New York – TiVo unveiled a new broadband enhancement that will allow owners of its Series 2 and 3 digital video recorders to share home videos with friends and family via the Internet.
TiVo said the new feature will allow TiVo users to send home movies directly to the TV sets of friends and family over the Internet. TiVo users will be able to set-up a private channel online that they will use to send home videos directly to other TiVo subscriber’s TVs, the company said.
The software and service that enables the function was developed in partnership with One True Media (www.onetruemedia.com), which runs an online service that lets people upload, edit and transfer their video and photos.
The service requires subscribers to upload their home movies to the One True Media service, where consumers will be able to edit videos online. There, they will receive a personal TiVo channel code that enables distributing content to other TiVo subscribers.
Users will be able to get a Season Pass recording designation to receive on their TiVo units, all the current and future home movies from the video creator. In setting up a Season Pass, users input a code number from a sender.
Only people with the unique personal code assigned to the subscriber’s channel can see the published channel.Content is not made available to the general public.
Videos will be displayed in the TiVo subscriber’s Now Playing List – where all favorite television recordings are stored.
“With the introduction of home movies, TiVo is once again delivering new service features that expand the universe of choices available to our subscribers,” said Tom Rogers, TiVo CEO. “Video that stars the important people and events in a subscriber’s life should be viewable on TV.”
TiVo said the new service will be available in the first quarter of 2007, and will be free of charge to those who receive home movies. Users who create and send videos and slide shows using the service must sign up for an account with One True Media, which charges a $3.99 a month subscription fee.
