TiVo promises 'important' initiative

On the heels of Apple Computer's much-anticipated product announcements Tuesday, TiVo is following with some pre-announcement hype of its own.

We understand, from some e-mail sent by the DVR leader's PR people, that it is having a big press conference in New York Thursday (odd, since TiVo is based in California) to announce some "important" initiatives.

Now when companies like this schedule these mysterious events, they do their best to lock down the news and keep folks like us guessing at what they're going to unveil.

But thanks to the blogosphere, we have the best prognosticators that bandwidth can buy doing the guesswork for us. And the consensus about TiVo's big shindig?

Well, the consensus is that there isn't any consensus. To judge by the various TiVo watchers out there--Engadget, PVRblog and the like--it could be any number of things. The most likely scenarios: a formal unveiling of LINK TiVo service with Comcast DVRs; a TiVo/Netflix partnership at long last; a Series 3 DVR for TiVo users; or a new subscription model.

What strikes many of these TiVo watchers most is the similar publicity method the company seems to be using--announcing the event, promising significant news and noteworthy guests--to what Apple usually does. But given the non-Earth-shattering nature of Apple's Tuesday shindig, bloggers aren't expecting too much from TiVo Thursday either.

To put it bluntly, Engadget promised, "if they end up showing off nothing but a speaker system and a leather carrying case for your DVR, we're bailing."