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The personal video recorder (or PVR) is a consumer electronics device that records television
shows to a hard disk in digital format.
This makes the "time shifting" feature (traditionally done by a
VCR) much more convenient, and also allows for "trick modes" such as pausing live TV,
instant replay of interesting
scenes, and skipping advertising. Most PVR recorders use the MPEG format for encoding analog video signals.
The most popular PVRs on the market are TiVo's TiVo and DNNA's ReplayTV. Many satellite and cable companies are incorporating PVR functions into their set-top box, such as with DirecTivo. In this case there is no encoding necessary in the PVR, as the satellite
signal is already a digitally encoded MPEG stream. The PVR simply stores the digital stream directly to disk.
Upcoming entrants into the market include products such as Digeo's Moxi, and Microsoft's Media Center.
In 2003, the Yakima,
Washington Police Department began using PVRs in their patrol cars to record the
activities of officers and suspects. Since then, many other police departments have followed suit, due to the increased
reliability and decreased cost compared to analog video systems.
There are ways to make one's own PVR using software and hardware available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems. There are even people working on turning the Xbox
into a PVR with a modchip.
See also: Hard disk recorder and DVR
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