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Replay Networks 2003 Digital Video Recorder

Replay Networks 2003 Digital Video Recorder

List Price: $899.00
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Replay2020
Review: While the ReplayTV2020 is a great concept - it was too buggy for my taste. My unit had poor audio at every quality setting. After a number of phone calls and emails, i still don't know if a quality drop is normal, or if I had a bad unit. ReplayTV refused to exchange the unit because I had not bought it from them directly - fortunately Amazon is easier to deal with and has issued me an RA for a refund. In addition to the audio problems I found pixilation to be a problem at the standard and medium settings, and experienced a number of lock-ups. I also found the space management to be poor - it's basically up to the user to manage disk space. I would have lived with the glitches if the audio could have been straightened out. Guess I'll wait for the next generation.

Dwight

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: don't hesitate to buy it
Review: I have had my Replay for about two months now, and I don't remember how I was able to survive without it.

I almost bought a TiVo, but didn't, because Best Buy had a 15% restocking fee policy on any returned unit, and I thought it was quite possible that the unit wouldn't work with my cable box, and I didn't want to take the risk.

Amazon gives you a 30 day return policy, no restocking fee, so that was enough for me to choose the Replay. The price was essentially the same.

I can watch a lot of TV now in much less time - because I can fast forward or skip through commercials or parts of the show I am not interested in.

It is not perfect - there are clearly some potential improvements to be made in the remote and the software, and I would like to get some extra storage, but the good news is: the unit is upgradable, and surely the changes we want will become available in the near future!

Things I like: - live pause

- easy to set shows to record using the channel guide, nearly idiotproof

- watching shows from the beginning, even while they're recording

- watching any show already recorded, while you're recording another

- the fast forward and skip capabilities

- the theme channels

- the standard recording quality is plenty good enough for me

Things that need improvement:

- disk space management (they don't tell you what their algorithm is, so sometimes you will find a show deleted that you didn't intend; would be nice if they gave you more control over this)

- channel guide could be more clever (some errors in it)

- doesn't have slow motion and frame advance capability

- no way to advance to a particular point in a show (say, 45 minutes in) - you just have to FF to the point (which is fast)

- can't trim shows - to keep the 10 minutes of a two hour show that you really want, say

- can't set it like a VCR to, say, record channel 15 for 15 minutes starting at 8pm - you have to go by the shows in the channel guide (although you CAN set it to record any length of time starting now if you toggle it over to the RF input...)

- would be nice to have a search capability for the channel guide - find the next occurence of a show with the the string 'lincoln' in the title - you can tell it to record shows like that but it doesn't give you any help actually finding them beforehand in the channel guide

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Behind Tivo
Review: This is a good product, I would say they will sell millions except at this point the competition (Tivo) is a great product. Remote on Tivo is MUCH better and the unit appears to have more reliable software and you can use it while it updates. Replay appears to lock up while updating.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not perfect but still worth it.
Review: I've had my replay TV for about four months now. When it first arived it had some real problems. The cable companies signal was not strong enough for the unit. But within a month Replay upgraded their software and the machine has worked near perfect since. I can hardly wait to upgrade the recording so I can record more shows. It makes watching regular TV difficult. Once you get used to quick skipping through the commercials you'll never go back to regular TV. Next year I'm going to get anohter for the TV in the bedroom.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ReplayTV vs. Tivo
Review: I have spent the past 30 days evaluating both a ReplayTV and a Tivo personal digital recorder and this is a brief review of my experience.

If Tivo did not exist, I would probably tell you that ReplayTV was the coolest gadget that I have ever used. However, Tivo has done such a superior job designing their user interface and their remote control that there is no comparison between the two, Tivo is the hands down winner.

ReplayTV's major problem is that they have no sorting system to help you pick the shows that you might want to record. To find the shows that you want to record you must painfully sift through an on screen channel guide one time slot at a time.

Tivo in comparison gives you numerous ways to choose shows that you might want to record. You can view the upcomming two weeks of programming in catagories such as Movies, Sports, by channel, or by show name. Tivo will even automatically record shows that it thinks you might like based on shows that you have rated with their thumbs up or thumbs down rating system. At first I was skeptical that I would like this feature, but after a week I found that I loved it. I would get home from work and get a whole list of programs that Tivo went out and recored by itself while I was sleeping and while I was at work.

With Tivo I can scan through hundreds of Movies on my premium channels and in minutes tell it to record all the ones that I want to record for the next two weeks. With ReplayTV it took me so long to do this that after the first few days I found myself only recording shows that were on a regular schedule, like Seinfeld or the X-Files.

ReplayTV basically has a frustrating user interface that forces you to constantly look at the remote control to do every simple task. With Tivo almost all of your options are on screen, so if your sitting in the dark while you are watching TV you don't have to strain your eyes on what button you need to push.

My ReplayTV seemed to often (at least once a day) have a playback glitch. The fast forward or rewind would get stuck and I would have to power the unit on and off to get it to stop.

One last thing, a major one for me, ReplayTV gives you no indication of where you are when you are watching a show. You can't tell if there is 10 minutes or an hour left. I was watching Shindler's List a few days ago and I found this extremely frustrating. With Tivo you get a very helpfull progress bar that appears on the bottom of the screen whenever you fast forward, rewind or press slow motion. (ReplayTV has no slow motion or single frame advance.)

I just returned my ReplayTV and Tivo 14 hour unit, I ordered a TIVO 30 hour unit. My advise is to buy a 30 hour unit, you will probably record everything in a higher quality setting resulting in about half the recording time of either units advertised recording capacity.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but...
Review: I have had my replaytv for two weeks now, and I like it very much. However... the replaytv is just about worthless without accurate tv listings. I have found errors in my listings and have tried, in vain, to get them changed. TV Quest (Tribune) does the listings for replaytv. When you go to their website (as I was instructed to do by replay) and send correcitons to TV Quest, all you get back is an automated response saying they are too busy to help. This is really pissing me off! Hopefully TV Quest and Replay will get their collective acts together. Until then, beware of this problem.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Repaly vs Tivo...
Review: Tivo I tried both and I like Tivo better the way the remote feels and it easier to browse through the programming.I wish that the DirecTV gride of programmings had the hard disk drive of the TIVO and it would be perfect combination ( It will be done I know SONY is working towards the integration of the TIVO and the DirecTv in their next generation of DSS Receivers.)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A great idea on paper...
Review: I read the press and marketing for almost a year, and then finally talked my wife into letting me buy one.

Well, the first thing I noticed was noticably poor video and sound quality.

After that I realized that they didn't have a slow-mo button on the remote. I called Customer Service, not a toll free number, and they told me that they don't have slow-mo. I also found out that they don't have frame forward and back. My $180 VCR has those features.

Then there were picture blackouts. I would watch a program, and the screen would just go black...

I finally gave up and returned the thing. I haven't tried the competitor's machine yet, but I asked for one for Christmas! ;)

Maybe they'll get it right next year, but for now, ReplayTV is a lot of hype.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: awesome machine
Review: It is pretty obvious that TiVo had some of their people get online and write some of those bad reviews. I have had this unit since day one of release and despite a few quirks here and there in the beginning....it has been great. Order it and treat yourself. You'll love it. By the way, TiVo I have too at work and it is not nearly as nice of a machine. Thanks

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: George Brett
Review: '99 Hal of Fame member George Brett was truly one of the greatest baseball players ever to paly third base. His lifetime batting average was over 300. ( I guess most of the reviewers in this section woul dhave preferred him to hit 1000.) He played 20+ years with a single organization. Replay TV is way, way in front of the tech revolution in home theater. HDTV is on the horizon for the next decade, but reviewers here want everything perfect and today.How do you enjoy TiVo monthly fees [which will rise, and then become akin to Pay per view]. This product is so far better than the BEST VCR in terms of user friendliness,accuracy, and picture that the abundance of critical comments is a joke. My unit is not perfect, but I have NEVER EVER been able to record a program on my VCR 4 days in advance with any confidence. Plus the tech support offered by Replay TV is 100% friendly and competent. Anyone wanting the perfect instrument, our the first 1000 batting average baseball player, stay with VCR and keep waiting for the sure thing.


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