The miracle device known as the DVR -- the digital video recorder, for those of you living in the middle ages -- had to have at least one downside, right?

Sadly, this one is hard to ignore. According to a new report, the magical machines that Americans use to parse the crowded primetime TV schedule use a cumulative 27 terawatt-hours of electricity every year. The Los Angeles Times puts it into perspective: That's the same amount of energy per year as nine coal-burning power plants.

And that energy? Not cheap. It costs consumers nearly $3 billion every year, with $2 billion of that coming when the boxes are off.

Engadget snagged a photo of Motorola's forthcoming DCH3416 set-top-box. This little guy includes a 160GB hard drive, multistream CableCard support for recording two programs at once, or for picture in picture.

The DCH3416 also supports Motorola's new "follow me TV" platform, meaning you can watch shows recorded on one box on another box. It has HDMI, component, Firewire, SATA, USB 2.0 and ethernet jacks. Of course you won't be able to pick one of these up and plug it in, but it could be coming soon to a cable provider near you. Or not.