Wild rumor: Series 3 TiVo out on September 13th?

I noticed this comment on an old post here and this other comment HD Beat claiming that TiVo will announce the Series 3 formally on 9/12 and have it for sale the next day. Both are unsupported rumors that I'd rate up there with year 2000 doomsday predictions, but I'm posting these pointers because I really hope it is true.

I can't find anything solid to back up these claims. I've tried every nook and cranny of the TiVo site... about the only thing linking 9/13 to anything is a speaking appearance by a TiVo exec in NYC, but that's for a mobile media talk, nothing about HD or technology releases.

So, mysterious anonymous commentors, got any goods to back up the claims of 9/12-9/13 Series 3 launches?

Comments

[Lee]

Saw a link to the following at Tivocommunity.com: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=716163

[MK153]

I was the original poster to the link above - so for the lazy here is what I said:

I work at Best Buy and it popped up in our system today - its "In-Stock" date is 9/17/2006 with a Best Buy SKU of 7974418 (UPC of 400079744186 and Model TCD648250B).

The price is $799.99

Thought all of you would like to know - That "In-Stock" date is for our warehouses - the "Street Date" field is left blank - but I am guessing "Coming Soon" is really damn soon.

[Matt Haughey]

Whoa, $800 for the S3?

I was thinking they would try and get it in the $300-500 range. I'll still buy one at that price, but I never thought I'd see it be above $499.

Hopefully we're talking 500Gb of HD at that price.

[MK153]

It is a 250GB drive - you can expand it with its eSATA port and external hard-drives.

[Philip Spicer]

That is the same price that Sony had for their HD DVR last year (DHG-HDD250). Hopefully the Tivo is more reliable than Sony's effort.

[Wendell]

Wow $799. That hurts. I too was think $400 to $500. I guess I have 2-3 weeks to decide.

[Robert]

I would take the posting with a grain of salt. The tip-off is the UPC number - numbers starting with a 4 are dummy UPC numbers:

"Dummy (number system 4) UPCs are for private use. This means anybody (typically a retailer) that needs to assign a UPC to an item that doesn't already have one, can use any number system 4 UPC it chooses. Most importantly, they can know that by doing so, they won't pick one that may already be used. So, such a UPC can and does mean something different depending on who you ask, and there's no reason to try to keep track of what products these correspond to."

http://www.upcdatabase.com/dummyupc.asp?session-id=007a881736f4a0010b3f46ba9bd13e82&upc=0400079744186

[Aaron Rosenbaum]

One explanation....

Cedia (the largest, most important conference for the custom install industry) is that week....If it is $800/unit, they might care about the custom install industry (not that they have ever cared before).

[GameJerk]

This was also in the latest TIVO newsletter. I want this so bad but 800 bones is a lot of money.

"...Meanwhile, keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks for a defining moment, oh yes. Watch your e-mail Inbox. Your TiVo Central screen. The twinkling eyes of your best TiVo friend."

Coy? Me?
Shanan

[Gene]

Can't be too soon -- Comcast (at least, here in TiVo's backyard in Silicon Valley) has started displaying banner ads on DVR guide screens and generally mucking around with the interface to make it unneccessarily complex and annoying. At least when TiVo annoys us with ads, they aren't intrusive. Comcast's ads interfere with guide navigation by intercepting arrow-downs as you scroll through channels. What's more, the banner ad eliminates one row of channels, meaning that it takes even longer to scroll through the list (since the DVR doesn't allow the user to remove channels he or she doesn't subscribe to).
$799 is a huge outlay, and I am not certain that I can justify spending that much -- but Comcast's continual annoyances and DVR wonkiness make it a bit more attractive.

[Wendell]

Closer
Closer
Closer still.....
http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/31/tivo-series-3-unboxed/

[CC Guy]

Tivo Series 3 just hit some of Circuit City's warehouses. The internal price list shows $799.99. Should be hitting the stores very soon.

[Peter]

Get it now: http://www.tivo.com

[Mark Jeweler]

It's actually out now. Looks fantastic, can't wait to see it in action. Can't stomach the price though. For more thoughts, check out my blog, at http://www.markjeweler.com/miscblog/2006/09/tivo-series-3-released.html

[Joe]

I just got my series 3. Haven't had a chance to play with it yet, I'm backing up the drive before I turn it on.

[Randy]

Is it possible to upgrade/change a hard drive on the Sony DHG-HDD250 or 500? If so, does anyone know how?