Digital Video Recorders, or DVR's for short, are one of the most loved types of technology available right now.  They basically take all of the good features that we first enjoyed about VCR's and improved upon them by providing a graphic user interface and doing away with the actual video cassettes.  While a digital video recorder admittedly can't play rental movies (at least most can't), a DVR is much more effective at time shifting programming so that it can be watched whenever the user of the digital video recorder deems appropriate.  It basically does this by being much easier to program through the graphic user interface than any VCR ever was.



One thing that many people don't realize is that a digital video recorder is actually a computer that has a lot of similarities with home computers.  Namely, every DVR has a processor, a hard disk, and runs some sort of operating system.  Once you acknowledge that a digital video recorder is actually a computer it opens the doors for some interesting possibilities.

That's exactly what the creators of the Monolith Media Center were thinking about when they decided to expand the scope of what the average person can do with digital video recording and computer technology in their living room.  The Monolith MC is basically a digital video recorder on steroids.  Not only does it record video in several formats- with the option of getting an HD capable model- but it can also feed digital music in the form of MP3's into your sound system and communicate with your home computer network.  In addition to that, you can use the Monolith MC to watch DVD's or even to burn your video that you've recorded onto your own DVD's.

The key to the Monolith Media Center is as much its operating system as it is its hardware.  The Monolith MC is based on the MythTV open source media center software program and it runs on the Ubuntu version of the Linux operating system.  This powerful and reliable technology was designed to focus on the needs of the people using it rather than the concerns of big companies, so for that reason it's a richly featured alternative to Windows based media center software.

There are lots of options built into the Monolith MC that you simply don't see in other digital video recorders.  For example, you can opt to record video in MPEG-4 video compression format in order to get the most out of your hard drive space.  (Most DVR's record video in MPEG-2 video compression format which takes up about four times the disc space as MPEG-4.)  As mentioned above, you can burn your favorite video onto DVD's so that you can watch them over and over again without having them taking up space on the unit's hard disk as the accumulate.  Having DVD's is also a great option for portability.  The Monolith MC will also sense and automatically tag the beginning and ends of commercial breaks in the TV programs that it's recording so that it can skip them automatically during playback.  (Presumably it still records them in case you want to watch them for some reason.)  Best of all, the program guide is donated by Tribune Media, so there's no monthly subscription fee.

The Monolith MC is a great option for anyone who wants full control over their own entertainment center.