It also provides a much easier way to automatically record programs than is possible with videocassette recorders. In the end, Mr. Palermo was turned off from TiVo by the prospect of having to connect all kinds of wires and adding a new box to his home entertainment system. So, instead, he ordered a relatively new product that his cable company, Time Warner Cable, a unit of Time Warner, has been pitching: a set-top box made by Scientific-Atlanta with a DVR already built in. "The fact that we could do this without the difficulty and complexity of a stand-alone thing made this a perfect fit," Mr. Palermo said in a telephone interview on Friday. Mr. Palermo is not alone, and Wall Street and the television industry are taking note. TiVo pioneered the DVR and the TiVo brand - like Frisbee, Kleenex and Xerox - has become synonymous with an entire product category.