I can’t imagine life without my DVR. I have a standard DVR from DirecTV in my living room, and often lust over TiVo DVRs like the new Premiere with four tuners that launched just a few weeks ago.
However, even if you stream all those recorded programs to your TV, you’re still stuck watching Tivo in your house. Fortunately, that will be changing soon with the advent of a new device dubbed “TiVo Stream” that works alongside your TiVo Premiere DVR and hits the market on September 6 for $130.
Essentially, once the Stream is hooked up to your Premiere DVR it facilitates the streaming of recorded programs to as many as four different mobile devices such – as smartphones or tablets – in glorious HD. The Stream box also allows your mobile devices to search the channel guide, select a show, and watch it live.
As expected, Stream is fully compatible with the iPad, iPhone, and new iPod touch models. And yes, an Android application is currently in the works. Another interesting feature? Stream allows users to download and save recorded shows to their device for times when a wireless a mobile network isn’t available.
Thankfully, there is no added service fee for the Stream. However, the Stream box does require a wired connection. It’s unclear if the device will stream your programs over any wireless network, or only your home wireless network. I’d also like to know if you can stream programs using 3G wireless networks. Streaming playback using the app on the iPhone or iPad is smooth and stutter free after about an eight-second buffer period reports AllThingsD.
