TVSquad

The TiVo "Series3 Lite" must be ready to ship soon, because info on the new $300 unit showed up on a bunch of retailers web pages today, only to be withdrawn. But if you search Google for "TCD652160" and then check the cached results, you can still find a few juicy details about the new HDTV TiVo box.

• Records two HD channels at once
• Has a 160GB hard drive for recording 20 hours of HD or 180 hours of standard programming
• Support for 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i resolutions
• Record Digital Cable (CableCard) or analog (ATSC/NTSC/QAM) sources
  
• No THX certification
• No OLED display
• Standard TiVo remote

The main reason this unit seems to be $400 cheaper than the standard TiVo Series3 is that it uses cheaper parts. I doubt TiVo plans to replace the high end version with this cheaper model. It's just not as classy looking all around. But you could buy a Series3 Lite (probably not its official name), upgrade the hard drive, buy a Series3 remote, and rent a whole lotta movies from Amazon Unbox for less money than it would cost to buy a Series3.

Hopefully today's leak means these boxes will be ready to ship within a matter of days or weeks. At the very least, I think it's a safe bet that we'll see the Serie3 Lite hit the shelves sometime this summer.

[via HDTiVo Blog]