Verizon intros on-the-go DVR programming

LAS VEGAS--Verizon will soon allow some Fios TV customers to remotely access their DVRs online from a computer or via a Verizon Wireless cell phone, the company is expected to announce Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show that it.

Using the remote access service, Fios TV subscribers are able to remotely review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and video-on-demand listings, and set parental controls.

The remote control service can be accessed through the Fios TV Web site or by using downloadable software on select Verizon Wireless handsets, including the LG enV2, LG Voyager and LG Chocolate 2 handsets. Other handsets will get the remote DVR capability in the future, the company said.

The new service is free to subscribers who have the Home Media DVR, which allows subscribers to record a show in one room and watch it in up to six other rooms.

Verizon demonstrated the new service in October at a special press event held at Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir's Manhattan apartment. Cable operators, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications, had high hopes of offering a similar remote DVR programming service through a joint venture they had formed three years ago with Sprint Nextel. But that initiative never really got off the ground.

Tivo, which essentially invented the DVR market, announced in November that it is launching a cell phone-friendly Web site that will allow users to search programming and set their TiVo DVRs remotely. TiVo Mobile will be a free service available "with any Internet-enabled phone through any network, regardless of carrier," the company said.

In addition to the remote DVR function, Verizon also plans to announce Thursday that it's now offering 100 or more channels of high-definition (HD) television in every market where the TV service is offered.