TiVo has rolled out its TiVoToGo, a service that allows subscribers to transfer television programs from their TiVo box to a PC or laptop...as long as the shows are not specially tagged with copy restrictions. This means that TiVo, who originally pioneered digital video recording as a new way of watching television, now offers TV both when and where you want it.
In the near future, users also will be able to copy shows onto a DVD, although it is not clear when this additional service will be added.
Digital video recorders let viewers record TV shows onto hard disks, fast-forward through commercials and pause live broadcasts. TiVo subscribers account for about a third of the estimated 6.5 million of the nation's households that have DVRs.
For TiVo, which faces ever-increasing competition from the cable industry, the new service could be an ace in the hole...one that taps into a consumer market accustomed to transferring music to portable digital players and expects the same flexibility with other forms of entertainment. According to the company, about 50 percent of consumers are interested in watching recorded TV shows when they're on the road.
TiVoToGo will be an automatic, free service upgrade for subscribers who own standalone Series2 TiVo DVRs. It will not work for subscribers owning DirecTV-TiVo satellite boxes. Also, the technology will work only with computers based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP or 2000 operating systems, although a version for Macintosh computers is planned, according to the company.
Friends who have TiVo or some other digital video recording system like those offer for DISH satellite receivers, tell me it has changed the way they watch TV for the better. I believe them, especially the part of skipping the obnoxious commercials that plague our sets these days.
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