Clark Howard's Tips

Network DVR -- with no hardware -- coming in 2009

Sept. 24, 2008

Back in the 1990s, Clark told you about a company called Replay TV that changed TV as we know it. The service allowed you to use a computer hard-drive to record TV and watch it as you wished. Replay TV was soon eclipsed by TiVo. Now TiVo faces its own threat from a new technology that could be a boon to cable providers.

Cablevision is the first provider eyeing the launch of network DVR capability in early 2009.

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You'll be able to watch something and just decide to record it -- without TiVo or an actual DVR. Cablevision will allow customers to store content on their servers -- no hardware to buy, nothing to break, you just pay them a monthly fee. It's cheaper to store what you want on a mainframe than for everyone to have their own individual machine.

Meanwhile, Clark also wants to let you know about the poor man's DVR -- which is any inexpensive computer that has a built-in DVR. When you want to watch what you've recorded, just hook your computer up to a TV or watch it on the computer itself. No monthly fees!

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