TiVo, Jaman in deal to bring indie movies to set-top box

One of the largest distributors of independent films online said Thursday it had struck a deal with the DVR maker to offer thousands of titles from its catalog to subscribers.

The deal would be very much like the Amazon Unbox service that is already available to TiVo customers. Movies from Jaman will be downloadable to the DVR and would be in high definition, the companies said.

Among the titles to be available are the Oscar-nominated Paheli, Loverboy, All About Lily Chou-Chou, and La Promesse. The deal would significantly increase the number of international and independent titles available.

Jaman's addition of TiVo also extends the reach of the service, which was already available on both PC and Mac, as well as SanDisk's TakeTV and through DivX. It also builds on TiVo's own promise to take the DVR beyond just recording television programming.

Users will need a broadband-connected Series2 or Series3 DVR in order to use the service. No time frame has been given as to when Jaman would be added to the TiVo menu -- the announcement only described it as "soon."

Movies through Jaman would either be rentable or purchasable starting at $1.99, and the service said it would provide select full-length and short films at no charge.