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An imminent software upgrade should finally (and officially) make this TiVo port useful

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It looks as if TiVo is finally beginning to roll out some long-promised software upgrades to its high-def DVRs, the TiVo HD and TiVo Series3. Hot on the heels of last week's 9.1 software upgrade (which enabled support for Rhapsody's subscription music service), some users are already getting an upgrade to version 9.2. In addition to improving the Amazon Unbox viewing experience, the latest upgrade is said to add support for connecting external eSATA hard drives, thus expanding the number of recordable hours of TV--a feature promised when those DVRs were first released. TiVo's remaining mum on the subject for now--you'll find more info perusing user forums than on TiVo's site, which currently has just a placeholder page--but we're expecting to hear an official announcement in the very near future.

To date, the external storage option has been available only as an unsupported hack. I'm hoping the "official" version will work with any generic eSATA external drive, rather than requiring the purchase of some sort of TiVo-specific accessory. Large capacity drives are cheaper than ever--or you can save even more money by purchasing an enclosure, and dropping in an even cheaper internal hard drive instead. Alternately, you can always have the folks at Weaknees upgrade the TiVo's internal drive instead.

Once external storage is activated, the next confirmed upgrades are Multi-Room Viewing (transfer recorded shows to other TiVo DVRs in the home) and TiVo To Go (transfer recorded shows to networked PCs and portable media devices), scheduled for rollout to high-def TiVos in November. To date, both features have been limited to standard-def Series2 models only.

Expandable storage is also available on many competing high-def DVRs, including models from Dish Network and Scientific Atlanta.

Read: Zatznotfunny

(Credit: TiVo)

There may be some sweet justice in the air for longtime TiVo holdouts. If you purchased the company's old lifetime service for a one-time fee years ago--and have refused to upgrade your box for fear of the dreaded monthly payments--you may want to take note of this new deal.

TiVo is now offering an HD recorder for $300 and will let you transfer your lifetime service for $199--that's just $20 more than a single year of prepaid annual service under the standard plan offered to new customers. We're still trying to sort out the details, but the offer appears to apply to its so-called HD DVR box, which provides fewer hours of high-definition recording than its Series3 model (20 hours vs. 32 hours). Still, it's cheaper ($300 vs. $600) and, if you get it by November 8, you can transfer that precious lifetime service.

Of course, TiVo needs to stay in business for this to pay off, but that's the subject for another item.

Rhapsody's subscription music service is now available on TiVo's DVRs.

(Credit: TiVo)

Add Rhapsody to TiVo's bag of broadband media tricks. Real Networks' music subscription service is available as of today to users of TiVo's standalone Series2 and Series3 DVRs. The integration makes good on an announcement by the two companies back at January's Consumer Electronics Show. Rhapsody joins a host of other broadband offerings on TiVo's DVRs, including Amazon Unbox videos, Live 365 streaming radio, podcast downloads, Yahoo photos/traffic/weather, and customized TiVoCast video downloads. (Note: CNET is a content provider for TiVoCast.)

Existing Rhapsody subscribers should have no trouble getting access to their music collection, which can include anything from customized streaming Internet radio stations to personalized playlists drawn from the millions of tracks available on Rhapsody's service. The service costs $13 a month--above and beyond TiVo's monthly fee--but it can also be accessed on other devices, such as any networked PC, the Sonos Digital Music System, or the Logitech Squeezebox. Upgrade to the Rhapsody To Go plan (an additional $2 per month), and you can transfer songs--from a PC, not the TiVo--to compatible portable players such as the SanDisk Sansa e200R series for listening outside the home.

While the availability of Rhapsody is another nice arrow in TiVo's media quiver, in and of itself, it's probably not the sort of make-or-break feature that's going to boost sales of the DVR. On the other hand, existing and prospective Series3 and TiVo HD owners will be happy to know that TiVo has confirmed that the Multi-Room Viewing (transfer recorded shows to other TiVo DVRs in the home) and TiVo To Go (transfer recorded shows to networked PCs and portable media devices) features are scheduled to be added to those high-def models next month. To date, both features have been limited to standard-def Series2 models only.

A final note for TiVo owners: The Rhapsody service is available on the DVR for a 30-day free trial, so you can try before you subscribe. In order to gain access to the Rhapsody function, you'll need the latest 9.1 software update. If you don't already have it, head over to TiVo's Web site to prioritize the upgrade.

Read the press release.

Is this the new TiVo Series 3 Lite?

(Credit: Tivo Community)

While a cheaper Series 3 TiVo has certainly kicked around the rumor mill for some time now--and was essentially confirmed by CEO Tom Rogers earlier this year--the rumors have a new air of legitimacy, thanks to the posters at TiVo Community. While "Super Moderators" such as Mike Lang have been coyly hinting that the rumors are true since last Friday, yesterday posts containing images and detailed specs of the new Series 3 "Lite" showed up, along with links to the product page at Buy.com. This all adds up to pretty solid confirmation that we should be seeing a TiVo Series 3 "Lite" sooner rather than later, and according to the rumors, it's really not as much of step-down as you might think.

As far as we can tell from the leaked info, the biggest difference in terms of features between the current Series 3 and the Series 3 Lite seems to be the smaller hard drive, with the Series 3 Lite sporting only a 160GB drive compared to the 250GB drive of the current Series 3. The other differences, at least to us, are pretty trivial: no OLED front display, no THX certification, and just a standard TiVo remote.

With such minor differences, you might expect the Series 3 Lite to be priced only slightly lower, but the rumored MSRP is $300--a full $500 less than the current MSRP of the Series 3 (but both still require a $13 monthly fee). We think that's a trade-off a lot of TiVo fans are going to like, especially since if (as speculated on the thread) there's an eSata port to add hard drive space as on current Series 3--although you need to use a hack to get it working.

Of course, even a Series 3 Lite will still have to compete with the cable company's DVRs, which might not be a user-friendly as TiVo, but they usually offer most of the same functionality for a low monthly free and no upfront cost. And with the new rules requiring further adoption of CableCards by cable companies, we expect TiVo to see some additional competition from other third-party CableCard DVRs--we were impressed by Moxi's demo a few weeks ago. Either way, we're looking forward to getting the full details on the Series 3 "Lite."

Sources: TiVo Community via Engadget

JVC engineers failed to duplicate the glitch

(Credit: JVC)

There's still no word on whether the TiVo Series3 will be seeing a price cut in the near future. But in the meantime, it's worth visiting an issue that cropped up during our testing of the box back in the fall of 2006. At that time, we noticed that the Series3 analog-video outputs exhibited some strange behavior when connected to JVC A/V receivers via HDMI--essentially, the composite and S-video outputs wouldn't work when playing back recordings that were flagged as "restricted" by the content provider.

Both TiVo and JVC have since followed up on the issue, but neither was able to duplicate the problem as experienced by CNET. A TiVo representative suggested that the copy-protection flag was inserted by the local cable company (the New York City Time Warner Cable franchise). That's why, the rep theorized, neither TiVo nor JVC could recreate the problem when recording the exact same programs from the same channels elsewhere in the country (neither company is located in New York).

It's also worth noting that Macrovision--which we originally identified as a possible culprit in the JVC problem--has nothing to do with the digital copy protection on the Series3. To clarify the issue, TiVo has long since updated its online support documents, separately listing the four levels of digital copy protection ("copy not restricted," "no further copying is permitted," "one generation copy is permitted," and "copying is prohibited").

For their part, JVC engineers even diagrammed their testing regimen, reproduced here:

We can't retest the problem ourselves because our Series3 review sample was returned to TiVo months ago. So, it is unknown whether the problem was due to a Time Warner, NYC-specific, copy-protection flag, or it was simply a temporary glitch that's been corrected by a subsequent software update to the TiVo. For all we know, it may still crop up in New York (or elsewhere) when and if the programs get flagged as such. I'm still peeved that such copy protection flags exist at all, but I applaud the engineers at TiVo and JVC for following up on the issue, and doing the best they could to get to the bottom of it.

TiVo Series3 HD DVR

(Credit: CNET)

TiVo is slowly rolling out a software update to its Series3 high-def DVR. Among the improvements in the 8.1 version (as reported at tivocommunity.com): TiVoCast (video downloads); Extend Live (autoprompt for live-event recording extensions); KidZone (family-friendly content control); wireless networking improvement (WPA support added to WEP); Product Watch (download preferred advertising videos that caters to your interest); and Recently Deleted Folder (resurrect accidentally deleted content). As Dave Zatz points out, that brings the Series3 functionality in line with that of the non-HD Series2 boxes except for two big missing features: TiVo To Go and multiroom viewing, both of which will remain MIA on the Series3 for the foreseeable future. (We hear that TiVo would love to turn them on, but CableLabs--the organization that licenses the CableCard technology used in the Series3 box--considers it a potential security concern, and won't authorize the features.)

The list price of the Series3 TiVo remains at a rather stratospheric $800 (not including the monthly fee), but it can be found online for under $650. Meanwhile, the Web has been abuzz with rumors of a price cut in the near future. And while even a $500 price tag would be steep, the promise of additional on-demand content options--such as the newly added TiVoCast and the forthcoming Amazon Unbox--provides at least the potential for swaying consumers who might otherwise be tempted by the "free" high-def DVRs now offered by most cable providers.

Editors' note: CNET Networks is one of the several content partners that provide video content via the TiVoCast service.