Personal Video Recorders: PVR And DVR
Personal Video Recorder - the digital equivalent of your VCR
If you are wondering what a PVR or DVR is then I'm not surprised.
The digital revolution has crept up on us and is going to dominate
our lives in a big way but have you kept up with all the new developments?
If you're anything like me then you are probably quite happy with your
trusted analog TV and VCR and don't see any need to change.
Unfortunately you will soon have to make the switch to digital like the
rest of us when they turn off the analog satellite TV, cable TV and
terrestrial TV transmissions. At the very least you will need to purchase
new equipment to receive and decode the digital signals to watch on your
existing TV set.
Fortunately analog video signals will still be available from your new
digital decoder boxes, which can be used to record TV in the normal way
with your VCR. However you will lose the ability to record one channel
while watching another unless your new digital video recorder/player
system has more than one digital tuner in the system.
You might want to start thinking about the new generation of personal
digital video recorders or PVR when you set yourself up with digital TV.
The PVR gives you many more features than were ever possible with analog VCRs.
What is a Digital Video Recorder or DVR?
A DVR is just what it says, a digital video recorder. It should really be
called a DAVR because it records audio as well as video. A DVR has at least
one digital TV tuner and a hard drive like the one in your PC. In fact the
equipment is nothing more than a computer dedicated to recording and replaying
digital TV.
The tuner in your DVR must be compatible with your digital service whether
it is terrestrial, cable or digital satellite TV and some premium channels
and services may only be available when you use the equipment from your
provider. An example of this is Sky+ in the UK. You must use a Sky box to
even receive Sky digital sattelite TV and adding a Sky+ PVR may require you
to pay more on your subscriptions if you aren't already subscribing to the
right packages.
What does a DVR do?
A DVR allows you to capture and record digital TV on a hard drive internal
to the unit. Typically up to about 40 hours of video can be recorded. You can
use your DVR to record a live channel while watching a recording and if your
DVR has two digital tuners then you can watch one channel while recording
another or record 2 channels while watching a recording.
A DVR will also allow you to pause live TV and restart it later as if the live
signal was coming from a recording you made earlier.
What is a Personal Video Recorder or PVR?
A personal video recorder or PVR is simply a DVR with some more advanced
features. For instance a PVR might have the ability to learn what you watch
and automatically record it for you if you forget. A PVR can also be used to
create a recording playback list so that you can set it to record only the
programs that you like then play them back as if it were your own personal
TV channel.
DVR Software
If you have a computer then you might want to explore the possibility of
using DVR and PVR software and a PC DVR card to turn it into a cheap digital
video recorder. Computers and TV equipment technologies are converging so it
won't be long before there is no difference between your digital TV system
and your computer.
What you can use a PVR or DVR for
Here are just some of the things that you can do with a PVR:
Time Shifting
Recording a digital TV program to watch it at a more convenient time. You can
do this with your old analog VCR of course.
Bookmarking
PVR services like Sky+ offer this feature to tag a series of programs and
record them when they are transmitted. You don't even need to remember when
they are on any more, just let the PVR do it for you. An electronic program
guide service is required in addition to the PVR for this to work.
Create your own digital TV channel
Select programs from a whole day or more and have your PVR record them all so
that you can watch them at a later time. This is like being able to create your
own TV channel using programs from all the other channels.
Capture a whole series
A PVR makes it simple to record a whole series of your favourite program then
watch the whole lot in a mammoth watching session.
Save your recordings to DVD
Some PVRs have built in DVD recorders to make permanent copies of the stuff you've
recorded onto the hard drive. It's normally possible to save programs to your old
VCR using the analogue AV sockets on your PVR.
Highlights only viewing
DVRs have much better fast forward and rewind capabilities than your old VCR
making it easy to condense a whole sporting event into a fraction of the real
time. Useful if you're in a hurry or don't want to sit through the boring parts.
Live action replay
This is most useful for sporting events where you can pause and rewind your
PVR and watch an action replay before returning to the live action. This has
the effect of extending the viewing time of course.
Pausing live TV
There's someone at the door or the phone rings in the middle of your favourite
program. No problem, just pause your personal video recorder and the remainder
of the program will be recorded for you to watch later.
