TiVo HD on sale in Australia from 29 July at $699

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 01 July 2008 11:27

Your IT - Entertainment

Warburton said the TiVo would help Seven understand viewer behaviour, in media not just television, and enable it to play a significant role as viewers switch from analogue to digital. "It is yet another platform for the Seven Network to offer advertisers a rich and engaging one to one advertising proposition in the future."

He added "Digital penetration has already surpassed pay television in Australia. TiVo will turbocharge digital penetration."

The software on the TiVo box is upgradeable over its broadband connection and Seven intends to use this feature to progressively increase the range of services on offer. In 2009 it will launch video downloads and a TiVo to Go service that will enable recorded programmes to be transferred to an iPhone, iPod or other portable device. Another feature will enable photos stored on a PC to be displayed on the TiVo using its menu and remote control.

Warburton said that Seven was looking to partner with ISPs and content provides to deliver the video download service free of the restrictions imposed by broadband service download quotas.

Seven is promoting the key feature of the TiVo as being its user interface and the level of control it gives the users. It claims that no other DVR offers the ability to set up comprehensive searches of the electronic programme guide. Users can create a wish list of programmes specified by actor, director, category, keyword and title. They can set the devices to record all shows in a series using a feature called 'Season Pass'.

The TiVo constantly maintains a 30 minute cache of whatever channel its two tuners are set to, giving users the ability to rewind programmes by up to 30 minutes if, for example they have missed the start.

You can read iTWire's in depth look at the pros, and cons of the TiVo here.