TiVo Series 3 and HD Get New Features

TiVo has announced a new eSATA storage product from Western Digital for its Series 3 and HD DVRs, plus new features like multi-room viewing.

DVR pioneer TiVo has introduced a new set of features for its Series 3 and TiVo HD DVRs, including a mew Multi-Room Viewing feature which enables users to view stored programming on separate TiVo devices in different rooms, as well as My DVR Expander, an external hard drive from Western Digital that can easily expand the storage capacity of Series3 and TiVO HD systems.

First, the My DVR Expander eSATA external hard drive adds 500 GB of storage capacity to Series3 or TiVo HD units simply by connecting it up: no special configuration is required. The drive enables users to store up to 300 additional hours of standard definition content or 60 hours of high-definition content, including movie and TV downloads from Amazon Unbox. The unit is also compatible with Scientific Atlanta 8300 Series DVRs (including models 8300 HD, 8300 MR and 8300 HD MR), and Western Digital plans to add compatibility with other DVR models as (you guessed it) those manufacturers add eSATA ports to their units. The My DVR Expander is available now through Best Buy and directly from TiVo for $199.99.

TiVo’s new Multi-Room Viewing feature enables users to watch programming stored on one TiVo DVR in another room using (you guessed it) another TiVo DVR! Of course, Multi-Room Viewing requires the TiVo units be able to communicate with each other over an in-home broadband network. The Multi-Room viewing feature isn’t restricted to Series3 and TiVo HD units, though: Series2 boxes can also use the feature, although Series2 units cannot access high-definition content stored on Series3 units.

TiVo also introduced TiVoToGo support for its Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs, enabling downloaded content to be transferred over an in-home network and viewed on PCs using TiVo’s Desktop Plus software or burned to a DVD. (Mac OS X users can burn content using Roxio’s Toast 8 or Popcorn 3), but can’t currently view video content directly).