Via ZatzNotFunny.com, I’m not sure what to make of the announcement TiVo have entered an agreement with Nero to license some of their technology to create a TiVo like experience on the PC. According to the Press Release:

Under the agreement, Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer. Capitalizing on the growing PC TV tuner market, it will answer the consumer demand for a trusted PC-based DVR experience for use with the estimated 50.8 million PC TV tuners that will be sold worldwide by 2011, according to In-Stat research report published in April 2007.

I wouldn’t mind running the TiVo software on my home server as a replacement for other DVR software (it’s MCE at the moment but I do like BeyondTV and SageTV as alternative commercial products), but I believe part of TiVo’s strength is its brand recognition and if they are serious about entering the retail market, I’m not sure why they don’t build out their own product and market it directly.

My guess is that this is less about collaborating on PC DVR Software but the beginning of TiVo asserting its intellectual property rights on its patents. My guess is that sometime soon, providers of software like BeyondTV and SageTV will get a note in the mail stating that they’re stepping on TiVo’s patents and they’ll need to pony up or get sued.