Making life even sweeter for TiVo fans.

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How do you make a good product even better? The answer is simple: Add a bunch of cool stuff that doesn't suck.

TiVo's Series2 Home Media Option (HMO), first announced in January, is thankfully not a collection of useless features forced on users for the sake of adding more pointless crap. The option, which is available only for the Series2 version of TiVo boxes, is a collection of smart additions that most TiVo users actually want.

As you'll see tonight on "Tech Live," the options add remote photo viewing and digital music streaming from Macs and PCs, along with the ability to send programs from one Series2 box to another on the same network. These innovations should please TiVo fans looking to transform their PVRs into basic audio/video home media servers.

There's only one problem: Who'll be willing to pay an additional one-time $99 upgrade fee for something they already shell out $12.95 a month to use?

Worth the upgrade

After waiting for what seemed like forever, we finally got our TechTV Labs TiVo Series2 box upgraded with the Home Media Option. From our point of view, it was worth the wait.

Here's a breakdown of the paid and free upgrade features:
Paid features
  • Wired and wireless Ethernet support for faster programming guide updates. You'll still need to buy a USB Ethernet dongle.
  • Remote scheduling of your TiVo Series2 from any broadband-connected computer. This updates your box each hour as opposed to ReplayTV's every 24 hours.
  • Sending video content from one TiVo Series2 PVR to another.
  • Streaming digital audio (MP3/WMA) and pictures from your Mac or PC to your TiVo Series2 PVR.


Free features
  • Update your programming guide via a broadband connection.
  • Better options for sorting and organizing shows, such as by title as opposed to just by date.
  • TiVo can "suggest" content based on personal preferences. Series2 pushes more "advanced" suggestions and recommendations.


New features, same interface

If you're comfortable with navigating TiVo menus, then you won't have a problem browsing, managing, and playing digital audio and picture content in the Home Media Option. The only difference is the addition of "Music & Photos" in the "TiVo Central" main menu.

Browsing through the directory tree structure of content folders is like browsing programming content. However, with access to so much content, browsing and selection can be downright laborious. Thankfully, folders with images are previewed in quick-loading thumbnails for your convenience. All photos, no mater the size, are scaled to a TV-friendly 640x480.

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