Nero to Bring TiVo to PCs

TiVo has inked a deal with multimedia software developer Nero to bring the TiVo experience to the PCs equipped with TV tuners.

If you’ve ever used a desktop or notebook computer with a television tuner and you also happen to be a TiVo afcionado, you probably thought to yourself “Why can’t this darn computer work like my TiVo?” Well, someday soon, it might just do that: DVR pioneer TiVo has inked a deal with multimedia software developer Nero to bring TiVO features to PCs equipped with television tuners. The idea will be to bring the TiVo television-based user experience to PC software, enabling customers to record and manage television programming using a PC in a manner they already know and trust from their experience with TiVo set-top software.

According to a report last April from market research firm In-Stat, more than 50 milion television tuners will be sold with PCs worldwide by 2011.

“This agreement provides TiVo with an opportunity to deliver its interface and differentiated feature set globally via the PC, enabling TiVo to use all avenues of mass distribution—from consumer electronics, to cable and satellite boxes and soon, the PC,” said TiVO president and CEO Tom Rogers, in a statement.

Nero is a German software company best known for its CD and DVD authoring applications, along with MPEG-4 and video compression software. TiVo and Nero did not announce any dates for when a PC-based TiVo solution might be available, or what its eventual pricing might be.