Rent My DVR | The lazy DVR solution

Friday, May 05, 2006

DVRs are great and really give you control over what you watch and when. However the fact is you still have to make sure you program the recording schedule, you are often restricted by the cable companies and you also have to own a DVR or have a PC with DVR functioning.

There is now a real simple solution that will give your PC DVR functionality for absolute minimum effort. The service is called Rent My DVR. Basically you say what you want recording and they record it for you and it is then automatically downloaded to your PC. That’s a pretty simple solution and great if you’re too busy or lazy to worry about recording TV shows. The cost is 1 Euro for 5 TV shows which is very reasonable indeed.

You are probably thinking is this actually legal? Surely they are distributing copyrighted content and profiting from it. In Rent My DVRs defense they say they are “friends” who record the shows on your behalf. They quote the Fox network who recommends getting a coworker or friend to record a show for you if you can’t watch it yourself. Read Question 8 on the fox website to see for yourself.

Whether the fact that Rent My DVR are your “friends” would stand up in court since they are charging for the service is dubious. However there are a few arguments in their favor: firstly if the adverts within the shows are watched then advertisers still get their ads shown and secondly this service mirrors the new Remote DVR Service where a cable company records your shows on a remote DVR box removing the need for your own DVR. The cable companies argue that there it is no different to what happens when you have your own DVR box except for the location of the DVR. Rent My DVR could use the same argument.

Whatever the legalities Rent My DVR, which is based in Sweden, looks like a decent and cost effective solution to owning a DVR or turning your PC into a DVR.