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With TiVo's new Home Media Option software upgrade, owners of the company's Series2 digital video recorders can stream music and photos from PC to TV using the popular service's oh-so-friendly remote-controlled interface. Unfortunately, at $99 (plus $49 for each additional TiVo), it seems a tad overpriced.

The Home Media Option requires an existing home network (wired or wireless), and an additional free PC software download. Once you set up your network, you can also share content among networked household TiVos, and schedule recordings via the Internet. You cannot, however, transfer video from your PC to TV or share TiVo recordings via the Internet.

To test the upgrade, I connected two 40-hour TiVo devices ($250 each, plus $13 a month for a service subscription) to my existing 802.11b wireless network with the recommended Linksys Wireless USB Adapters (about $69 each). I could easily access my music and photo files through TiVo's Now Playing screen. The music interface is sparse, and notably lacking is a find tool. The only audio file format TiVo supports is MP3; my collection of 192-kilobits-per-second recorded songs sounded good on my DVR-connected stereo receiver.

On the photo side, TiVo supports numerous image files but displays them as streaming-friendly 680-by-480-dpi JPEGs; they looked fine on my 32-inch television. The slide-show feature is convenient but doesn't let you play music at the same time.

The Home Media Option performed as advertised, and though starting from scratch would be a bit pricey for non-TiVo owners, it's less expensive for TiVo owners to upgrade than to buy a stand-alone option such as HP's $299 Digital Media Receiver EW5000.

SUMMARY

TiVo Home Media Option Easy but pricey network upgrade brings music and pics to your TV. Price when reviewed: $99 for one, $49 for each additional unit. Current prices (if available)

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