A new push for DVRs. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. DVR are digital video recorders... a market that has been spearheaded by Tivo. One of the things that has held back broader consumer acceptance of the devices that record TV shows on hard drives... and allow viewers to pause and rewind live programs... has been the added monthly program guide charge. Now Philips will be introducing new boxes that combine Tivo with DirecTV receivers... that are free of monthly charges for many satellite subscribers. And another box... from Toshiba... will combine Tivo... with a DVD player. Toshiba senior business development manager Lewis Masses...

"The new SDH 400 digital media server gives the consumer the opportunity to purchase a high end DVD player, which is what's included in the package and also Tivo basic service, which introduces the consumer to Tivo service and basic DVR technology." So it has the Tivo built into it too and there's no monthly fee attached to it at least out of the box. "In its first iteration out of the box the basic service does not have any monthly fee, does not require any credit cards and no lifetime subscription. But the consumer has the capability if they choose to upgrade to the full Tivo service at Tivo's standard subscription fees."

The box includes a hard drive that can record up to 80 hours of programming... and a three day program guide. The list price is about 550 dollars. Combining the Tivo with a DVD player saves space and the number of cables plugging into the TV. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.