TiVoCast

About a year ago TiVo launched TiVoCast, a melding of TV and Web content. Initially I didn't find much of interest in the product they had available for downloading. With TiVoCast you subscribe to a program and when a new "episode" becomes available it is downloaded from the Internet to your TiVo box through your wireless network connection. If you don't have a broadband connection for your TiVo, you don't get TiVoCast.

You select TiVoCast from the Find Programs screen of your TiVo, which then presents you with a list of TiVoCast programs to choose from. Once a program is selected any "episodes" of that program will be automatically downloaded to your TiVo box when they become available. There they look like and act like any other recorded show. TiVoCast shows are usually short, from between one minute and 15 minutes long.

Thought the initial offerings were not my "cup of tea" I have over the year added to the TiVoCast channels I subscribe to. I started with CNET, which gives me a weekly 15-minute look at technology. I always find it interesting. As a diabetic, I also subscribe to dLife, a program of short three- to five-minute shows on living with diabetes. These come sporadically, sometimes once or twice a week, sometimes once a month and the quality and usefulness of the program differs greatly from show to show.

I also subscribe to the New York Times, which puts out a number of interesting programs, on topics as wide-ranging as food, relationships, technology and movie reviews. The newest channel I have added is The Onion, which features two or three clips a week of outrageous humor.

If you don't have a TiVo with a wireless broadband connection, you can't get TiVoCasts, but if you do I think they add to the enjoyment of the TiVo product and are another reason to buy and actual TiVo rather than rent a standard DVR from your cable or satellite company. I actually look forward to the small TiVoCast programs to which I subscribe.