Digital Home Thoughts: Cablevision Wins Network DVR Case

"The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a blow to the television networks when it declined to hear a case about a digital video recorder technology, opening the gate for wider use of DVR systems. The case began in 2006 when Cablevision Systems, the New York-area cable operator, announced plans for what is called a network DVR system."

The decision paves the way for Cablevision to implement its network DVR system across all of its customers. The setup is fairly clever and looks like a great way to provide DVR abilities to everyone without a costly investment of hard drive based PVRs. I have concerns that the technology may end up being locked to just one provider, instead of being available to all cable companies. I suppose you could consider this the moment of when DVR starts moving into the "cloud." With everyone hosting their emails, documents, spreadsheets, personal videos and social life online, it was only a matter of time before our tv shows made that transition. The market must be limited though, since I imagine this would only be preferred by those with limited or no Internet access since streaming solutions provide a comparable service.