Monday, July 16, 2007

1997: first DVR

While TiVo is a brand name that has become a verb, and is an extremely popular brand of digital video recorder (DVR) it was not the first.

ReplayTV claims to be the inventor of DVR technology, developing the first ReplayTV DVR in 1997

Both ReplayTV and TiVo, were launched at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Although ReplayTV won the "Best of Show" award in the video category, it was TiVo that went on to much greater commercial success. ReplayTV claims to be the leader in features and performance. TiVo disagrees. ReplayTV also sells DVR-like software for TVs.

Panasonic briefly sold a ReplayTV box with their own brand and "ShowStopper" label. It came with a lifetime subscription that avoided the monthly fee. They are now available for as little as $50 on eBay, but recording time is much less than on newer DVRs.

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