Introduction to personal video
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV The personal video recorder is a wonderful new method of watching television without all that tedious mucking about with videotapes. Simply having one in your home will change your life.
All have features in common: they all use a built-in hard disk drive to record any programmes you select. This means you can watch a recording whilst making another ? often two.
As they faithfully record the digital signal as received (from Freeview, digital satellite or digital cable) the picture quality when watching a recording is exactly like watching live. So you get perfect paused pictures, and can fast-forward and rewind, jump forward or back at the press of a button.
The most basic box stores 20 hours of TV, so there?s no need to juggle tapes. Over 150 hours is not untypical. You can use the disk to pause a live programme - to answer the phone for example, often you can rewind too.
By using the built-in electronic programme guide it is possible to select individual programmes or entire series to record at the touch of a literal button. You can plan a week?s recording in minutes, and then watch at your convenience. If you don?t want to watch the recorded adverts you can skip these quickly and easily.
Equipped with a personal video recorder you will no longer have to make appointments to watch TV. You can start watching a recording from the moment it starts and keep them indefinitely. It is your choice.