TiVo will be retiring the free version of their TiVo Desktop PC software next month. And I can’t say it’s a bad idea, given years of neglect… and CCI Byte unpleasantries. While imagery alluding to a replacement TiVo Desktop or, perhaps, web portal streaming surfaced earlier this year, nothing has yet materialized. Until it does, TiVo Desktop Plus will live on – with it, the only official path to Windows 8 support. Pricing has dropped from $25 to $16 and, as a refresher, the fees were initially instituted to cover codec licensing required for TiVoToGo video transcoding and playback. However, we continue to recommend the free, open source, cross-platform, kmttg to offload recordings from your DVR for archiving or mobile. Alternately, the TiVo Stream ($130) is still pretty killer (if you happen to be an iOS household). Should you prefer to possess a copy of TiVo Desktop before they pull the plug “forever,” grab it here prior to June 5th.
(Thanks brennok, Barrett, and Rajiv!)