Video recording equipment is in common use throughout industry and commerce. Conventional video recording systems are analog systems employing a video recorder. Analog video tape recorders are known to record analog video signals on a magnetic tape in analog form and to provide the video signal as an output signal so that the analog video signal may be viewed on a television monitor. The recording and reproduction of digital video signals is more advantageous than the recording and reproduction of analog video signals because the picture quality of the reproduced digital video signal will not deteriorate through multiple dubbings. Moreover, error correction by way of digital processing further minimizes errors in recorded and reproduced digital video signals. Digital multimedia includes video, images and audio data, typically involving a large amount of data. Video compression has been widely adopted since the advent of digital multimedia technology and the popularization of DVD, web images, mp3 and digital cameras. Several video compression standards have been adopted for a variety of different applications. In the DVR, digital video data is compressed, encoded with error correction code, and then recorded to a record medium. One common compression standard used for video streams currently used today is known as MPEG. MPEG is a standard for digitally encoding moving pictures and interleaved audio signals. MPEG facilitates compressing a video stream to reduce the storage capacity and transmission bandwidth required for an MPEG stream as compared to an uncompressed video stream.

Generally, digital video tape recorders use compression techniques to record images. The uncompressed digital video signals from all the low-resolution images require huge amounts memory storage. High-ratio real-time compression schemes, such as MPEG, are essential for providing digital video for today's computers. The moving picture experts group (MPEG) has promulgated widely accepted international standards for compression, decompression, and synchronization of digital video and audio signals. The MPEG standards define how elementary streams of encoded digital audio and video data are multiplexed and converted to an MPEG format. The MPEG2 standard specifically defines three types of video pictures or frames: intra-coded, predicted, and bi-directional. Intra-coded or I-frames are coded using only information present in an image frame itself. The video and audio specifications give the syntax and semantics of encoded video and audio bitstreams necessary for communicating compressed digital video as well as for storing such video on media in a standard format. The MPEG-2 standard specifies the methodologies for video and audio data compressions which allow multiple programs, with different video and audio feeds, multiplexed in a transport stream traversing a single broadcast channel. Digital satellite system (DSS), digital broadcast services (DBS), and advanced television standards committee (ATSC) broadcast streams are digitally formatted pursuant to the well known MPEG-2 standard.

Digital video recorders can receive either a streaming analog signal in an uncompressed format or a digitally encoded signal, such as an MPEG signal, from a transmission source. Digital video tape recorders are known to convert an analog video signal into a digital video signal and then to record the digital video signal on a recording medium. Digital video signals generally are transmitted on a digital serial interface line admitting of one data format while analog video signals admit of a second data format. A video signal to be recorded in digital form may be supplied as either a digital video signal or as an analog video signal whose formats. If the DVR receives an analog signal such as a television signal in an uncompressed format, the DVR typically digitally encodes the signal, stores the digitally encoded signal in a compressed format, and decodes and presents the signal for subsequent viewing. If the DVR receives an already digitally encoded signal, the DVR then stores the signal and decodes and presents the signal for subsequent viewing. Recently, developments of a digital video recorder in which signals digitized from high-definition analog picture signals or high definition digital picture signals are encoded (compressed) using a high efficiency encoding system, such as discrete cosine transform (DCT). A video frame, after being digitized and compressed, is recorded in a number of tracks, with each track exhibiting the general format. This format includes an ITI area located at the leading portion of each track, followed by an audio area, a video area and a subcode area in this order.

Generally, a digital video recorder records a digital video signal outputted from a certain digital broadcast source such as an advanced television system, a cable decoder, and a satellite broadcast signal receiver and to reproduces the recorded digital video signal. A digital video recorder receives incoming streaming video data from the output interface of a standard set-top box configured to receive the broadcast signals from a multiple-service operator (MSO), and the output of the digital video recorder is transmitted directly to a display device, such as a television. Digital video recorders allow a user to overcome the rigid time schedule according to which television programs are typically broadcast. In response to commands from the user, the digital video recorder transmits to the display device either the incoming streaming video data from the output of the set-top box or the previously recorded video data. A digital video recorder can be programmed to record a television program to allow viewing at a time that is more convenient for a user. Digital video recorders often include a number of features that further enhance viewer experience. Certain digital video recorders include circular buffers that allow a user viewing a live broadcast of a television program to pause viewing at a certain point and, at a later time, resume viewing from that point. Depending on how the system is configured, the viewer can activate the set top box and the TV set separately, or activate only the set top box, which then activates the TV set. A viewer may expand the system by connecting a video recorder to the TV set and the set top box in order to overcome the rigid scheme according to which the programs are broadcast. In addition to using a video recorder, alternative systems provide for even more flexibility and viewer-specific television. Some DVRs allow the viewer to personalize television viewing. For instance, the personal video recorder can learn a viewer's preferred programs and automatically record programs it expects a viewer to like. A viewer also has the option to skip portions of a broadcast, such as for example commercials, upon reviewing a broadcast by employing a DVR. The recording features of DVRs can be performed when the viewer is away from the DVR so that the viewer can view preferred programs at a time that is convenient.

Digital video recorders (DVRs) typically store video programs on a random access storage (RAS) device, such as on a hard disc drives (HDD), compact disc drives, digital video (DVD) drives. The digital storage device since HDDs have sufficient capacity to store video content and are relatively inexpensive due to their prevalent use in personal computers (PCs). The information on a DVD formatted disc is recorded as discrete packets of data in accordance with the applicable video and audio data compression standards. Packetized video data is typically encoded with ancillary information for use in locating, decoding and navigating through encoded image data. In a digital video disk type application, ancillary data in the form of volume/file structure data and navigation data contains information for use in locating data and navigating through different image sequences. Optical disks for digital video recorders are subjected to recording/reproduction with a track pitch of 0.32 .mu.m and the minimum pit length of 0.16 .mu.m at a wavelength of 400 nm for laser beams. DVRs currently typically include 13.6-gigabyte hard disks that offer up to 14 hours of video programming or 27.2-gigabyte disks that offer up to 30 hours of programmable viewing.