Deals, Deals, Deals…

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 by MegaZone

There are a few deals out there right now.

First of all, the $200 rebate on the original Series3 kicked in on Sunday. You can grab the PDF here. To support the site you can purchase a Series3 via these links from DVRupgrade.com (including expanded units), Amazon.com, Buy.com, or BestBuy.com.

Buy.com also has a special Slingbox PRO and Sling HD Connect Cable Bundle for $189.99! That’s less than the MSRP of the Slingbox Pro alone – which is $229.99. The HD Connect lists for $49.99. That’s a really good deal, and the Slingbox Pro is a great companion for the TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD. (Amazon lists the Slingbox Pro for $198.00 and the HD Connect for $39.99, just as an example of what you’d normally pay.)

Continuing the Buy.com deals, they have the 80-hour single-tuner Series2 for just $139. What’s so special about that? There is currently a $170 rebate on that box! That’s right, buy it and make $31! Sure, it isn’t dual-tuner or high-definition, but if you just have analog cable or are looking for an additional TiVo for the bedroom, etc, it isn’t a bad deal. And remember MRV is coming to the S3 and HD in November and you’ll be able to transfer SD content to this box over the network. (But no HD content.)

And, if you really want the dual-tuners, Buy.com has the 80-hour dual-tuner Series2DT for $219.99 With a $150 rebate that’s $69.99. With shipping it is $85.64 – which happens to be the same price as Amazon.com (including shipping). So either one.

And if you plan to connect any TiVo using WiFi, be sure to pick up the TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter.

If you pick up a new TiVo, using TiVo Lovers as your TiVo Rewards referrer is always appreciated.

Thanks to TiVo Blog for the tip on the $31 S2 deal.

Posted in Sling Media, TiVo | Leave a comment

TiVo at the Maxim Group Growth Conference

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 by MegaZone

I just listened to the webcast of Tom Rogers, TiVo’s CEO, from the Maxim Group Growth Conference. Frankly, there wasn’t really anything new – we heard most of it on the last quarterly conference call.

From the Q&A, Comcast had ‘Comcast TiVo day’ about a week ago, and had about 800 New England region Comcast employees getting revved up for the TiVo roll-out which is imminent.

“Get any song you want” coming soon – any of 3 million songs available on the TiVo, any time. He didn’t say the name, but it sounds like the previously announced Real Networks Rhapsody deal.

He made more comments strongly hinting that DirecTV and TiVo may be getting together again once the Liberty Media purchase of DirecTV finalizes later this year.

Not much really.

Posted in OCAP, TiVo | Leave a comment

ReplayTV launches ReplayTV Personal HD

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 by MegaZone

Well, it looks like the leak and my speculation from the other day were both accurate. ReplayTV officially announced the ReplayTV Personal HD bundle with a press release yesterday. As speculated, it is a USB 2.0 NTSC/ATSC tuner bundled with a basic HD antenna, a remote control (in PCCard form factor for easy storage in a laptop), and the ReplayTV PC-based software. It has a $99.95 MSRP, which includes one year of guide data – after that it is $19.95/year. It is supposed to ship in November. It does appear to be the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950 repackaged, as suspected.

Overall, I’m not impressed. There is nothing new or unique here, you can get the same hardware from Hauppauge, or re-branded from Elgato as well. This is Windows-only and only handles NTSC/ATSC from antenna, or analog cable. They’ve just bundled the existing ReplayTV PC-software with the existing Hauppage dongle and a generic remote. Not that exciting.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, the ‘ReplayPC’ software is a lame duck and there are several better options. This is not the ReplayTV of old.

Posted in ReplayTV | 1 Comment

Thank you Michael

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 by MegaZone

Thank you for the TiVo Rewards Referral, Michael. It is appreciated!

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Can’t imagine life without a TiVo or DVR?

Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 by MegaZone

If you’re addicted to your TiVo, or any DVR, and couldn’t imagine going back to the pre-DVR days – then the Good Morning America Weekend Edition wants to hear from you. Fill out the form at that page, tell a little story about how you can’t live without your TiVo, and you might be contacted for an upcoming story on DVR use.

Or you can always fill it out and tell them they really need to talk to that geek MegaZone and point them at the site. ;-) (Yes, I filled it out for myself already.)

Posted in DVR, TiVo | Leave a comment