TiVo's HD DVR Steals the Show

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Media Everywhere, or Not

As part of its bid to evolve from mere video recorders into all-around media-players, TiVo also recently added the ability to sign up for a $12.95 monthly subscription to the Rhapsody digital music service. I'm a fan of the Sonos digital music system, which elegantly delivers Rhapsody (RNWK) to every room in my house through a wireless setup. But I like the ability to use a big-screen TV and the TiVo remote to browse through tracks and artists.

It's also still worth mentioning older applications such as TiVoCast, which lets you automatically schedule recordings of Web videos from the likes of CNET (CNET), The New York Times (NYT), and The Onion. This is a great way to get little snippets of information on your favorite subjects without ever leaving the couch or bed. Yahoo! (YHOO) users can easily pull up local weather forecasts and traffic conditions. There are also podcasts and Internet radio broadcasts to listen to, and you can still use TiVo HD to pull digital photos and music from your PC to your TV.

If you have more than one TiVo connected to your home network, TiVo says you can stream a show recorded on a box in one room to the other. Unfortunately, I had problems getting this to work: Both TiVos recognized the other's presence, but neither could access the other's content. I then discovered you have to go to TiVo's Web site to enable streaming between the two boxes, which also must be registered to the same account; even then I couldn't get it to work.

That problem aside, TiVo remains the simplest, most elegant digital video solution on the market today. Providers such as Dish Network (DISH) and DirecTV (DTV) have noticeably improved their DVR offerings over the past few years in terms of picture quality and recording options. But they have yet to come close to matching the basic TiVo service. Comcast (CMCSA) and other cable providers also have DVRs and are slowly rolling out an add-on basic TiVo service for those boxes.

But if you're looking for a DVR that can also save you a trip to the local Blockbuster (BBI) and serve up media around the home, then TiVo HD remains the undisputed best option on the market today.

Edwards is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau.