Today's TiVo News Big announcements
/Today's TiVo News Big announcements from TiVo today:
http://www.tivo.com/5.3.1.1.asp?article=166 TiVo and DirectTV will offer a box later this year to let you record HDTV signals from DirectTV, as well as standard resolution signals, PLUS ATSC HDTV signals over the air (OTA).
http://www.tivo.com/5.3.1.1.asp?article=164
TiVo is also coming out with a standalone HDTV recorder, that they're going to license to several manufacturers. HDTV eats disk space like crazy though, even with a 120GB drive, you're only going to be able to store around 20 hours at HD resolution, but of course you can store a lot of standard resolution stuff too.
http://www.tivo.com/5.3.1.1.asp?article=165
TiVo and Toshiba have created a DVD/DVR product, so that you can record your TiVo programming off to a DVD to keep it.
http://www.tivo.com/5.3.1.1.asp?article=162
And, finally, TiVo has the new "Home Media Option" in which they hit you up for another $99 for your first recorder, and $49 for every additional recorder, so that you can listen to MP3s and view digital photos on your TV, retrieving that media from your home PC via your home network. You can also schedule shows remotely via the web, so if you're away from home, you can tell it what show you want to record for you, and last, but not least, you can share recorded shows between two TiVos in the same household, so that if you recorded a show in the living room, you can watch it later in the bedroom.
They're also adding wireless and wired ethernet support via Linksys devices, and give you access to Corbis' collection of music and photos via broadband.
My take on it: The $99 fee is to high for what they give you, make it $49, and the second TiVo is $25, and I'd pay for it. Right now, I'm going to plan on buying one of the new HDTiVos at the end of the year, and getting rid of one of my Series 2 boxes. I'll probably wind up getting the Home Media Option put on my boxes, simply because I'll get most (if not all) of the price of it back when it comes time to sell them on eBay, as the service level doesn't depreciate, so you essentially get to use it for free, assuming you're going to sell the box and upgrade.
