Originally TiVo had tried to rush this out before the end of the year and they are certainly close with today’s announcement that TiVoToGo is ready and available only for Series 2 units. But — and there seem to be a lot of buts — make sure for all those of you who are elligible, that you get added to the priority list.

The long-awaited service feature called TiVoToGo, set to launch Monday, will give users their first taste of TiVo untethered. No longer confined to TiVo digital video recorders in the living room or bedroom, subscribers will be able to transfer their recorded shows to PCs or laptops and take them on the road as long as the shows are not specially tagged with copy restrictions. That’s also the case for pay-per-view or on-demand movies, and some premium paid programming.

I bolded the text above to show that this is a rather mysterious statement. So does this mean I’ll be able to transfer say the Simpsons to DVD? (we’ve bought all four five seasons on DVD so far, BTW). I think the answer is “wait and see” but I did notice that to burn any authorized programs to DVD it requires the Sonic MyDVD software. I see that a media access code is required. Slashdot, of course, is already all over this story, wondering where the Linux users are going to be left, and one user, Masem adds this gotcha:

The ToGo service requires an updated software to be installed on your DVR box (7.1-x). They expect that the rollout of this software to take several weeks and months, though you can fill out a priority request form with your DVR’s service number to get yourself higher in the queue.

And what about Mac users? From the TiVoToGo FAQ:

At this time TiVoToGo transfers are not available for Apple Macintosh computers. TiVo is working hard to enable TiVoToGo features available on TiVo Desktop for Mac. We are currently working on ways to enable playback on Apple Macintosh computers

TiVo suggests signing up for their newsletter if you are in the Mac camp.

Overall, this looks like a pretty cool program. Makes me want to run out and buy a series 2 TiVo PVR and get this all hooked up. I hope there’s more info (a live demo, perhaps) at the CES in Vegas later this week. I’ll be watching for it.

More blog coverage available at:
Tivoblog
Thomas Hawke
Obvious Diversion
starjewel
PVRblog

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