There are many brands of Digital Video Recorders but TiVo stands apart from all the rest. The product is used for recording television programs onto the hard disk to be viewed at a later date. This is a well known brand in the United States and Canada with services available in Taiwan and Mexico. The company is said to expand its operations to other countries as well in the future. The Company was incorporated by Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton on 04 August, 1997 and was initially known as Teleworld, Inc.

Public trials of the product began in late 1998 and the product was exhibited in a Consumer Electronic Show in early 1999. On 21 July, 1999 the company renamed itself from Teleworld, Inc to TiVo, Inc. The company faced financial problems for the initial years of its operation and made a profit only in the 2nd quarter of 2005.

A TiVo device is similar in operation to the video cassette recorder (VCR) of the earlier days. The only difference now being that the VCR had a removable magnetic tape but this products stores data directly onto its hard disk which cannot be removed. This product is different from its counterparts because of the software used as it not only records the program that is requested by the user but also those in which the user is likely to show interest.

The product also has a “trick play”, a patented feature of the brand. This facility allows the viewer to pause Television and later replay up to half an hour of the program. Now the advanced versions of the product are also capable of downloading information including video from the internet by just connecting it to the computer. TiVo gets all the television program details for the following two weeks giving every possible detail of the program and this information is updated on a daily basis.

The use of this product is very easy as the user has the option of selecting individual programs or even for the entire season.TiVo even has a “WishList” feature wherein, for example by putting in a particular actor’s name all programs featuring that actor would be automatically recorded irrespective of the channel it is broadcast in. If a conflict arises between two programs then the one with top priority is Recording and devices with two tuners are capable of recording two programs of top priority. When the storage space reaches capacity then the oldest program is deleted first.

The product can record and play simultaneously and a program can also be viewed in the middle of the recording process and these are definitely advanced features as compared to the VCR. All downloads regarding television programming and software updates are possible with a subscription fee and the fee varies depending on the length of the subscription. The company also gives a discount if a second unit is purchased and the first unit has a lifetime subscription on it.

With its technologically advanced features and high end service, TiVo’s subscribers are increasing by the day.