Of course, the DVR is popular because it's not tied down by content windows, so as long as streaming content has a shelf life out of our control, the DVR is a necessary evil.
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Samsung's free DDNS service also ensures that dynamic IP addresses assigned by the user's ISP are recorded and updated accordingly so that the web portal can make the connection for those who wish to access the DVR from a location outside their network.
All three perform the same basic function -- they let you stream TV from your cable box (digital or analog), satellite receiver, or DVR to a computer or mobile device -- it's just that each is aimed at different segments of the market.
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The demo at the at CES's bloggers lounge included all four screens with a Samsung Blu-ray player's app delivering both traditional live TV, DVR'd content and video-on-demand -- in this case the DVR content was being streamed from a FiOS DVR, but the device could have internal storage.
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Once the app model takes hold, some people will start playing with their content options at a level of granularity that will make the DVR look like a blunt instrument.
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Starting last month, customers who order EchoStar satellite TV service can get--free--a DVR with 100 hours of storage (120 gigabytes) and a "30-second skip" button expressly designed for ad-zapping.
On a TiVo DVR, if you tune to a show that is currently being recorded, the buffer is available for you to rewind to the beginning of the show.
There are significant economies of scale in using a few giant servers to hold subscribers' videos, and Moffett thinks the cable companies will expand their DVR offerings over a number of years.
With SmartView, users will be able to access multiple DVR systems from a single user interface.
Boxee also includes a DVR service that allows users to record unlimited TV shows to the cloud.
NextGuide also gives DIRECTV customers with a DVR the ability to initiate recordings onto their home DVR for timeshifted viewing.
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In a lot of ways, a DVR is much more disruptive than the Slingbox, because the DVR empowers consumers to skip commercials.
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And for the brands, it is a DVR-proof way of getting their message across and associating their name with an established franchise.
For customers lucky enough to already have a DVR box, the expense of new equipment has generally blocked upgrades to bigger, more powerful devices.
According to a new Nielsen report, over a third of all U.S. households now have a DVR, making it possible to time shift viewing.
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Comcast, the biggest cabler, now has 6.7 million digital subscribers and says all will be able to get a DVR box by early next year.
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According to Parks Associates, 40 percent of U.S. broadband households and 38 percent of Western European broadband households have a DVR (Parks Associates: The Consumer Perspective 2009).
Reasonable people reasonably used a DVR, but Sunday's 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 epic, won by Djokovic over Nadal, wasn't designed to be breezed over via remote control.
The comparison between getting shows via iTunes versus, say, a DVR is something that Switched On has addressed previously, and another Engadget column even ran the numbers.
Using the same basic technology that your computer uses, IP cameras take their own IP addresses and stream video directly onto a network without connecting to a DVR or control platform.
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They do re-broadcast the episode so you have an opportunity to catch the fourth episode later on, you can watch it later online, 45% of homes have a DVR so it can be recorded.
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The gateway allows cable operators to offer their subscribers new features and services such as streaming of live linear television to IP connected devices, whole-home DVR, and a remote user interface on an RDK-compliant platform.
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The other potential crack in the cable armor: Apple could put a broadcast tuner inside an Apple TV, of course, while offering a way for broadcast network shows to be recorded in iCloud, like a DVR in the sky.
When Apple first released details about what is now called Apple TV, I wrote that it would create a DVR dilemma for the Cupertino company, one that it decided by bypassing DVR functionality (at least for now).
Share and Save Video: DVR subscribers see a graphical timeline of events with thumbnails, so they can capture and save key moments from the family dog's latest trick to the baby standing up in her crib using My Clips.
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Early last week a security researcher who goes by the name someLuser published a blog post detailing his dissection of a DVR built by the security firm Swann, disassembling the device and running tests on it via its serial port.
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While we can imagine the list of restrictions on this streaming gig are quite lengthy, the company has stated that it will support "DVR-to-PC connectivity, " thus enabling DVR viewing on a networked PC, though there's no mention of supporting wirelessly connected computers a la Slingbox.
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