Digital Home Thoughts: That PVR Sure is a Hungry Little Device

"It’s no surprise that the use of DVRs is increasing as more and more people become used to time-shifting instead of watching television on the networks’ schedule. DVRs are compared to competitors so that customers can find the best fit for their lives. Now the New York Times is reporting something that may surprise many people: Your set-top boxes consume more energy in a year than your refrigerator."

Unless you want to go through a whole bunch of tweaking and limitations, if you have cable, or even satellite TV, your options for a PVR are usually quite limited. It comes as no surprise then that those boxes that your Cable/Satellite provider hoists on you is hardly the bastion of energy efficiency. Sure, you could turn the PVR off, but powered off, it really is limited in what shows it can record for you. The current implementation of the PVR will probably disappear in several years with the rise of streaming and other efficient ways of delivering video. Until then, I guess the convenience of being able to watch Dancing with the Stars whenever you want will cost you a pretty penny.