Low Cost TiVo HD Box Sneaks Online Early

It looks like the Web minions at Tivo.com are ahead of the company's official rollout schedule. While it's not too uncommon for Web site administrators to upload pages and images the night before a press release launch, it's unusual to catch a public company, or a company as closely watched as TiVo, slipping up. Tonight, thanks to the new product's being added to the online store, you can purchase a lower cost high definition DVR before much of the world knows about it.

While Engadget got the story early this afternoon that the Tivo HD was ready, it wasn't clear when the box would debut, as the site said, "Supposedly it's launching this week, possibly as early as tomorrow." But if you're keen to pick up a TiVo that's HD-capable, and won't cost you more than half a grand, even before subscription fees, you can do that tonight.

As for our living room, while we were initially tempted to upgrade our aging Series 1 machine to a Series 2 and retain our lifetime membership, we're sticking with our first model, for now. We don't yet have HD, and aren't going there immediately. But when we do, it's good to know TiVo won't ask us to mortgage our home.