Yahoo Go for TV, which is free to download, allows users to store content recorded from broadcast on their PCs. In addition, the software serves as a platform to playback downloaded content, music and pictures.
While the software is in the beta testing phase, its relatively low cost — literally the price of cables to connect the computer to the TV’s video and audio inputs — means consumers could be inclined to dump their TiVos in favor a computer/TV hybrid.
In fact, according to a report by CNet, many TV industry insiders see the computer/TV combinations as the new portal for reaching consumers.
Yahoo hopes to intertwine the program with its other media applications, making it compatible with Yahoo Launchcast (a radio and music subscription service) and Flickr, a photo-sharing site.
While Yahoo rushes to bring its DVR alternative to market, it certainly is not alone. Microsoft recently said that Windows XP Media Center, which allows for a similar computer/TV fusion, is outselling the standard edition of the software. Last year, Hewlett-Packard announced that it was developing technology to let high-definition TVs play digital content off computers.
The new Yahoo software runs only on Windows at present. It requires a minimum of 20GB of disk space to store recorded programs and 512 MB of RAM with a 1GHz processor to run.
