DVR advantages.
DVR offer several important advantages over a VCR or DVD recorder. One is their ability to pause live video; another is that they can “rewind” live video to create an instant replay on demand. Most DVRs offer some type of one-button “skip ahead” function that’s conveniently timed to coincide with the length of a typical TV commercial, 30 seconds.
DVRs also can store much more video than either a VHS tape or a recordable DVD. The new TiVo HD XL (*Est. $600), for example, can hold almost 1,360 hours of standard-definition programming, or 150 hours of high-definition programming. The biggest drawback to DVRs is that archiving and sharing video is more difficult, though all let you output to a VCR or DVD recorder, and some will let you download video to an external hard drive.