TiVo Stream will let users stream at home, carry shows in pocket

You watch TV on your terms, and sometimes you don't even watch it on an actual TV at all. And that's perfectly fine with TiVo. The company behind the digital video recording device is preparing to launch a gadget this summer that will further enable that behavior by letting users hook up their iPad and iPhone to their main TiVo device to stream and download content.

That means you'll be able to watch shows recorded or in the process of being recorded from your iOS device anywhere in your home as well as be able to download certain shows you record to take with you anywhere. TiVo Stream hooks up to your main TiVo box through your home Wi-Fi network. It can support up to three iOS devices, and a fourth if you have two TiVo boxes, said Jim Denney, vice president and general manager of product marketing. Through that connection, users can access any of their recorded content and stream it anywhere in their home. If they want to watch their shows outside the home, users can download content to their current TiVo iOS app -- which will need updating before doing this -- and save it natively, which takes about one fourth the duration of a show (so an hourlong show will take about 15 minutes to download).