Given the choice of video technologies, which would you choose if you had to choose one: VCR, DVD player, PVR, or HDTV? I say PVR. Charlie has a TiVo, and he agrees. And yet most people have never heard of the PVR, and when it is explained to them, they don't understand what is good about it.

The PVR has the following killer features: pause live TV, commercial skip, instant replay, easy scheduled recording, and random access. It's not complicated either -- my 5-year-old programs it to record her favorite TV shows.