Hybrid Television Services, the licensee of TiVo products in Australia and New Zealand and the creator of CASPA On-Demand, has launched a limited edition, TiVo 1TB media device.

The device is branded as TiVo XL reflecting the increased capacity of the hard drive from the original 320GB size to 1 Terabyte (TB) in recording capacity. This provides customers up to 350 hours of SD (Standard Definition), or 150 hours of HD (High Definition) recordings of their favourite free-to-air TV programmes.

Hybrid TV says that given the increased free-to-air TV offering with the advent of digital TV, the new device provides significantly greater recording capacity to remain up-to-date with programming across all of the Freeview channels.

The limited edition TiVo XL (A$699/€521) media device will only be available through Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne retail stores while stocks last.

Critics note that Hybrid TV is still selling the 320GB model, which is discounted to A$399, and those who already own a TiVo can boost its capacity with 1TB external expansion drive, available for A$199.

Despite the ‘XL’ tag, this is not a new-generation Series 4 TiVo such as the Premiere XL, but is exactly the same Series 3 TiVo available in Australia since 2008, just with a bigger hard drive.

It seems Australians are being expected to part with A$699 for what is basically a discontinued model.

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