HD DVRs: Changing the Way You Watch TV
The new HDTV technology is amazing, and has drastically changed the appearance of our favorite TV shows and movies. But, there is still one small problem: most of the stuff that’s on TV is still awful! A stupid sit-com will insult your intelligence in high-def just as easily as it will in standard def, if not more. This is where DVRs come in.
A DVR is a digital video recorder, also known as a personal video recorder, or PVR. Its basic function is the same as an old VCR, to record content from broadcast TV. But the DVR is much more than a VCR. Rather than a glorified tape recorder, it is a machine that can cut the fat from your media diet and add hours of free time to your busy week, a few minutes at a time, by making the TV watching experience more efficient. And the DVR is always recording what you are watching, so you’ll be able to pause a live broadcast as if it were a recording, then come back to it later without missing a thing.
Regular DVRs have been around since 1999, but in the past few years they have had to be modified to handle high-def content. A modern HD-DVR (High-Definition DVR) has a hard drive bigger than the one in your desktop computer and uses it to store up to 35 hours of HD content, or 300 hours of standard content. And the new HD-DVRs have improved in other areas, too. The TiVo Series 3, for example, can upscale standard definition content to give it better quality, and can record two channels at the same time while you watch a third.
The easiest way to get an HD-DVR is by leasing one from your cable company, for about $6-$10 a month. Most people who do this, though, complain about the small amount of storage (8-10 hours of HD content) and the user-unfriendliness of the typical hardware they get. The best solution to this problem right now is the TiVo Series 3 HD-DVR, which costs about $600 but is vastly superior to the typical cable company boxes in transmission quality, storage, and ease of use.
One important detail about the TiVo is that you will need to have two CableCards installed in it by your cable company, and you better check with them, before you buy, to make sure they can do this.
The positive effects of using a DVR are huge. They can easily be programmed to record shows of interest, even if you aren’t aware that they exist: for example, the TiVo can be set to record any movie, on any channel, that has John Wayne in it. No more mindless channel-surfing. And of course, the DVR can be used to skip over commercials, which can eliminate several hours of wasted time per week.
This effect is so significant that 70 percent of TV advertisers, in a recent survey, said that DVR proliferation will “reduce or destroy” the effectiveness of 30 second spots. And about a quarter of advertisers said they would respond by reducing the amount of money spent on TV ads and focusing their energy elsewhere.
Check out FlatHDTV.net for more info.
