The TIVO series 3. A great product with room for improvment.

It’s not TiVo unless it’s a TiVo.  That’s what a recent ad campaign told us, and the truth is that while there are now plenty of basic DVR systems out there, TiVo is the original Digital Video Recorder and the one that continuously offers new innovations and new services to the television watching market.  It’s hard to find a family in America that does not watch television, and inevitably that watches shows that are all on at the same time or that are on when the family has plans to be somewhere or do something else.  That is why recording live television onto your VCR has always been popular, and that is why the introduction of a system that makes this even easier, and that offers lots of other useful features like pausing your favorite programs, was met with great excitement.  The Tivo Series 3 is an expensive machine, coming in at around $800 plus the cost of the service, however it is a great piece of technology if your budget will allow you to shell out the cash for the fun and convenience that TiVo has always offered as well as the features and user friendliness that you just can’t get from other DVR devices.  On the outside, the Tivo Series 3 is the most attractive TiVo unit to date, with a nice, compact case and stylish design.  The plastic look of the past is gone, replaced by a metal case that will look great in your home entertainment center with any other black or silver components.  The OLED display on the front of the Tivo Series 3 displays what show or shows are currently recording or the time if nothing is being recorded, and the small cluster of control buttons are surrounded by a simple silver frame.  The trademark peanut remote keeps up in the attractiveness area, and is easy to use as well with lighted buttons making things even easier for users of the TiVo device.  Although the past TiVo remotes have been hailed as some of the best and easiest remotes to use, the newest remote has been tweaked, incredibly, to make it even more comfortable and simple to use.  There are plenty of users who will have to see it to believe it!Once you get the Tivo Series 3 installed and operational, one of the first things that you will notice is that the competition still has not caught up to this company’s intuitive user interface.  The original DVR company still leads the way with ease of use and style on screen.  And if you are worried about losing your old favorite features, you will be pleased to note that the Tivo Series 3 maintains your favorites such as wishlists, season passes, and suggestions.  The Tivo Series 3 offers other fun options, too, like listening to music streaming from your Mac or PC and viewing streaming photos as well.  You can also get full use out of the machine by recording two incoming signals at the same time and still watching a third signal or recorded program at any given time.  Of course, the biggest selling point of the Tivo Series 3 is the continued innovation that is helping this company keep up with the television industry by handling high definition television.  The way that the unit handles HD means that you lose none of the high quality that you come to expect, however you can expect to lose recording time, with the TiVo only being able to handle about 30 hours of DV TV versus an incredible 300 hours of SD television.  Sold yet?  If not, then consider that for a couple of hundred dollars you can move a lifetime subscription from the series 1 or series 2 units to the new Tivo Series 3, allowing you to upgrade without costing you too much in service fees comparatively speaking.  The Tivo Series 3 is designed to replace your cable box rather than receive input from it, so if you are hoping to get rid of your ugly or ill functioning cable box, this piece of technology gives you the green light to do so, and while the TiVo will not likely replace your computer as well, it does give you some online options that make it even more fun and interesting to use.  Your Tivo Series 3 comes with internet and home-networking features that can be quite impressive and which include features like streaming photos and msuci as well as online scheduling.  This opens the door for some exciting uses for the new TiVo and is pretty unique as compared to other DVR devices on the market.  Sadly, the Tivo Series 3 release is not all sunshine and roses.  The Series 3 takes CableCards, which are provided by the cable company and come with some pretty serious encryptions.  This means that the Tivo Series 3 is limited in what it can do with the video that it records for you.  The features like TiVo To Go and Multi-Room viewing have been disabled, which will bother some TiVo fans who liked to transfer their recorded programs to another TiVo box or to their PCs or portable multimedia devices.  If you are used to enjoying your cable, then the Tivo Series 3 might also let you down a little, since it is not compatible with pay-per-view features or video-on-demand features.  This can be a deal breaker when many cable companies offer their own DVR devices with no up front costs.  There are many people who have been waiting for years for the release of the Tivo Series 3, however, and they will not likely be put off by the places where the new TiVo is lacking.  It is a definite trade off between the things that this new TiVo lacks and the superior interfaces and valuable features that have kept TiVo in the forefront of the DVR market.