What exactly is a PVR?
Welcome to part one of my first series, Introduction to PVRs. I haven’t set out much of a framework for the series yet, so I don’t know how many parts I will have. I’ll just keep rolling them out when I can though. Now, on to the article.
OK, so you may have heard the term PVR or DVR being used a lot recently. PVR stands for Personal Video Recorder and DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder. As the name suggests, they are devices that can record video signals in a digital format (as opposed to an analogue signal like VHS).
So what’s the big deal about PVRs? Well for one, compared to traditional VCRs they offer a far easier interface to schedule recordings. Most PVR’s have a graphical grid layout listing the time slots and the various channels which is updated automagically.
Another huge advantage is the fact that the recorded content is left on an internal hard drive. That means no more searching for the right tape or making sure that you aren’t recording over something that you want to keep. Of course there is a limit to exactly how much you can store on the hard drive, but it is not uncommon to be able to have 20+ hours of content on your PVR.
A third advantage of using a PVR is that you can actually pause live TV. So suppose that you are watching an NCAA final four game when the door bell rings: it’s the pizza delivery guy standing there. As you are paying him you hear a sudden roar from the crowd on TV and you quickly discover that you missed a key play.
Now you actually have a couple of options in the case above. First off, you could actually rewind the current program to the point that you want (for example right before you got up to get the door). As you are rewinding and watching the ‘old’ live TV, your PVR is still recording everything that is currently happening. The second option would be to just pause the live TV as you get up. That way you don’t need to rewind anything and you won’t miss a beat. With either of these options, you are doing something that you could not do with a VCR.
Although I only listed 3 advantages to using a PVR, there are quite a few more. I won’t list them now, but I will most likely mention them in future posts.
