TiVo isn’t your father’s DVR

Q: What’s the difference between a DVR and TiVo? Are they the same thing?

A: In the most basic way a digital video recorder, or DVR, and TiVo are exactly the same thing. Both record television programs and store them digitally on a hard drive. But in this techie’s opinion, that’s where the similarities end.

TiVo is like a super DVR with features that go way beyond recording television programs. For example, with TiVo you can schedule a program on your TiVo over the Internet while you are away from your house. You can also transfer or stream a television show recorded on one TiVo to another TiVo, useful if you recording something in the living room but want to watch it in the bedroom or vice-versa.

TiVo also has a service called TiVoToGo that allows you to transfer your recorded television programs to portable video devices such as your iPod.

So why doesn’t everyone have TiVo? Unfortunately, most cable and satellite providers quickly realized the potential revenue stream from DVR technology and decided to create their own brand of DVR rather than licensing TiVo’s technology. And although the proprietary DVRs from the cable and satellite companies aren’t nearly as feature-friendly as a TiVo, the price is hard to beat. While TiVo can run up to $15 per month on top of the few hundred dollars needed to purchase the TiVo unit, most cable and satellite providers will include their DVR and DVR service for free or at a greatly discounted rate.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, June 15, 2007 on Tech Talk with Noobie, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday between 11:30 a.m. and noon. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .