transcode

As expected, TiVo has rolled out a new version of TiVo Desktop with support for any online video accessible through an RSS feed. TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 for Windows uses will automatically download videos from any feed you subscribe to, and convert them from H.264, Quicktime, or MP4 into TiVo-compatible MPEG-2 files.

TiVo has a list of RSS feeds that you can choose from. If you want to watch videos that aren't available from the TiVo interface, you'll need to download your videos using a separate client like iTunes or Miro. You can then tell TiVo Dekstop to monitor your download folder for new files which will be transcoded.

TiVo Desktop Plus features proprietary codec support, so you'll have to pay $24.95 for a license. The basic TiVo Desktop software is free.

TiVo has a preview release of Tivo Desktop 2.4 for Windows available for download. New features include:

• Auto-transcoding of WMV, MOV, MPEG4, H.264, and MPEG-2 videos for playing on a TiVo, allowing you to watch web video on your TiVo
• HD photo viewer for Series3 TiVo boxes, which automatically scales your JPEG images to 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

The release is for Windows computers only, and requires Windows XP SP2. There's no Vista support yet.

[via TiVo Lovers]