Letting everyone watch whatever they want, whenever they want
Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or Personal Video Recorder (PVR) technology has profoundly changed the way viewers around the world enjoy broadcast payTV. It allows broadcast content to be recorded and replayed at leisure, using hard disk storage integrated into the set-top box.
In 2002, we launched the UK's first digital terrestrial DVR, with the facility to record, pause, rewind and replay live TV. Its twin digital tuners allowed users to watch two programmes independently on separate TVs, or record one programme while watching another.
Over the following years, Pace set-top boxes were chosen by payTV operators to launch DVR services in Scandinavia, New Zealand, Italy, Africa, Scandinavia, Australia, Latin America and the USA. From 2005 onwards, operators could offer their users the opportunity to record and replay HD TV using Pace technology.
We helped Argentina Cablevision, Latin America’s largest cable operator, launch the most advanced digital TV service in the region in 2009. MAX offers HD DVR, a huge range of TV and radio channels, gaming, pay-per-view and premium channels, all delivered through an advanced electronic programme guide (EPG). A 250GB hard drive supports 70 hours’ HD recording (150 hours in standard definition).
The Philips HDT8520, designed by Pace and launched in 2010, was the first Freeview+ HD DVR to be available in the UK and the only device that allowed UK viewers to record 2010 World Cup in HD without a payTV subscription. It features a 500GB hard drive and two tuners.
In 2009, we revealed our Home Content Sharing (HCS) multiroom DVR solution, which uses centralised storage to connect multiple HD set-top boxes within the home. This ground-breaking technology, developed in partnership with Rovi, delivers full dual-tuner HD-DVR functionality to each connected TV in the home. A single Network Attached Storage (NAS) device can distribute up to nine simultaneous HD streams throughout the home. Users can pause and rewind live TV while recording up to six HD programmes simultaneously – an industry first.
In the future, we believe that this type of multiroom service will become the norm, so all TVs and all IP-connected devices in the user’s home can access the content stored on a central DVR device.