# Do I get the Tivo TCD648250B or TiVo TCD652160? What is the difference?



## kenkobra63 (Jan 2, 2002)

I am going to buy a Tivo HD and was wondering what the major difference was between the two Tivos. I can pickup the TCD648250B for $300.00 and the TCD652160 for $199.99. I the TCD648250B worth the extra $100.00?

Thanks!


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## Gregor (Feb 18, 2002)

TCD648250B is the Series 3, comes with a 250gb drive, and the glow remote. You can also use any esata drive combination. (It will be unsupported but it works).

TCD652160 is the Tivo HD, comes with 160gb drive and usual remote. It will only accept the Tivo expansion units, unless you crack the box and use a tool like WinMFS to do the drive addition.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

The S3 also has a nice front panel display with currently recording programs displayed in text and THX certification. But the S3 requires two single stream cable cards for digital cable where the HD can use one mutli-stream card.


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## kenkobra63 (Jan 2, 2002)

So is it really worth the extra $100? I am one who deletes my recordings right after I watch them and don't know if I would add extra drive. When you talk about M-CC does that mean two-way communication?


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## SpiritualPoet (Jan 14, 2007)

The TiVo HD uses only TiVo expansion units? What is a TiVo expansion unit? I have visited WeaKnees and DVRUpgrade and both companies offer larger hard drives from Seagate, Hitachi, etc. for the TiVo HD unit. As far as I know, TiVo does not offer larger hard drives for any of the machines it manufactures.


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## westside_guy (Mar 13, 2005)

The Tivo HD, as of now, only accepts the "My DVR Expander" eSATA disk as an external hard drive.

I don't see that as a problem - you can get it pretty cheap over at Newegg.

M-card stands for multicard, which just means you only need one card to serve both tuners. The Tivo HD knows how to use a multicard. The Series 3 will accept a multicard but only use it as if it's an S-card (single stream) - so you'd still need two cards for the S3 regardless.

Personally I'd save $100 and get the Tivo HD. It's what I have, anyway. We don't seem able to fill up the 500GB "My DVR Expander", so having an option to plug a larger eSATA drive is irrelevant in our household.


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## SpiritualPoet (Jan 14, 2007)

I was referring to replacing the internal original hard drive with a larger capacity drive. I don't wish to use an external drive. Apparently the term expansion drive pertains to an external hard drive. That is really a misnomer because not all "expansion" drives are external from my perspective!!!


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

SpiritualPoet said:


> I was referring to replacing the internal original hard drive with a larger capacity drive. I don't wish to use an external drive. Apparently the term expansion drive pertains to an external hard drive. That is really a misnomer because not all "expansion" drives are external from my perspective!!!


The Series 3 with the 250GB does have the very pretty and IMNSHO very useful OLED display, in review I'd have rather had a 2nd S3 then the TivoHD i bought, but at that time the HD was 1/2 the price of the S3. For me, yes it would be worth the extra $100 for the better looking unit with the display.

Diane


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Besides the other differences the TiVo HD has more memory (double that of the Series3) a faster CPU and the chipset is better prepared for the future than the Series3 so that's something else to take into consideration.

I concur with Diane though...not so much for the handsome box and pretty OLED display (which is very nice ), but for the additional build quality, recording capacity and eSATA drive options. (The value of the Series3's THX certification is debatable, but my entire HT system is THX certified...so why not?) The Series3's programmable Glo Remote is quite nice as well. We have both a Series3 and a TiVo HD and if I were to do it again and only had to pay another $100 for a Series3, that's the way I would go, but YMMV of course.

Here are a couple of posts comparing the two models:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=359947

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5353037#post5353037


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## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

I find the Series 3 to be worth it. On one hand, it's costing me an extra $1.50/mo for the extra card, but the display to me is worth it. I bought it second hand with a TB drive already installed, so the expansion wasn't was influenced my purchase, it was the THX and display.


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## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

JoeTaxpayer said:


> I find the Series 3 to be worth it. On one hand, it's costing me an extra $1.50/mo for the extra card, but the display to me is worth it. I bought it second hand with a TB drive already installed, so the expansion wasn't was influenced my purchase, it was the THX and display.


Side-by-side comparisons of our Series3 and our TiVo HD brought me to the same conclusion. On the same TV, using identical connections, the PQ of the Series3 is just slightly better IMO. Again, if the price were close I'd opt for a Series3 right now. It's hard to say how that decision might look six months or a year from now though.


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