A Little Home Tech - The PVR

As I have stated previously, I loves me some technology, thus I thought it prudent to cover some of the pieces of technology I use at home in my everyday life. It goes without saying that I have a few computers at home, seven currently in use to be exact, as well as a host of other pieces of technology such as a television, microwave, etc. These are all things I think most people own (ok, maybe not seven computers) or at the very least use daily, and have become an integral part of a lot of people's lives, so it would be a waste of time to talk about these things. Instead, there are a number of "systems" that have become just as integrated into my life, as a television is integrated into the lives of others.

The first is my home PVR system. By now most people have at least heard of the mass market DVR systems available, and a good majority likely owns one flavor or another of the devices. DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder and does exactly what the name implies. It records television shows onto digital media (hard drives, RAM drives, etc) for later viewing, much as the VCR of days gone by did on tape; and for many people these devices have become an integral part of daily life, allowing viewing of television broadcasts at your leisure as opposed to on a set schedule.

Hopefully you noticed that I referred to my home PVR system above and not a DVR system. The difference overall really is a small one in the grand scheme of recording and watching television and mostly entails the PVR being a system running on an actual personal computer, as opposed to a prefabricated hardware device. What that difference means for me, however, is customizations.

While a typical DVR system is capable of recording one or two television broadcasts at a time, the system I am running is currently setup to record five simultaneous broadcasts (and I can add more if need be). A bit extreme one might think, but considering that the past fall television primetime lineup for Tuesday night had 90% of the television shows I watch, all aired around the same time, I would have missed several of the shows with a typical DVR package. On nights such as those, the system will usually be recording four television shows over the course of two hours, with a slight overlap on each recording schedule to allow for early and late starts so as to not miss the beginning or end.

Mostly on the recommendation of my friend, Anthony, but after almost no research, just a trial, I chose SageTV for my PVR system. I know, it is so unlike me to not do much in the way of research, but I was hooked after the trial because of, above all else, the customizations. And not just customizable options created by SageTV the company, but rather the whole host of options and add-ons (most of which are free) created and supported by the SageTV user community.

Aside from recording a few television shows, SageTV is a complete multimedia package; allowing playback of DVDs, music libraries, online content, and, my favorite feature, a personal video library. All at the click of a few remote control buttons. There have been a few hiccups along the road of setting up, tweaking and upgrading my system; some more frustrating than others, but it is well worth the effort when I can pick one of my many movies to watch without having to get up from the couch and search through the stacks of DVDs I own. The ability to watch the BBC television show The IT Crowd through the online content is just one huge added bonus, as was watching my television lineup from a laptop during trips out of state.

All and all, SageTV has definitely won me over, and I hope beyond hope that it will be able to maintain with the eventual switch to encrypted digital broadcasts by the cable companies (search for "cablelabs" and "OCUR" off Google if you want to know what the heck I am talking about). Only time will tell on that front, but until then I will continue to rejoice in my PVR system.