Rating: 
Summary: Absolute worst customer service
Review: 3 hours on hold and nobody ever picked up the phone, need I say more. It is good when it works. I am currently looking in to getting TIVO!
Rating: 
Summary: Fine, but don't connect by phone
Review: A glitch with this otherwise very useful toy is that once the modem has connected to the ReplayTV service, it won't let go of the phone line. You have to plug it in at night, then unplug it in the morning if you want to use the phone line for anything else (and who can afford a separate phone line to make one call a day?). Tech Support, which is often unavailable and claims that a fix is "coming" and "in the works," is hardly to be believed, as it's been this way for months and months. Software modems are not a new technology and one begins to wonder if 4504 owners are going to simply be left to deal with this problem as newer models emerge.
One other little annoyance: SonicBlue uploads an ad for another product to serve as a screen saver. This kind of unasked-for advertising is a bit of an affront after you've paid for the machine and paid for the service.
Other than that it's a very useful device, for the most part a big improvement over the old VCR.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Support in the World!
Review: BUYER BEWARE: If you ever have a problem, there is very poor support. If you activate a unit using the monthly fee, there's no way to deactivate it via the web. If you can get through to the support number (most days you get a message saying "We are experiencing high call volumes -- please try again later" and a hangup), count on at least several hours before you can talk to someone. Email gets an automatic response. Of the 10 or so emails I have sent, I have yet to get a response by a human. The automatic responses are all but useless if you have a problem that isn't covered by the FAQs.My advice: STAY AWAY FROM ANY SONICBLUE PRODUCT.
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect but better than 4 Stars!
Review: Commercial Advance - *
Watching Baseball games in half the time - *
Never missing Eastender (for my wife) - * (at least until BBC America make it disappear / go to pay per view)
Pause live TV when the kids want to show you something - *
Watch something recorded whilst recording - * See - more than 4 stars. Downside - sometimes shuts recordings off "early" - and I haven't found a way of recording + 1H apart from making a manual recording. The blue light on the front is too bright.
Rating:
Summary: CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR - A SHOCK FOR NEW REPLAY 5160 OWNERS
Review: FIASCO this makes these nuts look bad. - Unit not working, called for help on Tues Dec 16th Tech1 at Sonic Blue said the unit would need to be reset and we would not have this problem again. That evening Tech2 at Sonic Blue said it was a problem on their side. Wed we could not get through on hold 4.5 hours and disconnected. Thurs. Tech3 at Sonic Blue said they were still having problems on their side, then said the unit was defective, his supervisor, said it was them, then the unit.
Over the course of 4 days, we were on hold over 7 hours, spent over 2 hours trouble shooting with Sonic Blue and had Sonic Blue flip-flop on where the problem is, first it is them, then our unit, then the service, then our unit. Whatever reason it really is, it appears that the service and the unit are defective. We will be ordering a TIVO unit.
Rating:
Summary: it looks nice but doesn't work
Review: First off, I was going to go with TIVO until I found this unit. Open box with rebate along with it made it too irresistabel to pass up. Plus the subcription fee is only 9.99, much cheaper then TIVO when you think about having for a year. I was also drawn to this model becuase of the ethernet port and digital out. THe only ones to have this when I purchased it. Let me tell you, setting it up was a bit of a hastle, First I plugged it my ethernet cable in and couldn't get it to recognize, after about 30 minutes i tried it with the phone line, here it dialed out and finally I was able to set it use the ethernet port. I think mine had this becuase it used phone jack before when it was a display model. Ohh well, my only other gripe is that I use this DirecTv and well it does not get any of the pay-per-view listings or sport listings, this is more on part of ReplayTv service offering then with the actual player, still a major gripe on my part. But the listings are easy to navigate, to find movies it's great, everything is so simple to understand that my GF could use it with out my instructions. I've seen tivo and really like ReplayTv's setup. Also the best feature is really the commerical advance, you would think it wouldn't make a big deal if you just had to fast forward it manually, but with just a quick skip of a second and your back to watching the show that just left for commerical break, no work from you. Obviously this feature is only avaiable on a recorded show. But now when I watch a tv program, commericals do bother me now. It really spoils you. Why it's not a 5 is becuase of the listing problem wtih direcTv. Also, the Digital out will not get you a 5.1 sound output. Beucase there is no digital in, and you can't receive a digital sound over coaxial cable w/o inputting it first to into a digital receiver, you can't get a true digital signal. I'm really not sure why they even put this option in. Good for the price and the menu is really slick!
Rating:
Summary: Great for a moderate TV watcher, with cutting edge wants
Review: First off, I was going to go with TIVO until I found this unit. Open box with rebate along with it made it too irresistabel to pass up. Plus the subcription fee is only 9.99, much cheaper then TIVO when you think about having for a year. I was also drawn to this model becuase of the ethernet port and digital out. THe only ones to have this when I purchased it. Let me tell you, setting it up was a bit of a hastle, First I plugged it my ethernet cable in and couldn't get it to recognize, after about 30 minutes i tried it with the phone line, here it dialed out and finally I was able to set it use the ethernet port. I think mine had this becuase it used phone jack before when it was a display model. Ohh well, my only other gripe is that I use this DirecTv and well it does not get any of the pay-per-view listings or sport listings, this is more on part of ReplayTv service offering then with the actual player, still a major gripe on my part. But the listings are easy to navigate, to find movies it's great, everything is so simple to understand that my GF could use it with out my instructions. I've seen tivo and really like ReplayTv's setup. Also the best feature is really the commerical advance, you would think it wouldn't make a big deal if you just had to fast forward it manually, but with just a quick skip of a second and your back to watching the show that just left for commerical break, no work from you. Obviously this feature is only avaiable on a recorded show. But now when I watch a tv program, commericals do bother me now. It really spoils you. Why it's not a 5 is becuase of the listing problem wtih direcTv. Also, the Digital out will not get you a 5.1 sound output. Beucase there is no digital in, and you can't receive a digital sound over coaxial cable w/o inputting it first to into a digital receiver, you can't get a true digital signal. I'm really not sure why they even put this option in. Good for the price and the menu is really slick!
Rating:
Summary: why?
Review: I don't believe I can ever live with out one now.
Rating:
Summary: Major Disappointment
Review: I just returned my 4508 for a refund, so consider the source. One day out of the box, my machine died. I returned everything and, two weeks later, received my repaired unit. Then, I noticed that the Commercial Advance feature wasn't working. "Well, your replacement unit came with the old software. We will put you on the list for the latest version. Can't say when it will be available, but should be downloaded to your unit in two weeks or so." Huh? When my ReplayTV worked at all, I found it 'okay'. Picture degradation was significant. I used the same cabling as for my VCR. I found the signal throughput was significantly worse for the ReplayTV. Software was very user friendly, and, on the one day when it worked, the Commercial Advance feature was quite good. The general idea of ReplayTV is good, bordering on great. But for [the] total cost..., I expected much better performance and service. Since I have yet to get my refund, my 'divorce' isn't final....
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT
Review: I labored over which unit to buy, Replay or Tivo? I went for the Replay because it [is less to purchase and has a lower monthly fee]. What a good call, Replay delivers! What I have read about both machines is interchangable, but the real prize is the commercial skip(Tivo does not have skip). The two most used fuctions for my family is the pause button and the commercial skip button. You will not go wrong with Replay.
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