While Sonicblue’s ReplayTV 5040 is one of the newest PVRs (personal video recorders) on the market, it’s by no means the only player or even the best known. TiVo’s PVR has become a household name, and Zenith recently announced, but is not yet shipping, a PVR with built-in HDTV capabilities.The first PVR models from TiVo were revolutionary because they gave viewers more control over live broadcasts than ordinary videocassette recorders. But until recently, PVRs were clearly home-theater components, living independently of home networking or the Internet. That’s changing, and rapidly.Expect to see more convergence between the PVR, home computing, and the Web: Perhaps some day we’ll have streaming capabilities between PVRs and desktop PCs, allowing Windows Media Player or RealPlayer to play prerecorded shows, or direct downloading of MPEG-encoded movies from LAN servers or from Internet hosts directly into the PVR via broadband. That would certainly be even more convenient than Netflix’s DVD mail-order rental. Unless the lawsuits stop it: Hollywood, in the form of both TV networks and movie studios, filed suit against Sonicblue in 2001, complaining that earlier ReplayTV models violated the copyright of content distributors by allowing their content to be distributed without permission. (They also complained that ReplayTV’s commercial-skipping features denied broadcasters their livelihood.) While Sonicblue won the reversal of an early judgment against it, the issue remains unresolved.In January at the Consumer Electronics Show, TiVo announced a new $99 service that connects its Series2 PVR devices to the Internet. The service sounds very similar to Sonicblue’s subscribers can download movie schedules and program recording via Web browser, and stream recordings from one TiVO to another within the home. It will also allow subscribers to download and play MP3 music — as well as JPEG-format photographs and artwork — from the Internet.The future of the personal video recorder looks bright and — courts willing — will be inexorably linked to the Internet. Technology Industry