Owners of TiVo"s Series 2 Digital Video Recorders will soon be able to add their unit to a home network, so they can share content among PCs, Macs, and other networked TiVo units in the home.
The company will launch its Home Media Option this spring, and will offer existing TiVo customers the upgrade for $99. TiVo executives demonstrated the technology, and showed off new TiVo-based hardware, at the Consumer Electronics Show here.
TiVo designed its Series 2 products--which first appeared in retail stores last April--with an eye toward future networking, says Mike Ramsay, chairman and chief executive officer. The company plans to deliver it with the same easy-to-use interface that TiVo fans have grown to appreciate.
Subscribers will order the Home Media Option online, and TiVo will download the necessary software to the unit, Ramsay says. You download more software to a PC or Mac, plug any USB-based wired or wireless (802.11b) network adapter into the TiVo unit, and then you"re ready to go.
"It"s super easy, and it doesn"t take up any space on your [TiVo] hard drive," he says.
TiVo subscribers with more than one DVR can download the software to add a second unit to the network for another $49, he says.