A bit of early access for pre-orders blew the surprise, but TiVo has officially announced that its Stream transcoder device will hit stores on September 6th. Priced at $130 the feature set should be familiar by now: plug it into a home network that also has a TiVo Premiere series DVR connected to it, and it takes in live or recorded programming and reformats it for viewing on a mobile device. Currently those mobile devices are limited to the iOS family, but TiVo says Android access is coming. According to the company, the Stream is the first device to allow streaming and recording to as many as four devices without interrupting what's currently being viewed on the TV.

Comparing it to the others, live streaming or VOD in and out of the home on mobile devices is a feature several cable / satellite companies offer, Dish Network has tight Sling integration for streaming in multiple locations, and both DirecTV's Nomad and the Monsoon Vulkano boxes do place-shifting, the a combination of features plus a familiar TiVo UI puts the Stream in the lead, at least on paper. We're testing one now and should have a better handle on its strengths and weaknesses soon -- we'll have a comprehensive review for you soon.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

TiVo Stream transcoder officially set to go on sale September 6th for $129 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.