Rating: 
Summary: Best thing since microwave!
Review: Truly will change the way you watch TV. Think of this as what you wished your VCR would grow up to be. We have just regular cable, so these comments geared towards that setup.Pros:
*Record around 15 hours of programming
*Free on-screen programming guide (of recorded shows too)
*Watch recorded show while taping another (or same) one
*On-line management of your unit's memory
*Universal remote controls TV/Showstopper/VCR Cons:
*15 hours of programming not enough (read below to let me explain)
*Cannot record two shows at once
*Volume is too low if not using a S-video input
*Need phone hook-up
*Another electronics lesson to the wife regarding remote
*Set-up took longer than anticipated 30 Hours of Programming (well, not really)
Three speeds/levels of recording - low, medium, and high quality pictures which reduce your recording capacity to 30, 15, and 7.5, respectively. The medium recording yields what I was use to seeing on the VCR, maybe even a little better. It's only been a week, but I wish I had a "60 hour" unit (in my mind, really 30). We don't watch that much TV, we really don't. Our son is limited to about 1.5 hours every other day, and we watch about 1.5 hours every night after the kids go to bed. If you think about it, below is how much capacity I would like based on weekly consumption: Shows the wife and I like to watch7 hrs
Last week's shows7
Movies for us4
Mindless TV for us (OK, it's all mindless)3
Shows for the kids2
Movie for kids2
Total 24 hrs That would leave 6 hours of impromptu recording (or 3 hours of high grade recording for the football game). Only drawback - and it hasn't proven to be that big of one - is the inability to record two shows at the same time. Perfect example is "Survivor" vs. "Friends". You can work around this using the VCR, but in a perfect world I wouldn't have a VCR. On-Screen Programming Guide
It's pretty handy to press a button to see what show are playing and details about those shows (e.g., new/rerun, plot, actor names). It's even more handy to see on-screen what I've recorded. Have you ever hunted on 2 or 3 VCR tapes for the second half of "Jack and the Beanstalk" with your 5 year old waiting impatiently? "Watch TV when you want to watch TV"
The commercial where the family is eating franticly to catch the beginning of their favorite show has a ring a truth to it. However, in your Showstopper household you eat at a civil pace, load up the dishwasher, THEN sit down to watch TV. Since you can skip commercials, you end up "catching up" to live TV before the end of the hour - with a clean kitchen. On-line management of your unit's memory
Since I only have 15 hours of memory, I have to be a little more active in managing the hard drive. Sort of neat to be able to go on the internet to my account at ReplayTV.com and delete shows. Also easier to scan for various shows with their on-line programming schedule and ask to have it recorded. My on-line database syncs up with the database on my hard drive every morning (2 a.m. - 5 a.m.), so the only limitation there is you can't go into the office and ask for something to be recorded tonight. Remote Control
It's another universal remote control. This one does a good job of controlling our TV, VCR, and of course the Showstopper. Only cumbersome thing is to you have to remember to press the "TV" button before pressing "power" to turn the TV on. Same thing in controlling the Showstopper - press "showstopper" button then "power" to turn on Showstopper. Cumbersome to learn at first, rote after a little while. Set-up took longer than I anticipated
What I though would take me 15 minutes took about an hour the first time, then 15 minutes to change some things the next day. With regular cable, here's how I have everything configured: Incoming Cable
Split to run to Showstopper and to VCR Showstopper Output
S-video and RCA's to TV
RCA's to VCR VCR Output
Coaxial cable to TV With this configuration, I turn TV to channel "00" for Showstopper, channel 3 for VCR, and when the VCR is off then you can still go up and down the TV channel if desired. This also allows me to dump shows on the Showstopper to the VCR. Finally, originally was not using the S-video input from the Showstopper to the TV (using the yellow plug instead), and the cut the TV volume in half. Don't know why. Using the S-video input solved this problem. Phone hook-up
The dreaded phone hook-up! We have one by the TV (actually spliced the line running to our alarm system, not that big of a deal) so this isn't an issue with us. The unit does "phone home" every night in order to give you a week's worth of programing, so you're going to need this. I've seen - but not used - the phone connections utilizing your house's wiring. I guess that would work. Had some initial problems with the unit doing it's initial dial-up to the ReplayTV servers, however, I just picked another number for my area (we had three number from which to choose) and it worked fine. I've seen complaints about this though. ReplayTV vs. Tivo
Thought long and hard on this one. If I had a satellite dish I probably would have gone for Tivo since they are offering the all-in-one packages. However, since I'm on regular cable Tivo's ...didn't look that appealing for the marginal service of catching the special time a show appeared (i.e., Tivo would record the full 2 hours of a season-ending show, while Replay will record on the first hour). I'm glad I went the ReplayTV route.
Rating:
Summary: TV time machine
Review: I bought the Panasonic PV-HS1000 about 2 weeks ago and I love it. The main difference between this and a VCR is that you can use an onscreen tv guide to choose what to record (your unit needs to connect to a phone line to download the programming info). No more selecting day, date, time etc to record something. Of course this unit also gives you the ability to pause live TV. This is accomplished by playing what you watch at a slight delay, in other words "live tv" means delayed by 2-3 seconds as the unit is recording what you are watching in case you need to pause or rewind. As for the negative, my main gripe is that you loose some resolution, I would guess about 5 percent, when your TV signal routes through the unit. Not much, but still noticeable. I have AT&T Digital cable and when changing channels I do get a delay which is also annoying. I tried splitting the cable signal, 1 to TV and 1 to showstopper, but this hasn't worked. Despite this, I say this is a great buy, no monthly charges like TiVo!
Rating: 
Summary: The most useful electronic device in our home!
Review: This toy was well worth the money spent - we take advantage of its features every single day. Some of the more useful situations include: - Being able to pause tv when the phone rings, and then resume. - Start watching sports an hour after they begin and breeze through commercials and intermissions. - Easily set up programs to record shows we like that air during the day. - A big help with housetraining our puppy as we can pause the tv and respond immediately when ever she noses around the door to go out. Of course, any time you pause live tv or record a show, you get to skip commercials! You'll start looking for reasons to delaying watching a program. Setting up recording with the on-screen programming is simple. Plus, you can even set up recordings away from home via the web if you forget! How cool is that? The machine is intelligent enough to know show titles, so you can tell it to ignore re-runs. It's simple to review all the recorded shows on screen, instead of knowing it's somewhere on a VCR tape. All with no monthly fee! Summary: this is the coolest and most useful recreational item we own. You won't be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: What a VCR should have been!
Review: After hearing mixed reviews of Tivo and Replay TV, I took the plunge and purchased a Panasonic Showstopper PVHS-2000. (It uses Replay TV's free program service.) It's a great product and changed the way I watch TV. Pluses: 1) Replay lets you watch a program, while it's recording something else. You can't do this with a VCR. You can even watch the beginning of a program, while still recording it. In the mornings I get up and watch Good Morning America from the start (7am) even though I get up at 8am. I fast forward skipping commercials and the repeating news segments and catch up to it live around 8:45 when I get to work. 2) I've set the box to find the last three Star Trek episodes. So, if nothings on TV I always have a few Star Trek episodes to watch. 3) Recorded programs show up in a menu with a full description of the program. You pick the program to play with a few clicks of the remote. Sure beats finding a program on a VCR tape. 4) 30 hours is a lot better than 6 hours of VHS tape. 5) Showstopper does a great job of controlling my cable box. It changes the channels without a problem, something my VCR had problems doing well. 6) Setup is easy and take about 20 minutes. Minuses: 1) The unit has locked up twice in a month. Like a PC, you just unplug it or hold the on button down for 10 seconds 2) You can't program in specific times. You must use the times in the online schedule. It would be great if they would add a flexible timing schedule feature. Especially when a late game screws up a networks schedule. 3) The extended record mode shows more MPEG pixelation that I would like. You see blocks when there is rapid movement. This goes away if you use the normal record mode, but then you only get 15 hours of record time. These however are minor problems. Showstopper is what a VCR always should have been.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic product -- with a few very small caveats
Review: I have been a huge fan of ReplayTV since I bought my 20-hour unit a
couple of years ago. Before I list off pros and cons, I want to
stress just how much this changes TV for you and your family.
Essentially, you no longer need to know what time the shows you like
are on. You don't have to be home, you don't have to program a VCR
and make sure the tape is at the right spot, nothing like that. Just
tell the Showstopper what shows you like (by show name, or by keyword
in the title, description, or actor list), and it records it for you.
In fact, even if you happen to be home when a show you like is on,
you'll more than likely not start watching right away. I usually find
some bills that need to be paid or start some laundry. Once the show
is 15 minutes in, then I start watching (which it's still recording
the live broadcast.) When I get to the first set of commercials, I
"QuickSkip" past them with the 30 second skip button (you
can press it multiple times, or hit a number and the skip button to
skip n minutes forward.) I usually catch up at about the time the
show is over. That, folks, is super-cool! What's even cooler is
that it truely changes the way you watch television. I watch TV
whenever I want. If I hang out with friends Monday-Friday evenings in
a given week, but I can't sleep on Sunday at 4:00am -- guess what?
"NYPD Blue" is on. And so is "The Practice". And
so are the last 2 episodes of "The Sopranos"! The three
complaints I see most often in other reviews are: 1) It doesn't have
2 tuners, so I can't watch 1 show while I record another. 2) The
sound sometimes gets out-of-sync with the video. 3) There's no local
dial-in number, so I pay big phone bills to keep the program guide
up-to-date. Here is my take on those concerns: 1) It does not have
two tuners. This is true. However, your Audio/Video setup probably
has more than 1 tuner. There's 1 or 2 in every TV, one every VCR, and
one every cable box / DSS receiver. The limitations here are real,
but many can be worked around. The one thing that you cannot easily
do is record something while watching something else that is scrambled
(i.e. by your cable company or over a DSS dish.) If you want to do
that, you need an additional cable box or DSS receiver. But
otherwise, you can watch one show while recording another with no
problems. Just tune through another device. Replay tech support has
been very well trained in my limited experience with them. 2) There
are two possibilities here: There was a bug in an old release of the
software (called Replay 2.0) in which this could happen. You could
have resolved the problem by pressing the pause button on the remote.
But that bug was fixed a long time ago, so if it's still happening,
then you probably have your receiver playing the audio from your cable
box or vcr instead of the Showstopper. There is a 2-3 second delay
from the live broadcast during which the Showstopper is buffering and
recording. That's a user error. If you listen to the audio from the
Showstopper, it does not get out-of-sync. 3) Odds are that you will
have a local number, but it's certainly not guaranteed. In my
opinion, you'd be foolish to lay out this kind of cash without
verifying that a local number is available. Other notes I'd add: --
There is a new feature called that allows you to
schedule recordings via the web. Those recording requests get
downloaded to your machine the next evening, so if you're on vacation
and forget to record something, hop onto the web.
Rating:
Summary: You and your kids will love it! Buy one.
Review: This product is fantastic. It makes TV worth watching again. Our daughter is the main reason I bought this unit. I have a 4 year girl that loves TV. We only allow her to watch it when we can watch it with her. Our schedules and the TV schedules are incompatible. The programs we feel are ok for her to watch are sprinkled throughout the day. With the ShowStopper we record the shows that are appropriate for her. She sees them when we want her to. And getting her past the commercials quickly with the 30 second skip feature is important. Some commericals now are as bad as adult programs. Picture quality. Is it perfect? No, but it's really good, generally. It's a bit pixelated at times. Just turn back the sharpness of your TV and it helps blur the pixelation. I want the content. Having a perfect picture isn't important to me. It is something you get used to very quickly. And having the show you want, when you want, helps you forgive any of these superficial flaws. We certainly record shows for ourselves as well. The 30 hour unit capacity seems to be very adequate for us. I like the fact that you can choose how many episodes of each show to keep. We keep two episodes of the day time talk shows my wife likes. I record programs for myself that I would never bother to with a VCR and tape. Your VCR now becomes your archive device. My mom asks us from time to time if we had a particular program on tape. I'm glad to loan it to her, but I might be giving her programs I still haven't watched. ShowStopper makes dumping a show to tape a breeze. It doesn't control the VCR, but if I'm laying off a copy of ER for her, before I go to bed, I just set the VCR to record for an hour and the tape is done for her in the morning. It even puts up a slate with the show synopsis show you can see which program you have before you watch it. Instant access is another terrific feature of this box. You want to find a show you've recorded? Push one button and scroll thought the alphabetically sorted list and select your program. If you get interrupted while your watching it, jump out, watch the other show and when you're ready to come back, POW you're right where you left off. You're not rewinding a tape and scanning through it hoping you'll find the show you wanted. You wait 1-second to get to where you're going. The channel guide is terrific. You can easily navigate to any show playing now or a week from now and set up a record event. Or you can just watch TV and pause it at will. Very handy feature for phone calls or bathroom breaks. I intentional pause a show and then come back to it so I can blast through the commercials. With MyReplayTV.com I can set a show to record from the web. If I think of a program I want to record, I just jump on the web and program it. Then next time the box calls in, my program event is downloaded and added to the schedule. The web interface is very similar to the ShowStopper. So no learning curve. Brilliant! Did I say I loved the box? I do, it gives your TV back to you. Buy one.
Rating: 
Summary: Unreliable
Review: Mine has failed for the second time in two years. I bought an extended warranty, so I could box it up and send it back to the repair shop in Illinois AGAIN, but this year I bought a new, pre-formatted replacement hard drive, and installed it myself. The recorder now has 120 hours of recording capacity versus the original 30 hours.
Rating:
Summary: Best Gadget Ever!
Review: It is so great to not have to tied to the schedule set by the networks. Furthermore, an hour long TV program can be watched in about 45 minutes when you skip through the commercials. The only drawback to the unit is the lack of a fan. I found that it gets extremely hot when in my stereo cabinet, even with a few inches of space on all sides and top. By keeping it on top of the cabinet it runs MUCH cooler. The only problem with this is you can hear the whine of the hard disk. Thankfully, it is not so loud as to be more than a minor annoyance. I don't ever plan to be without a DVR again!
Rating:
Summary: Long-term Reliability Poor?
Review: Replay TV is really the coolest thing to hit the TV market in quite a while but the reliability of both unit & remote is not great... We've had this "TV enhancement" for about 2 years and it's down right now. On the good side, TV watching has been completely under our control, including elimination of network broadcast timing/day, etc as well as the magic "replay" and "skip over the silly bits" buttons!! Despite the constant useless messages about "call failures", clunky data entry (keypad select/click vs a REAL keyboard) and the crummy image quality, the system is worth every penny ... Online connectivity to your box is also super cool, letting you tweak the record settings when you're away. ... Enjoy it if you have one!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This gizmo will change your life! At least the TV part of your life anyway... I have had one for over a year now and have never regretted for one second buying one... it is hands down the most amazing gadget you could own. What I love is I have searching for themes of shows I want to watch for instance... Irish or Ireland, Occupational Therapy, etc and it goes and looks at every single program that might have those words in it's description and records it... you could do the same for actors names, singers etc. If you want your TV to always have something on that you want to watch, when you want to watch it... then order this because that is exactly what you will get!
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