Networked Digital Video Recorders and Social Networks

Digital video recorders (DVR) are getting connected to the Internet. There are several ways to engineer networked DVRs. Consumers can store the recordings at home or to remote cloud storage service. The recorder software can be implemented to respond to consumers´ or rights owners´ needs. The most common DVRs have been home based recorders that respect at least some of the rights owners´ interests. However, the cloud model is developing traction as broadband becomes more common. The new technology changes markets and courts have to define the limits of place and time shifting. Networked DVRs open a door for social enrichment by viewer communities, but also threaten the whole business model of advertisement-based television. Networked DVRs can potentially change the centrally controlled broadcast economics of television into decentralized Internet economics.