Digital video recording pioneers TiVo unveiled a new portable transfer service. TiVoToGo lets users transfer recordings to a personal computer or laptop, provided the shows or movies have no special tags indicating copying restrictions.
"Right now, TiVo is trying to build a culture of letting consumers move their content around the home and beyond,” ABI Research analyst Vamsi Sistla told reporters, "and as long as they're doing it within the copyright concerns, it's a good idea."
TiVo also said they expect to make available a capability for copying recorded material onto DVDs, though not at the TiVoToGo launch.
The new portability service is a free upgrade for TiVo subscribers owning the stand-alone Series2 TiVo digital video recorder, the company said, adding TiVoToGo won’t work for those owning DirecTV TiVo satellite boxes. It also works only with computers running Windows XP or Windows 2000 operating systems, though TiVo is believed to be planning a version to work with Macintosh computers.
TiVo subscribers wanting to use the new service would also have to download free desktop software from TiVo onto their computers, with media access codes and passwords assigned to each user—limiting transfer and playback to members of subscribers’ households who have the same access codes, the company added.
Spokesperson Kathryn Kelly told reporters the company hopes to expand the service to make TiVo-loaded video accessible anywhere by way of the Internet. "It lays the foundation of moving content out of the living room," she was quoted as saying.
