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No matter how you look at it, the simple fact of the matter is that the common household Video Cassette Recorder, or VCR, is based on technology that is now over 20 years old. 20 years. During that time we've seen the introductions of Compact Discs, Digital Audio Tape, 8mm Tape, Digital Versatile Discs, Digital Compact Cassettes, MiniDiscs, and other audio/video media formats that promised to revolutionize our entertainment experience.

Some have succeeded, some have failed, and some are still too new to the marketplace to be judged appropriately, but the venerable VCR is still the dominant force in the living room in terms of consumer electronics products. Help is on the way however, as those who are weary of the low quality and lack of interactivity that all current VCRs suffer from, finally have an alternative for recording their favorite television/cable/satellite content: The PDR, or Personal Digital Recorder.

Personal Digital Recorders are gaining support from large consumer electronics giants like Sony and Panasonic, and are currently offered to North American consumers from two companies: ReplayTV Inc., and Philips/Tivo. Unlike normal VHS tape-using VCRs, personal digital recorders eschew the use of any traditional recording media, and instead utilize internal PC hard drives to record video and audio signals from the user's broadcast/cable/satellite sources. In fact, all of the PDRs currently on the market, including the ReplayTV 2020 we're reviewing today, have no buttons of other switches on the front of their faces. They're literally just sleek black boxes with a single "Power" button. Later you'll find out that the 2020 is so simple, a power button is all the unit needs....

Compression software is used to reduce the size of the recorded video data on the fly (MPEG-2 is the popular choice among current PDRs) and included internal modems dial out daily to receive updated TV programming and content guides, making program recording as easy as a single button press on the remote.

The PDR we're evaluating today is manufactured and sold by ReplayTV Inc., and is their current top of the line model, The ReplayTV 2020. The 2020 offers a maximum of 20 hours of standard recording grade content (VHS-quality), ten hours of mid-range quality recording time, or 7 hours of near-DVD quality of recording.

Thanks to the use of an internal hard drive which serves as the unit's storage center, the ReplayTV 2020 gives users the freedom to custom tailor their recording and viewing experience to their specific needs and desires. The programming guide, or "Channel Guide" as ReplayTV calls it, lists every channel available along with show descriptions and times. This makes it simple to quickly determine what's on, what you want to watch, and best of all, what you'd like to record.