I just signed up for the Tape It Off The Internet’s beta, and it looks like I’ll have to stand in line a while to be admitted. I don’t have a lot of information to go on except for the name, and if it’s like my imagination, then I’m back to watching tv again!

I’m thinking, TiVo in the cloud folks. It’s been on my mind for a while, and here’s how it goes. Imagine your regular TiVo, a digital tv recording device that uses a local hard disk to record the shows on. Well, why not move this to the Net? A web interface, your personal settings and enough storage space to guard your shows. The ability to either stream or download your -own- taped shows (no sharing on the site itself, to keep the lawyers off their backs) and charge a neat $10 a month for unlimited use. No DRM, because nobody here is implying sharing. Just a hosted version of a TiVo. And think of all the channels they could offer, not just your local offerings, but worldwide. All it would take for them is setting up a recording server in every market and have it tape all available channels 24/7. Also, again with lawyers in mind, it would make sense if you’d actually only be able to tape upcoming shows, and that they don’t act like some sort of repository. Even though technically possible and desirable to ‘record’ past shows, I can just see the lawsuits rolling in when they’d offer that one.

That’s all, It’s been on my list for ever and I’ve never actually seen it done. I think it’d be a service a lot of people would pay for. Tioti is offering some social networking services around their offer (and again, I don’t really have a clue still what they’re about, I’m just wishful thinking out loud here), they should watch out for not turning it into one big streaming-of-last-night’s-Late Show-bonanza, that would surely kill it off by way of cease-and-desist. But sharing (and exhcanging, like tabs on Netvibes!) of topic or actor-centirc taping schedules and sitcom chit-chat would be perfect. I’ll let you guys know as soon as I’m in!