This was a service waiting to be launched. While there have been ripping/recording software aplenty, which let you record online audio and video streams, TiVo’s entry into it gives it a different meaning altogether…it seems as if it has made use of its Strangeberry acquisition earlier this year.
The new TiVo technology, which will become a standard feature in its video recorders, will allow users to download movies and music from the Internet to the hard drive on their video recorder.
A timetable for introducing the video service has not been set, nor has its price.
The latest comes concurrently with DirecTV selling its stake in TiVo.
Meanwhile, TiVo is cutting service prices on home networking and recording services for its standalone boxes as it looks to further boost subscription rates.
The NYT story goes on to describe the various IPTV efforts in works in U.S., most of which you’ve read about here before: Akimbo, Microsoft TV, TimeshiftTV. All of these efforts mix IPTV and DVR functionalities, the combination which is what it is: a killer app waiting to be reaped.
However, as the story points out, the main challenge facing Internet video distribution is that streaming DVD and HDTV-quality video will require data rates above 5 megabits a second. That is far beyond most D.S.L. network speeds today, which generally range from 300 kilobits to 1.5 megabits.
Related:
– In A Strange Move, TiVo Acquires Strangeberry, Plots Broadband Course
– TiVO: When the Network Meets the Net
– Microsoft to Develop Broadband TV For Telcos
– TimeshifTV Will Speak In Tongues
– Akimbo Launches IP TV Service in U.S
– A Profile of Akimbo’s IP-TV Service
– Ripe Time For RipeTV?
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