CES2004 HDTIVO info

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TheForce

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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.
 
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.

This comment concerns me.

At Echostars Baltimore conference I noted that the televisions looked like crap, I talked to Jan Johnson who is the Product Manager of Echostar and told him that the TV's would have been better received by dealers if they tuned them up before the show started, he agreed with me and also noted how poor the product looked on the floor and he also said that from now on he hoped they could tweek them a bit, even if it meant doing a quick AVIA setup to each TV.

I don't understand why these companies demonstrating equipment do not do all they can to make them look as good as they can.

I mean when you go to an auto show to look at cars, they don't have a bunch of dirty muddy cars on Display, they clean them up and make them look their best.

These companies have a lot to learn.
 
thanks don this is the info i have been waiting for before i go and buy a tivo or hd box.Now if i can convince the other half that we don't need that 999.99 minus hsp discount for anything else then i will be set
 
CC also Shows Poor Pictures

CC also shows horrible sample content on their store HDTV'a...go figure....they are not first class operations for sure.
 
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.
I wonder if E* could react this fast to a 'business decision' of a 2nd tuner, or would they have to incur a much larger delay than D*?

Is this what the additional PCI slots in the 921 could be used for? Would the 921 chassis support simple addition of a card in one of these slots or would there have to be some kind of big rework/redesign?
 
Scott- I agree. However, the monitor they had on display at E* was out of convergence and the image raster was severely rotated off axis. In my experience of TV electronics, this was shipping damage causing a deflection yoke to shift. Besides this being a severe issue at the show, for anyone with experience with TV's it indicates these E* sets aren't very shipping stable.

With DirecTV the Samsung monitor was just off brightness and contrast adjustment making the image look severly dark.


video62- the wonder question is immaterial to me. I prefer to judge the products on their own merrit. and the programming choices on the company's management. These things will be ready when they are and both will not be perfect but maybe one will be less buggy. I suspect based on the demo performance that this TIVO will be the superior product for timeshifters only and the 921 will shine above TIVO for the archivist when they activate the dishwire but all in all it still is the programming that matters. At least to me.
 
Pictures of the front were posted here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4556

I have not seen any pictures of the back or remote
 
It was not possible to shoot a picture of the back as they had it encased in a cabinet. I shot one but the pic link posted by James is adequately suffucient, IMHO.
 
CMS


Those are real old jan 2003 photo if a prototype

THe color is wrong and the DVi type of port is missing.
 
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