New $299 TiVo Series3 Available Soon?

The TiVo Series3 DVR is about to get a little more affordable, according to a recent Ars Technica article.

A product with the model number “TCD652160” has apparently been popping up intermittently on retail websites in the past few days and is believed to be the new “Series3 Lite” as it’s been christened by the TiVo community.

General consensus is that the new device will cost around $300 and will include many of the same features contained within the original Series3, most notably that it’ll record two shows at once and will be able to handle 1080p.

The hard drive will be a bit smaller — 160GB, down from 250GB — and the unit won’t have the front panel OLED display or THX certification. You’ll also get the plain, peanut remote as opposed to the sleeker remote that you’d get with the expensive version.

So for a lot less cash, you miss out on about 10 hours of recording time, a fancy display, THX, and a shiny remote. Not a whole lot to give up compared with all the money you’ll save.

There’s also some talk about an 80GB unit being available as well. If true, you might be able to get into the TiVo HD game for even less.

Nothing’s set in stone yet, but Ars seems to think that this information is all pretty solid.

Nothing too "Lite" about new $299 TiVo Series 3 unit [Ars Technica]