My First Post - DVR (Digital Video Recorder)

This is my first blog and I am writing this while watching TV with my wife. Watching TV has changed so much in the past years especially with the invention of DVR (Digital Video Recorder). I have TV service from Dish Network and we recently upgraded to a receiver with DVR capability. It took some time for me and my wife to understand it capabilities. Now that we understand what this thing can do, we can’t even think about going back to watching TV as we used to do. I will tell you why we love it so much but let me explain what is a DVR first. A digital video recorder (DVR) or personal video recorder (PVR) is a device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive or other memory medium within a device. You can make your computer a PVR. I have done that and I will tell you how to do it in my other posts.

You must have heard of TiVO which I think is a market leader in providing DVR services. TiVO provides you with a DVR that you can hook with most of the cable and satellite TV networks. I have a DVR from my satellite provider. A DVR functions a lot like a VCR, except it uses a hard drive to record, as opposed to videotapes. This means that there aren't any tapes to cue, and there is more recording time available. Like modern VCRs, users of digital video recorders can record television shows. One of the most popular DVR features is its ability to fast forward or skip commercials. It also allows users to pause, fast forward, rewind, or replay live television.

Now if you can skip commercials then who would want to sit through them? This is what we love about it. My wife is so used to recording all the shows and then watching them later by skipping commercials and scenes that she don’t like. We have a DVR that has three tuners. What this means is that we can record two shows and watch a third show at the same time or we can watch a DVR recording and record three shows at the same time. Usually I watch all the games live. I never record games. So what I would do is record my wife's shows if they clash with my games and watch my game live. We just cannot see ourselves watching TV without a DVR and I can't even think about taking this away from my wife.