It took the tiny firm TiVo to popularize digital video recorders three years ago.
Brits are also the most likely to watch TV-on-demand and use digital video recorders, the report suggests.
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They are ideal when used inside large devices such as desktop PCs, digital video recorders and servers.
Plus: videocassette players, portable video recorders, the now-ubiquitous Walkman and 3.5-inch floppy disk drives, launched in 1980.
Advertising veers up and down with the economic cycle, and can be skipped by using digital video recorders.
This digital wave started with a trickle called TiVo, one of the first computer-hard-drive-based digital video recorders (DVRs).
New services like digital cable, high-definition TV, video-on-demand, and digital video recorders are proving extremely popular with customers.
In other countries digital video recorders and other technologies are add-ons to pay-TV packages stuffed with desired content.
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Stone Age man did not have the 'threat' of programmable video recorders, horrible bosses or 'customer service' helplines.
But as well as buying digtal TVs or set-top boxes, viewers would eventually need new video recorders as well.
The majority, not to mention video recorders, are still likely to be analogue.
Some industry-watchers think this could turn into a struggle like that between the Betamax and VHS formats for video recorders.
Products for consumer electronics include various HDDs designed for digital video recorders, set-top boxes, karaoke machines, printers and gaming consoles.
To demonstrate the potential, the company developed a "police car of the future" decked out with cameras, modems and digital video recorders.
But Digital Video Recorders really exploded the practice this past decade, with nearly half of all viewers having access to it now.
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The only video recorders at the time were huge Ampex reel-to-reel machines used by television stations to rebroadcast live shows in later time zones.
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But new technologies like digital video recorders, TiVo, digital cable and Web-based television are shifting the balance of power from traditional broadcasters to consumers.
In a society dominated by smart phones, iPads, social media and digital video recorders, sports information is instantaneous and delivered in a concise package.
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Gaspin frets about the growing use of digital video recorders that squelch ads and the use of computers rather than cable networks to watch TV.
In an era of ubiquitous video recorders and instant access to a global audience via YouTube and Facebook, privacy seems to be a shrinking right.
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Demand is also being driven by the proliferation of portable consumer electronic devices such as music players, digital cameras, video recorders, and handheld gaming consoles.
Digital video recorders have revolutionized home and business security, making it possible to easily store and play back hundreds of hours of surveillance camera footage.
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As for video-on-demand, News Corporation plans to store as many popular television shows and movies as it can on digital video recorders for instant playback.
Video recorders, central heating and air conditioning controls could be affected.
The proliferation of digital video recorders (DVRs), now in more than 30% of households, has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped.
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The result will be a product that avoids many setup foibles and complexities of digital video recorders while allowing use of the increasingly versatile streamlined Apple Remote.
They are offering digital video recorders that allow subscribers to pause and rewind live programmes and record an entire series with a single click of the remote control.
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Among his suggestions: a 72-hour embargo on juicy details starting after a TV episode airs live, allowing viewers to catch up via digital video recorders and other technology.
But the appeals court disagreed, saying the technology was more equivalent to the video recorders upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in its precedent-setting Betamax case in 1982.
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However, as newer video recorders are likely to include digital capability, this should only affect people with a machine that is several years old when the switch over occurs.
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