ATTN: The original image links are getting swamped – so if you have trouble, there are a number of full and partial mirrors listed here. And I’m open to anyone else mirroring.
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Sorry for the delay, I got a later start today than I’d hoped, my bad. I went straight to TiVo’s booth and I’ve been here for a while now, looking around and taking photos. I got a personal tour from TiVoPony of all the new stuff, most of which I can share. 
Through the marvel of unsecured WiFi I’m coming to you from their booth. The biggest thing they have on display is the Series3 box. The Series3 is the CableCARD HDTV unit, which is due out in mid-to-late 2006. And let me tell you, it is a *SHARP* looking box! Very sleek design, very nice. I have photos, I’ll get them up ASAP, but I didn’t want to wait to post.
The unit has two CableCARD slots on the back and it will support Multi-Stream or Single-Stream cards. If you have multi-stream then you only need one card, but as long as only single stream cards are available you can use two of them. Yes, the unit is dual-tuner – actually, like the HD DirecTiVo it can use any two of the tuners it has, and it has six. 2 cable tuners, 2 ATSC tuners, and 2 NTSC tuners. Yes, it supports digital and analog cable, digital ATSC OTA, and analog NTSC OTA.
The only inputs the unit has are a coax cable in and a coax antenna in. There are no RCA or S-Video inputs on this unit. For output it has HDMI, Component Video, S-Video, and Composite Video. It has optical digital audio out, as well as RCA stereo out. Like the Series2 units it has 2 USB ports, and it also has a 10/100baseT Ethernet jack built-in. The unit also still has the modem, which seems increasingly archaic. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot – it also has an external SATA port.
The unit has front panel controls clustered on the right, and a nice display in the middle with a very cool feature – it displays the title of the show(s) tuned at the time, so you always know what it is recording at a glance. There is also an output indicator that indicates if the unit is outputting in 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i – and it can be set to any of those. It can also be set to pass-through, so it will send the shows to the TV in whatever format they were received.
The remote ls also sleeker – a slick update of the Series2 peanut with minor changes for HDTV (such as an aspect button). But the big change is that the remote is backlit! It is also weighted and has a ridged pattern on the back towards the base, so there is VERY distinct tactile feedback as to having the remote the right way around in your hand. So those who dislike the peanut because of the ambiguity should be happy.
The box unit still encodes analog content as MPEG2, like the current units, but it supports playback of advanced codecs such as MPEG4 AVC/H.264. This will open up the possibilities of broadband content using more efficient codecs, including HD downloads.
The photos are currently uploading to www.gizmolovers.com/Photos/CES2006/ – I’ll fix the permissions as soon as they’re all up so you can see them. Warning, they’re HUGE since they’re 5 mega pixels, I don’t have time to make thumbnails at the moment. I’ll do that later – I noticed some of them are a bit blurry, I’ll take some more and upload those as well.
Oh, and remember that SATA port? TiVo will also be selling an external SATA drive for easy storage expansion, and they have that on display here too.
I have more, I’ll post it in a moment.
EDIT: To clarify, it supports analog cable, even any digital cable channels sent in the clear, without CableCARD. You only need CableCARD for any protected digital channels, to handle the descryption. And since all digital cable systems in the US *must* support CableCARD – it is an FCC mandate – then it should work with all cable systems, analog or digital.
I also got a bit more info, the chipset used in the Series2 supports VC-1 (aka WMV9) and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, along with MPEG-2, so it has all the same codecs as HD-DVD or Blu-ray. When I asked if it was using a Broadcomm chip I was told that would be a good guess.
There is also another URL for the photos: www.gizmolovers.com.nyud.net/Photos/CES2006/ – and if anyone else wants to mirror them, please feel free – just give me some credit. If you want to repost them in your own blog, site, etc – please COPY them to your server, don’t kill mine.
As for price – nothing has been announced yet, that’s still To Be Determined.
I have more photos which I’ll be uploading shortly.
EDIT 2: Oh, one other tech detail I forgot. The S3 is still using IDE drives internally, only the external drive is SATA. Also, the external drive is not removable in the conventional sense. Once it is connected, the OS makes it part of the file system and shows may be recorded using both the internal and external drive – as in the SAME show may have its bits scattered on both. If you disconnect the external drive the unit will cope with it, but any shows recorded with any data on the external drive will vanish. So it isn’t something you connect, record to, then take to another unit to watch the shows.
As for CPU, RAM, etc. I don’t have that info yet, but I’ll ask.
Anything else?
EDIT 3: See this entry for more info on the photos – more uploads and mirrors. Also, to permalink to this post, use this as the best direct link.
EDIT 4: Greetings Slashdotters.
EDIT 5: To clarify, the Series3 WILL NOT support CableCARD 2.0. It is strictly a unidirectional device. It will support CableCARD 1.0 and MultiStream, but NOT 2.0/bidirectional. The earlier content that suggested it would was the result of a miscommunication.
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ATTN: The original image links are getting swamped – so if you have trouble, there are a number of full and partial mirrors listed here. And I’m open to anyone else mirroring.
Heh. Most of this went completely over my head. I have no idea what S-video is or SD signal or IR blasters are.
And as long as the cable providers are closed systems they can block third parties, like Tivo, from providing DVRs.
Did you mean satellite providers? If not, I’m even more confused!
S-Video is one of the video connections available on TiVo. On a Series2 (non-DVD) box the quality, lowest to highest, is coax/RF, composite/RCA, and S-Video. S-Video was developed originally for S-VHS systems and it caries separate chroma and luma signals, providing a higher quality picture.
SD is Standard Definition aka 480i, as opposed to ED – Enhanced Definition (480p), or HD – High Definition (720p/1080i/1080p).
IR blasters are the infra-red control cables TiVo, and other devices, use to send remote control signals to external receivers.
Nooooo, is there a way to use the 3 to record in sd then watch live in hd with direct tv. I hate cable and love Tivo. This really sucks. I may have to sell my bran new HD 42 Plasma just to have tivo.
The Series3 doesn’t work with satellite at all.
Will this work as a stand alone OTA DVR without having to subscribe to cable?
Yes.
Cable companies won’t transmit all the local over-the-HDTV channels that I receive from 4 different cities. It also won’t transmit the multiple SDTV channels that are prodcast when a local station is not broadcasting HDTV.
A separate problem is that some claim the HDTV picture quality is much better with an over-the-air antenna versus what a cable company provides.
I think it was a mistake not to include a separate over-the-air antenna input.
Uh, if you’re talking about the Series3 it HAS an antenna input.
There are two input jacks – antenna and cable.
You wont need to install a splitter. The new Tivo Series 3 will have a built in splitter. So if you have a basic cable system with coax cable comming out of your wall, you plug it in the back of the new S3 and (this part is speculation) you can program it to record 2 channels at the same time.
No speculation, that’s exactly how it works.
I just purchased a DirecTV HD tuner. Are you saying that this won’t be usable with the Series 3 Tivo? Or, basically, Series 3 Tivo will not be usable with satellite HD at all?
I don’t really understand. It sounds wildly stupid to me and will definitely mean I won’t be getting a Series 3 Tivo. I have DirecTV because of the NFL package, so I have no options on my HD source. I didn’t purchase the DirecTV HD Tivo because I don’t like to have functions integrated if at all possible. But if Series 3 won’t work with satellite, then I’ll just have to wait til DirecTV to come out with whatever their new system is and get that. Which will be highly disappointing, as I love Tivo, but that will be dispensable before satellite.
It will not work with satellite, period. And it isn’t stupid at all, it is a technical limitation. TiVo doesn’t have a choice, they can’t do HD from satellite unless it is integrated – and the satellite vendors won’t allow an integrated box.
Thanks for the post and the details about what appears to be a great first start on a TIVO HD-DVR. What is missing is burner capability. Would you be able to use the component output (assuming you use the HDMI for the HDTV) to feed something like my Sony VRD-VC20 dual-layer burner? How about the Ethernet port to feed directly to a remote PC on the network? Will there be a Humax Series 3, do you suppose?
No burner – DVD wouldn’t be able to hold HD content, and HD-DVD or Blu-ray is too expensive now, too new. You can still feed the component or S-Video out into an external recorder. And TiVoToGo should be supported for transfers to a PC. No word on what brand the S3 will be available under.
I have a series 2 Tivo, the current model uses those silly little IR rabbit eyes that have to be taped/glued to my existing cable box.. I would love to see a new system that does away with this silly mechanism, and thankfully, I don’t see any such ports for these on the back of the pictures… can anyone confirm how the Tivo will alter the programming with the series 3 model?
many thanks,
robert
The Series3 will not work with a cable box – it isn’t required. The S3 has dual digital cable ready tuners, so it can tune digital and analog cable internally, with no cable box. With CableCARD it can decrypt encrypted digital channels as well.
2 months since last post, but I need help with something.
Why couldn’t the Tivo Box allow for component input (ie, add a component-in connection)? I must be missing something here, but I run a component out of my DTV box to my audio receiver and then another component cable to my TV. The picture passes through with no problems. Taking that set up, replace the audio receiver with a Tivo. You’re saying Tivo is not capable of recording a component video-in signal? This is done on home desktop computers, why can’t it be done with a Tivo box?
I must be missing something because it sounds too simple, huh?
This was discussed in other comments. There are consumer component capture cards, but most, if not all, are SD, not HD. Compressing an analog HD signal in real time takes a lot of power, making it fairly expensive to do at this time. Adding that capability to the Series3 would greatly increase the cost, plus there would still be a quality loss as any realtime encoding can never match the professional multipass encoding at the head end. So real videophiles would prefer a DVR that captures the raw digital data. For the added cost and complexity – not just a much more powerful encoder, but the physical ports, etc, the market isn’t worth it. Note that the S3 has a simplified input – it accepts a cable and antenna input – and that’s it. No A/V in at all. It keeps it simplified and reduces the costs.
I see…I think. lol So I guess I lose. Over-priced and terrible service cable is not an acceptable option for me and DTV’s version of HD TiVo isn’t as feature rich. So my options are drop the features and get my HD content, or keep the features and waste my HD hardware. I think TiVo is going to lose me on this one.
BTW, thanks for the reply. I was pretty confused as to why I couldn’t do what I was questioning. You helped me realize what direction I’ll have to go when I make a change eventually.
The series 3 will replace your cable box, you will get a cable card from your provider and insert it into the series 3 unit.
Am I missing something? Why is it technically impossible to encode an external HD stream, just as the current standalone Tivos do it now with