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Personal Video Recorder History
Early Programming Recording Methods
Since the dawn of the Video Cassette Recorder, people have been hooked on the ability to record their favorite television programs and watch them later at their leisure. Gone are the days where you had to choose between the big game or dinner with the family.
The VCR had many downsides of course, the recording quality was always far less than the original broadcast, with modest to poor audio quality. Tapes were expensive and it was time consuming to rewind and fast forward to find a particular spot on the recording. Of course the video tapes has a very small capacity, 2 hours at decent quality or up to 6 hours at far lesser quality.
The introduction of the 4 head VCR did bring some improvements over previous generations of VCR's, however, the recording quality was always visibly poorer than the orginal source broadcast. Recording setup varied widely from model to model, from complex and difficult to use to simple but lacking features.
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The VCR's introduction in the late 1970's made it possible to record shows and watch them at a later time. The personal video recorders of today are based on that same concept, updated with todays technology.
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Early PVR History
That would all change in January 1999 when a small upstart company known as Tivo unveiled a new and revolutionary product called the Tivo Recorder. The Tivo was a digital video recorder, capable of encoding programming digitally in real time, where it could be stored on a hard drive for viewing later. The Tivo was in essentially a small linux-based computer, with built in hard drive, video tuner and friendly consumer interface. The Tivo's hard drive was capable of recording more than 20 hours of quality programming. It grouped them as individual files, making it easy to locate a particular show. Digital storage meant no tapes to buy and no rewinding. What really set the Tivo apart from early recording mediums however was its subscription-based programming interface, which had a nice and easy to understand interface with an informative program guide that would allow you to scroll ahead and program in all your favorite shows for the coming week. You could search through a database of coming shows to locate ones of interest to you. The programming data was designed to be automatically downloaded via the telephone modem directly onto the hard drive, making retrieval quick and easy. The Tivo also offered a live programming feature than allowed you to pause a live program and resume it later. This feature for example, would allow you to pause a show, make dinner and eat and then resume it afterwards as if nothing had happened. The Tivo interface was also programmed to learn your tastes and it could make recommendations of possible shows of interest to you.
The introduction of the standalone Tivo system was followed shortly after by an integrated Directv with Tivo system for Directv subscribers. This would better allow Directv customers to benefit from Tivo and eliminated the need for a seperate Tivo recorder. The partnership was an instant hit and soon became the core source of revenue for Tivo, backed by Directv's then 7 million customers.
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The Tivo Series 1 personal video recorder offered many advanced recording features and appealed to many people and helped to better personalize their television experience.
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Early PVR Competitors
Tivo's novel idea and popularity soon led to stiff competition. Hot on Tivo's heels was Replaytv, introduced by a company known as Sonic Blue, which would end up in bankruptcy protection. Replaytv would later be bought out by Digital Networks North America, Inc. The Replaytv was a personal video recorder with a fe more features than Tivo, such as a firewire output. While Tivo concentrated on the bread and butter of personalizing your television, Replaytv took that a step further to also imagine your future as well and so it built in advanced features for future use. Like the Tivo, Replaytv could record from a number of sources, including off-air programs, cable vision and also satellite providers. Replaytv also was the first personal video recorder company to offer the dreaded feature "commercial skipping", although this was later phased out in future software releases, in part for being too revolutionary.
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The Replaytv system offered many of the popular Tivo features with some more advanced capability, such as firewire, commercial skipping and room to room streaming.
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A third entry into the PVR market was Microsoft and their Ultimatetv system, in June of 2000, which was based on their lack-lustre Webtv platform. The Ultimatetv system was solely for use with the Directv digital satellite system was was initially only available on RCA satellite receivers with Ultimatetv capability. The Ultimatetv would allow Directv subscribers to turn their satellite receivers into a personal video recorder, allowing 30 hours of recording capability, time shifting and pause and resume features and much more. Microsoft's financial might in the computer industry had many speculating that tiny Tivo would soon be crushed against such an opponent. Ironically it was Tivo's strong hold on the Directv market that caused Microsoft to exit the personal video recorder market in early 2002. The Ultimatetv just did not have a same appeal as the Tivo offered to Directv subscribers. Additionally, its restriction of being a Directv only product also severely hindered them and their expansion as well. Microsoft pledged to maintain software for their subscribers, but was ceasing new Ultimatetv system manufacturing. The Webtv system was later merged with their MSN group. Ultimatetv would issue one final major software revision before ceasing further updates.
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Microsoft once hoped that the Ultimatetv would energize their struggling Webtv division. They exited the personal video recorder market in 2002, before re-entering using Windows XP Media Center Edition in 2004.
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The largest threat to Tivo, came in the early 2002 when major cable vision firms announced plans to release their own personal video recorder and make it available to its subscribers. Tivo's success to date has been with their partnership with Directv, which nets them far less revenue than they make on individual subscribers. Tivo's success at integrating into cable vision homes was their weak point. Further, they had failed to impress the execs at the major cable vision firms to support their product to their subscribers. Most cable vision firms saw more revenue renting or leasing their own PVR systems and enjoying the exclusive revenue from the programming guide, then they saw from allowing Tivo access to their customers and them simply pooling in the revenue.
Modern PVR Systems
Today, there remain 3 core groups in the PVR industry, Tivo, Replaytv and the Cable vision PVR systems. Additionally, recent years have brought us off shoots as well, such as Telly, which offers an entire multimedia server in your living room, allowing your many Tivo-like features without the monthly cost. Microsoft has re-entered the PVR market with its Windows XP off-shoot, Windows XP Media Center Edition, which allows many Tivo like features using your personal computer. Additionally, there are also a number of open source computer PVR operating systems in existance for the technically savy allowing them to build their own PVR computer system.
Personal Video recorders come in different formats. Some require a subscription service such as
Tivo, ReplayTV and UltimateTV. Some other manufacturers are bringing subscription-free PVR's on the market,
such as Interact-TV
Some PVR units are standalone, such as Standalone Tivo and ReplayTV and some are integrated into
satellite receivers, such as DirecTivo, UltimateTV and Dish PVR. Standalone units are capable of recording
from a number of sources including satellite, off the air, cable, digital cable and a number of other
analog sources. Integrated satellite recorders are capable of recording from the satellite provider only.
Currently, DBS satellite PVR's include Directv's DirecTivo, UltimateTV, Dish Network's Dish Network PVR
and Expressvu's Personal Video Recorder.
A personal video recorder is essentially a computer with one or more computer hard drives that decode and record
video to the hard drives. Most personal video recorders on the market run a custom version of Linux or Unix.
Because they use standard computer hard drives, they can be upgraded with even larger hard drives to hold
up to 340 hours of programming. Our Members Area has
a number of step by step tutorials to upgrade your Tivo, ReplayTV or UltimateTV system with a larger hard
drive, including the necessary files and software.
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08/04/2008 11:20 AM
In order to give the website a better focus, we are phasing out the less popular areas of the site, including the high definition and digital video recorder areas and forums. This will leave the site focused on digital satellite television and satellite radio.
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