TiVo has been touting the Wireless N adapter for their DVRs, and it’s now available. We’ll be shipping ours starting 4/30/10. You can preorder one here:
This adapter is fundamentally different from the TiVo Wireless G adapter (which will continue to be sold). Besides the extra speed (and extra $30 in cost), this unit acts more as an ethernet-wireless bridge. So it plugs into the ethernet port, rather than a USB port.
Using the ethernet port is different for a few reasons, but presumably TiVo designed the adapter this way to be able to get more throughput than they could over USB. But it also means the unit needs its own power outlet. Additionally, this change limits the compatible units for this device to any unit that has an ethernet port on-board – so the dual tuner TiVo (units with service numbers starting in 649) or any HD TiVo for cable (original Series3, TiVo HD and HD XL, and TiVo Premiere, and Premiere XL).
If you don’t currently have WiFi, or if you want N WiFi for your TiVo and you currently have a slower variety (B or G), you can get two of these units and configure them in bridge mode. This allows you to put one adapter on your TiVo and one directly on an unused ethernet port on your router and create an N wireless link.
Final note: this adapter will step down to B or G speeds if that’s the fastest protocol supported in your router.
