Bringing prime time to video iPod
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Even with a few more TV shows added to the iTunes store, Chris Cardone said he just can't get enough good video for his video iPod.
So, increasingly, the Cincinnati-based anesthesiologist has been turning to a little-known program called MyTV ToGo, which lets him take shows recorded to his Windows Media Center PC and put them directly onto his video iPod.
"It's fantastic," Cardone said. There were some bugs with the software at first, and it could be a bit slow, he added. But when he was stuck at the hospital on call for hours, at least he did not run out of shows to watch. News.context
Even with Apple Computer's deal last week to add 11 NBC shows to the iTunes store, there still is a paucity of top-shelf video content for the iPod. Digital recording specialist TiVo is promising to change that, but its video-on-the-go option for the iPod won't be ready until next year.
But in stepped little Proxure, a San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based developer, with its $30 MyTV ToGo utility. It takes shows recorded by Microsoft's Windows Media Center software on a PC, converts them and transfers them into a special playlist on the iPod.
The tiny software maker focused on data synchronization software until it debuted the first version of MyTV ToGo earlier this year. That product took recorded TV shows from a Windows Media Center PC and put them on a Pocket PC handheld. Proxure developed the software before portable video devices like the new iPod or Sony's PlayStation Portable became popular.