Sanyo has introduced its latest DVR dubbed the Repoch. The device will comply with the iVR (Information Versatile Disk) standard shared with Hitachi. The Repoch will ship with an integrated tuner for receiving digital terrestrial TV broadcasts, allowing you to view recordings on analog broadcast-compatible TVs.

Connectivity options include an Ethernet connection, HDMI output, component audio and video inputs and a couple of two antenna posts. For $668, the Repoch will come bundled with a 160GB iVR disk when it rolls out in Japan this September 1st.

Looks like TiVo is trying to muscle their way into several providers, having gotten a victory out of EchoStar in that DVR patent lawsuit. It’s in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and according to sources, the endgame is to collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US.

That might sound arrogant, or even bullying, but the patents have withstood nearly every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo is pretty confidant. It has license agreements with Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations too.

The cable company that serves my neighborhood sucks. They have about only a few HD channels and didn’t have DVR’s until last year. The company is totally stuck in the early 2000′s. I opted to go with DirecTV instead of cable or Dish Network because DirecTV had more HD offerings at the time.

DirecTV launched a new app for the iPhone not too long ago that allows you to access your DVR, even if it’s not connected to the Internet, and schedule recordings. Dish Network has announced that it is now offering a service called Remote Access that allows users of Dish Network DVRs to access their DVR and record programs from any computer in the world.

I love my DVR. I haven’t watched a commercial in over a year and if I had to go back to life without a DVR, I would rather not watch TV. The only problem with my DVR is that it needs more space, but I can’t simply crack it open and put in a bigger drive. This is where products like the Apricorn DVR Expander that debuted back in January come in.

The DVR Expander is an external hard drive designed specifically to work with certain DVR models. Apricorn has updated the DVR expander with a black and silver color scheme that looks better than the original. The device now works with Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVRs, DirecTV DVRs, and Dish Network ViP HD DVR.

Last summer Iomega unveiled a product providing what many DVR owners find themselves needing much sooner than they thought — more storage space. The Iomega DVR Extender is an external 500GB hard drive that connects to DVRs via eSATA.

Iomega announced today that users of Pace set-top cable boxes can now use the DVR Expander to add up to 300 hours of storage for standard def programs and up to 60 hours of HD content. The most interesting part of the announcement is that if users have Pace boxes that lack a hard drive, the DVR Expander will turn them into full featured DVRs.

When you first get your DVR from the cable or satellite provider its 10 or 20 hours of recording time sounds like an eternity. Then you quickly realize that you can’t get your full season of Oprah and The Price is Right without running out of room for necessities like Celebrity Rehab.

Apricorn has announced a new DVR expander called (wait for it) the DVR Xpander that offers 1.5TB of storage space. With that much storage, you can record 843 hours of SD programs or 187.5 hours of HD programs. Surprisingly the price for the 1.5TB version isn’t even that high at $239.

Toshiba intros two new Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) for the Japanese market. The Toshiba Vardia RD-G503 has a huge 500GB hard drive, while the RD-E303 has a 300GB hard drive.

Both DVRs support DVD burners, MPEG-2 TS and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC recording, Digital / Analog tuner, DVD upscaling and two remote controls (one fully functional and one with just basic controls). The Toshiba Vardia RD-G503 and RD-E303 will be released next month for $770 and $660.

There’s few things better than owning a piece of technology or gadget that keeps on giving, and TiVo is turning out to be one of those devices with it’s latest beta release of a mobile website to control your TiVo box. This adds to the devices core ability to act as a DVR, and the company has also recently introduced features to order pizza, stream Netflix content and watch YouTube videos.

TiVo says the new mobile site at m.tivo.com will allow users, subscribers or not, to browse television listings and search for shows. The online app will also will recommend other television shows based on what you are viewing. The site is available to anyone that has access to the internet through a mobile browser, and no installation on the mobile device is necessary.

The SlingBox was one of the first time and place shifting devices that would send programs from the TV to the PC. The interesting device let users shoot their favorite programs to the PC for viewing and recording in DVR-like fashion.

Back at CES in January, we talked a bit about the PRO-HD SlingBox that was unveiled. Sling Media announced today that the PRO-HD is finally shipping. Yeah, it took long enough for Sling Media to actually ship the device, which isn’t so cool.

I am a big time DVR fan; I don’t know what I did before I had DVRs on each TV in the house. Before the DVR, I actually had to watch commercials. If my wife wanted to watch something that really sucked, like one of those wedding shows, I missed something good (like anything not a wedding show).

Thankfully, the DVR saved me from having to program my VCR and enduring crap TV and commercials. According to a survey from NDS, 7 out of 10 people who own a DVR, say they can’t live without it. The survey also shows that 89% of Americans say that a DVR makes for a happier home life. I agree with that, the other guys out there don’t like wedding shows either I am betting.

Archos showed up at CES this week with its own taking on the DVR category. It’s calling its product the Archos TV+ and it should be pricing at around $250 for a 80GB model and $350 for a 250GB one.

The Archos TV+ is, according to Archos, both a TV recording device and a wireless receiver for enjoying digital media content via your television. It can connect to both your home network and the Internet to stream video content, music and photos. You can also browse Web pages, check online email, synch content recorded to it to an Archos PMP and record video in VGA resolution.

This is a really cool video recorder from JVC with triple action recording for HDD, DVD and MiniDVD. The device can record in multiple formats, including MiniDV, HDD, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD-R, and it can play almost every popular format currently out there. The list of playable formats for the DR-DX5S from JVC include the same recording formats already listed along with CD, SVCD, VCD, CD-R/RW, WMA, MP3, and JPEG digital still images.

The video recorder records it’s data to an internal 250 GB hard drive and features 6-way dubbing, a bit-rate optimizer and high speeding dubbing up to 64x. Also,this device has a MiniDV deck built right in. Another pretty cool feature is the comprehensive remote, which has a lot of functionality and is probably too big to get lost in the cushion of the couch.

The JVC DR-DX5S is a great …