PVR - Personal Video Recorders

PVR or the Personal Video rRecorder is the modern day equivalent of the VHS Recorder. The first and major advantage is that PVRs do not require any clunky tapes that were prone to getting stuck in side the machine or unfortunately tangled and twisted making the video and audio playback scratchy and unwatchable.

Most modern PVRs, can also record in HD, so that means 720p or if you are lucky 1080p full HD. Unlike itys earlier technolical cousin, a PVR recording doesnt wear out and its always going to be a crisp and clean as the first time it was recorded.

Its worth noting that many PVR use Scaling Technology to display the images at the stated 1080p. They will usually do this if the original broadcast recording was in a lower definition i.e 480p Standard Definition. This is usually the are that getting a more expensive PVR will pay off, as the scaling software in the system is what will make a good picture better, rather than causing artifacts cause by compression and re-scaling.

Typically a PVR will set you back around £200, the cost is usually determined by the total storage space available on the device. Measured in Gigabyte, a PVR will have a Hard drive inside of it wher the video is stored.

Usually these systems have easy to access interface that let you manage the library of things recorded. This leads on to one of the downsides of the PVR and that is that the amount of storage space available is limited so depending on teh size you might find yourself deleting recording quite often.

This leads us on to DLNA - or Digital Living Network Alliance, started by Sony back in 2003. Many of the modern PVR allow you to connect it to your home network and hence to your PC or Media Storage system and stream video files over the network using DLNA, through the PVR and then onto the TV. This means you can have a real central video HUB all controlled from the remote control in your living room.