Opening thoughts...

DVRs (Digital Video recorders also known as PVRs) have been the evolution of the highly successful video cassette recorders from the 1980s. A time when different tape formats existed including VHS, Beta, Video2000 and others all supported by different manufactuers and tape suppliers! Many of those brands are hard to find today: BASF, TDK being just two of many that if you had a video tape collection in your home , odds are you had tapes such as T-120, E-180 all the way up to an E-300 that offered at mosy 8 hours of recording time.

VCRs came with or without analogue tuners and menung systems that allowed you to record a show from your over the air antenna or your cable-TV RF signal.

By the early 2000's the tape gave way to the digital hard drive and VCRs became DVRs with superior picture quality and often integrated EPGs (electronic programme guides) such as the very popular Online TVGuide (great article from NYT in 2008) that was integrated into North American models such as the Panasonic DMR series.

photo source: wikipedia

One popular model we will refer to in comparing the MDR 537H/f7 will be to the Panasonic DMR-E55 from 2004 (!).

Then the next major consumer electronics shift happened with the introuction oif the Tivo subscription recorder (Personal Video recorder) that shook up the DVR market by offering more flexibility for the consumer. Many DVRs even allowed users to archive their content to DVDs or record directly to DVD.

back of a Tivo: source Wikipedia

The Tivo did not go unnoticed by the Cable-TV and Satellite content providing companies and their hardware suppliers, such as Motorola, who created customized devices for cable or saetllite companies such as the ShawDirect PVDVR series which is sold in Canada.

 

below: ShawDirectPVR

Consumers shifted enmasse from VCRs to PVRs and in most North American markets the DVR became increasngly difficult to find between 2008 and the present.  Brands such as Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer and Panasonic left the North American DVR market altogether.

In Europe, Panasonic is still selling the latest versions of their DMR series through big box stores such as saturn.de but these models featuring characteristics such as Blu ray recording capability which will never see the light of day in Noth America.

So what is available as a reliable DVR for "joe consumer" who does not wish to go to the subscription PVR route advocated by cable and satellite companies in what has become a 'niche' consumer market?

Unfortunately very little is available, in fact if you go to a Walmart or BestBuy in Canada you are effectively out of luck. You may still find a DVD recorder but none with a NTSC or  ATSC or QAM tuner allowing you to record over the air  broadcast TV. Americans have one option still available to them thanks to Walmarts strategic japanese supplier: Funai who sells three different DVRs in the USA under the 'Magnavox' nameplate: the MDR 5 series equiped with hard drives (HDD), writeable DVD drives and both Analog and Digital TV tuners.

Starting tomorrow we'll discuss the MDR 537H/f7 DVR with its integrated 1 TB hard drive!

Stay tuned!

Looking for a DVR?

Over the next couple of days we'll be posting a series of articles on our experiences with the
Magnavox/Funai MDR 537H/f7 DVR  which is available from Walmart USA.

We'll discuss issues such as:

Features...

• Comparison to Panasonic DMR 55 series  (from 2004 (!))
• Importing to Canada (what to expect at the border)
• HDD to DVD archiving ('dubbing")
• DTV tuner
• Logitech Harmony remotes
• Slingbox support

Bookmark this page and come back over the next two weeks as we post our experiences with this unit!