TiVo Inc. on Monday said it will begin testing a feature in the coming weeks to let some subscribers transfer recorded television programming to Apple iPod digital music players or Sony's PlayStation portable devices reports Reuters.

"The increasing popularity of mobile devices for viewing video, such as Apple's iPod and the PSP device, demonstrate the enormous consumer demand for entertainment on the go," Tom Rogers, the chief executive of TiVo, said.

"We're making it easy for consumers to enjoy the TV shows they want to watch right from their iPod or PSP - whenever and wherever they want"

One analyst briefed on the announcement said the new feature may raise "concerns" among program owners, who aim to profit from movies and shows either through DVD or online sales reports Reuters

"The TV industry has to embrace video on demand in cable, Internet and other forms of video distributions even though there are many ways these technologies allow distribution that doesn't make them any money," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research.

The new version of the TiVoToGo service available to "stand-alone" TiVo subscribers will also include an "autosync" feature. This will enable subscribers to have shows automatically uploaded to their portable devices the morning after the shows were recorded from the TV. To guard against piracy, shows recorded via the service will have encoded digital watermarks so any illegal copying can be traced.

TiVo plans to make the feature available to all its subscribers early next year.