TiVoToGo For iPods and PSPs

BushCheney08 writes "According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, TiVo is expanding its TiVoToGo service to allow recordings to be viewed on video iPods and PSPs. Files will be transcoded in real time and will include digital watermarks to try to cut down on piracy. The service begins beta-testing for select subscribers today, with a widespread rollout scheduled for early next year. An AP article is also available at Forbes."

Comments

Mac software?

[toupsie]

The sad part is that Apple Mac users will not be able to transcode the Tivo files for Apple iPods because of Windows DRM. I keep around an old Windows notebook just to covert Tivo files to AVIs so I can store them on my Mac Mini hooked to my HDTV. What a hassle. Tivo refuses to support Mac users and release a Tiger compatible version of their software. Tivo is supposed to make my life easier by conforming TV to my schedule not to Hollywood's whim. Once my two Tivos die, I will never, ever give money to that stupid TV with legs and arms.

FU Tivo.

Re:Mac software?

[TheNumberSix]

Explain please why it's Tivo's fault you bought a Mac.

Well, here's the dilemma. TiVo had fully supported Macs for a long time. And suddenly when the Tivo2Go feature came out, TiVo just didn't release a Mac version. And they didn't say much of anything about it.

There was no announcement that they are dropping Mac support, there was... nothing. So the Mac users who were previously supported think that they are owed either of these:

1. TiVo should simply announce that no Mac support will be given henceforth.

2. At least some kind of update on Mac support. Maybe not even a release date, but at least an announcement that they are working on it.

Now maybe I'm misunderstanding your post and you're trying to snark on Macs or whatever, and that's fine. I just want to make it clear that this isn't just Mac users clamoring for support out of the blue.

It will be OS X compatible (at least somewhat)

[macslut]

It makes sense that they would support OS X. The old TiVoToGo relied on Windows Media DRM which was unavailable on the Mac. The tech to make this new watermarking method available on OS X would be trivial. The files themselves *must* be compatible with the Mac if they are to play on the iPod. There's no way TiVo is getting around that.

Also TiVo Desktop *is* compatible with OS X 10.4.2 and 10.4.3 (I've heard but not confirmed 10.4.4 as well). There was an incompatibility with 10.4.0 and 10.4.1, but the later releases of Tiger worked well. The installer gives a false "failed" message, but it does install and it does work very well (better than 10.3.x).

It should also be noted that the CEO of TiVo is a Mac user. They very much wanted to provide Mac support for TiVoToGo, but didn't want to take the legal risk of allowing shows to be transferred without any DRM. Considering Apple won't license their DRM and Windows Media DRM isn't compatible with the Mac, TiVo had little choice but to release for Windows only and/or develop their own DRM method. It looks like the success of the iPod has convinced TiVo that it was worth developing a watermark method that would make the files compatible with the iPod, and as result, the files must be compatible with the Mac.

The only question remains is whether TiVo will provide Mac software that *pulls* (or pushes) the files from the TiVo to the Mac. If they don't, there are plenty of ways of getting around it, but I can't imagine TiVo wouldn't dedicate the couple of hours to develop this software on the Mac.

Re:D'oh

[The Lynxpro]

"DirecTV tivos never even supported TivoToGo in the first place. The whole idea terrifies them."

It isn't that DirecTV is terrified by the process due to legal implications; its because DirecTV's parent company - News Corp. aka "Fox" - owns TiVo competitor NDS which does not have a similar option. NDS has been slow to market with just about every platform they've developed, and Rupert Murdoch is using DirecTV as a means of making his investment in NDS not look like a foolish mistake. If TiVo-To-Go and the other Home Media features were enabled on all DirecTV branded TiVos, who would seriously sign up for the NDS DirecTV DVR model? The only things going for the NDS model is that it has a 90 minute live tv buffer and it can display Caller ID info on the screen for incoming telephone calls.

Re:Mac Support

[futurekill]

You don't need Tivo2Go to download shows from your Series 2 Tivo, you don't event need to mod it....if you go to 'https://tivo:@/nowplaying/index.html' you can download all the shows on your Tivo...Unfortunately, they come down as .tivo files. These files are basically mpegs with an annoying wrapper around them. I use a program (via Virtual PC :-( ) called "Direct Show Filter Dump" to scrape the wrapper off and leave with with an mpeg. It works pretty well, but still requires access to a PeeCee, well, sort of... If anyone knows of a utility to scrape this off in the Mac natively, give a shout. I've tried ffMpeg without any luck, although it is still a very useful program.