Technofile Mike ButcherThis week a tiny shiver ran through the media world and it's all down to what many view as the future of the TV - the personal video recorder.
PVRs, as they are known, are basically computers designed to do one thing - record television programmes. With a hard disk plugged into the set, a PVR can do anything from just record, to pause live TV, rewind and, like a video recorder, switch to another channel while you are recording. The more sophisticated versions even start to learn what you like to watch.
But the killer application for PVRs is that you can fast-forward through the adverts. "Not so amazing," you say. "I can do that with my video recorder."
Ah, but your video recorder will run out of tape - a PVR never runs out of space. If it fills its hard disk after the average 20 hours, it just goes back to the beginning and starts again. In fact, many PVR owners never bother to watch live TV - they simple watch what the PVR is recording, so they never miss a show.
But the shadow cast across the media world this week was this: PVR owners just don't bother with adverts. And it's the adverts which fund 99 per cent of TV programmes.
Of 20 households placed with a Sky+ or Freeview-enabled PVR and monitored, every single one of them fast-forwarded the advertising while watching recorded programming.
The study, carried out by advertising agency Mediaedge:cia, found that only programmes with sponsorship messages either side of the ad-break stopped this, as these acted as a signal to the viewer to hit the play button again.
The news is interesting, because it's PVRs which are increasingly going to become a must-have item in the digital home.
One of the key players in this market is a company called Humax. It sells the PVR-8000 range of PVRs, which are especially of interest since they have a Freeview digital decoder built into them.
Like VCRs, Humax PVRs offer weekly/daily recording facilities, but can also be updated with software sent "over the air" to the boxes.
The PVR-8000T is a shiny box that will comfortably sit in a VCR shelf. Measuring the standard 17 inches wide, the unit features a digital LED display. Relevant menu and option buttons are on the front, making life simple if you happen to lose the remote. The fan, however, is a tad noisy, making it slightly off-putting during a film.
However, Humax is promising a new 9000 range later this year. The 8000 range currently only has one tuner so, unlike a VCR, you cannot watch one channel and record another. Using it in continual recording mode means that as soon as you switch channels, the automatic cache of recorded TV is lost and you cannot go back to it.
It is a common issue with PVRs and consumers would do well to check not only how big the hard disk is (anything below 40GB, equivalent to 20 hours recording time, is too small) and how many tuners the box has.
But you may not actually need to go out an buy a PVR as it may be offered by your TV provider. For instance, cable companies are getting in on the act.
UK cable firm Telewest is about to bring out a rival to the Sky+ PVR which will integrate with the programme guide. No more fiddling about with dates and times - this will record your shows very easily.
Featuring three digital TV tuners, the box will allow subscribers to record three programmes at the same time, or to record two programmes while watching a third one live.
But who benefits out of PVRs? For a start, you do. No more adverts to wade through. And you catch only what you want to, not what happens to be on at the time. Satellite and cable firms which depend on subscription revenues also benefit.
But the broadcasters who sell advertising around the programmes and the programme makers themselves have a big problem on their hands. No viewers of their adverts means potentially less funding for programmes.
The whip hand will fall to the subscription TV services, not the broadcasters of free programming. We could enter a world where we can record anything we like, but badly funded shows means nothing is worth watching.
All down to a little box attached to your TV.
