Friday, September 16, 2005

TiVo


TiVo is a type of personal video recorder similar to VCR. It is a device which allows its users to capture TV programs and view them later. Hence they allow the recording of programs and allows them to be viewed later. There is an internal hard disk for capturing programs. TiVo makes sense in the fact that it allows replay of live programs.

TiVo allows to record programs based on time, programs titles, and even based on the artists and popularity. Programs may be stored on the internal hard-disk untill it is full, and when it is full the first program recorded is deleted. It can also record progrmas based on the viewing habits of the user. The playback can be done while recording another program. This is unlike the traditional tape recorders which allows either playback or recording at a time. TiVo device also allows interface with personal computer and even with home networks.Standalone TiVo systems can only record one channel at a time. Even with digital cable or satellite services that may provide multiple simultaneous signals, these units rely on an external convertor to select and decode digital signals.

TiVo was started in 1997 by veterans of Silicon Graphics and Time Warner. TiVo unit is built by TiVo Inc. They provide harware and linux based software for TiVo.TiVo systems are based on PowerPC or MIPS processors, connected to MPEG-2 encoder/decoder chips and high-capacity IDE/ATA hard drives. Early TiVo units used one or two 13GB drives; typical units have a drive of 40-140GB in size. Although not supported by TiVo or equipment manufacturers, larger drives can be added.

TiVo service is available only in United States and United Kingdom, at present. But there has been work arounds which makes it to work in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Netherlands.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I did a review on iNods.com to compare the features of tiVo and Sky+ and it seems that Sky+ might just make it a place ahead in terms of clarity.

I also came across the fact that TiVo announced that it will create a technology that will allow you to search for specific commercials by keyword or category. So it will be also a part of you shopping assistant like iNods.com