing now! Gizmodo has a slew of screenshots and an overview of the interface and usage. A bit of a mini-review. Both Gizmodo and the press release below say you can get more information, and sign up for a priority list to get this on your TiVo sooner, at http://www.tivo.com/rhapsody. However, it looks like that page isn’t up yet. Since the press release is dated the 9th (Tuesday), I would expect the page to be up sometime later today.

TiVo users get a 30-day free trial of the service. After that it is $12.95 a month for a Rhapsody subscription. Existing Rhapsody subscribers can access their existing account from the TiVo as well. Basically the TiVo is just another way to access the account - and you can access the same account from a PC, and use it with any Rhapsody-compatible music player.

And, as I type, CNet just posted an article on this.

Here’s the press release:
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