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Media (Apple) Media Businesses Portables Television Apple Hardware

TiVoToGo For iPods and PSPs 150

Posted by Hemos from the try-to-remain-alive dept.
BushCheney08 writes "According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, TiVo is expanding its TiVoToGo service to allow recordings to be viewed on video iPods and PSPs. Files will be transcoded in real time and will include digital watermarks to try to cut down on piracy. The service begins beta-testing for select subscribers today, with a widespread rollout scheduled for early next year. An AP article is also available at Forbes."
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TiVoToGo For iPods and PSPs More

TiVoToGo For iPods and PSPs

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  • It's surprising to me too! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:15AM (#14081641)
    More than 50 percent of TiVo's 3.6 million subscribers have tried TiVoToGo, and nearly half use it regularly, Denney said. The number of regular users was higher than TiVo expected, and "it was surprising to us, to be honest,'' he said.

    Based on how slow the transfers are for Tivo2Go I too am surprised that Tivo has that many people using it. Granted, I was only using it over wireless but I assume that's what most of the Tivo2Go users are using as well. It was taking *more* than real-time to transmit a show to the computer and then I had to run it through Dr. Divx to bring it down to a resolution that would play well on my mobile device. Will this automated transcoding process increase the time it takes to put it on the handheld even more?

    I have mentioned before that I use the "Record to VCR" option to put shows on my mobile device as I have an Archos that will automatically record it in the best fit option if I so choose... Yeah, it's real time and it's a pain but it was actually faster and easier than using Tivo2Go. Being that I've moved to the DirecTivo I no longer have the Tivo2Go option (with a stock unit) so I am happy to use Record to VCR for now.

    • Re:It's surprising to me too! (Score:2)

      by BushCheney08 ( 917605 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:19AM (#14081675)
      Will this automated transcoding process increase the time it takes to put it on the handheld even more?

      I don't remember if it was mentioned in one of those articles, or if it was a different one, but somewhere it said that conversion is realtime, with about another 10 mins to transfer to the iPod/PSP. It really does sound like the slowest part of the process is getting the data onto your machine from the TiVo (although, if the transcoding is able to keep up with that, then the point is fairly moot anyways). I'm in your DirecTiVo situation, too, so I can't take advantage of this. And I don't wanna give up my dual-tuner goodness for it either... : /

    • Re:It's surprising to me too! (Score:3, Informative)

      by dreamt ( 14798 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:27AM (#14081741)
      Well, you can't really blame Tivo if wireless networking is slow. They have slowly been adding G support, but the problem is, all of the wireless G devices that keep on changing chipsets (quielty). Also, remember with wireless, (B for example) which is 11MBps, its a shared 11MBps, so if you are transfering to a machine also on wireless, you are instantly down to 5.5MBps. Using wired ethernet, its better than real-time for medium quality video. Keep in mind, it is already doing some level of transcoding when transfering clips from Tivo computer, so it makes sense that transfers to iPod would not be too much worse.

      • Re:It's surprising to me too! (Score:3, Informative)

        by garcia ( 6573 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:30AM (#14081755)
        No, I can't blame Tivo for the wireless speeds but it still surprises me that 50% of Tivo users are utilizing this particular transfer method.

        Keep in mind, it is already doing some level of transcoding when transfering clips from Tivo computer, so it makes sense that transfers to iPod would not be too much worse.

        I'm sure that it won't be much worse but with the transfers already being greater than real-time any additional time spent sucks :(

      • Re:It's surprising to me too! (Score:1, Redundant)

        by jandrese ( 485 ) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:19PM (#14082189) Homepage Journal
        I thought the USB ports on TiVos were only USB 1.1? G support is kinda moot (except for keeping your network out of mixed mode) when you're limited to USB speeds.

        Yes, I have used TiVo2Go several times in the past and the transfer times are seriously painful. You basically have to plan a day in advance if you want to load shows on something. Still, it works pretty nicely after that and the quality is pretty good.

        The crux of the matter is that TiVo2Go gave people something they've been wanting for a long time: An easy way to get a particular show they want (and this decision is made AFTER the show has been watched one in many cases) onto their PC where they can burn it to a DVD or send it to a friend. While it's been possible to capture data from the TV for a long time, few people wanted to go to the trouble to get a $50 Tuner card and haul their computer down to the living room just to transfer a single show once every 4 months or so. TiVos solution is close to exactly what people wanted (the extra step of ripping off the DRM is annoying though).

      • Re:It's surprising to me too! (Score:2, Interesting)

        by madman101 ( 571954 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:34PM (#14082342)
        I use my Tivo through a wired network, and it's painfully slow. It's easier to just do it real time through the record to VCR, and not deal with the Tivo software.

    • Re:It's surprising to me too! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Malc ( 1751 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:28PM (#14082290)
      Transfers from Tivos seem to be slow whatever you use. I have a series 1 Tivo with mfs_ftp installed on it. I transfer over 100BaseT. The harddrive is a year old 72000 RPM drive, so it's not slow. Downloading from the Tivo I see about 1 Mbs. Uploading shows back to the Tivo I see 140-150 Kbs. It takes me 5-6 hours to put an hour show back on to the Tivo! So I think the problem lies somewhere within the Tivo, and not with the transfer software (be it mfs_ftp or Tivo2Go).

  • TV Shows on iPod (Score:4, Funny)

    by ccZaphod ( 672824 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:17AM (#14081655)
    I've been carrying shows around on my iPod for years. I've got a dozen episodes of Farscape sitting on it right now. I watch shows from my iPod on my Laptop when I'm on the road. I have not bought a Video iPod yet and think I'd prefer to watch on a big laptop screen anyway.

  • Mac Support (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JonahLee ( 158787 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:18AM (#14081661)
    Too bad they never added Tivo To Go For Macintosh, and I doubt they will ever add this feature to Macs either. Nice to be a second or even 3rd class citizen when it comes to Tivo because i own a mac.

    • Re:Mac Support (Score:2)

      by Sierpinski ( 266120 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:20AM (#14081677)
      Too bad they never added Tivo To Go For Macintosh, and I doubt they will ever add this feature to Macs either. Nice to be a second or even 3rd class citizen when it comes to Tivo because i own a mac.

      Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. :)

    • Re:Mac Support (Score:2)

      by The Lynxpro ( 657990 ) <lynxproNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:09PM (#14082725)
      "Too bad they never added Tivo To Go For Macintosh, and I doubt they will ever add this feature to Macs either. Nice to be a second or even 3rd class citizen when it comes to Tivo because i own a mac."

      Don't give up yet. Word on the street is that they'll be enabling Mac support sometime in Q1 2006.

      If it really bugs you, then go to BestBuy on BlackFriday and pick up their $150 eMachines package (computer, monitor, printer) and then you can have a dedicated cheapie PC to take advantage of TiVo-2-Go. Hey, it is cheaper than opting for an El Gato EyeTV adapter for your Mac.

      What I'm really hoping for is iTunes Store support on TiVos...so you can play AAC and AAC+FairplayDRM'ed songs through the TiVo in the living room. Supposedly, plenty of people have requested this be added.

    • Re:Mac Support (Score:1)

      by rock711 ( 889833 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:56PM (#14083151) Homepage

      Straight from the TiVo press release [tivo.com]:

      "TiVo said it will begin testing the feature in the coming weeks with a select group of TiVo Series2(TM) subscribers who own the Apple Video iPod or PSP devices. TiVo said it plans to make the feature available to its entire standalone TiVo Series2 subscriber base as early as the first quarter of next year."

      The word entire would presumably include Mac users. Of course, this could be a typo, but at least there's some hope.

    • Re:Mac Support (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:57PM (#14083156) Homepage Journal
      I still wonder if Apple will add Tivo like functions to the mini.
      All it would take is a tuner card and remote...
      Latest rumor... Apple buys Nintendo and adds tuner card to the Mini :).
      Apple in a one move adds a large library of games to the mini and makes it the media center of the future. iTunes puts Blockbuster out of business overnight.

    • Re:Mac Support (Score:4, Informative)

      by futurekill ( 745161 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @04:44PM (#14084742)
      You don't need Tivo2Go to download shows from your Series 2 Tivo, you don't event need to mod it....if you go to 'https://tivo:@/nowplaying/index.html' you can download all the shows on your Tivo...Unfortunately, they come down as .tivo files. These files are basically mpegs with an annoying wrapper around them. I use a program (via Virtual PC :-( ) called "Direct Show Filter Dump" [prish.com] to scrape the wrapper off and leave with with an mpeg. It works pretty well, but still requires access to a PeeCee, well, sort of... If anyone knows of a utility to scrape this off in the Mac natively, give a shout. I've tried ffMpeg [slashdot.org] without any luck, although it is still a very useful program.

  • Mac software? (Score:5, Informative)

    by toupsie ( 88295 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:18AM (#14081662) Homepage
    The sad part is that Apple Mac users will not be able to transcode the Tivo files for Apple iPods because of Windows DRM. I keep around an old Windows notebook just to covert Tivo files to AVIs so I can store them on my Mac Mini hooked to my HDTV. What a hassle. Tivo refuses to support Mac users and release a Tiger compatible version of their software [versiontracker.com]. Tivo is supposed to make my life easier by conforming TV to my schedule not to Hollywood's whim. Once my two Tivos die, I will never, ever give money to that stupid TV with legs and arms.

    FU Tivo.

  • File Size? (Score:1)

    by ZiakII ( 829432 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:23AM (#14081714)
    Is the Tivo program it self going to shrink the file down to be able to handle more then 1 episode of a show on the ipod? I can just see how the resoultion and filesize not working on it well.

  • Huh. (Score:2, Informative)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:24AM (#14081718) Homepage
    Seeing as TiVo hasn't even bothered to make TiVo Desktop compatible with Tiger yet, I'll take this report with a grain of salt.

  • How long until (Score:3, Informative)

    by voice_of_all_reason ( 926702 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:33AM (#14081783)
    We get a news story about a group of mysterious stormtroopers breaking into the Tivo headquarters and slaughtering its executive board.

    I mean, didn't the MPAA just force them to allow remove-deletion of content at will? I can't imagine that promoting copying of saved tv shows will sit well with the cartels.

  • iPod and 'The Innovators Dilemma' (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rewinn ( 647614 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:34AM (#14081785) Homepage

    iPod seems to be turning into the canonical example of attacking an industry leader from below, as detailed in Clayton M. Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail" a decade back.

    In business computing, PCs broke the dominance of mainframes in the computing environment by introducing relatively cheap gadgets that were more expensive and less profitable per business function than the industry leaders, who quite logically ignored them; and then PCs crept up the functionality curve to wipe out the dinosaurs.

    In autos, the Japanese starting importing cheap cars to the US that were less profitable that our domestic industry leaders, who quite logically failed to respond effectively. While GM etc always made cheap cars too, they didn't try to match Japan's cheap-and-good model; Toyota etc crept up the functionality curve nearly to wipe out the dinosaurs.

    Now in computing: the iPod, started cheap, and is creeping up the functionality curve.

    The question is, will the industry leaders recognize and respond effectively? Or rather, can they? I don't intend to be making a yet another cheap flame of the world's leading software company, which cannot be ignorant of the what's going on, but responding may require breaking their business model.

    • "The question is, will the industry leaders recognize and respond effectively? Or rather, can they? I don't intend to be making a yet another cheap flame of the world's leading software company, which cannot be ignorant of the what's going on, but responding may require breaking their business model."

      Okay, but who are you referring to as the industry dinosaurs for your scenario, the MPAA studios or TiVo and the other DVR manufacturers? Or both, with the iPod serving as their executioner?

      • Re:iPod and 'The Innovators Dilemma' (Score:2)

        by rewinn ( 647614 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:31PM (#14082946) Homepage

        >Okay, but who are you referring to as the industry dinosaurs for your scenario, the MPAA studios or TiVo and the other DVR manufacturers?

        Wintel.

        The iPod is a cheap computer, with limited functionality compared to your desktop or your laptop. Its only advantages are its customer-pleasing price, its focus on functions customers want, and its ability to creep up to desktop functionality ... when it wants to.

        • "The iPod is a cheap computer, with limited functionality compared to your desktop or your laptop. Its only advantages are its customer-pleasing price, its focus on functions customers want, and its ability to creep up to desktop functionality ... when it wants to."

          I dunno about that one. The iPod would need a better processor (an Intel ARM based processor) for starts as well as a better OS to go along with it to get better media features standard. It has been reported in the past that Apple engineers are rather fed up with the iPod's OS, but it would probably take a lot to slim down OS X for a "Mobile OS X" solution or dusting off the Newton OS. Another option would be to buy the remnants of BeOS from PalmSource, but something tells me that PalmSource's new corporate overlords would not agree to that.

          Granted, the TiVo Series3 will need a better microprocessor than those MIPS 200mhz processors they currently sport in the Series2 models. Perhaps they should also be looking at a StrongARM chip from Intel, or a Sony/IBM Cell processor(s).

          • Re:iPod and 'The Innovators Dilemma' (Score:2)

            by rewinn ( 647614 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @05:38PM (#14085201) Homepage

            >The iPod would need a better processor (an Intel ARM based processor) for starts as well as a better OS

            I'm sure your facts are correct, but the same was truthfully said of PCs in the early days and other "Innovator's-Dilemma"-class dinosaur slayers.

            The "Death From Below" strategy starts with cheap, weak stuff that it's not profitable or otherwise rational for the dinos to resist. The significant difference today is that MS is headed by the most successful businessman in history; is he willing to break his business model to stay on top? Who knows ? The the organ grinder PC [slashdot.org] may factor into the mix as well.

    • iPod started cheap? (Score:2)

      by YesIAmAScript ( 886271 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @06:36PM (#14085720)
      The first iPod was $399. This invited many guffaws from MD owners/manufacturers, CD Walkman owners, and memory-based mp3 owners/manufacturers, even current mp3 jukebox (HD) owners.

      I do agree Apple is distrupting Sony quite a bit. But they aren't exactly attacking the market as a whole from below. In fact, they really pushed new bounds as to how much you could charge for a music player.

  • I guess it's worth a try. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Techguy666 ( 759128 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:35AM (#14081799)
    I just don't see this flying. DRM and real-time encoding?? So you're limited in what you can do with the file AND it takes 2 hours to convert a 2 hour show and then however long to synch it with the device...

    The people who really want to watch movies on their iPods and PSP will either have already created their own (DRM-free) hacks or will have bought the movie on a UMD. The people who only casually thinks, gee, it might be nice to have a copy this week's episode of "Stacked" on my iPod won't want to wait for almost an hour to get a half-hour sitcom... The nice thing about most PVRs and the ol' VCRs is that they're relatively simple to operate. Every additional step and limitation of this new system makes the recording technology less desirable - especially if the media can be found pre-packaged (from iTunes or Sony's UMD format).

  • Trying vs. Overly-Restrictive DRM (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sagenumen ( 62467 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:46AM (#14081883)
    "...will include digital watermarks to try to cut down on piracy. "

    That's what I like to hear. Honestly, they'll never eliminate it because there will be the people that just won't pay, but if there was a distribution system (that offered better than 128kbps), was reasonably priced, and offered less restrictive DRM, the general public would have little incentive to pirate. The only things keeping me from buying legal tracks are the DRM and the bitrate. I don't even mind the dollar a song because I'm not getting filler tracks that I would get on a CD.

    Anyway...I'm rambling...

    • Re:Trying vs. Overly-Restrictive DRM (Score:1)

      by generic-man ( 33649 ) * on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:33PM (#14082334) Homepage Journal
      What exactly will happen?

      1. User rips TV episode from TiVo
      2. User distributes TV episode using BitTorrent
      3. TiVo Inc. downloads TV episode
      4. TiVo Inc. decodes watermark, identifies subscriber who ripped it

      And then what? In my opinion they ought to do nothing (and Profit!) but I suspect their user agreement stipulates that the user's TiVo should be deactivated. With TiVo already in hot water among users for various non-consumer-friendly things (DRM on TiVoToGo, ads, more ads, content protection, billboard ads) I think TiVo would be wise to just let it slide.

  • Shameless troll (Score:2, Troll)

    by max born ( 739948 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:49AM (#14081900)
    TiVo's announcement comes as it faces stiffer competition from computer companies, cell phone providers and television networks that are scrambling to beam TV shows into any handheld device with a screen capable of playing video.

    This is great news and I don't mean to be a troll but isn't it a bit disturbing that companies seem more focused on systems that promote vendor-lockin by controlling content?

    Television is bascially a one-way pipe to a dumb terminal. I'd much rather see companies working toward bringing greater Internet access to these devices whereby consumers can shop for competitive content in an open market.

    Just a thought.

    • Wide-open markets (Score:2)

      by jfengel ( 409917 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:07PM (#14082048) Homepage Journal
      The funny thing is that television got to be a one-way pipe to a dumb terminal precisely when it was the most monopolistic. The US government adopted TV standards, and sold (for a pittance) the rights to spectrum that has become increasingly valuable over the years. The terminal is dumb only because a standard was imposed; otherwise, the network affiliates could all have chosen different standards to try to lock you in to watching a particular network. Or you could buy a smarter box to read them all.

      Now that the market for video delivery is far more open, you see companies doing precisely what companies do when they compete: try to lock you in to theirs. You've got many more options, and while being able to pick and choose is better for you, it's a loss for the company who would rather keep 100% of the attention that they pay so much to get (both in terms of bandwidth to deliver their content, whether from a web server or a broadcast tower, and in marketing to convince you to check them out in the first place.)

      In other words, it seems to me as if the free market is doing exactly what it's always doing. In a sense what you're asking for is to remove an element of competition, by forcing the various vendors to adhere to some sort of standard.

      It may be that those who choose a more open standard will form a cartel between them and eventually win over the others as you the consumer elect the single distribution channel with the most content. Or maybe not; even a decade after cell phones became widespread they still interoperate only via the original monopolistic network. It being an open market, it's up to the consumer to decide.

  • Giveth, and taketh away (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:50AM (#14081919)
    So TiVo will let us transfer shows to our iPods. This is the same TiVo that already makes their DVRs will obey the Broadcast Flag despite no federal legislation ever mandating such compliance. Seems to me that Disney, the WB, and every other studio will simply flag all their broadcasts as Do Not Record, blocking such free attempts to provide content to one's iPod and PSP and requiring these shows to be purchased. Therefore this announcement therefore amounts to NOTHING!

    • Re:Giveth, and taketh away (Score:2)

      by The Lynxpro ( 657990 ) <lynxproNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:21PM (#14082851)
      "So TiVo will let us transfer shows to our iPods. This is the same TiVo that already makes their DVRs will obey the Broadcast Flag despite no federal legislation ever mandating such compliance. Seems to me that Disney, the WB, and every other studio will simply flag all their broadcasts as Do Not Record, blocking such free attempts to provide content to one's iPod and PSP and requiring these shows to be purchased. Therefore this announcement therefore amounts to NOTHING!"

      Hollywood is still trying to hoist the Broadcast Flag onto Congress. TiVo is ahead of the ballgame just-in-case it becomes law. Would you prefer them to miss a deadline and suffer an injunction so that they cannot ship products until they comply with the law? How about a suicidal run against the MPAA like Replay? In either scenario, the only parties that benefit from an activist TiVo will be the likes of Motorola, NDS, and Scientific Atlanta (now a division of Cisco) who all ship under-performing DVRs for the cablecos and will automatically benefit by having TiVo close its doors. Be careful what you wish for.

      And the content distributors will not enable the broadcast flag until it becomes law. They'd be sued class-action style if they did otherwise, not to mention suffer FCC fines.

  • Replay TV (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21, 2005 @11:53AM (#14081930)
    This is pretty easy to do on my Replay TV. I have put a quite a few shows on my ipod video already. Keeps the wife busy on long car trips.
    Dvarchive to grab the shows from the Replay TV and then use one of the many free converters to change the format to IPOD friendly.

  • really? (Score:2, Funny)

    by runner91786 ( 880393 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:05PM (#14082026)
    Great, so now i guess Tivo will make me connect my iPod to the phone line to receive "service updates" also?!?

  • It will be OS X compatible (at least somewhat) (Score:5, Informative)

    by macslut ( 724441 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:12PM (#14082108)
    It makes sense that they would support OS X. The old TiVoToGo relied on Windows Media DRM which was unavailable on the Mac. The tech to make this new watermarking method available on OS X would be trivial. The files themselves *must* be compatible with the Mac if they are to play on the iPod. There's no way TiVo is getting around that.

    Also TiVo Desktop *is* compatible with OS X 10.4.2 and 10.4.3 (I've heard but not confirmed 10.4.4 as well). There was an incompatibility with 10.4.0 and 10.4.1, but the later releases of Tiger worked well. The installer gives a false "failed" message, but it does install and it does work very well (better than 10.3.x).

    It should also be noted that the CEO of TiVo is a Mac user. They very much wanted to provide Mac support for TiVoToGo, but didn't want to take the legal risk of allowing shows to be transferred without any DRM. Considering Apple won't license their DRM and Windows Media DRM isn't compatible with the Mac, TiVo had little choice but to release for Windows only and/or develop their own DRM method. It looks like the success of the iPod has convinced TiVo that it was worth developing a watermark method that would make the files compatible with the iPod, and as result, the files must be compatible with the Mac.

    The only question remains is whether TiVo will provide Mac software that *pulls* (or pushes) the files from the TiVo to the Mac. If they don't, there are plenty of ways of getting around it, but I can't imagine TiVo wouldn't dedicate the couple of hours to develop this software on the Mac.

    • Re:It will be OS X compatible (at least somewhat) (Score:1)

      by Punt3r ( 926089 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:48PM (#14082490)
      Just because it will play on a iPod doesn't mean ~everything about it~ will play nicely with a Mac.

      The old TiVo Desktop software that was available for the Mac never supported video.

      Pulling video off the TiVo is trivial. The box runs an HTTP server. But it serves already-DRM'd ".tivo" files.

      I don't know of any decoder available on the Mac to decode that video format. So, you might still need a PC to recode the video from a ".tivo" file to some other DRM'd format before you can play it on a Mac.

      In any case, I'm much more interested in getting shows from iTunes (purchased or vodcasts) ON to the TiVo. People have already been transcoding their .tivo files and playing them other places for a while now.

      But there are a lot of good "TV Shows" being produced out and distributed via RSS, and I don't want to watch them on my computer. I want to watch them on my TV (via my TiVo). It's already possible to push video back to the TiVo, but it's not as easy as it should be. I'd **much** prefer to see that sort of feature built into TiVo-to-Go or even iTunes.

      For example VodCast TV shows, check out:
      http://www.digitallifetv.com/ [digitallifetv.com]
      http://www.channelfrederator.com/ [channelfrederator.com]
      http://www.cerealized.com/ [cerealized.com]
      http://www.rocketboom.com/ [rocketboom.com]

    • Re:It will be OS X compatible (at least somewhat) (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hexix ( 9514 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:56PM (#14082583) Homepage

      Also TiVo Desktop *is* compatible with OS X 10.4.2 and 10.4.3 (I've heard but not confirmed 10.4.4 as well). There was an incompatibility with 10.4.0 and 10.4.1, but the later releases of Tiger worked well. The installer gives a false "failed" message, but it does install and it does work very well (better than 10.3.x).

      Mac OS X v10.2 - v10.3.x
      (Not compatible with Mac OS X 10.4: Tiger)
      - Tivo Desktop Download Page [tivo.com]

      Perhaps you're correct that you can get it to work on 10.4, but as the download page says, it's not supported and they apparently could care less if it works. The fact that you're saying it does work and they haven't bothered to update their download page shows the lack of care they have for mac users.

      The only question remains is whether TiVo will provide Mac software that *pulls* (or pushes) the files from the TiVo to the Mac. If they don't, there are plenty of ways of getting around it, but I can't imagine TiVo wouldn't dedicate the couple of hours to develop this software on the Mac.

      I think you might want to be prepared for disappointment . TivoToGo is a terrible solution, even for windows users. Tivo has turned in to a company more interested in making a feature-list than making a good product. These half-baked solutions are proof of that, this ipod compatibility is likely another half-baked solution.

      I'd be willing to bet that all this is going to be is a program for windows that will convert the show to a 320x240 sized mpeg 4 video file. That's it. So this means it will take about 1 hour to transfer the show, 20 minutes to convert it, then however long to put it on your ipod. I'd love to be wrong about this, but I don't think I will be.

  • Downsides (Score:2)

    by doormat ( 63648 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:14PM (#14082136) Homepage Journal
    1. Transfers take forever, regardless of wired or wireless connection.
    2. No Mac support.
    3. Tivo is notoriously hideous on hitting their timelines. They annouced TivoToGo at CES 2004 and only released it a little before CES 2005 to limited beta testers (the full official unveiling of TTG was after CES 05).

  • A simpler alternative (Score:2, Informative)

    by Trebonius ( 29177 ) * on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:19PM (#14082191) Homepage
    Another device that'll record to PSP video is the Neuros Recorder2 [neurosaudio.com].

    It doesn't have the wide array of Tivolike features, but if you just want to convert analog video to digital for your PSP, this should work well.
  • I purchased a series2 Tivo three years ago and it has served me well, but when is Tivo going to finally release an HD capable standalone box? Three years is a lifetime for a struggling company not to release a major product update.

  • Yeah, but. (Score:1)

    by testpoint ( 176998 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @12:28PM (#14082287)
    What features would you really like to see in TiVo?
    TiVo has seriously fallen behind the technology curve and little software and marketing bandaids are not getting the job done.

    • Re:Yeah, but. (Score:1)

      by CPUGuy ( 676781 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:04PM (#14082677)
      I would like to see something more than the heavily underpowerd processor currently in it.

      An interface that doesn't clutter up your already low-res TV.

      Boot-up time of less than 5 minutes.

      Thing I like the least about my TiVo S2 is how absolutely PATHETIC the system performance is. I've had the system come to a near hault to the point where it would show about 1 frame per second on the TV, if I had been transfering shows to my PC over night. Only way to fix the problem is to reboot the system, which takes about 5 mins. Not to mention how slowly the menus and such work in general.

      Perhaps the ability to record a show on one channel and watch another. Probably isn't possible because of just how bad the hardware is.

      A built-in ethernet adapater (even if it is just a wired one) would be nice.

      I just got my TiVo, but I was thinking about getting a Media Center Extender because of how bad the system performs.
  • I've been holding off on getting TiVo - never really saw the need, since my TV viewing time is limited as it is and between, SciFi, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, HBO and ESPN there's almost always something I *want* to watch on when I do have time.

    But I just got an iPod video, and now the thought of TiVo-ing Adult Swim to my iPod video for watching while I commute to/from work is just *too* tempting :-).

  • TivoTool, Features, Compatibility (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SoLoatWork ( 187259 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @02:56PM (#14083739)
    Nice to see Tivo do something smart, for a change. This company has disrespected and disowned the Mac platform since Tiger came out. A *one line* fix for the Tivo Desktop software is all they needed to release for final Tiger compatibility. As of today, that broken version [tivo.com] is still on their web page. It also doesn't include aac audio support; a minor thing on other platforms, but a snub to the Mac users who have large aac collections. That version also lacks significant functionality that it's Windows counterpart contains. Noteably the TivoToGo (video downloading) feature. This is why I wrote TivoTool [tivotool.com].

    One goal of TivoTool is to represent what I think TivoToGo should be like on the Mac. It looks like soon I will be able to directly compare. The other goal of TivoTool is to put a friendly front-end on some "hacking" tools. You see, that is the catch - you need to decrypt their MPEG2 video streams to have true freedom. This requires you open the device (void your warranty) and hook up it's drive to your Linux box. Since there are many types of Tivos and many software versions, this process is not as easy as it should be.

    In no particular order, here are some points about TivoTool v TivoToGo:
    * The Tivo network drivers are slow. Even with a USB2 device and hardware support, the drivers just don't take full advantage of what they have. Of course the enthusiast community has come up with faster drivers.
    * Streaming video right off your Tivo and watching it on any computer in the house is cool (TivoTool does this). I don't forsee Tivo adding this capability anytime soon.
    * With TivoTool, you can burn a DVD right from the main interface. TivoToGo requires that you purchase another program to do this.
    * You also need to pay for some sort of MPEG2 codec. TivoTool uses MPlayer which has MPEG2 support.
    * TivoTool can stream-compress to various formats such as avi and mp4 as you download it from the Tivo.
    * Other stuff, I don't want to totally start comparing dick sizes. There is a Linux version of TivoTool though!

    Finally, I should point out that this new software from Tivo will only work on a specific subset of Tivo hardware. Specifically the "Series 2" with software version 7.x. If you have a DirecTV Tivo, sorry. If you have a Series 1, sorry. If you are in the UK or Aus, sorry. Yes, TivoTool works with all of the above.

    Also, notice the Mac platform was never mentioned in their press release [tivo.com]. Only "iPod support". This *might* be bad news for the Mac platform, but I'm putting a little faith in Tivo because I still love their device and what it does for me. They can't just put in iPod support for Windows. That would be insane.

  • WhAt KiNd Of NaMe Is TiVoToGo??? (Score:2)

    by HishamMuhammad ( 553916 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @07:28PM (#14086210) Homepage Journal
    Crap, now that's a stupid name. Or should I say, StUpId NaMe.

  • DirecTiVo (Score:2)

    by NaDrew ( 561847 ) <nadrew@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @02:57PM (#14102384) Journal
    Okay, I know DirecTV refuses to support *any* of the networking functions on DirecTiVo units; I have a Linksys WUSB54G [linksys.com] plugged in to the USB port on my Philips DSR704R17, but it's not recognized. What do I need to do to enable all these nifty features on my DirecTiVo unit?

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