Note that the original Series3 (TCD648250) requires two CableCARDs – S-Cards or M-Cards. While the TiVo HD (TCD652160) can utilize a single M-Card. Depending on what your cable company charges for CableCARDs this may or may not be a factor in your decision. The original S3 has the fancy OLED front panel display and the Glo remote, while the TiVo HD has the basic LED indicator lights and a non-Glo remote.

They also have the older Series1 and Series2 units with internal analog tuners and support for external set top boxes, both single-tuner ($299.99) and dual-tuner ($349.99) models. They even have Pioneer TiVo Series2 DVD combo units ($399.99). These units are available in 40GB (single-tuner) or 80GB (dual-tuner & DVD) base models, or upgraded to 80GB ($19.00 S2), 500GB ($99.00 S2 – $149.00 DVD), or 1TB ($149.00 S2 – $199.00 DVD).

The real old-school Series1 units are available in Philips ($199.99) or Sony ($249.99) models, both with 40GB. Upgrades to 80GB ($19.00) or 120GB ($39.00) are available. While I could see some reasons to buy the Series2 units, I really can’t see why someone would want one of the Series1 units these days. Maybe someone really into TiVo hacking with the old TiVoWeb and the like, but even then I doubt it.

All of these units have been refurbished and tested by WeaKnees, and they come with a six month parts and labor warranty. Quantities are limited, so grab one now if you’re interested.

Via the WeaKnees Blog.

Now DIGITIMES has spotted the disc being exhibited at the IT Month fair currently taking place in Taipei, Taiwan. As before it is a 16-layer read-only disc, 25GB per layer just like Blu-ray. And they’re working on a 500GB, 20-layer version, with a 1TB target by 2013. The current version is targeted for 2008-2010, with rewritable discs in 2010-2012.

Spotted via Gizmodo.

We’ve already seen prototypes of 100GB and 200GB evolutions of Blu-ray. Now Pioneer has pushed Blu-ray technology to 400GB! Both PC World and TechRadar UK reported on the development. Best of all, it is reportedly backward compatible with today’s Blu-ray hardware. In theory that means existing drives could handle the higher capacity media with a firmware update.

Pioneer has achieved this capacity by stacking sixteen 25GB layers, compared to the two 25GB layers on a standard Blu-ray disc. They’ve done this by solving the interference issue which results from stacking an increasing number of data layers on top of each other. But they’ve managed to do so using the same optical specifications of the objective lens, maintaining Blu-ray compatibility.

Expanded capacity like this would likely first be used in data applications, for backup, etc. While some unusually long films might be able to use more than 50GB for HD home video, 50GB is enough for most videos up to 1080p. But there are already newer video standards appearing, such as 3D video or 4k video, which is 4096×1716. That’s the resolution used for digital cinema projection in movie theaters, and it is nearly 3.5x the resolution of ‘Full HD’ 1080p home video. When you go to higher resolutions and/or add data to support 3D displays, then you need higher capacity media.

Backwards compatibility could be useful as such discs could use the ‘top’ two layers just like a standard Blu-ray disc that would work in any existing player. While the remaining layers could be used for newer standards like 4k or 3D, and work in newer players that support those technologies.