Everyone is going app crazy, and the latest entrant is Virgin Media with a new Android TiVo TV app. The app allows users to operate the TiVo powered Virgin box using their latest smartphone.

Android phones are so handy

In their battle with Sky, who have a similar Sky+ Record app funnily enough. The software lets viewers browse listings and set up recordings wherever they are.

The TV Guide app for Android can be downloaded free from Android Market now, and an iPhone version is expected soon. Virgin have been busy with their apps and have released an iPad screenshot of the same TV app.

Speaking about the app, Alex Green the executive director of commercial TV and online at Virgin Media said: “We think Virgin Media’s TiVo Service is the best way to watch TV and our new mobile app enhances that experience by ensuring you’ll never miss recording a programme whilst out and about.”

He continued, “Our TiVo service already offers the most flexible and comprehensive recording options and features, which this new service complements.”

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Virgin are set to release a TV app for the iPad that will operate as a TV guide, remote, EPG and DVR recorder in one. And to whet viewers appetites they have released a picture of said app.

Virgin iPad app looks scrummy

There has been no firm details of what the app does and not even a release date. Just a lone, lousy pic. So it seems to be a guessing game as to what features the app will feature.

It is designed to run the new Virgin TiVo powered internet TV hardware that will rival the Sky system and upcoming YouView in the UK.

It seems that the software will allow the iPad to operate as a viewer of live, on-demand and recorded content. It seems to have the obligatory social integration with Facebook or Twitter integration as well.

Virgin Media have also launched the first ad campaign for the TiVo Service which combines the live TV schedule with catch-up TV, on-demand content, web-based apps and a DVR.

The campaign includes three ten-second TV spots and print ads which highlight the positive reception Virgin Media: TiVo Service has enjoyed since it launching in December 2010.

More on this story:-

Virgin Media Introduces TiVo Service to Its Masses – Cable360.net

Virgin Media unveiled the first advertising campaign for its next generation Virgin Media TiVo Service. The TiVo service combines the live TV schedule with catch-up TV a library of on-demand programming Web-based applications alongside a personal …

Virgin Media TiVo’s iPad remote app pictured – Engadget

Wed heard that an iPad remote control app for Virgin Media TiVo DVRs in the UK is on the way and now the TV provider has sent this screenshot to TechRadar. It looks pretty similar to the TiVo Premiere iPad …

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TiVo said back in September 2010 it would be adding Hulu Plus to its Premiere range of DVR’s, and now its official. Hulu Plus is here and as an added incentive, new buyers of TiVo Premiere get six months of the catch-up on-demand service for free (usual price $7.99 per month).

TiVo gets Hulu Plus service

Many users have been waiting anxiously for the premium service, which can be added to Youtube, Blockbuster, Amazon Instant Video and Netflix on TiVo’s list of streaming options.

But now TiVo users can watch the complete Hulu Plus range of programming from ABC, BET, Comedy Central, Fox and NBC amongst others.

Hulu Plus can already be seen on a variety of of connected and mobile devices such as iPad, iPod, Roku, Sony PS3, Xbox 360 and connected TV sets.

The content from Hulu Plus can of course be recorded on your TiVo DVR from standard TV and negate the need for the service, but it’s cool anyway.

Cost of a new TiVo Premiere is$99 plus $19.99 a month for at least a year.

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DVR manufacturer TiVo have revealed that Comcast subscribers who own a Premiere model can soon start watching the Xfinity video-on-demand service. In the past, Comcast users with a TiVo had to change over to the Comcast box in order to view the cable companies video-on-demand.

TiVo Premiere users get to watch Xfinity

The news is all good for TiVo owning Comcast subscribers, as they have less boxes and clutter plus the ability to watch all their content from live, recorded and on-demand video from a single set-top box.

Already TiVo owners get a big choice of streaming online services. From Netflix, Amazon and the soon to be enabled, Hulu Plus. Now they get to see the Comcast library of 25,000 plus titles.

The setup does not involve anything more than informing Comcast and a CableCard installed in the TiVo Premiere, and it’s free for now.

Comcast are starting the service in the San Francisco area to begin with, and plan for more areas to follow.

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In 1999, TiVo created a product that would revolutionise the way that users would be able to watch TV shows. In 2011, however, an out-of-court settlement might have ended up creating an unwanted precedent for other companies producing DVR’s (digital video recorders).

A long-running legal battle between TiVo and The Dish Network (a satellite TV provider owned by EchoStar) has been ongoing for the last 7 years, with the key allegations made by TiVo being that EchoStar had infringed the rights of TiVo’s patents over various DVR devices and features.

TiVo yesterday announced that the lawsuit has been settled with the Dish Network, with parent company EchoStar being fined to the tune of $500 million, of which $300m will be paid immediately, while the rest will be handed over in six $33.3m installments at a later date. This is a far cry from a 2009 ruling on the case which saw the court order EchoStar to pay $103.1m, but the losing party decided to re-open the case in an effort to clarify the law and clear their name, though it seems as if they failed by a long shot to achieve the latter.

The decision for EchoStar to settle came after a Federal Circuit Court ruling in April that percieved that some features on the Dish Network’s set-top boxes had been directly infringing TiVo’s exclusive patents without the use of a paid license to Tivo. A silver lining for the EchoStar under the terms of the settlement is that TiVo gave the neccessary required licences to The Dish Network, meaning that they are now able to use the features that were under scrutiny.

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers stated of the legal victory: “The compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position.”

Dish Network also announced that they were “pleased to put this litigation behind us.”

The legal battle could also be considered as a warning shot to other providers of DVR technology in America (and possibly also around the world), as anyone using TiVo technology without licensed consent could be made to fork out big-time…

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