TiVo to Support Video Transfer to iPod

[MacRumors]

The New York Times reports that TiVo is announcing both iPod and Sony PSP support for its Digital Video Recorder (TiVo).

The newest version of its TiVoToGo software will allow users to transfer recorded television programming to either an Apple iPod (5G) or Sony PSP.

According to a press release the feature will begin testing in the coming weeks, with full availability to TiVo Series2 subscribers as early as the 1st quarter of next year.

According to the New York Times, there will be a one-time fee to users to enable this feature which will cover the licensing fee for MPEG-4. Another article notes that the encoded video will contain digital watermarks to discourage internet sharing of the resultant video files.

 

[thrillz3]

This is great, but will we be able to do it with OSX?

 

[0098386]

ooh thats good. now to get TiVo!

 

[webman2k]

This is great, but will we be able to do it with OSX?

I would hope so, but my gut says no. They've shown no interest in even fixing the broken mac client. It's too bad. All I'd like to do is burn some of my tivo recordings to dvd for personal use. I can download the files easily, but I have nothing that will decode the .tivo format on OS X. I'd gladly pay $30 or so for a program that would let me do that. If they would just release the codec for a small fee, we could do what we wanted - burn to disc, compress to iPod format. I don't care how much DRM they put in it, just get it to us - please!

 

[bigandy]

ooooooh nice.

 

[MattG]

Great, now if they'd only port the TiVo2Go software to the Mac, the software that they've been saying for the past year "we're working on it."

Plus the TiVo Desktop software still doesn't work with Tiger, 10.3 only.

 

[snkTab]

Like people are not going to share videos because it has a watermark.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I dumped Tivo because they don't support Macs. Also made sure they knew that on the feedback form.

 

[pubwvj]

Hmm... Right now people spend an average of 9 hours a day in front of the boob-tube. So with this connection they can increase that to 16? 24? Wow, I don't know how they do it!!!

 

[Will Cheyney]

Awesome idea for people who otherwise wouldn't know how to do such things.
Myself? As I have the know-how, I'd rather edit the footage myself, but still, a good link-feature.

 

[Gump]

TiVo is in an encrypted MPEG format.
A 60 minute show recorded in 2nd best quality on TiVo is about 5GB.

Good move, whoever chose to do this.
Would be good to see some sort of direct and wireless transfer between the next 6G iPod and the next gen TiVo, no PC or MAC inbetween.

 

[j_maddison]

Hmm... Right now people spend an average of 9 hours a day in front of the boob-tube. So with this connection they can increase that to 16? 24? Wow, I don't know how they do it!!!

Nine hours?? Who are these average people? They obviously don't work for a lving! Or perhaps they don't sleep. If I could only get away with 2-3 hours sleep a night, I could just about squeeze that 9 hours of viewing in

 

[Porchland]

If Apple doesn't bless it, it's crap.

How would it work anyway. The video would upload to iTunes, then to your iPod? Have a separate interface on your iPod? If it's too complicated, it won't get any traction in the market.

 

[MhzDoesMatter]

Tivo vs iTunes

Does anyone else think think TivoToGo done right will be pretty capable competitor to iTunes for TV shows?

If you've already bought and iPod and have tivo, you can basically have the napster/yahoo subscription plan by paying the service fee and downloading all you want...but unlike music, I don't really care if I own the shows or not. Odds are I'm not going to keep them indefinitely, and may only watch them two or three times total. And would rather buy the boxed set of a season for archiving. Even the resolution should be better.

NYT does have the service as still Window's only. But maybe Apple is the one dragging its feet. Not Tivo. How hard would it be for the two of them to enable TV show sharing between iTunes and a tivo on the local subnet like other media devices and allow you to stream the shows from within iTunes itself, also allowing iTunes to manage syncing to the iPod, possibly automatically. Not to mention this could work on both platforms, and if people own quicktime, don't they already have a MPEG4 license? So it might also be cheaper.

But would the iTVS really have a market then?

 

[AidenShaw]

...not just a watermark...

Like people are not going to share videos because it has a watermark.

The watermark could contain your TiVo subscriber ID, which would make large scale file sharing a risky proposition.

 

[AidenShaw]

I can already watch TiVo to go on my phone....

Does anyone else think think TivoToGo done right will be pretty capable competitor to iTunes for TV shows?

I can already watch TiVoToGo (and any other movies, music or pictures, and even live TV) on my telephone, laptop, or any PC anywhere in the world....

Go to Verizon or Sprint and get a Windows, Nokia or other 3GP phone with an internet data connection. EVDO networking is perfect - this is DSL-speed internet access from the phone itself - also available as a PC-card for a laptop. Check out "Broadband Access" from Verizon for details.

Go to http://www.orb.com and get the free Orb software. It turns your home PC into a private internet media server. There's an "add-on" for TiVoToGo, so that shows on the TiVo can be served to the internet.

Then, start your browser on the phone, and select the show, video, TiVo recording or whatever you want to watch. The Orb software will stream the video from your PC to your phone (shrinking the image to fit your phone screen, and compressing it as necessary to fit the bandwidth to your device).

Of course, Orb also works fine with laptops or PCs with internet connections - and it will automatically produce a larger, higher-quality image according to the network speeds and display size.

"Downloading through iTunes to an iPod" is pretty lame compared to real-time streaming....

 

[Aeolius]

... It turns your home PC into a private internet media server...

There are those of us who do not have Windows boxes in our homes, you know.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Does anyone else think think TivoToGo done right will be pretty capable competitor to iTunes for TV shows?

No, because it's WAY WAY WAY too complicated for the average techno-phobe user. Too many steps, too many things that can go wrong that the user doesn't understand. The reason video content on iTunes has been such a success it because it only takes an IQ of 100 to click "Buy Video." After that iTunes does all the work for the user. People will pay for the convenience.

 

[WeBleed4Real]

According to the New York Times, there will be a one-time fee to users to enable this feature which will cover the licensing fee for MPEG-4.

Blah...no one wants to pay a fee. Wait for someone to create a free hack around that.

 

[AidenShaw]

There are those of us who do not have Windows boxes in our homes, you know.

You could buy a PC Mini for about $500 - this would be a good way to see if you want to switch without risking a big investment !

http://sys.us.shuttle.com/BuyList.aspx?id=1001&type=m

 

[jaw04005]

Tivo is using Microsoft's Digital Rights Management Technology in Tivo To Go. I don't see how Tivo can port TTG to Mac OS X, without a new DRM-capable Windows Media Player client from Microsoft.

It's unfortunate that users of QuickTime Pro for Windows will have to pay a fee to purchase yet another MPEG 4 player/convertor. I would just download one of the many free applications that are available that use the QT codec.

 

[Bibulous]

?

 

[Arcus]

Hmm... Right now people spend an average of 9 hours a day in front of the boob-tube. So with this connection they can increase that to 16? 24? Wow, I don't know how they do it!!!

Whoa , nine hours a day? Lets see:

Work: 14
Sleep: 6
Eat: 1
Practice Guitar: .5
Misc problems : .5
Read MacRumors: 1

 

[berkleeboy210]

TiVo has USB Ports right? I'd love just be able to plug my iPod in and drag and drop shows into it....

 

[MhzDoesMatter]

No, because it's WAY WAY WAY too complicated for the average techno-phobe user. Too many steps, too many things that can go wrong that the user doesn't understand. The reason video content on iTunes has been such a success it because it only takes an IQ of 100 to click "Buy Video." After that iTunes does all the work for the user. People will pay for the convenience.

Thus the tivo "Done Right." Possibly something similar to the method I explained. (Tivo shows up in iTunes side bar. Shows are double clickable, transfer is drag and drop, and syncing is automated.)

Herz