TiVo has announced a major new initiative to let TiVo subscribers convert and transfer broadband video from their PC to their television sets.

The move affirms the growing importance of video podcasts, vlogs and other Internet video to the future of television.

Through an expansion of its Desktop PC software later this year, TiVo subscribers will be able to view videos from the Web on their TVs, even if they are not originally in a format that televisions can display. This is in addition to the broadband programming delivered via TiVo’s TiVoCast direct delivery feature.

‚ÄúThere is an explosion in video on the Web that is not intended to be rights-protected,” notes TiVo CEO Tom Rogers, “and now the consumer can decide which of that video he or she would like to view on the TV set.‚Äù

“Broadband video is growing rapidly on the Web, but the television will continue to be the key way viewers want to watch video. It’s not TV until it’s on TV and now TiVo is the only DVR available today that makes watching Web video on TV easy,” adds Tom Rogers.
TiVo subscribers will be able to choose from a variety of free downloadable content such as music videos, video podcasts and user generated content. This new software, TiVo Desktop Plus 2.4, will support video content downloaded to PCs running Windows XP in formats such as QuickTime, Windows Media Video, and MPEG-4.

TiVo subscribers who upgrade to this new software, TiVo Desktop Plus 2.4, will be able to easily browse, transfer, and watch a variety of Web video downloads using the Emmy Award-winning TiVo service. With a TiVo Series2 DVR connected to a PC on a home network, the TiVo Desktop software will automatically convert videos on demand. TiVo Desktop Plus 2.4 will be available to TiVo subscribers for a one-time fee of $24.95, and will be a free upgrade for subscribers who purchased version 2.3.

via TiVo Wants To Be Your Video Podcast Hub – Video Podcasting News