TVSquad

Gizmodo has scored some photos of what could be TiVo's promised sub-$300 HDTV recorder. With the Series3 TiVo still retailing for $800 (although you can often find it on sale in the $500 to $600 range), the company's existing HDTV recorder is still kind of in the early adopter category. While cable and satellite providers are offering generic HDTV PVRs for a monthly fee, it's kind of hard to justify the cost of a Series3, no matter how good the reviews are.

A $300 box could change that. If you look closely that the blurry pictures, you can see two CableCard slots, meaning you'll be able to record two shows at once, or record one and watch another. It's certainly not as pretty as the Series3, but you might be able to chalk that up to the fact that it's a demo unit. The remote control is also reportedly lighter and cheaper feeling than the Series3 remote.

It's not clear yet what corners TiVo cut to get the price down. Will it be THX certification? Some of the input/output features? Does it have a slower processor, and how will that affect broadband performance? We can't imagine that the cheaper version won't sport broadband features like TiVoCast and Amazon Unbox, since that seems to be where the industry is headed.

What do you think will be missing from the new HDTV TiVo? And how do you think TiVo will prevent this unit's sales from eating into Series3 sales? Or would you expect this to be the replacement form the Series3?