Today I got a chance to speak to several reps demonstrating the HDTIVO and got some hands on time with it.
Here are some things I learned new about the HDTIVO I did not previously know or had heard something different on these forums and was contradicted by the official source.
1. Definitly available in stores in March and will take a few weeks to saturate the demand, maybe up to 2 months but they are ready to go.
2. The reason for the delay from December to March had to do with a last minute decision to add the second OTA ATSC tuner. Otherwise it was ready to roll on Dec 1.
3. The Digital output will be HDMI connection and there will be a HDMI to DVI-D adapter included. There will be a set of component analog cables included. There will be an HDMI cable included. You will not need to search for a cable for your monitor.
4. The price is definitly $999.99 and all references to other pricing were not based on facts from DirecTV
5. The best way to describe the recording and viewing capability of this HDTIVO with 2 OTA and 2 Sat tuners total of 4 is that ONLY 2 tuners may be active for use at any one time. This means it works just like the 921 with same limitations in how many channels you can record and also watch. Except that with OTA the TIVO allows an OTA channel to record while watching another live channel. You could not do this with the 921 because the only OTA tuner would be recording. If you are recording two channels then your choice will be to watch one of them or a prerecorded channel but not another tuner live channel as, repeating, you may only access 2 TWO tuners at any one time. This is the limitation of the processor. WE actually verified this limitation in demo today on the HDTIVO.
6. All functions were just like a regular TIVO and it had he look and feel of any TIVO system. For our demo we discovered a few problems with the guide. I was next to an "expert" on TIVO searching so he did the actuall playing around while I watched. He determined that the unit we saw had not yet fully downloaded the guide info so that was why we couldn't find certain popular shows.
7. WARNING- This is just a visual opinion and not to be construed as an HDTIVO defect.
I could not fairly evaluate the PQ of the HDTIVO because IMHO, their monotor was improperly set up and exhibited an unusually low gamma. In addition, I felt the monitor was rather low resolution. While companies demonstrating their own monitors had superb PQ and setups, both DishNetwork and DirecTV failed miserably on their image quality of these HDTV displays. Hopefully next year they will pay closer attention to this detail in their booths.
8. They are stating the official capacity of the HDTV is 30 hours. and the case is smaller than the 921 and said to be the same size as the other D* Tivo'
9. The USB port is also 1.1 and does not support streaming media ass it is too slow.
Not much else I can think of but an opinion is that all reports that the HDTIVO will be fairly bug free out the door seems to be true. The unit today worked flawlessly until we tried to do something that was not permitted and then we got a warning. TIVO users will adapt very easily.
Oh yes, I shouldn't have to say this but if I don't someone will surely ask--- NO! there is no firewire and no plans to add it.
Here are some things I learned new about the HDTIVO I did not previously know or had heard something different on these forums and was contradicted by the official source.
1. Definitly available in stores in March and will take a few weeks to saturate the demand, maybe up to 2 months but they are ready to go.
2. The reason for the delay from December to March had to do with a last minute decision to add the second OTA ATSC tuner. Otherwise it was ready to roll on Dec 1.
3. The Digital output will be HDMI connection and there will be a HDMI to DVI-D adapter included. There will be a set of component analog cables included. There will be an HDMI cable included. You will not need to search for a cable for your monitor.
4. The price is definitly $999.99 and all references to other pricing were not based on facts from DirecTV
5. The best way to describe the recording and viewing capability of this HDTIVO with 2 OTA and 2 Sat tuners total of 4 is that ONLY 2 tuners may be active for use at any one time. This means it works just like the 921 with same limitations in how many channels you can record and also watch. Except that with OTA the TIVO allows an OTA channel to record while watching another live channel. You could not do this with the 921 because the only OTA tuner would be recording. If you are recording two channels then your choice will be to watch one of them or a prerecorded channel but not another tuner live channel as, repeating, you may only access 2 TWO tuners at any one time. This is the limitation of the processor. WE actually verified this limitation in demo today on the HDTIVO.
6. All functions were just like a regular TIVO and it had he look and feel of any TIVO system. For our demo we discovered a few problems with the guide. I was next to an "expert" on TIVO searching so he did the actuall playing around while I watched. He determined that the unit we saw had not yet fully downloaded the guide info so that was why we couldn't find certain popular shows.
7. WARNING- This is just a visual opinion and not to be construed as an HDTIVO defect.
I could not fairly evaluate the PQ of the HDTIVO because IMHO, their monotor was improperly set up and exhibited an unusually low gamma. In addition, I felt the monitor was rather low resolution. While companies demonstrating their own monitors had superb PQ and setups, both DishNetwork and DirecTV failed miserably on their image quality of these HDTV displays. Hopefully next year they will pay closer attention to this detail in their booths.
8. They are stating the official capacity of the HDTV is 30 hours. and the case is smaller than the 921 and said to be the same size as the other D* Tivo'
9. The USB port is also 1.1 and does not support streaming media ass it is too slow.
Not much else I can think of but an opinion is that all reports that the HDTIVO will be fairly bug free out the door seems to be true. The unit today worked flawlessly until we tried to do something that was not permitted and then we got a warning. TIVO users will adapt very easily.
Oh yes, I shouldn't have to say this but if I don't someone will surely ask--- NO! there is no firewire and no plans to add it.
