We just got done seeing all the new updates from the Macworld Keynote. While there were other new products and updates I am going to be focusing on Apple TV.

Apple TV was just updated to include the ability to purchase music, rent standard definition videos and to rent HD videos. That is a great addition to a product that has been severely struggling in my opinion to find a market. While this is a huge leap forward for Apple TV, I don't think it is quite far enough to convince me to buy it. I think the thing that Apple is missing the boat on is having a DVR.

Having a DVR built into the Apple TV would be a boon for the market. It would be exactly what we need to get our media portable and take it where we want.

Just picture this scenario... You record a show last night on your new Apple TV DVR. You don't have time to watch it and transfer it to your iPod and watch it on the go. It would be the ultimate way to create your own content for the ipod and itunes. The files could still have DRM, the same way the movie rentals do and the shows you record could be set to only save for 30 days.

The tremendous upside to this for the networks is that it preserves all of the commercials that they put on their shows and gives them another stream of revenue. If they could go to an advertiser and say, "Your show XYZ was viewed by 3 million people on the air and it was recorded and watched later by another million". I think that would give them more money than selling commercial free versions of the shows.

I have always supported free ad-driven versions of television shows that people could download and watch when they wanted and on what they wanted to. Building in a DVR into Apple TV would free the networks from trying to deliver ad-supported content on their own sites, since the commercials are already in the shows.

The iTunes movie rental option is the first major step towards this since it gives you the ability to watch that rental on your ipod. The next step is to give users the ability and freedom to record and watch what they want. Just like the set top DVR's already do.