Personal Video Recorder: a generic term for the modern-day replacement of the VCR. Using hardware-based MPEG-2 compression like that used by DVDs, PVRs encode video data and store the data on a hard disk drive. PVRs have all of the functionality of VCRs, (recording, playback, fast forwarding, rewinding, pausing) plus the ability to instantly jump to any part of the program without having to rewind or fast forward the data stream. Also referred to a Digital Video Recorder.