[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Skie

Well that was what the original TV Drive did. VM would record certain shows as they were broadcast and then you could then view them on demand. This was in the days before iPlayer and other things were common, and it didn't use the cable modem in the box but the actual cable tv infrastructure.

It was impressive technology wise, there was even a few behind the scenes things explaining it, basically a PVR running remotely and broadcasting like a tv channel what you were playing. Rewind/Fastforward worked much better than they do on any of the streaming services on VM's boxes, though there was a little bit of latency it didnt skip around like they do now, it was like using a locally recorded recording.

Barring any 'off air' recording, the rest of that system is still the one used for the main On Demand service now i.e. all On Demand except BBC iPlayer on TiVo / V6.