Grundig may be looking to replace TiVo with their latest TV models. Several of the models will incorporate USB-recording technology. You can use a standard USB flash drive or external hard drive as a personal video recorder or PVR. The catch is that you can only watch the recorded content on a compatible Grundig set.

8GB of storage should hold up to 4 hours of programs at normal resolution, but for HD recordings that number goes down. Content without copy protection can be viewed on any Grundig TV with the USB option, but encrypted channels can only be viewed on the TV where they were recorded on. The USB drives can be fully or partially formatted to suit the USB recording function and still allow other data to be stored on the drive.

The United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas is becoming a hot bed for patent infringement suits. This is because the judge in the court has a history of siding with the patent holders in infringement suits and has awarded verdicts against Nintendo and other large companies already.

TiVo is trying its luck in the courtroom with a new patent infringement suit against AT&T and Verizon over patents relating to DVR technologies TiVo holds. The patents in question are Nos. 6,233,389 B1 (”Multimedia Time Warping System”), 7,529,465 B2 (”System for Time Shifting Multimedia Content Streams”), and 7,493,015 B1 (”Automatic Playback Overshoot Correction System”).

Looks like TiVo is trying to muscle their way into several providers, having gotten a victory out of EchoStar in that DVR patent lawsuit. It’s in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and according to sources, the endgame is to collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US.

That might sound arrogant, or even bullying, but the patents have withstood nearly every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo is pretty confidant. It has license agreements with Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations too.

This is going to honk off many of you. According to a press release issued earlier today, TiVo will now be offering ad space on its pause menu. I hear you. It sucks. But it’s your fault.

The spam messages ads are designed to outsmart those who fast-forward through the ads (everyone). Advertisers will be able to target viewers of a specific show, or they can cast a wider net and advertise within genres or keywords of program descriptions. At the moment, only Series2 owners are subjected to the new ads as part of the 9.3.2 update.

There’s few things better than owning a piece of technology or gadget that keeps on giving, and TiVo is turning out to be one of those devices with it’s latest beta release of a mobile website to control your TiVo box. This adds to the devices core ability to act as a DVR, and the company has also recently introduced features to order pizza, stream Netflix content and watch YouTube videos.

TiVo says the new mobile site at m.tivo.com will allow users, subscribers or not, to browse television listings and search for shows. The online app will also will recommend other television shows based on what you are viewing. The site is available to anyone that has access to the internet through a mobile browser, and no installation on the mobile device is necessary.

American couch potatoes can thank TiVo and Domino’s Pizza for teaming up to offer them on-demand pizza ordering for broadband-connected TiVo subscribers. The service was announced for Australia earlier in the month, but USA users get the first crack at it. One weak point is the lack of a scheduled delivery option, but this may be just a taste of what’s to come as it shows that many differentiating types of applications could find their way to your TiVo box. Go ahead, order up. Just get off the couch now and then will ya?

Online movie rentals are one of the most convenient ways for movie fans to get their favorite films without leaving the house. The catch is that many of the newest releases aren’t available for streaming rentals. Netflix offers a streaming on demand library of 12,000 movies and TV shows to its subscribers.

Several hardware devices will allow Netflix members to access the streaming content including the Xbox 360 and some DVD players. Netflix and TiVo announced today that TiVo DVR subscribers would be able to access the streaming content library over certain TiVo DVRs.

The DVR has been the best thing to happen to TV since programming went color. Before the DVR, we had to record shows with a DVD recorder or even worse — a VCR. Anyone who has tried to program a VCR to record a show that isn’t on yet will recall the anxiety. The DVR came along and made recording programs as easy as clicking a button and one of the pioneers in the DVR realm was TiVo.

Nero and TiVo announced that they have teamed up for a new software and hardware product called Nero LiquidTV | TiVo PC. The product allows users to record TV programs on their PC with typical DVR ease as well as pause and rewind programs. Once TV programs are recorded, the shows can be exported to PSP, iPod or DVD automatically.

TiVo and YouTube, which announced plans earlier this year to unleash YouTube videos on TiVo set top boxes, made good on that promise today by kicking off said service. Get ready TiVo subscribers - YouTube videos of cheap dog tricks and people’s virtual diaries are coming your way.

TiVo and YouTube specifically said this new partnership “allows broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3and TiVo HD DVRs, to access hundreds of millions of user generated videos hosted on YouTube.” You’ll need a YouTube account to access this new TiVo feature, which will be made available when a new TiVo box software upgrade is rolled out.

The Souped Up John is the ultimate in geek bathroom luxury. The designer certainly wasn’t constipated when it came to throwing ideas into this john, but was certainly counting on your constipation to keep you in place long enough to use all of the various gadgetry.

It sports a television, TiVo, DVD, XBox, laptop, fridge and of course the toilet paper holder comes standard. Plus an iPod docking station. You also get some exercise pedals in front for when you really need to shake those bowels loose. The megaphone is there so others can cater to any needs not already provided for.

Tivo this week released a paid update of its software which will make it easier for its customers to download video to their Tivo boxes. It is known as Tivo Desktop Plus 2.6 and it will run you around $25.

The Tivo Desktop Plus 2.6 software, available for Windows users only at this moment, makes use of the Tivo Season Pass functionality to let one manage web video content. With it one can subscribe to RSS feeds over a range of video content. This is done in conjunction with Web browsers, RSS video clients such as iTunes podcasts, or other video download software to automatically copy to their TiVo DVR’s Now Playing List alongside recorded broadcast and cable TV shows.

Tivo is getting set to add another online offering to owners of its digital video recorders. This time around the company has announced a new relationship with YouTube to bring online videos to your set top DVR.

Under the terms of the announcement Tivo will begin to offer access to YouTube videos directly to owners of Tivo Series 3 DVRs - sorry Series 2 owners, you look to be out of luck. Access will be included for the Tivo HD as well.