NEW YORK -- Since the first black and white TV, television technology has constantly been changing.

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DVR Technology Enters Mainstream

Now, a new technology is about to go mainstream by pairing up with your local cable company. It's called a Digital Video Recorder, or DVR. A DVR digitally records and stores the programs you want on its hard drive. You can even skip commercials

DVR technology is not new. Replay TV and TiVo pioneered it in the late 1990s. Yet, 70 percent of consumers don't even know what a DVR is.

But companies like Time Warner Cable, and Direct TV are about to change that. They've built the DVR divide into the cable and satellite boes. So far, the results look promising. Researchers estimate that DVRs will be in 25 million homes in four years, and two-thirds will be built into satellite or cable boxes.

TiVo is also teaming up with companies like Toshiba and Pioneer, by combining the TiVo player with a DVD recorder. However, Time Warner's cable DVR option costs less than TiVo, and Direct-TV also costs less, but still has an initial cost for the actual DVR box.