The Best Features on My DVR

Of all the innovations we as humans have come up with in the last 50 years, none have become as ubiquitous in day to day life as the DVR. Video recorders have become almost a necessity in lots of households, and DVR's, the digital version of these, took less than 10 years to totally replace almost every VCR in the world. The reasons for this are varied, but the fact remains, people love their DVR's!

DVR's have freed us from a lot of the problems that plagued the old video cassette recorders. The most notable of which is the quality of the recording itself. While both formats do allow you to record live TV, the VCR stored those recordings on polyester film coated with iron oxides. The iron oxide held the magnetic recording, but could be affected by a lot of things which meant that the quality of the recording was never as good as what you originally saw on TV. From humidity making the tape stick together and to the heads in the VCR, stray magnetic fields that could erase whole sections of tape to the fact that every time you played a cassette, some of the iron oxide would wear away making the tape and whatever was recorded on it virtually unusable after 30 or 40 plays. And each tape could hold, at best, 8 hours of TV, meaning everyone with a VCR had dozens and dozens of tapes lying around.

DVR's eliminated all that with one simple box. By using a hard drive inside the recorder, not only do DVR's eliminate all the hassles associated with keeping track of all your tapes, but it also eliminates the quality issues as well. By storing the TV shows in a digital format on a metal platter in the hard drive, even after thousands of plays, the quality of the recording is just as clear and sharp as it was the day it was originally recorded. And these hard drives can store hundreds of hours of programming, meaning you never have to worry about running out of space. Going through and cleaning out old shows and movies we no longer watch ensures we've got plenty of room on the DVR for new stuff.

And as if that wasn't enough, there are other features that VCR's simply can't touch. For instance, the ability to pause live TV while you answer the phone or take a bathroom break is invaluable. The DVR records the continuing TV stream while you're away, then when you continue play, you pick up right where you left off, just like you can with a VCR tape, but this is live TV. That means you can pause a basketball or football game, take care of what you need to, come back and won't have missed a single play. Not only that, but if there's a spectacular catch or a fantastic finish to a race, you can actually rewind live TV and watch the play over and over! Even in slow or even stop motion so you can get the satisfaction of seeing the play or finish in all its glory.

DVR's not only took the place of VCR's, but did so in grand style. Life without a DVR just isn't the same.

About the Author

After a long week on the road, Johney Maron enjoys relaxing at home. When he isn't playing golf or out on his boat, he enjoys watching TV. DISH Network's digital TV recorder (DVR) allows him to catch up on all of his favorite shows he missed while traveling. DISH Network has an incredible movie channel package as well as the best sports and premium TV channels available.

Author (Johney Maron33). Submitted on Mon, 10 May 2010 Time: 9:48 PM

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