Short answers, pulled from the story.
Hitachi demonstrated a prototype digital video tape recorder in 1985 that used digital recording video tape as storage media to record digital HD video content. Fujitsu, Sanyo, and Canon Inc also developed prototype high-definition digital video recorders during the same decade.
The first commercial digital video recorder arrived in 1987 when Sony released the DVR-1000 device. This machine recorded digital video content on D-1 digital video cassettes using magnetic tape rather than hard drives for storage.
Tektronix introduced the Profile series PDR100 Video Disk Recorder in early 1995 which recorded and played back video stored directly on a hard disk using motion JPEG compression. Sweden's TV4 utilized the PDR100 extensively while building a new facility in Stockholm and NBC deployed similar units at the Olympic games held in Atlanta Georgia later that year.
ReplayTV and TiVo launched their consumer digital video recorders at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. TiVo shipped its first units on the 31st of March 1999 while ReplayTV won the Best of Show award with Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen serving as an early investor and board member.
Five owners of the ReplayTV DVR sued main television networks and movie studios in 2002 asking federal judges to uphold consumer rights to skip commercials. SONICblue purchased ReplayTV in 2001 and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2003 after fighting copyright infringement suits over commercial skipping abilities.