When Was DVR Invented?

• It is debatable whether the DVR was invented in the mid 60s or late 90s.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of David
  
  The first device to record a video signal to a spinning disk (i.e., a hard drive) in real-time actually dates back to 1965 and an experiment done by CBS. This primitive predecessor to the DVR was released commercially by Ampex in 1967 and was called the HS-100. The Ampex device was large and held only 30 seconds of video, making it seem practically useless in comparison to the DVR units of today.
  
  There is heated debate as to whether the Ampex HS-100 can truly be called the first DVR. Although the signal was recorded to a fixed, spinning disk in real-time, the signal being recorded was analog--like the signal recorded with a VCR. The idea of a digital video signal did not exist in the 60s.
  
  The first Digital Video Recorder unit was we know it was made by TiVo in 1999. It had only a 14GB hard drive and could record about 14 hours of digital video. Although it was groundbreaking at the time, this first TiVo unit held barely one-tenth of what even the most modest DVR units would hold 10 years later.
  
  

How Does a DVR Work?

• A library of old-school VHS casettes which declined in popularity with the advent of TiVo and DVR units.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Ludo
  
  While the VCR (video cassette recorder) is commonly thought of as the predecessor to modern DVR in terms of popular consumer-friendly devices, the technologies are very different. While a VCR records analog video signals to a removable media (VHS cassette) a DVR streams a high-quality digital signal to a high-speed hard drive. While a VHS tape will degrade in quality with each subsequent recording, the quality of the digital video stored on a hard drive never decreases.
  
  Rather than thinking of a Digital Video Recorder as an updated VCR, you can think of it as a small, specialized computer. Its operating system is the software that allows you to schedule and playback recordings. Its file system is designed to store, index and access long segments of digital video from the hard drive(s).
  
  

How Long Will a DVR Hard Drive Last?

• Like any other disk-intensive computer system, your DVR has the potential to eat up hard drives.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Pawel Loj
  
  As any long-time computer user knows, hard drives are suspect to failure. Especially in a unit like a DVR, where the hard drive is constantly spinning at a high rate of speed to simultaneously read and write high-volume digital video files, it's not a question of if the hard drive will eventually fail, but when.
  
  

Are DVR Recordings Portable?

• One obvious downside when comparing a Digital Video Recorder to a VCR is lack of portability. You can't simply record a movie to tape and then bring it to a friend's house to watch on their VCR. You'd have to unplug and transport the entire DVR unit, and even then you may not be able to watch your recordings at an alternate location because many DVRs are locked down to the cable or satellite provider they are rented from. This means that without an active cable signal, your recordings cannot be accessed.
  
  

How Much Does DVR Cost?

• DVR service purchased from your cable provider usually includes two separate fees per month: one for renting the DVR device and one for the service itself. Typically, the grand total runs about $10 to $20 more per month than the cost of a standard cable package.