TiVo on your PC is cool, but there are kinks to fix

— -- The folks at TiVo once scolded me for using TiVo as a verb, as in "I TiVoed last night's game." The company is vigilant about protecting its trademark. It's a worse faux-pas if suggesting you've TiVoed something on a Windows Media Center or other PC. No computer-based digital video recorder is an actual TiVo.

That's about to change with this month's arrival of the Nero LiquidTV TiVo PC from TiVo and the German company Nero. It will be the first time a TiVo DVR has been fully integrated into a PC. I've been testing exceedingly buggy late-stage "beta" versions of the Nero software on two roughly 1½-year-old Windows Vista PCs. The software frequently froze or was unstable.

The prospect of a TiVo on your PC is likely to jazz fans of the service accustomed to the friendly interface and search features. And the required TiVo service is free, at least for the first year. That said, for most potential buyers, the LiquidTV TiVo isn't so much a replacement for a stand-alone TiVo set-top box as much as a possible complement.

As with other software-based DVRs such as SnapStream Media's Beyond TV program, you can watch, schedule, record and pause live TV on your PC; LiquidTV doesn't work with Macs. But Nero includes the familiar TiVo interface and electronic programming guide, plus many other TiVo features. These include suggestions on what to watch based on your viewing habits, the Season Pass feature for automatically recording favorite series, parental controls and the "WishList" feature which helps you find programs based on an actor's name or other criteria.

A familiar TiVo remote control is included, too, at least as part of the $200 LiquidTV retail package. Nero also provides the option of controlling everything on the screen with your keyboard and mouse, through convenient onscreen toolbars.

Some TiVo features are missing, though, including links to Amazon Video On Demand and YouTube. Of course, you can already get to those on your computer.

If you have another TiVo in your house, you can use the Nero software to transfer shows via your home network to the PC with LiquidTV. So you can start watching, say, on the TiVo in your living room and resume watching on your laptop when you've retired to the bedroom.

You can also export recordings to an iPod or a Sony PSP, or burn them onto a DVD. You won't be able to do that with programs that are copy-protected.

Here's a closer look.

•The basics. LiquidTV is available in two versions, both of which come with a free 12-month subscription to the TiVo service. The normal monthly TiVo fee is $12.95.

The $200 LiquidTV retail package includes the software, remote and Hauppauge USB TV tuner card (such a card is required for TV reception on your computer). It also includes an antenna and IR Blaster (for communicating, if you wish, with a cable TV or satellite set-top box).

For $100, you can download the Nero software. You'll have to supply your own compatible TV tuner and remote.

•What's involved? You'll need fairly robust hardware to take advantage of LiquidTV. And though installation is straightforward, I ran into a few setup snags.

At the outset, you must determine how big a chunk of your computer's hard drive to devote to storing TiVo recordings. Nero suggests 20 gigabytes as a default, but you can exhaust that in a hurry if you're recording a lot of HDTV.

The supplied Hauppauge TV tuner can handle over-the-air digital programming as well as cable. It cannot pick up pay-per-view or premium channels such as HBO or Showtime, a limitation Nero says has been imposed by cable and satellite companies on most of the TV tuners in the market. You'll have to use your existing cable or satellite box as your TV source for those channels.

In my house, LiquidTV automatically detected several New York City area digital stations. But poor reception meant many stations hiccupped.

I have a few other nits. A small window on the main TiVo menu screen plays whatever live TV channel you are tuned in to. I'd have liked the option of turning the screen off.

When you convert a show to format for a portable device, it gets buried in a folder on your PC. I had to manually move a file of a show I wanted to export to an iPod to iTunes.

LiquidTV TiVo isn't for everyone. Nero and TiVo need to work out some pre-launch kinks. For now, this TiVo enthusiast will be sticking with the stand-alone set-top box.

E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com