CONTENTS
1
BROADCAST VIDEO RECORDING
2 DOMESTIC VIDEO RECORDING
(ANALOGUE)
3 DOMESTIC VIDEO RECORDING
(DIGITAL)
1999 saw the beginning of two systems which would displace video
tape recording.
DVDs - CD-sized disks which could contain
an entire film in high quality - were already becoming popular
as a replacement for rented or bought videocassettes: now
with the advent of recordable DVDs it became possible to make
machines which could record directly onto them. The method could
handle an hour at top quality, or more if you were prepared to
accept reduced quality: the disks could be either record-once,
or could be wiped (originally in their entirety, not partially)
for re-use.
As so often there were two competing formats, DVD-R
and DVD+R. Early machines often combined the recorder with a VHS
mechanism; later machines replaced this with the other major
development, a hard disk recorder.
Hard disks had of course been in use in computers for some
years, providing large amounts of storage, and, importantly,
immediate access to any part of it. Video could be converted to
a digital format, and so could be stored on a hard disk (and for
broadcasters provided an easy method of editing).
The first
consumer product to make use of this technique was '
Tivo'
(left), first available in 1999. It could record analogue
transmissions, digitizing them to store them on an internal hard
disk; rather than program it manually you could download a
programme listing at intervals over a phone line, and choose
programmes to record from a list - the 'programme guide'. The
machine could also use information included with the list to
record programmes it thought you would like, based on your
previous viewing habits.
Hard disk recording of video is convenient because you don't
have to rewind it, nor locate the tape it's on in order to play
it (people were always losing tapes, or recording over them by
accident): you selected your programme from a list. Obviously
this method was suitable for watching a programme at a later
time (the expression 'time-shifting' didn't catch on until
later) but not for keeping programmes permanently, since if you
did that your hard disk would soon fill up.
Tivo aquired a small but enthusiastic fan base, but was ahead of
its time, and most people were having enough difficulty
understanding video recorders - it was fairly popular in the USA
but never really caught on in the UK and eventually disappeared
(though the technology has returned in Virgin Cable TV's new
PVR).
JVC
produced
a combined S-VHS and hard disk recorder, the
HM-HDS4, (top of the 'tower', right -
photo taken in 2010), which could record from its own analogue
tuner or through SCART sockets from an external analogue source;
programming had to be done manually. The 40GB hard disk could
hold 20 hours of high-quality video (or 6 hours of DV at very
high quality video) or you could extend to 28, 56 or 80 hours by
accepting a reduction in quality (though the 8o-hour version was
equivalent to not very good VHS).
However the real value of hard disk recorders, by now called '
PVRs' (Personal Video Recorders) came with
digital TV broadcasts. When
Sky's analogue satellite service converted
to digital (which takes up less bandwidth and so allows many
more channels) they developed their '
Sky+'
recorder (third down in the 'tower', right). Equipped initially
with a 40GB hard disk, expanded for later versions, it recorded
the digital signal directly onto the disk, decoding it on
playback: this meant that the played-back picture was
exactly the same quality as
the original transmission.
Programming
was done by using information transmitted by the satellite and
displayed by the box as an '
EPG' (Electronic Programme Guide) (left).
All you had to do was select your programme using the
left/right/up/down buttons on your remote control, press the
record button, and it would be recorded and available from a
list for you to play back. You could watch one programme and
record one on a different channel, or record two programmes at
once. You could be recording a programme and start watching it
while it was still being recorded. Again, it was only really
suitable for time-shifting, but as this was the principal use
for video recorders it provided a much improved way of doing
this. Take-up was initially slow, partly because all Sky's
programming requires a subscription, but it now has a very large
user base. It's expanded its facilities in the new 'Sky Q' box
to include Ultra High Definnition ('4k') and wireless multiroom.
A competitor to Sky came in the form of '
Digital Terrestrial Television' (DTT),
broadcasting groups of stations on frequencies in the same band
as analogue TV transmissions. Initially marketed as '
ONdigital'
and later 'ITV Digital', and requiring a subscription for all
but the basic five analogue channels, it failed as a business
model in 2002 and was replaced by '
Freeview', a consortium providing a
selection of free-to-air channels (a few pay channels were added
later by other companies).
The
following year satellite receiver firm Pace produced the first
Freeview PVR, the 'Twin' (right), so called because it had two
tuners, meaning that as with Sky+ you could watch one channel
and record another. The quality, again was as broadcast (which
was variable but could be extremely good): the 20GB held 10
hours of programmes. It did suffer from several bugs - picture
freezing and jumping, and occasionally crashing - which were
later improved but never entirely ironed out before Pace
withdrew it, and 10 hours isn't really very much storage; but it
did set the standard for the range of PVRs which came after it.
One of the most successful was the
Humax
range (the 9200T is at the bottom of the 'tower', above): hard
disk space was increased to 80GB and in later
standard-definition models up to a massive 320GB - 160 hours.
Panasonic and other firms have produced combined hard disk and
recordable DVD models with Freeview tuners - the hard disk for
time-shifting, which you can copy to DVD if you want to keep the
programme.
The PVR has all but replaced tape: very few VCRs are now
available and a less-technophobic public has embraced the system
with its high flexibility and easy use. Advertisers suddenly
woke up to the fact that it was easy to skip the commercials and
tried demanding to have the scan speed reduced (one US senator
attempted to get skipping the adverts declared illegal) - though
of course people had already been doing this with VCRs for 25
years!
The latest developments are
High
Definition Television - vastly improved picture quality
available on Blu-Ray disks, and on satellite - and '
Ultra High Definition' ('4k'): Sky updated
its Sky+ and then Sky Q to record the increasing number of HD
and UHD channels it provided (and of course they can only be
recorded on a hard disk - at least until Blu-Ray recorders
become readily available) and the Freeview concept was extended
to '
Freesat' - free-to air satellite stations
including some High-Definition channels. High-Definition DTT
(Freeview) has also become available, albeit with only a few
channels because of the limited bandwidth available, together
with PVRs to record it (the extra space needed has led to the
use of disks up to 2 terabytes); and following the success of
3-D in the cinema (stunningly achieved with 3-D televisions
became available (with satellite transmissions available from
Sky), though the technology hasn't even begun to settle down
yet: there are competing methods of achieving the effect,
relatively little to watch, a tendency to produce 'ghosting'
(faint extra images caused by one eye picking up information
intended for the other eye), and still a requirement to wear
(expensive) glasses which is likely to put a lot of prospective
purchasers off (as are concerns which have been raised about
induced nausea in some people, and possible damage to young
childrens' eyesight): and indeed most recent televisions have
abandoned it.
However by end of the second decade of the 21st century the
dominance of the PVR was increasingly challenged by streaming -
films and TV programmes accessed over the internet, and for the
most part watched without downloading a copy to keep or 'rent'
(keep for a short period). though this facility was also
available from some providers. Netflix, Apple's iTunes and
Apple+, Disney+, Sky's 'Now TV', Amazon Prime Video, and a
number of others provided a huge range of films and TV series,
while the BBC iPlayer and services from ITV and Channel 4
provided 'catch-up' on programmes which had first been
transmitted conventionally. A good internet connection is
required, so it's not suitable for all customers, and most come
at a noticeable cost: so there is still some, though
diminishing, demand for ditigal PVRs.
The advent of easy home video recording, together with the
larger number of channels now available. and the increasing
availability of online viewings at your own choice of time, have
had a considerable effect on the demograpics of television
viewing. Though the audience is large, it is fragmented: the
days when an episode of (for example)
Quatermass could empty the pubs for
half-an-hour, everyone saw it at the same time, and it was a
major topic of conversation the next day, are long gone: viewing
has become a much more individual experience.
It's all a long way from the black-and-white 14 inch live-only
television I grew up with.