Finally TiVo To Go For Mac. WTF? It’s $100.

Carol and I love our TiVo. It’s the Mac of digital video recorders for TV. I love my Mac. Our Macs. We have four.

For two years we waited for TiVoToGo so we could push TV movies easily to the Mac. It’s what we all want.

Now TiVo to go is here. What’s it cost? $100 and free with every purchase of Roxio’s Toast Titanium 8.0.

Roxio and TiVo announced that the new version of Toast will include full TiVoToGo, available immediately for purchase and download.

Isn’t that great news? TiVo first promised a Mac version about two years ago, so Mac TiVo users have waited awhile. Or, two whiles.

I guess I can scratch TiVoToGo off the Vaporware Award list for the past two years. That $100 price tag for the new Toast has my bread burning.

It was just a year ago when screenshots of TiVo Desktop for Mac and TiVoToGo popped up on the web. What happened?

Apparently, creating applications for Mac OS X is beyond the ability of publicly traded company like TiVo and should be left to Mac folks.

In steps Roxio with Toast who already have the experience and software to change files to different formats (the iPod with video isn’t two years old), and burn DVDs.

Out steps Jack with a complaint aimed square at TiVo.

What gives, guys? The only way to get TiVoToGo is with Toast Titanium 8.0 and that’s almost $100.

Toast is OK, but amazingly, not all Mac households use Toast, including the Miller household, a long time TiVo owner. You promised TiVoToGo.

You gave TiVoToGo to Windows users, and I mean “gave” in the true sense of gifting. It’s free on Windows.

Let me assume that some Mac360 readers are also owners of Toast Titanium 7.x. For you, the price tag of upgrading to the new Toast is $79. Not $29. Not $39. $79. So, TiVoToGo is a mere $79.

Don’t you feel better?

What is it about the $79 price tag? iLife? $79, but no upgrade price. iWork? $79, but no upgrade price? Toast? $100 with a $79 upgrade price.

For What It’s Worth Department-- TiVo folks and Roxio folks say they’re looking at ways to make TiVoToGo more accessible to Mac users. Exactly how is that to happen, except with a lower price tag.

Apparently the TiVo folks could figure out how to transfer TiVo files to the Mac, but not how to convert them into iPod format. Even QuickTime does that. Is QuickTime no longer available on new Macs or free for a download?

That’s a ridiculous excuse, don’t you think? The TiVo folks also said that converting TiVo files and burning them to DVDs was outside their expertise. Hmmm. How about using iDVD, free on every Mac with a SuperDrive.

Obviously, TiVo cut a deal to do the minimum work possible on TiVoToGo, shoved the hard part to Roxio who upped the price tag of Toast from $79 to $100 or so.

Meanwhile, Mac users with TiVo have to cough up more bread just to get burned by a new version of Toast. This is no fun, people.

Do you Toast? Is a $79 upgrade price tag more than you expected? What about TiVoToGo? Share your comments with Mac360 readers in the Comments section below.

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