It would’ve been more surprising if TiVo hadn’t extended their rebates, given the track record for the last several cycles. They last extended them in April, but that rebate expired on 6/28. So starting on 6/29, and running through 8/30, a new rebate takes over. Slightly different terms than the last one - $200 off a TiVo Series3 (TCD648) or $150 off a Series2DT (TCD649), there is no longer any rebate on the old single-tuner Series2. You can get the rebate form in HTML or PDF and pre-qualify via TiVo’s website.

The rebate brings the Series3 down to $392.45 through Amazon (and as low as $381.97 through their 3rd party sellers), and the Series2DT down to $65.99 through Amazon.

Personally I wouldn’t go with either of those, but rather the TiVo HD at $249.40, especially if you’re considering the Series3. Get the TiVo HD and pick up the Glo remote separately and save some money. If you plan to use any of these units with WiFi, remember to pick up a TiVo USB WiFi Adapter.

You can also pick up a factory-renewed TiVo HD for $199.99.

Via TiVo Blog.

Reader Rob Brooks-Bilson sent me a tip about a letter he’d received from Cox Communications in Phoenix, AZ, which he posted about in his blog and scanned into PDF. The big news is that Cox will be implementing SDV of July 1,2008. The bigger news is that later this year they will be offering Tuning Adapters to their users - FREE! I believe this is the first time we’ve heard of any firm pricing plans from a cable MSO with regard to the Tuning Adapter.

Notice to TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD owners: Cox, along with others in the cable industry, has worked with TiVo lnc to develop an external device called a Tuning Adapter that will allow TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD devices using CableCARDs to access channels delivered via SDV. Availability of the Tuning Adapter is expected later this year. At that time additional information will be sent to you. The Tuning Adapter will be provided by Cox at no charge. In the interim, continued access to channels delivered via SDV is available with a Cox digital set top receiver.

I have to say that Cox’s letter is very clear overall and explains the issues around SDV clearly and without unnecessary drama, and other cable MSOs could take a lesson from this. There is no FUD, no attempt to spook customers into jumping onto a Cox STB - quite the opposite really. I think the letter is clear and concise, I wish more companies communicated in this fashion.

So, it sounds like there will be a period of time between July 1, 2008, when Cox begins using SDV, and a point later in the year when they begin offering the Tuning Adapter, where users may lose access to some of their channels, unless they get a Cox STB for the interim. Since the Tuning Adapters are scheduled to be certified by CableLabs at the end of June, hopefully the gap will be a short one. But in any case it is nice to know they’ll be offering the TA for free. Hopefully this will be across all of Cox’s systems and not limited to Phoenix.

Mark noticed that Amazon is now carrying the 500GB eSATA Western Digital My DVR Expander, the only drive currently approved for use with the TiVo Series3 and the TiVo HD, in fact the only drive that works with the TiVo HD without hacking. It looks like Amazon started stocking it on April 30th. The $192.23 price is better than the full $199.99 MSRP that TiVo.com sells them for, but not the lowest price available online, for example, Buy.com has it for $172.99. I use one of these with my Series3 and it works great. I’ve also updated the site store.

DVRupgrade posted their “Top Ten Reasons To Buy a TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD DVR“, and that got me thinking about what I’d put on my list. I agree with most of their list, but not all of it. For example, I’m not a big user of TiVoToGo, in fact I hardly ever use it. While I do regularly transfer video to my TiVo, I prefer Slingbox over TiVoToGo for accessing my content remotely. Likewise I use my Slingbox for remote scheduling and really never use the web for that. And, being a single guy who lives alone, KidZone is of no use to me. Conversely, I use the various Internet features so much and value them so highly that I probably would’ve listed things like TiVoCast, TiVo Web Video, HME applications, etc, separately instead of as one entry. And since they’re talking about the Series3 and TiVo HD in particular, I’d've mentioned the HD content.

How about you? How would your top ten list compare to theirs?

I figured I should follow up on my post from Saturday, filling in the rest of the story. To recap I’d lost three HD channels on my cable - 734 AETVHD, 735 HISTORYHD, and 742 MOJOHD. I think I failed to mention last time that I’d also been experiencing some pixelation on some of my SD digital channels as well, for the past couple of weeks. It wasn’t as big of an issue since it was mostly on channels I never watch. The only one that got me was IFC, since I record Speed Grapher and Witchblade on Friday nights. But even then it seemed to only pixelate on one tuner of my S3, the other tuner worked OK and the cable box on the bedroom S2 would work OK as well. So I wasn’t sure if it was the cable or the TiVo, and I hadn’t had time to really look into it.

Since this is long, I’ll cut it.
Read the rest of this entry »

So, shortly after 22:00 Friday night I checked my TiVo Series3 and attempted to watch my in-progress recording of Shockwave off HistoryHD. But it was null - so going to LiveTV I get the ‘Searching for signal’ error. Checking other channels I see that 734 AETVHD, 735 HISTORYHD, and 742 MOJOHD are all giving that error - on both tuners. So I tried a reboot - the standard IT fix. No joy. Then I tried to call 1-800-GET-CHARTER - which is, appropriately, 1-800-GET-CHAR, really. I got a fast busy - repeated attempts got either a standard busy or a fast busy. That started at 22:32, and I’ve made repeated attempts, even just tried again at 23:53 - same result. So either their customer service center is offline, or they’re being hammered and all the lines are in use. Either way, not a good sign.

OK, so I turned to the web site. I normally avoid the online support because it is so much easier to explain to someone over the phone what is going on and I find it generally takes me much less time to cut to the chase and get a result on the phone. But since the phone wasn’t an option, I decided to try the online chat.

I’ll but this behind a cut since it gets long.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, in the past couple of days there has been an interesting flurry of online activity about CableCARD, Switched Digital Video (SDV), and the Tuning Resolver. HD GURU posted an ‘investigative report’ entitled “How The Cable Industry Plans to Cheat 10+ Million HDTV Owners”, so you might guess at the tone. Unfortunately, there are a few factual errors in the post - for example, all CableCARDs are two-way capable and always have been. Mike Schwartz from CableLabs responded with an extensive comment that I recommend reading if you read the post. (I’d link to it but the blog doesn’t appear to support comment links, just scroll down a bit.)

The HDTiVo Blog picked it up from there (which is where I found the link to the HD GURU post). Gizmodo also picked up the story, though I have a nit to pick: “Our friend Gary Merson, the HD Guru, has uncovered an issue that may soon piss you off.” Uncovered? Gizmodo hasn’t been paying attention, blogs such as this one, Zatz Not Funny, and others have mentioned the SDV issue and Tuning Resolver repeatedly for quite a while now. Just one example, the issue with Bright House cable pulling channels, and then returning them. This is hardly a surprise issue if you’ve been paying attention. And, unfortunately, Gizmodo repeated the errors from the original post.

Anyway, CableLabs responded to Gizmodo’s original post, and Gizmodo shared the information in a follow-up post. I’m glad a statement came out of it to help clarify things a bit, and correct the misconceptions.

Over at Zatz Not Funny,