What Does Digital Video Recorder (DVR) Mean?

A digital video recorder (DVR) is a consumer electronics device designed for recording video in a digital format within a mass storage device such as USB flash drive, hard disk drive or any other storage device. Compared to other video recording alternatives, a digital video recorder has many advantages such as being tapeless, faster data retrieval and higher image quality. It is mostly used in home entertainment and in surveillance/security systems.

Techopedia Explains Digital Video Recorder (DVR)

A digital video recorder comes with its own internal hard drive and users can start recording without the need to insert any sort of storage media. When it comes to analog camera recording, digital video recording supports features such as remote access motion detection, real-time playback, recording and backup. When it comes to home entertainment, the television signal goes directly into the digital video recorder, and is then converted into a digital format with the help of an MPEG-2 encoder. From there it is transmitted to two different targets, one to the hard drive for storage and the other to the television screen for viewing. Newer versions of digital video recorders are capable of recording different videos from different channels simultaneously.