TiVo unveils mobile site for remote recording

Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:11AM EST

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Designed to work on just about any phone with a Web browser, the new service lets you browse upcoming shows and schedule recordings on your Series2 or Series3 TiVo box.

No, you can't stream recorded TiVo shows on your phone quite yet (although we can always dream), but the still-in-beta TiVo Mobile service at least makes it easier to see what's on and tap shows for recording while you're on the go.

If your phone has a Web browser—just about all of them do—point it to m.tivo.com to check out the simple, if somewhat bare-bones interface. (I tried TiVo Mobile on my iPhone 3G, pictured here.) Note that the service is still in beta, so be prepared for slow load times; the site timed out on me a few times, but presumably it'll speed up as testing progresses.

Once TiVo Mobile is fully up and running, you'll be able to search shows by actor, title, director, and keyword; browse the most popular shows or check out daily picks; and schedule recordings on your Series2 or Series3 TiVo.

All very nice, but there's still no word on the Holy Grail app for TiVo users—a streaming TiVo player for smartphones, an idea that gained traction after TiVo and BlackBerry announced a new partnership (but no mobile apps, or at least none yet) back in September.

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  • 1 Posted by zonereyrie on Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:24AM EST Report Abuse

    TiVo boxes don't have the hardware to do streaming. To do that you really need to be able to encode to H.264 or VC-1, or any codec as efficient, and you need to be able to tailor the encoding to the mobile device and the available bandwidth. Streaming full-res MPEG-2 to a cell phone is a non-starter. If you want to stream to a cell phone, just stick a Slingbox on your TiVo. That's what it is designed to do. (Disclaimer, I joined Sling in April, but I've been using the Slingbox since early 2007 - and TiVo since 2002.) The BlackBerry deal is almost certainly TiVoToGo on BlackBerry, not anything streaming.

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