Yahoo Software Turns PC Into A Digital Video Recorder

Yahoo Inc. has released in beta software that can turn a PC into a digital video recorder capable of playing and recording video found through Yahoo search.

In addition, Yahoo Go For TV can play music from Yahoo's online radio stations and show pictures from its Flickr photo-sharing service.

In essence, the software takes the Web portal's multimedia broadband services to the living room via a PC with a TV connection. Basic requirements include Windows XP, 512 MB of RAM, 40 MB of free disk space for installation and 20 GB of additional disk space for TV recordings. The software does not support Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X.

The PC also needs a TV tuner card and remote control, and the TV needs video and audio input connections. A high-speed Internet connection of at least 1.5 MB per second is also needed.

Yahoo, based on Sunnyvale, Calif., has been moving steadily into the online video market. The entertainment portal, however, does not have as extensive an offering of TV content as rival AOL, which shows a variety of classic sitcoms in their entirety.