Satellite TV Digital Video Recorder (DVR)

A Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is just another name for a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) - you'll hear it called both, but DVR is much more common.

Free yourself from all of these issues!  Enjoy TV on your own schedule.  Zap out commercials!   If you don't have a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), you're missing out on the best thing to happen to TV since color was added!

I'm sure you've heard of TiVo® - they started the revolution.  They made the first DVR - and they're still the most well-known DVR - but today, there are lots of other DVR manufacturers including DIRECTV and DISH Network.

The DISH Network DVR has a 9-day programming window for you to select which shows to record.  DIRECTV's DVR has a 14-day programming window.  Most cable companies use a 7-day programming window and you can't see "into the future" as far to make your selections.

In my house, we were so bad at labeling the old VCR tapes that we could never find anything we recorded - it was frustrating at times.  Now that we have DVRs in the house (we have 3!), the old tapes are laughable and our VCRs seem prehistoric.  We moved the old VCR tapes into a big plastic bin and stuffed them in a closet - we thought we'd still watch them - now they're dusty... the VCR is dead!  DVR is the new King!  Clean digital picture & sound and a clean living room too.

Here's one more thing we started doing at home since we got DVR.  Let's say we've decided to watch American Idol as a family together and that the show comes on at 9 pm - we start watching it at 9:15 instead.  As we watch the show (it was recorded from the beginning), the DVR continues to record the show live about 15 minutes "ahead" of us.  Each time we hit a commercial break, we fast forward through it and get a little closer to being live (and synchronized with the live show).  We built in a 15 minute delay ahead of time - so we can buzz through commercials during the show.  We think commercials are a dud - they rarely entertain us and they can be annoying.   They break up the flow of the show and waste our time.  They're often loud and obnoxious.  We know they have to be there - but now with DVR we also know, that we don't have to watch them - it's our choice.  We cut the dud out.

We can watch American Idol any time we like, but we like watching it the night it's on - everyone talks about it the next day.  So we just get together a little after it starts - knowing that we've got a built-in delay that will let us fast forward through the commercials as we watch.  If the phone rings, we hit pause - and guess what's happening - we're just building in more delay - so we can skip more commercials later.  So interruptions don't bother us either - very nice!  Pausing is just building in a little more delay - no bother - it's a good thing... just like when we intentionally started watching 15 minutes late.  If the phone rings or someone goes to grab a snack - we pause, and we talk to each other (wow!) and we know pausing is very good - it's the way we kill commercials.

And if you're watching something - and THEN you decide it's worth recording - when you hit record, the last 30-60 minutes that has passed will also automatically be saved.  Let's say you were watching a baseball game or a movie and then it gets good.  With a DVR, hit record and it not only records the show going forward, but it also saves the last 30-60 minutes that you were watching.  So when surprises happen - homeruns, wardrobe malfunctions, NASCAR wrecks, half-court shots, amazing turn of events on your favorite soap opera, someone you know appears on the news - you can hit record and still record the good stuff AFTER you saw it!!!  That's cool.  Try "recording the past" with your VCR - can't do it.

With a single-tuner DVR, you can only record one channel at a time, you can't watch something else when you're recording a show (similar to using a VCR).

And with 2 tuners built-in, the DVRs also give you Picture-In-Picture (PIP).  So you can watch 2 shows at the same time and easily flip between the two.  Sports fans love PIP!  And, if you want, you can also record both shows at the same time too!

With 2 tuners, your satellite dish is receiving 2 different signals at the same time - so you need an antenna capable of receiving 2 signals at the same time - it's called a dual LNB (explained below) and the satellite companies install hundreds of them every day.  Whether you order satellite TV on the phone or over the Internet, they know when you order a DVR to get you the correct antenna configuration - no worries!

A dual LNB satellite dish is often required to DVR / record two separate satellite channels simultaneously.  Sounds high tech - not really - just means the thing-a-ma-jig that your small outdoor dish points to (the thing with the cable attached that receives the signal) has two receiving heads.  This is a very common configuration.  Many people end up getting the dual or triple LNB so they can get multiple satellite services like DVR or "HDTV also with regular TV".  By the way, LNB stands for Low Noise Block - that just means there's a built-in filter to make sure your picture and sound are crystal clear when they're received.