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We got some quality hands-on time with the forthcoming TiVo Series 3, TiVo’s first HD-capable DVR. The Series 3 unit has some cool new features, including a single-color, two-line OLED LCD display on the front of the unit that shows you what’s being recorded on each tuner. We interviewed Bob Pony of TiVo (TiVoPony on the TiVo Community forums) about what we can expect in the Series 3, so be sure to check out the video interview above. The quick and dirty is that it features built-in ethernet, an external SATA port for expanding your TiVo’s capacity, and that it will ship with a 250 GB hard drive. (Note: Bob incorrectly states in the video that the shipping capacity is 300 GB. He corrected himself after we had finished shooting.) No official release date exists, of course, but they’re saying “in the second half of 2006.” We will have a downloadable version of this video up shortly.

Follow the jump for our personal impressions on the Series 3.

Series 3 looks like a firm response to the mass’ clamoring for HD on TiVo. I’m naturally expecting it to initially be priced for the early adopter, perhaps between $800 and $1,200. [Edit below. —CC] I’m also half-expecting it to get pushed back to early 2007, which would likely damage TiVo as more and more people go for the relatively accessible solution their cable providers will offer.

The TiVo remote has undergone a redesign for Series 3. It keeps the traditional peanut shape and is now weighted to one side, with one side ribbed, so you can tell which end is up, even in the dark. Furthermore, it’s backlit. The directional disc from the original design has been split into four distinct directional buttons, with a central select button in the middle. It’s tactile response felt a little off, but TiVo did inform me that it wasn’t a production model and still had some changes to undergo. Still, exciting, but moreso when the price point finally comes down.

Addendum, January 11, 2006:
Per Colin’s trackback post below, I realize that I was not at all thinking when I provided an estimate of $800-$1,200 for the Series 3. Understand that I didn’t get much sleep this weekend. What I meant to write was the more widely reported, and certainly more accurate $400-$800, and probably on the lower end of that, to boot. TiVo’s cost model lately seems to be pushing more and more towards driving users to buy into the required subscription model, and using that as a way to subsidize the unit’s cost. Obviously, they’ll want to recoup the costs associated with the rebuild of the software, the additional HD tuners and some other more advanced hardware, but they recognize the return is on the subscription, and making the entry point cost-prohibitive is sketchy at best. Obviously, we won’t see any $50 Series 3’s for a long time here, but I’m thinking we won’t see any $1,200 ones either. Thanks for calling me out, but let’s hope they’ll keep things sub-$400!