A lesson should have been learned through the effortless experience of pushing a button to unlock a car door.

For several months, a colleague would not shut up about how his daily TV habits had changed because of his personal video recorder (also known as a digital video recorder, depending upon your cable or satellite provider).

We knew virtually nothing about PVRs. There were constant references to something called TiVo on American television -- David Letterman regularly uses it as a verb, saying in deliberately meticulous fashion, "I TiVo'ed it, then I taped it, then I brought it in" -- but the notion remained a mystery.

TiVo, as it turns out, is slightly different technologically than PVR. Still, our colleague's words left no grey area.

"It will change your life," he promised.

Big words from a big blowhard, right?

The PVR idea didn't sound revolutionary, especially in a world where VCRs have been around for two decades. Then again, there was that car thingy from a few years back.

Prior to having an automobile with the remote-keyless-entry function, our thoughts could be summed up this way: "Just how lazy have we become as a society when the motion of putting a key into a lock is too much for us?"

But within a week, we couldn't imagine being without remote keyless entry, especially as we approached our vehicle, weighted down with ready-to-rip plastic grocery bags.

The same now is true with our new personal video recorder. And advertisers hate it, which is an added bonus.

A PVR box entered my home about a month ago and, yes, it has changed my life.

This is not a plug for any particular service provider. We won't even reveal which service we have. Suffice to say, all the big cable- and satellite-TV companies in the Greater Toronto Area -- Rogers and Bell ExpressVu being by far the most common and widespread -- offer personal video recorders in standard or high-definition form, in various packages and at various prices.

There are some condo-dwellers who will find PVR is unavailable if their TV access comes through a telephone line, but otherwise you should be good to go. And depending upon what services you already have, you probably can make the leap to PVR technology for $10 to $20 a month more than you currently are paying.



High-end TV services are not cheap. But is PVR worth it?

Usage is on the rise. Rogers and Bell ExpressVu rarely provide specific numbers, but while one study stated 4% of digital subscribers in the industry have PVRs, that strikes us as low.

Rogers claims it saw an increase of 156% -- a blend of existing and new customers -- in PVR sales in 2005. Bell ExpressVu says it doubled its PVR subscribers in 2005.

If you have a digital box, a PVR box replaces it. You will not wind up with two boxes instead of one. And if you just want to watch TV, a PVR box works the same way as a digital box.

A PVR box essentially is a little computer that can store programs for future viewing, bypassing the need to bring a VCR into the equation. You access the on-screen listings guide, and click on the program you want to save. Prompts will ask you if you want to record one episode only, or all episodes of that show which appear on this channel in this time slot. You also will be asked how long you want to save the program -- one day? Fourteen days? Or until you decide to erase it? Then you can watch the program later, fast-forwarding through the ads.

Is this significantly easier than using a VCR? Yup.

Trying to tape something with a digital box always was a royal pain in the butt. You had to program both the digital box and the VCR, and the chances were good you would end up with either the wrong show or dead air.

PVRs eliminate that confusion. And you still can save something on a VHS tape, or whatever burning device you have.

Say you're a big fan of Green Day and they're going to be appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. No longer do you have to wait up to tape it, or try to set your VCR to record the appropriate five minutes when Green Day might be performing, or put the whole show on tape and have to deal with Leno's inane banter. You simply push a button and store the Leno show in your PVR box. Then, at your leisure, you can access it and fast-forward to Green Day's song. If they play one of your favourites and you want to record it on a VHS tape, you can do it then and there.

You also could keep that whole Leno show on your PVR box forever, but each box has a memory limit -- 40 or 60 or 80 hours -- so you'll have to exercise some discipline.

And if you start watching a show that you've saved in your PVR box and don't like it? Click. Gone. It's erased.

PVR boxes also allow you to pause live TV and then pick up the program where it was at the exact moment when you had to check if the potatoes were boiling.

If you've used a digital box before, a PVR box will be a piece of cake. However, we can't imagine what it would be like to learn how to use it without any digital-box experience. If the numbers on your Betamax machine still are flashing "12:00," you'll want to invite a buddy over to help you with this sucker.

No technology is without its glitches and there are some PVR idiosyncrasies to navigate. The convenience of PVRs is based on the accuracy of TV listings. If networks change their schedules, or if something happens that causes programming to run late, the end of your favourite program could be cut off unless you've anticipated the potential delay.

NFL games virtually always go longer than three hours. Any experienced NFL-watcher knows this. And yet, the digital on-screen listings dedicate three-hour blocks for NFL games.

The good news is, it takes two seconds to click a button so you'll be saving the show that comes on after the NFL game, too, which should allow for over-runs. The bad news is, you have to remember to do this. It's a part of the process that definitely needs to be refined in the future.

If you're pondering a PVR, the decision to rent or buy a box always is a tough one. The advantage of buying is it's a one-time cost. The advantage or renting is, while it may cost more in the long run, if anything goes wrong you can take it back at any given moment and demand a new one.

Case in point, the first PVR box we rented did not function properly and had to be returned. Then again, if you purchase a box and find out instantly that it's faulty, undoubtedly you will be able to return it, provided you didn't buy it from a guy whose "showroom" is in the back of a van.

This all may seem overwhelming. But if you're willing to give it a try, a PVR might have you looking forward to watching TV again, rather than settling in and quickly becoming furious.

If you use it wisely, there always will be something to watch that interests you. You say there's nothing good on TV? Bull.

Every once in a while a product or service emerges -- like microwave ovens in the 1970s, VCRs in the 1980s or the Internet in the 1990s -- that prompts a paradigm shift.

And just for the record, when we picked up our new PVR box and carried it back to the car, we pressed a button to unlock the door. No fumbling with keys. Click. Open.

These truly are the best of times.


http://jam.canoe.ca/Television/2006/01/07/1383715.html