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Nero Unveils LiquidTV, TiVo For Your Computer

bigwophh writes to mention HotHardware is reporting that Nero has decided to try a new step forward for home theater PCs by bringing the TiVo service to your computer. The new LiquidTV / TiVo PC package includes a (USB-based) high definition ATSC digital/analog TV tuner, antenna, remote control, IR blaster, Nero's LiquidTV software, and a 12-month subscription to the TiVo service for around $200. You can cut that in half if you already have a compatible TV tuner. This is the first time that TiVo has licensed their intuitive interface for a PC package. In addition to the TiVo interface, the rest of the LiquidTV software package allows you to burn your TV recordings to DVD or transfer the videos to other computers, iPods, PSP, or "other mobile devices." This service is due to launch next month.

9 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Bout time by kellyb9 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Great - exactly what I've been looking for MythTV- except you have to pay for it.

  2. If it's from Nero, it has to suck. by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nero is notorious for installing processes you don't want that run all the time. I bought the DVD writer program (the commercial product, not the free version) and, even though I turned off everything else, it installed an "indexing service" and a "backup service", which started up at boot time. I wouldn't trust a product from them. You don't know that it's doing.

    (By the way, what's a reliable Windows non-Vista product for writing DVDs of both data and video formats. I don't need "ripping", but want to transcode some of my old animation .avi files to DVD.)

    1. Re:If it's from Nero, it has to suck. by pdragon04 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try CDBurnerXP

      http://cdburnerxp.se/

      And it's free!

  3. In response to blatent advertisement for TIVO... by johnlcallaway · · Score: 4, Informative

    I bought a Hauppauge card, Snapstream's beyond TV, and a Firefly RF remote. I see they are running this for about $180 on Snapstream's site. I've been using a cheaper board for several months now and think it's great.

    No subscription charges, files are stored so anyone can view them or burn to DVD. It also includes compression and advertisement skipping, an hour of TV is about around 500 to 900MB. They also offer a $30 add-on so you can view from another computer on the network. I share the hard drive instead, but then the advertisement skipping feature can't be used, just standard fast forward.

    Snapstream isn't the most intuitive program out there, but you don't have to pay the monthly subscription charge for access to free information once the first 12 month subscription runs out.

    --
    I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
  4. IR blasters are unreliable -- stay away! by wealthychef · · Score: 3, Informative

    I would love this kind of solution if IR blasters were 100% reliable. But they occasionally fail to change channels properly, resulting in missed shows. One year, I missed an important playoff game and that was the last time I used an IR blaster setup -- I changed TV providers to one that used integrated TiVo receivers.

    --
    Currently hooked on AMP
  5. Re:Who asked for this? by rtechie · · Score: 3, Informative

    Among others:

    1) You can have up to 4 tuners in the PC.

    2) You can stream the video to different PCs on your network.

    3) More storage, and better use of storage. For example, you can archive the actual Tivo recordings and burn them to DVD. (and yes, you can get them out of the program and edit them as you see fit).

  6. Re:If it's from Nero, it has to phone home by denis-The-menace · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nero also phones home every time you launch it.

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
  7. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Informative

    Buy yourself a Hauppauge 1212.

    Can't miss it. We're all gushing over it.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  8. They are other ways to get HD capture by joe_cot · · Score: 4, Informative

    For people that might be considering this, because they have no other way to capture QAM encoded video, wait a couple months. The Hauppauge HD PVR records component video as x264, and MythTV is working on support for it. That'll be your analog hole to the bs surrounding QAM and HDCP, so don't settle for this proprietary afterthought.