Tuesday, March 18,2008 @ 9:35am
TiVo intros new Desktop with iTunes podcasts
TiVo this morning pushed out an update to TiVo Desktop that helps turn its DVRs into networked media hubs. The new version stresses the ability to pull podcasts and can either recognize them directly from iTunes on a networked PC or else pulls them directly through RSS subscriptions; on Series 3 units, this also includes 720p HD podcasts. Customers can also use the Season Pass feature normally used for recorded TV shows to monitor web video sources and add new videos from folders on a local PC without adding them to the list by hand.
The software currently requires a Windows PC and can still convert recorded TV shows to formats playable by iPods and the PSP. A Mac version of Desktop that matches the features is still in development in tandem with Roxio, TiVo says. The DVRs themselves are also still set to receive YouTube support later this year. TiVo Desktop is priced at $25 for new users but is a free upgrade to anyone running a previous version.