New York (NY) – Nero has announced its LiquidTV software that turns your Windows computer into a Tivo digital video recorder.  Available in October, LiquidTV lets people save high definition and standard def shows onto computer hard drives.  These shows can viewed later or exported to Apple iPods or the Sony PSP.  You can even burn the content to DVDs.

Unlike other products, LiquidTV isn't using a Tivo-like interface because Nero has partnered up with Tivo and is using the exact same scheduling service and remote.  Essentially you are getting Tivo in PC format.  

LiquidTV will face a bevy of competitors when it hits the market and some of you are probably yawing because the ATi All-In-Wonder cards have been doing this for years.  Sure it doesn’t have the famous Tivo scheduling system, but the included scheduler on the AIW cards isn’t too shabby.  LiquidTV also somewhat competes with Slingbox, however the Nero product doesn’t have the ability to stream the content live over the Internet.  Thankfully, LiquidTV owners will be able to at least schedule their recordings through the Internet.

Linux users have also been rolling their own pc-based digital video recorders with various applications – the most popular being Myth.  In fact, there are several easily installed distributions that will turn almost any old computer into a “Mythbox” for free.

Will people buy LiquidTV?  There are two disadvantages, namely you have to obviously leave your computer on all the time and you have to pay $99 a year for the Tivo service subscription.  The upside is that you can easily pop in another hard drive for greater storage space.  For some tech professionals, leaving their computers on all the time isn’t a big deal because their computers are probably on most of the day anyways.

LiquidTV will come in two versions.  The $199 package gets you a TV tuner card, remote and software along with one-year of Tivo service.  For those who already own a TV tuner, Nero will sell the software for $99.  The Tivo subscription is an extra $99 per year.

This thing is probably three years too late … welcome to the party Nero.

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