TVSquad

If you haven't noticed, there's been a trend developing over the last few years. More and more you can watch video content on your own schedule. But there's not one single technology making this possible.

You can watch stream last night's prime time TV shows from network web sites. You can download videos from Amazon or iTunes. And of course you can record shows on your PVR to watch later. But while PVRs are becoming more and more common, video on demand is growing at a similar rate -- and could possibly make the concept of a personal video recorder obsolete. After all, why bother recording all your favorite programs if you can watch them on-demand any time you want?

Mari Silbey at Connected Home 2 go reports that since 2005 the amount of VOD content available on Motorola boxes has more than doubled. That growth covers everything from TV and movies to local sporting events. There's a shrinking window of time between a movie's theatrical release and the date at which you can watch it on DVD or VOD. And there's a growing amount of interactive and local content.

Of course, if you like to archive shows so you can watch a whole season at once or burn copies to DVD, a PVR is still the way to go. But for many users, VOD could one day replace the PVR.