Bringing the YouTube-y goodness to a TiVo near you, the TiVo Series3 DVR will soon be capable of beaming YouTube videos through that massive plasma on your wall.

In an announcement on Tuesday, TiVo Inc. said that the service will be available this year to subscribers with TiVo Series 3 DVRs and a broadband connection. The features include browsing and watching the videos directly on TV sets connected to the DVRs, as well as logging in a viewing personal favorites and channels.

“We’re delighted to be working with the world’s leading online video community so that TiVo subscribers can access YouTube’s popular content on the TV via the TiVo DVR,” said Tara Maitra, Vice President of Content Services for TiVo Inc.  “Being able to make available YouTube videos to the TiVo subscriber base using one device, one remote and one user interface is another major step in our commitment to combine all of your television and web video viewing options in one easy to use service.”

Older TiVo hardware will not be capable of the new service, mostly because many of them are not broadband capable. Less than a quarter of current subscribers have hardware that is broadband capable. The HD DVR was mentioned in the release, but it was unclear as to whether the [future] YouTube HD content would be included. I would suspect it would be.

TiVo, founded in 1997, was the first DVR available commercially. Since that time, it has continued to pioneer the DVR markets. TiVo consists of purchasing a (quite expensive) DVR and paying a monthly subscription. There are concerns about the growth of DVRs, because DVRs allow users to skip through advertisements.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 11:39 am under Online video.

Read more entries by Ken Mitchell.
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