TiVo prepping a mass appeal HD DVR

Friday, June 15, 2007

We all know that the quintessential TiVo experience would be the ability to TiVo our programs in true (HD) High-Definition television. The problem for TiVo is, that the much heralded Series 3 unit came onto the market at $799 or more for an HD TiVo unit, when satellite and cable companies are giving them out for as little as ten dollars a month or even for free in some cases.

During their first quarter earnings announcement, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers admitted that his company had not yet been able to compete meaningfully in the consumer DVR market but said his company would have "a mass appeal priced HD unit... later this year." But offered no additional details.

The new and less expensive Series 3 Lite DVR will probably be released this fall and speculation has it that it may be lacking some of the features of the original Series 3, this being the trade off for bringing the cost down. Like for instance, eliminating the ability to record two shows at once. But no one really knows and we won't know until we get closer to the products launch date.

TiVo's partnership with Comcast is also expected to produce its own HD DVR as early as this summer and it is not known how these units will compete with TiVo's Series 3 but it is clear that they will compete. Personally, I use DirecTV, but when Comcast comes out with the an HD DVR I will be looking very closely and I might just make the jump.