TiVo announced today that its subscribers can now pull in video content from the Internet for viewing on their TVs.
TiVo first announced the Web video downloads at January’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. TiVo subscribers will use an updated version of TiVo’s Desktop Plus PC software to download the videos onto their PCs before transferring the content over to their digital video recorders (DVRs) via their home networks.
TiVo Desktop Plus PC software costs $25, with a free upgrade to previous versions. Currently, TiVo does not offer the service to Apple computer users, but the company said that it’s working with Roxio to come up with the same functionality for the Mac platform.
TiVo’s Season Pass subscribers can download the Web videos onto their home PCs by using Web browsers, RSS video clients – such as iTunes podcasts – or other video download software.
The availability of the Web video comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that, later this year, TiVo subscribers will be able to access YouTube videos directly on their TVs via a TiVo DVR (story here). Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch the videos directly on their TV sets.
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