DVRs to complement your home entertainment

Not very long ago, techno-pundits told us that the PC would be the center of gravity for all sorts of digital activities. It would replace the home entertainment system, it would serve as the central security system, it would function as the hub for communications, etc.

The prediction was not too outlandish. Remember that one of the reasons IBM PC gained popularity so rapidly back in the early 1980s was that it was a multifunction computer. Over time, personal computers, including the Macs and IBM PCs, acquired a lot of new abilities, including to play back music from CDs and to connect to the Internet. We can now watch DVD movies, TV broadcasts as well as narrowcasts, and play interactive games against other players who are thousands of miles away.

Personal computers will continue to evolve; there is no doubt about that. In ten years' time the processor may be running at 18 GHz, and the hard disk may be able to hold terabytes of data. Other than that, PCs and the Macs may not undergo truly profound changes.

And, as time progresses, we shall continue to find products that defy the theory that the personal computer will be the single major source of entertainment programs. Among other things, we have seen the increasing popularity of Digital Video Recorders, or DVRs.

At a glance, a DVR may not be that different from a Video Cassette Recorder (VCR). But, as the names may already indicate, a DVR stores digital data on a hard disk while the VCR uses an analog cassette to store video data. Today, a DVR may have up to 120 GB of hard disk capacity, which means that it can record up to 160 hours of video. More importantly, a DVR is generally more programmable than a VCR -- although sometimes you can come across a very sophisticated VCR.

For example, because the video signal from a TV broadcast is converted into digital form, the device can be equipped with the ability to detect which video stream is the movie and which the advertisements. In other words, a DVR has the intelligence to detect the beginning of a commercial break, stop the recording and resume when the break is over.

There are other advantages to DVRs over VCRs. While each videocassette may be able to hold up to two hours of video, DVRs -- with the help of compression technologies -- may be able to record 40 hours or more of TV programs. Some DVRs even use Linux as their operating system, and can therefore be considered a personal computer on their own.

Who are the leading players in DVRs? The original DVR was introduced by TiVo. People had to subscribe to TiVo to get direct TV broadcasts that could be recorded on the DVR. TiVo claims that today it has accumulated one million subscribers. Of course, its services are not available in Indonesia yet.

A slew of other manufacturers have come up with their own DVRs. The names include Motorola, Panasonic, Phillips, Scientific Atlanta and, of course, Pioneer.

What specific features should you look for if you want to be among the first to own a DVR? We do not have any high-definition (HD) TV programs yet, so HD is not really a major requirement. Anyway, most new DVRs are already HD-ready. A DVR should also be able to read and write various types of memory card.

Next, new DVRs can now record two HD programs at the same time. And, equally important, DVRs should also be equipped with a DVD writer. As mentioned before, your DVR should have the ability to skip commercials, so that you can watch uninterrupted movies recorded from TV stations. One wonders whether Hollywood or Bollywood would like that. -- Zatni Arbi