Subject prety much says it all. Ok, not really....

6 different tuners built-in. 2 capture engines (so you can only record or encode two streams at once).

HDTV of course in the form of both ATSC and Cable (using Cablecard) and standard analog NTSC. Supports external TiVo drive(s) as well (which are not designed to be portable).

Expected "later in 2006"

Ok, discuss.

Bruno

Who thinks it will never see the light of day in the UK thanks to Rupert Murdoch?

Wait and see if the TGC one gets hacked for English? It is based on a S2 platform however but it does have 10/100 ethernet. If it is just for Taiwan then it'll be NTSC but if they're going to market it to China then it'll be PAL.

Yeah, I was super excited when I saw this on Engadget. My only problem with it is the assumption that your cable provider is worth a damn. Cox really has the most apt name of any company who ever existed. Every time I see a commercial for their digital cable service, touting the quality you'll be getting, I think about the horrible looking channels we had when we were Cox subscribers. I seriously doubt they'd do HD any better.

Still, I'm excited that Tivo's making the effort. I hope it keeps them afloat.

What's the point of 6 tuners if you can only record 2?

Hmm, a TIVO I can use to record HD from my cable co? Sounds good to me. Do I need to have a cable card ready TV or does the cable card go into the TIVO? I've been waiting for a HD TIVO that I can use with my cable company. The provided DVR is a bit weak.

I also have a Bell ExpressVu system, any chance I can hook this thing up to that to record HD stuff?

Goes into the TiVo. It has two slots.

I don't care about HD but the dual tuners would be nice.

I believe the cable companies are being forced to provide cable cards at some point.

You're out of luck with ExpressVu or any other non-cable (or Antenna) source with the new standalone Series 3. It doesn't have any composite or S-VIDEO input ports. And I don't believe you can use its coax input to record an external tunable device (such as a sat receiver).

I'm on cable right now but would like to move back to sat at some point in the future. I was hoping for this TiVo to also support recording from external sources. I mean since it also supports analog (non HD) cable, it makes sense that people would also be able to use it to record other non-HD content.

I'd also have a HUGE problem with the new box if it doesn't support a DirecTV-style program grid. If all that's available were a classic TiVo-style guide that would be a definite deal-breaker. What's the case for current Series2 (standalone) boxes everyone?

Bruno

I have no great love for DirecTV, but I do generally hate the cable companies. This tivo may make me switch back. DirecTV's current HDTV offering is crap. I'm not bitching about the content... I have an issue with the quality. It's as if they compress the hell out of the HD channels.

I'm sure DirecTV's NDS HDTV PVR will be dreck. The only way I will migrate to that when it comes will be if ripping shows from it is laughably easy.

So is this a directv-capable kinda thing, or just OTA and Cable? If the former, will it do the new thingy with the new MPEG-4 bird?

Just the latter. Strictly standalone. Anyone with cable will be able to use one of these units in HD once their CableCo offers CableCard (mandated by FCC) and of course once the units are available at retail. Or go "free" with ATSC off-air HD (requires at least once antenna).

I seem to be getting what I want... TiVo in Canada, check. TiVo with dual tuners, check. I'm currently using cable, check. But I find myself wanting to drop cable and go back to satellite... What to do.... I've currently got about $1000 sunk into a PC-based PVR as well (which can be used with external settop boxes as well).

Bruno

Video here if anyone hasn't seen it. I think it's pretty obvious that this thing is the business.

Now I just have to hope that my present HD DirecTV/TiVo survives long enough to be eventually replaced by the next-gen TiVo. Of course, by then, there will be a lot more competition, possibly including the new Intel variant of the Mac Mini. That's likely to be one of the hotter home theater PC boxes...