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ReplayTV
TiVo
Replay Networks 2001 Digital Video Recorder

Replay Networks 2001 Digital Video Recorder

List Price: $699.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ReplayTV really does change the way you watch TV!
Review: It sounds like mindless marketing hype, but ReplayTV really does change how you watch TV... you can tell it to search for shows in the next two weeks via a keyword and it'll tape them all for you!

the 20 hour version is a little limiting, but as long as you're careful budgeting your space, you can have several shows sitting ready to watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: love my replay tv
Review: Now that I am using and my replay tv I can see that it would even be worth $10/month to pay for the service. But with replay it's free! And even if the thing breaks down in two years and I have to buy another one, I'm sure I will because I'm hooked on it. I love watching the best of what's on tv exactly when it's convenient for me to

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Need more disk capacoty
Review: I echo the favorable comments of all the other reviewers in saying that this is the best way to watch TV. I've had my unit for about 10 months, and it has truly changed the way that we watch television. The main benefits for me are the time shifting, especially the ability to start watching a program late, while the unit continues to record to the end; access to late-night and weekend programs that I otherwise would have missed, and the 30 second skip button that reduces commercials to only a mild annoyance. The limitation for me all comes down to disc capacity. I have the 2000 unit, for which I paid [a considerable amount]... the penalty of being a new adopter. it allegedly has 10 hours of recording time. The problem is, I watch on a 50 in. big screen TV. This makes the picture quality at standard speed unwatchable. Medium speed is okay, as long as I don't do an A-B comparisons, but it does have problems during football games as the sidelines become pixelated due to the video compression. Unfortunately, the 10 hour disc doesn't allow me to record and entire football game at high-quality.

Though I think I'm pretty good at budgeting my remaining disc space, using guaranteed recording sparingly, it seems I'm always having to make decisions based on remaining space. I can't record at the highest quality, I can never get more than one football game on the unit, and to do that need to forego other shows.

I have been disappointed in the company's response to my particular problem. They now have 20 and 30 hour units at prices well below what I paid. I have been told that my unit, and the "lifetime" subscription to the Replay network have no trade-in value. Though the original sales literature promised that the hard drive capacity would be upgradable, either with an internal or external 2nd Drive, recent queries to the company have found that such an upgrade is not yet on the calendar. Meanwhile, I'm hooked on the technology, but can't justify junking my old unit and buying a higher capacity unit now. For those contemplating a purchase, I recommend buying the largest capacity you can afford, and then sit back and let it change your viewing life.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Replay misses the target...
Review: Not being so technically sophisticated, I decided to try Replay (the lower price w/o a subscription was appealing). Unfortunately Replay did not live up to my expectations...

1) Since I don't live in a major city, I wound up paying for the nightly call in...Someone suggested unplugging the unit every other night to save money...this is just silly...

2) I mistakenly thought that this pvr made suggestions and could learn what I liked...alas, I realized afterward that was TiVo...TiVo looks at what you have recorded in the past and records other things that have similiar themes...that is a great idea...

3) I decided to check in some local stores to get some tips on using my machine best...no local stores carry the unit...as soon as I said "Replay," they said, "Oh, you mean TiVo!" They assured me that TiVo is the standard...

I'm not saying Replay doesn't work, but TiVo appears to have better feature, free calls, and the stores are sure that TiVo is the standard...

My suggestion, skip Replay...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Must have. Don't get TiVo
Review: First off TiVo and Replay are both great products. I won't go into what's great about them, but when I was buying them, I couldn't find a good review to tell me which is better replay or TiVo. When I got ReplayTv I was a little concerned because I read some bad things about it as compared to TiVo. The main reason I got it over TiVo is because it doesn't have that ball and chain $10 a month charge TiVo has which adds up to $120 a year. The bad things I heard about Replay were a loud fan (Which I couldn't hear at all really. If I turned everything off I heard a small tiny relaxing hum, but I couldn't really tell if it was coming from my cable box or the replayTv) And someone said that the replay box calls long distance on his phone(I had the option of 3 to 5 local numbers in my area). Some people also said that the software on TiVo is better, I don't really know, but Replay updated their software, and it will download the latest version of their software for you free. Also they say the remote is a better on TiVo. I really liked the remote on the 2020, I didn't even need the instruction manual to figure it out, and TiVo doesn't have the 30sec commerical skip which is very useful. As far as features and software record time and quality, I think they are both about equal, each have their strong points and the differences are not noticable. I personally think that replay has better features. But with ReplayTv your not stuck with that ball and chain $10 monthly bill.

So if your choosing between the 2, I say buy ReplayTv

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Everything I want when I want it!
Review: I've had my unit for 24 hours now and I can already see that it have a much more radical effect on the way I watch television that I thought it would.

Picture quality is good at standard quality (20 hours), excellent at medium quality, and indistinguishable from commercial video tape at high quality (no DVD player to compare it to). I didn't realize just how big a deal the ability to time shift programming would be to me. Sure, I expected to take advantage of the ability to start watching Law & Order from the beginning 20 minutes after it started (once I got the kids to bed), but I didn't realize just how much good stuff I was missing out on that airs late night.

My only wish would be for a time-channel-duration recording option from time to time, say to catch a sporting event that may run long compared to the listed times.

Other than that, this unit is nearly perfect. The best [money] I ever spent on a piece of home entertainment equipment.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 2020 vs. 3020
Review: I heard how terrific Tivo was so I decided I would purchase it. When I got to the store I asked the salesman to show me how it works. I'm pretty good technically but I found Tivo's interface to be frustrating so I decided not to get it. Later I heard about Replaytv so I went to. . . check it out. I found it to be way better than Tivo. The interface is much better (I also heard that Cable TV is suing Tivo for stealing their interface). Anyways I'm definately getting a Replay. My question is which would be better. The 2020 because (as I read here) it doesn't have copyright protection or the 3020. What is the difference between the 2.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: REPLAY TV DEFECTS
Review: Just bought a Replay TV. The first unit has a defective harddrive. Replay techs stated there are lots of the 2020 models that aredefective. A majority were sent to Amazon.com! nice to hear that. But with a bit of hold time on the phone Amazon.com shipped another one to me overnight air. Customer service is outstanding on amazon and replay tv. P.S. The rumour about macrovision and not being able to record FOX is absolutly false. The macro vision only applies to dumping from TIVO or REPLAY TV to your VCR. It records on replay tv just fine. It looked great while it lasted! I recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy a ReplayTV - all models are great
Review: ReplayTV is the best invention since the TV. Contrary to the comment I just read about FOX, ReplayTV records everything you want it to. Stations aren't broadcasting so that things can't be recorded.

Amazon.com is great place to shop. Buy a ReplayTV here; you have 30 days to decide if you like it. I'm getting my dad one for Father's Day.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Replay is the Best!
Review: I personally, looked into both ReplayTV and Tivo. Replaytv is far more "me" than Tivo. I have quite a few reasons for this, as well as some problems I see with Replay and things that I have found to work around these problems.

1) Replay doesn't try to guess my viewing habits. I watch a lot of different things (i.e. Buffy the Vampire Slayer to a documentary on whales) that I don't know how something would guess my viewing habits. With Replay I can set up _my_ own channels and have Replay find the shows _I_ want to watch, not the ones _they_ think I want to watch. 2) No monthly or lifetime fees! This is great b/c I have a bad habit of forgetting about bills and not paying them on time. With Replay, I never have to worry about missing a monthly payment. 3) The QuickSkip feature. I don't have to press the fastforward button to get through two minutes worth of programming that I don't want to see (this is great for storylines on soap operas that you may find boring), I can just skip ahead 30 seconds as many times as I need. 4) I am very nontechnical, so Replay is great for me. With just a couple of buttons I can set up recordings in a matter of seconds. I have neverlearned how to program a VCR, it took me about 10 minutes to learn Replay. I also can save anything to VCR tape quite easily. This is great :)! 5) I've had to call the technical support people at Replay a couple of times (again, refer to #4 about my nontechnical aspect of my nature *grin*) and they have always been extremely helpful. I've never called Tivo, but I definitely count this as a bonus for me. It's bad to feel stupid about something already and have someone else make you feel dumber than you already do. 6) I love the huge amount of pause time you get with Replay. Sometimes one of my roommates will want to talk to me or something and it will last for hours, or I decide I need to run to the gas station or store. This pause for a long time works beautifully for me.

Problems: 1) I know a lot of people have complained that 20 hours was not enough...and were afraid of using all their space on their replay. Workaround: Schedule each weekly show you're recording to only keep one episode. That way you don't have 5 episodes of Friends cluttering your hard drive. Also set things you don't really mind missing if you need to as nonguaranteed. This will help a lot.

2) Toll calls for the nightly dial up. Workaround: You don't need the update every night. Simply unplug the Replay every night, then leave it plugged in on the 4th or 5th night. Or leave it unplugged every night (the phone jack of course) and plug it in once a week or twice a week to do a hard boot. The calls will be longer...but in the long run it saves b/c the total amount of time of nightly calls was more expensive than the total amt of calls every 5 nights or so.

These are just my thoughts and ideas on the Replay. Let me tell you though, once you have it, you'll never want to go back to watching tv without it. You'll be other places and be bummed that you can't pause the tv!


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