Researchers queried more than 1,000 DVR owners in Australia, Italy, the UK and the US in July 2008, asking them to rank the DVR in terms of relative importance among their household appliances.
Internationally, respondents put the DVR in the No. 2 spot as their most indispensable technology item, behind the top-ranked mobile phone.
Just over 80% of American owners said they could not live without their DVR; UK owners followed with 78%. Slightly fewer owners in Australia (75%) and in Italy (73%) also found the device indispensable.
