TiVo's YouTube player that was announced back in March is finally going live today and will allow streaming, yes streaming, of all H.264 YouTube videos.

It's a major part of the 9.4 Summer Update that is hitting all boxes by the end of this month. Even though all boxes are receiving this update only Series 3 and HD TiVos will be able to see the YouTube feature, sorry Series 2'ers.

We haven't gotten a hands on yet but we've been briefed on how it will function and it actually sounds usable.

Hidden within the Download TV, Movies, & Web Video selection, in the Find Programs menu, there will now be a YouTube option. TiVo's YouTube menu page has a different layout than the usual TiVo menus.

From this YouTube menu you'll be able to select from popular videos, recent videos or search for videos using the onscreen keyboard.

Alongside each video there will be a thumbnail, title and a short description just like YouTube.com. Once a video is selected the player will automatically go full screen and start streaming within seconds.

Since the video streams live there is no need to go the Now Playing List and there is no option to save the video there.

Right now there is no way to login into an YouTube account, but TiVo says there's a minor update coming in eight weeks that will incorporate this feature.

Overall the YouTube integration sounds pretty legit.

We hope now that TiVo has figured out streaming video it will open up options for other services like Netflix and Hulu.

Story source: gizmodo.com.