TiVo has a belated Christmas present for us. After about half a year of delays, they finally released TiVoToGo. This service allows you to download, view and (real soon now) burn DVD’s on your PC from shows recorded on your TiVo.

Here is the official TivoToGo page. If you have TiVo, be prepared for some waiting: apparently even after signing up on the priority list it can take several weeks to receive the latest version of the TiVo software (version 7.1-X).

Also, TiVoToGo is not for everybody: currently it seems that only the stand-alone TiVo series 2 boxes will receive this upgrade. Not only that, but the accompanying new version of the TiVo Desktop (version 2.0) is currently only available for Windows. Last but not least, it seems you need a codec for MPEG-2. The ones that I have seen advertised are commercial versions - hopefully there is also some free codec available to watch the stuff you recorded yourself…

Even with all these limitations, I’m pretty excited about this, as it will allow me to watch processes running and TV at the same time, without the need for an extra box. I’ll share some info whenever the TiVo box has its updated software.