Digital video recorder maker TiVo is expected to announce a plan to allow its users to download any television program stored on their recorders to video iPods. TiVo is making the move without Apple's involvement, according to the WSJ paper. Apple launched a new generation of its iPod digital music player that can play video on its 2.5-inch color screen.

So far, users of the device have only been able to download episodes of only five television series from Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and Disney Channel units. Short films from Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and music videos have also been available.

TiVo plans to begin testing software to enable video downloads to iPods from its digital video recorders within the next couple of weeks, the newspaper said. It said the company intends to make the software available to all TiVo users in the first quarter of 2006 for a one-time fee, most likely between $15 and $30.

The Journal said that using TiVo's software to transfer a one-hour television program to an iPod could take more than two hours from the time users finish recording that program.