TiVo on your PC, minus the TiVo box

Using your PC as a DVR isn't anything new, but LiquidTV | TiVo PC lets you use the elegant TiVo interface for recording your favorite shows. That's the good news; the bad news is that you'll still need to pay for a TiVo subscription.

Set for release on October 15, the awkwardly named LiquidTV | TiVo PC (developed jointly by TiVo and Nero, a software maker known for its DVD/CD burning apps) comes in two versions: a $199 hardware and software package (complete with a USB ASTC tuner, a portable antenna, a TiVo remote, and an IR blaster for an optional set-top box, such as a satellite receiver), and a $99 software-only package.

Setup appears relatively simple; you just install the software, plug the TV tuner card into your system's USB port, attach an antenna (either the compact one in the box or, say, the antenna installed on your roof), and you're ready to start watching and recording TV shows (including over-the-air HD signals). The included TV tuner also has a video-in port for cable or satellite TV receivers, good for recording shows of premium channels (an IR blaster for controlling a set-top box comes bundled with the other hardware).

From the look of the LiquidTV screenshots, the "TiVo PC" interface looks identical to the menus on a standard TiVo box; you can work the controls using your PC mouse, the keyboard, or the TiVo remote.

Of course, the beauty of the PC-based TiVo software is that all your shows are stored right on your system's hard drive—so if you're a laptop user, all your shows are ready to watch while you're on the go. (TiVo DVR users already have TiVoToGo for transfering videos to their PCs, but the actual transfers—especially over Wi-Fi—can be excruciatingly slow.) The LiquidTV software will also convert videos for use on iPods, iPhones, and your Sony PSP, or you can burn shows to DVD. Need more storage for all your shows? Just add an external hard drive.

All pretty cool, but naturally, there's a catch: The nagging TiVo subscription, which you'll need for fresh program listings. Both the $199 and $99 versions of LiquidTV | TiVo PC come with 12-month subscriptions to the TiVo service; after that, you'll have to cough up $99 a year. No word on whether a lifetime subscription ($399 for TiVo DVR users) will be available. Another bummer: LiquidTV is Windows-only, at least for now.

So, what do you think: Would you dump the DVR features of Windows Media Center for the TiVo package? Got a PC DVR app that you like better than TiVo? Let us know.