# Series 3 vs. Premiere or Premiere XL



## macmike12 (Mar 28, 2011)

Just moving into an Old Farm House where cable is not available and not wanting to go Satellite at the moment. All left for me is Antenna TV. I currently have 2 HD TV's both are 1080p and one standard 13" TV with no digital tuner. I want to go with Tivo at least on the two HD's currently and possibly one on the Standard TV at some point down the road. Here is what I am wanting to know and haven't found answers anywhere. 
1. The differences between Series 3 vs. Premiere (what I have on the way to me.) Pros and cons of both systems.
2. The differences between Series 3 vs. Premiere XL. 
3. If you were buy Tivos why would you buy one or the other in my situation. Any ideas appreciated. 
4. I have ran cat 5e from my cisco hub over to take care of Tivos once they are put at each of the HD TV's. How will the watching from one room to the other from either unit work. I also have Roxio Toast 10 which I understand is suppose to work with Tivo some how.

macmike12 - mail <<at>> mikealrhughes <<dot>> com.


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## macmike12 (Mar 28, 2011)

Need one more post in order to be able to ask a question using PM. Test.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Mike: 
There are 5 Tivo Models that work well with Over The Air (OTA) TV. They are:
TiVo Premiere -current model
TiVo Premiere XL -current model
TiVo HD - No longer in production
TiVo HD XL - No longer in production
TiVo Series 3 HD - No longer in production
The Tivo HD & TiVo HD XL are also considered "Series 3" TiVos as they are built on the "Series 3" platform.

The TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL are also considered "Series 4" TiVos as they are built on the "Series 4" platform.

I will address more of your questions in my next post.

Thanks,


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

macmike12 said:


> Just moving into an Old Farm House where cable is not available and not wanting to go Satellite at the moment. All left for me is Antenna TV. I currently have 2 HD TV's both are 1080p and one standard 13" TV with no digital tuner. I want to go with Tivo at least on the two HD's currently and possibly one on the Standard TV at some point down the road. Here is what I am wanting to know and haven't found answers anywhere.
> 1. The differences between Series 3 vs. Premiere (what I have on the way to me.) Pros and cons of both systems.
> 2. The differences between Series 3 vs. Premiere XL.
> 3. If you were buy Tivos why would you buy one or the other in my situation. Any ideas appreciated.
> ...


Number 4 is the easest to answer. If you are recording OTA only you can use Multi Room Viewing (MRV) between multiple TiVos that are on one account and on the same LAN. It works pretty good, the TiVos actual copy the programs and if you have 2 Premiere TiVos will copy fast enough for near instant viewing on a wired network.

Number 3: I would buy regular TiVo Permieres. Latest tech & only ones you can buy new.

Number 2 & 1: There are some differences, The TiVo Series 3 HD came out in 2006, the TiVo HD & TiVo HD XL came out in 2007, & the Premiere and Premiere XL came out in 2010. They all work very good with OTA (I have 3 different TiVos all used only for OTA). The differences that might effect an OTA user are capacity (easy to upgrade any of them), speed, User Interface (UI), and potential future features.

Regarding the "XL" models they are about the same as the regular models except they have bigger hard drives (more capacity), glow remotes (they are nicer), and are THX certified. Most do not consider them worth the extra money. It is very very easy to upgrade the Premiere's hard drive with 2TB drives costing $80 so the increased capacity is really not a consideration for most of us.

My advice is to buy Premiere's with lifetime service they can be found on ebay for about $525 or you could buy from TiVo directly the first one will cost you about $700 and then $600 after that. If you buy directly from TiVo you will need to call them to get lifetime service.

Good luck,


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

There is a huge thread (and other more recent ones) reporting OTA tuner sensitivity of the Premiere is inferior to the Series 3 models:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=446075
The reported experiences vary -- some users don't see the deficiency.

The Premiere will do MRV transfers much faster.


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## necrochaos (Jul 5, 2010)

I just bought another Series 3 TiVo on eBay for $76 bucks. You can still find them if you look around. I didn't want the premier as the monthly and lifetime costs are higher. 

I also don't have a reason to upgrade for the features. I don't need to watch/edit stuff on my iPad.

I only use Netflix and Amazon and recorded shows from my cable.

I think the Series 3 is still the best bet, but your opinion my differ.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

And the Series 3 is repeatedly reported to have a superior OTA tuner than the Premieres. Lots of posts confirming that.


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## replaytv (Feb 21, 2011)

I have been using a Series 3 TCD652160 for awhile and it has much better reception for OTA than any digital converter box I have found. I have another one coming from ebay. 
But plan to buy a TIVO SERIES 3 TCD648250B as most everything I read said it was the one to buy for a low tech guy like me using OTA. 

I fought with a ReplayTv for about 3 hours today. U better know what U are doing if U use one of the dark ages units. Interface was very difficult to use. I am even thinking of changing my name!(I got the replaytv working now. I found that I had to have a bigger brain that it does. My bad. The replaytv has many features that the Tivo doesn't{the main one being commercial advance}, but it doesn't support antenna TV, so I had to do a rough workaround. U can also connect a security camera directly to it and switch back and forth from live TV or recording to the security camera. NICE!)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Series3Sub said:


> And the Series 3 is repeatedly reported to have a superior OTA tuner than the Premieres. Lots of posts confirming that.


That only matters in the fringe areas. If you are in an area with a strong signal, you will not notice a difference in reception, since they will both receive the signals with no issues.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

I'd get the Premiere over the SEries 3, but it also depends on the price gap between the two.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

trip1eX said:


> I'd get the Premiere over the SEries 3, but it also depends on the price gap between the two.


I looked through the sold units on ebay and the orginial Series 3 HD units with lifetime sold for $400-$450. You can buy a new Premiere with lifetime on ebay for about $525 and for $470 if you can find a friend with upgrade offers. If both units were new at these price I might take the Series 3 HD but taking a unit that could be over 4 years old vs one that is new tips me to the Premiere. Plus the Premiere can very easily be self upgraded with a 2TB hard drive for about $80 and the Series 3 HD can not.

Thanks,


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## avramw (Apr 10, 2011)

Hello all,

I'm brand new to Tivo's and thinking about buying a series three that someone I know is selling. I was wondering if the user interface is the same between the series 3 and the newer ones. Also, are there any differences in features between them?

Thanks!


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

avramw said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I'm brand new to Tivo's and thinking about buying a series three that someone I know is selling. I was wondering if the user interface is the same between the series 3 and the newer ones. Also, are there any differences in features between them?
> 
> Thanks!


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=444083

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=419994


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## abap21 (Jun 12, 2012)

Hi, considering a series 3 vs HD vs premiere for OTA reception. Is there a post that compares these?


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

atmuscarella said:


> I looked through the sold units on ebay and the orginial Series 3 HD units with lifetime sold for $400-$450. You can buy a new Premiere with lifetime on ebay for about $525 and for $470 if you can find a friend with upgrade offers. If both units were new at these price I might take the Series 3 HD but taking a unit that could be over 4 years old vs one that is new tips me to the Premiere. Plus the Premiere can very easily be self upgraded with a 2TB hard drive for about $80 and the Series 3 HD can not.
> 
> Thanks,


Easy is relative. My Series 3 (original unit) is now sporting a 2TB drive. It seemed easy.....


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

abap21 said:


> Hi, considering a series 3 vs HD vs premiere for OTA reception. Is there a post that compares these?


From what I have read, the S3 OLED is best for OTA reception (more expensive unit with premium components). Although YMMV as the S3 OLED Tivos are starting to show signs of capacitor plague on the power supplies.

I have two TivoHDs and have had no problems with reception. One is using a Terk indoor antenna, and the other is using a home-made antenna fashioned using a 4' long 2x4 and some metal wire like this:









I also have an unsubscribed Premiere hooked up to that same home-made antenna and have not had any issues with reception, however the signal meter reports a lower signal than the Tivo HD.
From what I have read, the Premiere may have multipath signal issues, so if your area is such that the antenna signal has a lot of objects (buildings, trees, etc.) to bounce around on, you might have some reception issues, again YMMV.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

daveak said:


> Easy is relative. My Series 3 (original unit) is now sporting a 2TB drive. It seemed easy.....


Ya I guess now it depends on what someone means by "self upgraded". You certainly can now buy a 2TB drive with the TiVo software preloaded for an original Series 3 and install the drive yourself. However unless something has changed recently I can not buy a new 2TB drive and load the software on it myself like I can with a TiVo HD or Premiere.

But I have to ask why the comments on a post over a year old?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

steve614 said:


> From what I have read, the S3 OLED is best for OTA reception (more expensive unit with premium components). Although YMMV as the S3 OLED Tivos are starting to show signs of capacitor plague on the power supplies.
> 
> I have two TivoHDs and have had no problems with reception.
> 
> ...


I can confirm from personal experience that in instances where there are reception issues (mostly likely multipath issues) the Premiere can not handle them as well as the original Series 3 or TiVo HD.


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## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

Premiere talks nice to an iPad if you have one. 
If you are on Comcast, it takes a premiere to get on-demand, that's starting in some areas.


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

atmuscarella said:


> Ya I guess now it depends on what someone means by "self upgraded". You certainly can now buy a 2TB drive with the TiVo software preloaded for an original Series 3 and install the drive yourself. However unless something has changed recently I can not buy a new 2TB drive and load the software on it myself like I can with a TiVo HD or Premiere.
> 
> But I have to ask why the comments on a post over a year old?


I did not notice it was that old until you pointed it out. 

However, I still approve of my message.


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## sabird (Dec 6, 2010)

atmuscarella said:


> However unless something has changed recently I can not buy a new 2TB drive and load the software on it myself like I can with a TiVo HD or Premiere.


How could one load the software on oneself? I am about to shell out $300 to WeaKnees for a 2TB HD kit. Are there instructions anywhere about which drives are compatible, where/how to get and install the software (and can it be done with a Macintosh), and how to do the hardware work? Thanks.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I recommend that you go to the upgrade center to learn about upgrades. Lots of great information there.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

You can easily upgrade Tivo HD and up on a Mac.. with the jmfs CD. But with the orig OLED S3, you need to use manual CLI tools yourself, and can mess something up if you don't know what you're doign.


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