For owners of Tivo Series 2 standalone units (no DirecTivo support), you can now use TivoToGo to transfer your favorite TV programs from your TiVo to your PC across the home network. Here's the skinny:
- Windows-only from what I can tell and Thomas tells us.
- You can transfer non-CGMS-A protected programs to your PC. (eg. Soprano's on HBO won't transfer)
- DVD burning isn't available yet, but Sonic's MyDVD will have this feature shortly at an additional cost. TiVo's with DVD Burners built-in will be supported shortly as well via an update.
- You can still publish photos and music to your TiVo, but still no WMA support as far as I know.
- Requires a password every time you want to watch on the PC (something Michael Gartenberg points out Media Center PC's do not require.
- Requires you have a suitable DVD decoder (referrred to as a “Codec“ on TiVo's site) which your PC will be scanned for during installation of the TiVo desktop app. A list of supported DVD Decoders is here and they point to the Windows XP DVD Decoder Checkup Utility we did as well :) .
I'm actually surprised that Thomas Hawk is so understanding of the lack of support for DirecTivo's. He does note , “[I]t makes me wonder how significant of an offering this is when it is available to less than half of your current customers due to these limitations. “
Sure, many of us are well aware of the measures that DirecTV goes to to protect their content and services and this seems like a mixed message to customers. I'm sure TiVo tried hard though.
In any event, congrats to TiVo from a 1st generation early adopter (I got mine when TiVo was just 4 months old before moving to Ultimate TV at the time, and now on to Media Center and Comcast). I'm sure this will make at least 1/2 their install-base (by Thomas' estimation) very happy.