THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY June 14, 2002 personal video recorder ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: The .tv Corporation
Save 30% on Web addresses! Not only will you get a great deal on your Web addresses, but you'll also get superior customer service, innovative products and services and a place that is easy to register and manage your Web addresses. Great names are still available. Register the names you want before someone else does! Check it out now: http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,3964,00.htm?the.tvcorporation ______________ TODAY'S WORD: personal video recorder See our definition with hyperlinks at http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci832892,00.html A personal video recorder (PVR) is an interactive TV recording device, in essence a sophisticated set-top box with recording capability (although it is not necessarily kept on top of the television set). Vendors and media also refer to the units by these names: digital video recorder (DVR); personal TV receiver (PTR); personal video station (PVS); and hard disk recorder (HDR). Like the familiar VCR, a PVR records and plays back television programs, but, unlike the VCR, it stores the programs in digital (rather than analog) form. Like a VCR, a PVR has the ability to pause, rewind, stop, or fast-forward a recorded program. Because the PVR can record a program and replay it almost immediately with a slight time lag, what seem to be live programs can be manipulated as though they were recorded programs (which they actually are). A PVR's capabilities include time marking, indexing, and non-linear editing. The PVR encodes an incoming video data stream as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 and stores it on a hard disk within a device that looks much like a VCR. Most PVRs come as part of a subscriber service that may or may not charge a monthly fee. The service enables such activities as searching for shows according to type (movies or baseball games, for example), choosing among video-on-demand (VOD) options, or doing shopping or banking. Service providers, such as TiVo and ReplayTV, may also sell PVRs. There are a number of PVRs on the market, including TiVo's DVR, SONICblue's ReplayTV, Sony's SVR-2000, and Philips' PTR. There are also products that offer similar functionality but are software-based (such as SnapStream Personal Video Station) or network-based. The Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Project is an industry consortium dedicated to the development of standards for PVRs and other digital video technologies. There are a number of controversial issues surrounding the capabilities that PVRs and similar technologies enable. For example, ReplayTV makes it possible to skip through commercials by using a 30-second "auto-skip" function. This capacity is popular with consumers, but not with advertisers. Another feature, the ability to download programming from the Internet and to send files to friends, is similarly unpopular with service providers, since it can enable a user who hasn't paid for a service (such as HBO) free access. 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Mysterious things were happening that Paul couldn't explain. Applications ran and quit on their own. Files renamed themselves and moved around. Documents were disappearing. Is there a ghost? Or could it be something even more scary? You be the judge! http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]^7@.1dcf9e64/80!viewtype=threadDate&skip=&expand= ______________________ QUIZ #27 | Security awareness for end users Studies show that a company's biggest security threat is its own employees. The SANS Institute recommends that organizations should take time to educate their employees about computer security and periodically test employees to make sure they understand the basics. To help you in your efforts to raise security awareness in your organization, we've created the following quiz: http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci826572,00.html _________________________________________________________ LESS THAN 2 WEEKS UNTIL OUR FREE SECURITY DECISIONS EVENT Time's running out to attend Security Decisions June 19-21 at the Hilton Chicago Hotel. There are still seats left but you should act now or risk being shut out. FREE attendance available at: http://www.securityconf.com/html/registration.htm Benefit from top strategies to make the most cost-effective security purchases, expert tactics to close specific security holes in your system, and the most effective ways to manage network security (without breaking the bank). Apply today! ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] subset symbol http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci831748,00.html [2] gap analysis http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci831294,00.html [3] XSD http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci831325,00.html [4] PersonalJava http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci831420,00.html [5] Resilient Packet Ring http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci754865,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Assistant Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Created by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved. 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