TiVo releases high-end DVR

TiVo launched on Tuesday a digital video recorder capable of displaying high-resolution TV signals. The new machine comes as the recording technology company seeks new subscribers among buyers of premium home-theater systems. TiVo, whose service remains popular despite tough competition from far larger cable and satellite providers, said its Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder will be available on the company's Web site this week and in some electronics stores later this month.(To read CNET Reviews' impressions of the Series3, click here.) At about $800, the DVR is expensive for a cable set-top box, a device that many consumers receive for a negligible monthly fee from their TV provider.

TiVo marketing executive Jim Denney said the DVR, which boasts high-end features such as THX performance, which ensures quality and resolution, will eventually be able to download programs, perhaps like how songs are sold on Apple Computer's iTunes. Denney said the DVR also meets the needs of buyers eyeing high-definition flat-screen TVs and add-on audio systems. "We think that there is a category of customers that have been waiting for it, and want it," he said. "We know that $800 is not an insignificant amount of money. But we put a lot in it. We think that it targets a specific audience.

" The set-top box, made by a contract manufacturer for TiVo and originally unveiled in January, will have two tuners, so that cable TV subscribers can record two different shows in high-definition at once, while watching a third prerecorded show. People can save up to 32 hours of HD programming, or up to 300 hours of standard definition.

Subscribers will continue to pay around $13 a month, although a variety of pricing packages are available, the company said. The company has about 4.4 million subscribers, but only 1.5 million who do not subscribe to the DirecTV's satellite service run by News Corp.