A Digital Video Recorder is a generic term for a device that is similar to a VCR but records television data in digital on a hard drive as opposed to a VCR tape. A DVR looks like a VCR and has all of the same functionality of VCR (recording, playback, fast forwarding, rewinding, and pausing) plus the ability to skip to any part of the program without having to rewind or fast forward the data stream.