A few retailers have begun offering TiVo’s 180HR dual-tuning Series 2 model for online purchase. So if you’ve been pining away for KidZone, now may be a good time to get in. The 80HR DT units can be purchased directly from TiVo with bundled pricing, or bought outright through Costco ($319) or Best Buy ($349) minus the $150 rebate. Amazon, Buy.com, and Circuit City don’t have the boxes in stock yet. Don’t forget that all TiVo activations require a 1 year commitment, though they also come with a 30 day money-back guarantee.
FYI The dual-tuning models work best in homes using analog cable without a cable box and it doesn’t work at all with satellite installations or even plain antennas. Consider yourself warned. ;)
You can use a DT model with satellite, but you will not be able to record two shows from your sat box simultaneously — the second tuner will pretty much be dormant. With digital cable, you can record one show from the cable box and one via analog cable… meaning if both shows you want to record are digital, you’re out of luck. Presumably, the NTSC OTA tuner has been removed to comply with a law going into effect next spring requiring most devices to contain an ATSC tuner. By entirely leaving out a tuner, TiVo may not be subject to that regulation.
On the S2DT one tuner is pretty much always analog cable. The other tuner can be analog cable or digital cable (with box) or satellite (with box).
And yeah, the regulation is that if you have an NTSC tuner you must also have an ATSC tuner. Not supporting OTA NTSC means they don’t need to worry. The choice ends up being neither/both – the S2DT is neither, the S3 is both.