New TiVo software transfers video to iPod
updated 07:05 am EST, Mon November 21, 2005
TiVo adds iPod support
users will soon be able to transfer their recorded television content to their video iPods and Sony mobile handhelds. The company today is expected to announce a plan later today, which will let users of its popular digital video recorders download any TV show stored on their TiVo boxes onto iPods. The move will greatly expand the TiVo said it will begin testing the feature over the coming weeks and will make it available in the first quarter of next year to its TiVo Series2 subscribers as part of its TivoToGo feature, which is used by about 300,000 of its total 3.6 million subscribers. TiVo also said it plans to modify its software to let its users download shows to Sony PlayStation Portable mobile game device.
"The increasing popularity of mobile devices for viewing video such as Apple's iPod and the PSP device demonstrate the enormous consumer demand for entertainment on the go," said Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo. "By enhancing our TiVoToGo(TM) feature, we're making it easy for consumers to enjoy the TV shows they want to watch right from their iPod or PSP -- whenever and wherever they want."
TiVo said it will begin testing the feature in the coming weeks with a select group of TiVo Series2 subscribers who own the Apple Video iPod or PSP devices. TiVo said it plans to make the feature available to its entire standalone TiVo Series2 subscriber base as early as the first quarter of next year.
Last year, TiVo made available to all its Series2 subscribers the TiVoToGo feature. The TiVoToGo feature allows subscribers to transfer TV shows from their DVR to a laptop or PC over their home network. From the PC, subscribers can watch the shows, or transfer them to devices compatible with Microsoft Portable Media Center format. The announcement today added more support for the Apple's iPod and Sony PSP, as well as the ability to specify Season Pass recordings to conveniently transfer to the portable device via the PC overnight.
TiVo says that subscribers will need to purchase certain low-cost software to facilitate the transfer of content from the PC to these portable devices. The software is epected to cost between $15 and $30. To discourage abuse or unlawful use of this feature, TiVo intends to employ "watermark" technologies on programs transferred to a portable device using the TiVoToGo feature that would enable tracking of the account from which a transferred program originated.
Will we see it on the Mac
11/21, 07:51am reply
TiVo's software for the Mac is currently way behind the PC version. No transfer-to-PC for the Mac, not even compatibility with Tiger. So, I am not too excited about this…
nemanirc
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Mar 2000
Mac users left out again?
11/21, 08:01am reply
The support that TiVo has had for its Mac-using TiVo owners has been horrible to non-existent. Why should we expect anything different from this company.
There is no mention of system requirements in this article. The pessimist in me expects that the version of TiVoToGo with iPod video transfer will be no different than the current version--Windows only.
--an increasingly disillusioned TiVo subscriber
eizzumdm
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2002
Not likely...
11/21, 08:26am reply
Indeed, the more time that passes, the more actively I'm looking for alternatives. TiVo has done nothing but drift further and further away from the mac community. The TiVoToGo feature was very exciting before it was ultimately very dissapointing. This feature will, I'm sure, follow the same path... Sounds great, but I'm sure it will only lead to dissapointment.
...damn you TiVo!!!
heidilux
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2003
iTunes vs Tivo
11/21, 08:45am reply
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?
MhzDoesMatter
MhzDoesMatter
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Joined: Jul 2002
Been doing this for weeks
11/21, 10:45am reply
http://www.tivotool.com
LordJohnWhorfin
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2002
iTunes
11/21, 10:50am reply
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.
Well, if you already have a tivo, you should've paid for the lifetime subscription. Then there are no more fees, and then you have a 'free' subscription model and the ability to record as much as you want and keep it all. And regardless of whether you paid for the lifetime service, you can burn the stuff you want to DVD without paying even more money.
I've looked for alternatives, but all I could find was stuff that ran on computers (usually PCs), not separate boxes. Like I want to waste my time prettying up a PC to stick next to my TV set. (A mac isn't an option since no macs come with anything close to what you'd need for an entertainment system of any ilk).
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Re: been doing this...
11/21, 11:02am reply
http://www.tivotool.com
Yeah, sounds real simple too! Just need to spend hours, know what the h*** you're doing, not mind hacking apart your Tivo and risk really s******* it up. Plus the help pages aren't exactly structured or ordered in any sensible manner.
But besides that, there's no better way to go!
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Waaa, waaa, waaa
11/21, 01:09pm reply
Trust testudo to piss all over other people's great work. Why don't you join the project and show us what a wonderful job you can do with the documentation, but you're probably too busy posting negative comments on bulletin boards...
Oh, and by the way, lifetime subs are not available on DirecTV TiVos.
LordJohnWhorfin
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2002
Re: waaa, waaa, waaa
11/21, 01:15pm reply
Trust testudo to piss all over other people's great work. Why don't you join the project and show us what a wonderful job you can do with the documentation, but you're probably too busy posting negative comments on bulletin boards...
Nah, what fun would that be. Plus, I was just indicating the usual frustration most people have with this great "open-source" thing they hear about. Documentation generally sucks. Interfaces are for noobies, and consistency is disregarded in favor of adding more and more features.
Oh, and by the way, lifetime subs are not available on DirecTV TiVos.
Yeah, but at $5 a month, its a lot cheaper then regular tivo, and you need DirecTV anyway. Oh, and that $5 a month covers as many Tivos as you want.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
tivotool
11/21, 02:25pm reply
If I had had that a year or so ago, when I had a hacked series 1, I would have been in heaven. Instead, I'm now looking at the cheaper and plentiful USB/FW based Tuner options and just making my iMac a TV in and of itself. I'd rather stare at my pretty iMac G4 than most of the Sony designed flat TVs anyway.
ibugv4
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Joined: Jun 2003