Does that mean Intel now owns all digital video recording and storing techniques, as well as EPG??? What does that tell us about the clues of >> the European Patent Office?
Nothing so far. Intel probaly was the first one to file this kind of patent. Take a look at the date when it was filed (2001-01-18). This is still about one year after the initial revision of VDR... So there is the "right of prior use". If VDR has been doing what ever the patent claims to protect, then it will be difficult for Intel to enforce the patent against VDR.(...I think).
"Prior use" is for closed systems where no public information is not available.
But if VDR was public with concepts and source before 2001-01-18 then Intel could not patent the things what were already published by VDR community. In other words, the patent office did a bad job when making search of things prohibiting the patent (normally just browsing other patents of the same area, not VDR/DVB-mailing list snoop).
And above applies to tivo/replay-tv/m$ and other companies. You cannot patent already publicly known stuff. And this is why announcing and requesting features on the mailing list is important.. :-)
Best regards, Jori