What happens when the nation's leading consumer electronics chain partners with the original hard drive recorder? Best Buy streaming direct to your TV.

The retailer announced a partnership with TiVo to sell hard drive recorders with Best Buy-owned or branded content. And before everyone erupts thinking that means advertisements, Best Buy has the Napster music service to broadcast and will probably stream movies soon, too.

The company does admit to using the partnership to "use TiVo to offer advice and guidance on products like HDTVs and digital cameras and provide ways to buy these products via the television remote control," reports the New York Times. Here's hoping that it's not in the form of ads, but specially-produced programs that customers can choose to view, or not.

There's the possibility of embedding TiVo technology into Best Buy-branded Insignia TVs or DVD players. It's the kind of thing techies thought TiVo would be doing all along.

All this could offset revenue lost from declining disk sales, both CD and DVD. For TiVo, it's a chance to finally get a mass audience to appreciate the brand rather than simply using whatever hard drive recorder comes from the service provider.

It's hard to believe, what with TiVo being synonymous with the technology, but sales have fallen pretty dramatically. This may just give the company that started it all a fighting chance.