Digital Recorders—DVRs, PVRs, HDDs (Hard Disc Drive Recorders)

DVR is the acronym for “Digital Video Recorder”, PVR stands for “Personal Video Recorder” and all of them are hard disc recorders.

They work like your computer in that they record onto a hard disc like the hard drive of your computer. Most operate by using your remote control to arrow up and down until you highlight a TV show you want to watch, then pressing the “select” key or record button on your remote control.

You may have heard of DVD recorders and thought of them as a replacement for a VCR. If you haven’t seen a DVR at work, you may just think you’ll replace a VCR with a DVD recorder and now you’ll record on DVDs --they are better quality after all--instead of recording on VHS tapes. But digital recording can be so much more! With DVRs or Hard Disc recorders, it usually won’t require difficult programming to record the show you want--just press “select”, press “okay” and you are ready to go!

Two of the “stand alone” companies are TiVo® and REPLAYTV®. “Stand alone” means that they are only digital video recorders and are not combined with another kind of device, or satellite or cable box. Both TiVo® and REPLAY® have models that combine satellite receivers with the DVR. Other cable companies use hard disc recorders in their cable boxes that allows you to record shows.

DVRs with easy-to-use program guides hook into a phone line to download a couple of weeks of program information. The system regularly makes a toll free call to get the information and you will rarely be aware of the quick call. For the program guide service, you pay a fee either per month or a “lifetime fee”--which is the lifetime of that unit and definitely not your lifetime.

You can record without paying and subscribing to the guide...but, you’ll be back to the old VCR way of programming the unit to record by time and channel rather than to just pick the program you want to record. Without subscribing to the guide you'll miss out on options like one-button recording of all episodes of a show for the season (even if it's aired at a different time each week), wish lists and more.

Beneficial features of a DVR

Because DVRs are always recording into a temporary memory buffer, you are able to pause, rewind or slow motion “live TV” (it’s actually always 2 seconds behind true LIVE_TV). So, if someone calls you can pause TV, or if you miss dialogue, you can rewind to hear it again.

You are also able to “Time Slip” which means that you can start watching a program from the beginning while it is in the process of recording (in contrast to a VHS recording which has to complete recording before you can begin watching).

Using a DVR

More and more, satellite receivers and cable boxes include DVRs. This is quite convenient because you don't have to worry about the DVR changing the channel on the satellite or cable box and because you can just pick through your programming and push the "record" button on your remote to record the program. (You can look ahead and do the same for future showings.)

Many DVRs have the benefit of recording a show once, or in the case of a tv series, it can record it every time or even just the new shows. A menu typically pops up when you ask it to record. If your DVR doesn't have those options pop up automatically, you may look through your menus for "recording options" or just "options."

There are some DVRs and hard disc recorders that are in combination with DVD recorders that use a different guide service and do not require a subscription (the units may be more expensive up front).

A feature to look for...

TiVo's will track the kinds of programs you record then will record similar programs that you can watch or, if you don’t watch them, they are automatically deleted. (see picture to the left.)

Many DVRs allow you to make "wishlists" or recording lists based on "keywords." So let's say you love Cary Grant movies, you can type in "Cary Grant" in the keyword search and make sure you tell it to look in the info (if it's a choice between title and info). Or if you like Soccer from Portugal, you can set up the category to sports, subcategory to soccer and then type "Portugal" in the keywords. It will then record all of those shows.

A Note on How DVRs Function

Most DVRs will erase the oldest recordings when the disk is full, to make room for newer shows. If there's a show you don't want to miss but haven't gotten to, you might want to "protect" it or move the delete date to further in the future. The DVR will then skip over it an pick the next oldest show.


Digital Recording is better than VHS because:

• Easy, one touch programming - No need to program time and date.
• Don’t have to set the clock (DVRs)--no more blinking 12:00.
• Can record all episodes of a program with the press of a couple buttons even if it comes on at different times or days each week. (check for this feature).
• Easy access to watch shows previously recorded-- Don’t have to look through a pile of tapes to find where you recorded a show.
• Time Slip--You can start watching the beginning of a show while it is in the progress of recording (allowing you to fast forward through commercials).
• Can pause, rewind and fast forward “live TV”.--don’t have to worry about interruptions and can go back to hear dialog you may have missed.
• Faster access to the part of a program you want to see if you don’t want to watch the whole show.
• Better quality video and digital surround sound on some units.
• Don’t have to look for blank tapes to record onto or
• On recorded DVDs, can skip to the show or the scene you want to see.

Photo © TiVo Inc. All Rights Reserved.