[itsrobert]

I did enjoy the reference earlier in the thread to VCRs and VHS tapes as DVRs/DVR tapes! No such thing as a DVR in those days. Analogue tape all the way....! Even the longest VHS tapes only recorded up to 4 hours in 'short play' or 8 hours in 'long play' but the picture quality of long play was much worse. I don't remember VHS tapes being expensive; you could buy a pack of them fairly cheaply as I recall. I only remember getting my first DVR in about 2006 when I got Sky+. Up until then I very much continued to use the VCR and I think I did have a DVD recorder at some point, but I can't remember when exactly.

Here endeth the history lesson.

Apologies for my lack of knowledge on TV history, but I thought digital TV was already launched quite early in the UK back in around 1997 (hence why I made a reference to DVRs for digital TVs)? Isn't that one of the selling points of BBC News 24's launch back in November, having it being available only on cable and digital terrestrial?

No need to apologise!

Digital TV only started up in 1998, but even then it was only available through receivers (much as the old analogue satellite and cable TV had been). Digital video recorders (DVRs) that were capable of recording digital TV to an internal hard disk drive didn't arrive until much later, although I can't put a specific date on it. Digital TV didn't exist in the UK when Diana died and even when it was introduced, the only way to record from any sort of TV was on a VCR using VHS tape - at least as far as I can remember. Most people still had VCRs into the mid-2000s when DVRs started to become popular with the likes of Sky+ et al.