TiVo has announced software facilitating the transfer of shows from Series 2 units to both the iPod and PSP. While many techniques already exist (VLC, Videora, PSP Video 9), an officially sanctioned method along with tech support is a welcome addition. Unlike the currently supported conversions to Microsoft portable devices, this new method will embed a watermark within the video to identify the owner. Various news outlets are reporting the software may carry a $15 – $30 fee.
The cottage industry that has sprung up to support conversions and the lack of lawsuits has obviously emboldened TiVo to move in this direction. While theyre a bit late to the dance, this is an exciting to development. Throw in as many digital watermarks as it takes, just give me a quick and easy method of massaging content for playback on my various devices.
TiVo says: The enhancement will include exclusive capabilities such as TiVo auto-sync that will allow subscribers to choose if they want new recordings of their favorite programs easily transferred to their portable devices via their PC. Every morning the devices can be loaded with new programs recorded the night before.
“The increasing popularity of mobile devices for viewing video such as Apple’s iPod and the PSP device demonstrate the enormous consumer demand for entertainment on the go,” said Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo. “By enhancing our TiVoToGo(TM) feature, we’re making it easy for consumers to enjoy the TV shows they want to watch right from their iPod or PSP — whenever and wherever they want.”
Subscribers will need to purchase certain low-cost software to facilitate the transfer of content from the PC to these portable devices. To discourage abuse or unlawful use of this feature, TiVo intends to employ “watermark” technologies on programs transferred to a portable device using the TiVoToGo feature that would enable tracking of the account from which a transferred program originated.
[Tip via megazone]
Even though there are a number of other ways to get content on to my PSP, I’m excited to see TiVo providing an ‘official’ method for doing it. I guess I’ll be investing in larger memory sticks soon (or that third-party PSP hard drive). Now if TiVo adds auto-downloading to TiVoDesktop we’ll have a full circle so you can download last night’s programs to your PSP (or iPod) with no manual intervention.
BTW, I’d love to be entered in the ornament drawing :-)
Please update me as this comes out.
Thanks,
If you want to install iPod Video Converter you can follow this guide: http://www.mconverter.net
iPod Video Converter for Mac is powerful, easy-to-use Mac video conversion software adapted to be installed for Mac users which convert video file between all popular video formats.