TiVoToGo officially supports PSP and iPod

Last year for the holidays TiVo gave us TiVo ToGo, and we were all happy campers. Well, kind of. It wasn't very extensible, and their whole partership with Microsoft to deliver content to PMCs never really panned out, but today TiVo is expected to announce an enhanced TiVoToGo service, which would allow subscribers to transfer recorded programs directly to their iPods and PSPs. Of course, many of you are already taking steps to convert TiVo's MPEG-2 format to MPEG-4 – a process which requires video conversion software and several manual steps to load up your portable. But TiVo is promising background conversion and automatic, overnight transfer directly to your iPod or PSP via your connected PC – a two-hour process for a one-hour show. Sweet. Sure, there are a few restrictions: video-on-demand and pay-per-view content will be restricted from the service and recorded shows will be digitally watermarked allowing content to be tracked back to your living room if you get torrent happy with 'em, dig? Fair enough, as this still allows us to view the content on as many portable devices as you like (including Windows Mobile-based devices, which are already supported). All-in-all this sounds like a promising development in TiVo's struggle to differentiate themselves from generic DVRs. A beta offering is expected to begin today with a full production service available as early as Q1 2006.

[Thanks, Mike]

[Mack Swift @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

2 hours to convert a 1 hour T^V show!! What I'm really waiting for is the ATI Avivo Video transcode app.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1880749,00.asp

Basically, instead of using the CPU to transcode video from one format to the other; it uses the GPU (X1XX series only). The Extremetech article posts impressive results even in early beta. And you know Nvidia has got something going.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

TiVo needs to figure out their USB 2.0 drivers and maybe one day spend the extra buck per machine and add 10/100 ethernet ports. My Series 2.5 machine (when I was still using it) would take an hour to transfer a 1 hour show at USB 1.1 speeds. Now it'll take 2 hours to transcode it? 3 hours of work to watch a 1 hour show? Yeah... um, I'd just rather watch it at home in 1 hour.

[Josh @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Sounds great, but it'll work for the mac when hell freezes over. Wish I could get excited about the announcement.

[notrealdan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

This is all well and good, but I'll stick to my ReplayTV. Folks with RTVs have been able to get the mpeg files off of those for a few years now (admittedly, not automatically and not via a 1st party solution). Of course, you could go one further and say anyone with MythTV or something similar doesn't even need to worry about how to move around their video files...

I know this has all been said before and I don't mean to sound so anti-TiVo. I love that they've brought DVRs into mainstream use. I also love my iPod but I don't think I'll be watching too much video on it.

[Muzz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

No Mac support...meh. :(

[Topmounter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I just want my Series 3 Tivo with:

* Cable Card Support
* 10/100 Ethernet
* External HDD Support

[Topmounter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

and HD support of course.

[sam @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

another thing to consider is that in mp4 format the file will be much much smaller, so even though it will take 2 hrs to convert a 1 hr show, it wont take the normal time to transer (for me when i use pspvideo9 a 15min show of 500mb becomes a ~50mb mp4)

[charles gleek @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

one more reason to be disappointed with tivo. does any exec/marketing rep/developer @ tivo have a clue about promoting an actually viable product? with NO tivo2go for mac, a horrible transfer time, and a subscription price that's sure to be punitive (in order to placate corporate media exec's who have forgotten how to innovate), I'd rather wait for slingbox to suppport mac.

[rjlawrencejr @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

I know it's not for everyone, but having a TiVo with a built-in DVD burner has definitely worked well for me. Using a 1-hour show as an example, I can burn a DVD-RW in about 30 minutes (or a DVD-R in about 10 minutes) pop that into my iBook (800mhz G4 w/640mb RAM) and using HandBrake it takes about an hour to encode into mp4.

And though I do not edit the content of my files (I prefer having the commercials remain) the best thing is that video I extract doesn't have the restrictions of TiVo2go files and can be appropriated and shared as I please.

[Brad Johnson @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Three thoughts:

1) I wonder what is the percentage of Windows based iPods compared to Mac based iPods? I'm just curious because this would be pretty cool if it's easy to do.

2) The press release says that the Tivo needs to be connected to a computer but how many computers are within reach of the Tivo box? This sounds like a pain to connect the two unless there is a wireless solution. I home office and I've got the PowerBook in the office but no Tivo in there since I don't watch TV in the office and I don't have my computer set up in the living room next to my TV.

3) The whole video iPod/video podcast and Tivo2Go concept is going to get pushed pretty hard by the next gen of live TV on 3G cellphones. This is coming pretty fast when you consider that Sprint is talking about nationwide WiMax, partnering with cable companies for content and already offering a limited selection of live TV via cellphones. The last mile to the house for internet, TV and voice looks to me to be wireless via wireless companies like Sprint, etc... in the not too distant future.

[InfoMofo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Will tivo just hurry up and die already? They lost their halo a long time ago... Frankly, the iTMS tv-show store is way more on track than Tivo2Go...

[Alexa @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

No Mac support....but I can only assume that Apple will announce something that will do this at Macworld SF in January so it's moot :-)

[n8 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

For me, this is a good move. I will buy a Tivo now rather than just getting a set top from my cable provider. The ability to save my programs and take them with me if I want is a huge advantage over other systems, and well worth the premium. Sure it was possible with Tivo To Go, but it wasn't easy. This sounds pretty damn easy.

As for the 2-hour transfer time: if something isn't recorded natively in the proper format, it's always going to take time to put it right. This doesn't sound like anything that doesn't already happen when people want to transfer their programs to portable format.

I think we can expect some 3rd generation products from Tivo pretty soon (with ethernet) and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Apple and Tivo worked out some deals for iTunes video downloads on Tivo. That'd be a match made in heaven for Tivo and Apple. So much so I wonder if Apple wouldn't even be thinking of buying Tivo...

[jonbaer @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

dear tivo,

please license/buy/integrate/plugin the locationfree protocol to your box (thus saving your $ and us from having to waste time transfering video to begin with). im sure this can be done, im sure many of us would glady pay a few extra $ for the super cool feature ...

thanks for listening.

[Dave @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

"transfer directly to your iPod or PSP

via your connected PC"

How can it be "direct" if you need a PC in the middle? I'm not saying that "direct" is actually technically feasible to begin with, but it sounds misleading to say that when there's nothing direct about it. As a previous commenter pointed out, trying to swing your TV into the picture when it's probably nowhere near the TiVo in the first place will be a big pain.

[Dave @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

Should have said:

As a previous commenter pointed out, trying to swing your PC into the picture when it's probably nowhere near the TiVo in the first place will be a big pain.

[WizarDru @ Dec 19th 2005 2:06AM]

"Swing your PC?" You do understand that the file is being transferred over the network from the TiVo to the PC, right? That's the whole point of Tivo2Go. The only difference is now you can save Tivo Shows as MPEG-4s, not MPEG-2s that you had to convert.

It's amazing how people can take a free feature and try to make it into a negative. Oy.