TiVo launched a new rebate on January 27th. This rebate is not exactly new, but extends some prior rebates and cuts back on another. Best of all (for us at least), is that the rebates are now consolidated into one form and some confusion in the language of prior rebate has been clarified. Here’s the deal:

1) $200 rebate on Series3 Home Theater TiVo DVRs (NOT the TiVo HD) continues through April 5th.
2) $150 rebate on dual-tuner standalone, standard definition units continues through April 5th.
3) $150 rebate on single-tuner Humax DVD TiVo units continues through April 5th. (The $49 net price on 40GB Humax boxes lives!)
4) The prior $170 rebate on single-tuner standalone, standard definition units dropped down to $150 and this new rebate continues through April 5th.

Here’s the new TiVo Rebate form.

For those interested in minutiae, notice that the prior rebate (like several predecessors) referred to a “$150 TiVo® Series2™ Dual Tuner DVR Rebate [valid only on TiVo Service Numbers (TSN) starting with 264, 275, 565, 590, 595, 649],” but only the 649 unit actually has two tuners. This caused a huge amount of confusion for our customers, because the Humax DVD Recorder IS eligible for a $150 rebate, but has a single tuner.

The new rebate finally fixed this source of confusion.

DirecTV is currently producing the HR21 – the HD DVR (not a TiVo!) that gets their entire current lineup of HD channels. But the HR21 doesn’t get over the air antenna (or OTA) broadcasts. The predecessor to the HR21 – the HR20 – does. And we now have them in stock.

OTA broadcasts are very important. Local stations broadcast HD in very high quality in almost every part of the country. They also generally broadcast more than one sub-channel. So for the highest quality and best variety you should include OTA channels in your lineup.

DirecTV dropped OTA support in the HR21, but since the HR20 had it, we’ve done everything we can to get our hands on more HR20s, and we’ve got them, both stock and upgraded. They’re at the bottom of our DirecTV HD DVR page.

We just added the kits to our site for getting 2 Terabytes of storage on your TiVo HD or TiVo Series3. See the kits at the bottom of each list:

TiVo Series3 Upgrade Kits

TiVo HD Upgrade Kits

So these kits come with two 1 Terabyte drives – one internal and one external. And they have to work together. This is the most storage capacity ever on a TiVo!

We’ve been upgrading the DirecTV HD DVRs for a while now by changing out the internal drives. And we think, for several reasons, that this is still the best move. But due to the complexity of the installation, we do all of those type of upgrades here – we don’t sell upgrade kits for self-installations like we do for TiVos and other DVRs.

Now we’ve just begun selling external upgrades for these DirecTV HD DVRs – the HR20 and the HR21. Again, we think that the internal upgrade is the best option, but if you already have your DVR and you don’t want to send us the unit, and you don’t mind having another item plugged in at your setup, you can now order an external upgrade for HR20 and HR21. We use DVR-specific hard drives in these cases, good cables, and quiet cool enclosures.

One important note on this type of upgrade – this kit will replace your existing storage – not add to it.

Today is the first day of a new TiVo promo: Get 3 free months of TiVo service with the purchase of any TiVoHD and a qualifying subscription. That “qualifying subscription” language is a bit of a catch, because the promo only works if you purchase monthly service and you do NOT pre-pay…so anyone looking to get the benefit of the multi-year or pre-pay discounts won’t get the free months of service. Also, any current TiVo subscriber wanting to take advantage of the current lifetime service offer won’t use the promo.

To take advantage of the promo: Enter the coupon code “3FREEHD” (no quotes) when activating TiVo service between 1/16/08 and 2/16/08 at TiVo.com.

Here’s the fine print:

*Customers get three months of free service when they purchase a TiVo DVR and activate a one-year monthly TiVo service plan between January 16 and February 16, 2008. Not valid on pre-paid TiVo service plans. Must use promo code “3FREEHD” at www.tivo.com/activate when activating the TiVo service. TiVo service agreement terms apply. See www.tivo.com for details. Customer service: 877-367-8486.

Here’s the official TiVo offer.