HD TiVOs Begin Shipping
It's official, the HD TiVOs have finally begun shipping. They're going to be priced at around a thousand bucks for now, but expect a new customer special in the next few months that should make it cheaper (I'm going to guess $399 or $499 with a year contract).
The demand for these units is through the roof. I know at least three friends with existing pre-orders and I have no idea if the current shipments will meet even the pre-order demand. Yesterday I heard that BestBuy put their first shipment of 200 units up on their website and sold out of them within a few hours.
Early reviews are already being posted to the TiVo Community forums, and they're already uncovering a whole range of problems with signal conversion. I'm a technogeek and I love gadgets, but I gotta admit HDTV can be insanely complicated with the different formats and up-conversion on both a TV and a HDTivo.
DirecTV has promised me a review unit soon, though I don't have a HDTV monitor yet and am debating buying a 30" tube set while I wait a year or two for LCDs to come down in price (I'm also open to review any HDTV sets here, if any company would like to offer that for me).
I faced the same dilemma: I wanted a large HDTV, but could only afford a smaller one. For the $700 or so I paid, the Samsung TXN3097 has been a terrific buy: great PQ, a 16:9 screen, decent sound. Look around locally and you may be able to get a good deal.
Posted by: paul | April 26, 2004 at 02:59 AM
I would hope that DirecTV offers a deal for current subscribers and not just new subscribers. I'm going to wait until the cost of an HD DirecTivo gets down to $399 or less. I've already got a nice HDTV but I can't justify spending more than $400 on a receiver that currently only has a few channels in HD.
Posted by: Scott | April 26, 2004 at 09:51 AM
This model also picks up OTA HD channels, though. If you are in range of antennas, you can pick up the locals. You get two DirecTV lines in, two OTA lines in, and it can record any two at once.
Also, LCDs are terrible for high-action movies (basically, the pixels can't change fast enough). I would get a (relatively) cheap HDTV tube now and wait a year or so to get a DLP screen when they come down in price.
Posted by: josh | April 26, 2004 at 10:30 AM
I have an HDTV with Comcast, and supposedly my digital cable box already has hdtv pvr capability. That being said, once Comcast starts offering HD PVR features, why on earth would I want to spend even 400 bucks on another system? My point is, I just don't see Tivo surviving.
On a side note, does anyone how to wire an HDTV with a non-hdtv tivo? I wanna record just the analog and digital channels.
Thanks!
Posted by: cheapbastard | April 26, 2004 at 06:55 PM
The price is not for just a TiVo but for a DirecTV receiver with Tivo built in. I haven't heard of any plans for a stand-alone HD TiVo.
Posted by: Scott | April 27, 2004 at 07:06 AM
Has anyone had a chance to check out the new LG HDPVR yet? I have 2 HD Monitors and currently use standard dish network PVR and am watching and waiting to decide what and who to use for HD programming. I mostly watch local channels and get good OTA reception of HD, but I can't live without my PVR and commercial skipping.
Posted by: Steve | April 27, 2004 at 08:10 AM
Hey, Just stumbled onto this site. I was looking for a HDTV sat box with Tivo AND a DVD recorder built in. That way you could record to Tivo and transfer shows to DVD for permanent storage. Does anybody know if such a thing is available yet? Thanks, Mike
Posted by: mykee | April 28, 2004 at 12:41 PM
Hey Mykee check out the Pioneer DVR-810H
Posted by: Solomon | July 09, 2004 at 08:53 PM
Bought the Sony SAT-HD200 a year or so ago.
What I like: one tuner, all inputs (of-air, DirecTV, Cable). Not a bad interface. Its been (fairly) reliable.
What I don't like: the dearth of HD programming on DirecTV, having spent something like $800 for it and now to get HD PVR I'm in for ANOTHER grand.
Guess its just too early for all this stuff to finish converging, get the content streams more full of HD content, and at a decent price. Still waiting, I guess, but the PVR need is hot enough that I'm thinking of getting a standard $99 tuner, paying the extra $5 a month and biting the bullet.
Posted by: Chris | January 16, 2005 at 03:08 PM
What frustrates me is that without a fancy HD Tivo, where isn't an obvious way to Tivo digital off-air content. This because of a really simple channel mapping issue - how does one get Tivo to tune channel 5-1? I'm downconverting my picture to 480i anyway to view on my analog TV, so I don't need a new Tivo ... more on my blog, link below.
Posted by: glen martin | January 29, 2005 at 09:36 AM
Ok, the link didn't show up, despite the preview. So here it is: http://blog.glen-martin.com/read/1038665.htm
Posted by: glen martin | January 29, 2005 at 09:38 AM
2008 updates:
Tivo HDTV now cost 280$.
Tivo hdtv faq: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=9f65c891706e3d7b16aab00f93352386&t=151443
I like tecnology, i love this stuff!!
Signed: cheapHDTV.biz
Posted by: CheapHdtv Fan | April 28, 2008 at 07:21 AM