Rating: 
Summary: Think again before buying
Review: SonicBlue, the company that owns ReplayTV, has filed for bankruptcy. There is little to no chance of getting the rebate that is offered on this product. What will happen to the service for the ReplayTV? Who really knows. Avoid.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than Tivo!
Review: ReplayTV is better than Tivo in many ways. Progressive scan output, auto commercial skipping, Ethernet & broadband, connectiviy, show sharing over the Internet, and on and on...
+ the monthly fees are cheaper!
Rating: 
Summary: Very good product -- could be even better.
Review: I've had my replayTV for a few weeks now connected to my cable-TV.
Here are my impressions:What I like with ReplayTV:
- Works great. Revolutionizes TV watching.
- Skips most commercials on major networks -- really nice!
- 30-second forward skip, to jump through commercials that weren't skipped.
-...BR>- Ethernet port allows me to download shows I wasn't able to watch onto my PC, and burn them as a VCD to see them later.
- Nice user interface.
- Nice channel guide.
- Appears to be the best DVR for the money. What could be better:
- Changing channels when viewing TV through the replayTV takes 5 seconds.
- System response lags a little -- I'm used to appliances that respond immediately.
- Can only record 1 show at a time -- I would be willing to pay a little more money to have a system with 2 or 3 tuners.
- When you've programmed several shows that overlap, it's difficult to tell which ones will get recorded and which ones won't. It's even more difficult to understand how to change their priority.
- Can't specify to record only new shows, and not re-runs.
- The progressive video output doesn't work with my JVC TV (although that may just be due to the TV)
- Doesn't always detect commercials on all channels.
- The system is finicky. If it works, it works great, but it clearly has bugs. It occasionally fails to connect at night with the phone line (this is discussed in many user groups), and has crashed a few times. Features I found useless:
- Storing and displaying pictures -- really too slow to be useable.
- The 5 (!) different video outputs on the rear of the device -- why do I care?
- The digital audio output -- which supposedly sounds just like the normal audio outputs.
- Sharing shows over the internet with other users -- it just takes too long to be practical.
Rating:
Summary: Company bankrupt, but product is GREAT!
Review: SonicBlue declared bankruptcy in late March 2003, with plans to sell the ReplayTV unit to the Taiwanese company that manufactures Dennon. What this means for buyers of this unit is unclear (at least to me). It's agreat product, has several advantages over Tivo, but I'd opt for the monthly subscription rather than lifetime and look around for SALES.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed in the sonic blue service
Review: To all Rec'd my first replay tv at christmas. it failed shortly thereafter. returned it and got a new one, i actually upgraded to 80 hours of memory. my first call to the tech support line was disappointing but what tech support line works well. about ten days ago the second unit failed. after a couple of hours on the phone it was determined that this unit too was defective. now i encountered the POLICY Replay/sonic blue will only ship a new unit if they receive the defective unit. a policy that might be sustainable for the first unit but not the second unit. THEY WOULD SHIP A UNIT IF THEY CHARGED MY CREDIT CARD AND CHARGED ME A FIFTY DOLLAR FEE. INCREDIBLE!!! charging my credit card marginally okay.. but the fee was not, and no one would consider waiving it. i have also exchanged a number of minding numbing emails with customer service.
on balance this is a computer product.. with a buggy operating system. it would be okay if they backed up their product. why buy it if it breaks. disappointed former customer
Rating:
Summary: The Only Way to Watch TV
Review: I bought a ReplayTV 5040 back in Dec .... The unit was real easy to set up. I originally used the phone connection, but switched to a hardwired ethernet connection since it was a long distance connection for the phone since I am in a small town in the high desert of So Cal. I have also used the software for the Macintosh to download the shows to my Mac since I now have it on ethernet. I have used that feature so that I can watch a "West Wing" show in Quicktime that I missed while on travel. (I can catch up while surfing the net). I guess there are ways to convert the MPEG2 files to VCD's, but that has not been that important yet. I have also used VirtualPC so that I can upload jpeg files. The ReplayTV is a very good slide show device too since I have nearly 1Gb of photos of the family on the unit. I am looking forward to the ability to upload my MP3 files (all legal from my CD collection) so I can use my Mac as a digital hub with the ReplayTV being by connection to my entertainment system (TV and stereo). The quality of the picture is good, even in standard mode, as long as you have a good signal. I use standard mode for everything except some sporting events and certain action movies. Normal dramas and TV shows work great in the 40 hour standard mode. Since buying the unit I have rarely watched live TV. I have the unit record all my favorite TechTV (Fresh Gear), CSI, Law & Order, West Wing, etc. It also keeps the latest 4 star movie that it finds on my cable TV channels. It is the best way to relax since you can get much more entertainment in the same amount of time with the commercial skip feature. (Commercial skip feature works most of the time, but depends on the cable channel. Some channels are 100%, but others are much lower success rate). The 30 second skip button is a next back up. Just push it a few times and it is like watching a pay channel. The unit does not change channels quickly like people have mentioned in other reviews, but I don't use the unit that way. If I am watching live TV (rarely), I either switch back to just the TV by itself or use the channel guide which does not have the long delay. Beware that there is an ignoring delay when using the remote at times. The delay is more ignoring when the unit is recording a show while you are watching another recorded show. It is not consistent when the remote is not as responsive. Sometimes no problem, other times it can take a couple of pushes of the remote button for the command to take. This is really the only reason I did not give it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: I love my Replay
Review: I got my Replay for Christmas, and I bought the lifetime subscription. So far, everything about using my Replay has exceeded my expectations. I have a couple friends that have Tivo, and I would say that this is better than Tivo. It's a million times better than a VCR that uses tapes. My setup time took about 70 minutes, mostly waiting while it downloaded the channels and program updates over the built-in modem. It came with clear instructions and a big, easy-to-read diagram. I thought it would be a lot harder to set up, but it was really easy. I have been taping my favorite shows, movies, everything. No more commercials, it's great. I watch all my sports using my Replay now. I can skip through half-time, and 2-minute timeouts during basketball games. It's really saved me time. The average 60 minute show has 18 minutes of commercials! There hasn't been much of a downside. My cable tuner is a little slow to change channels (takes 3-4 seconds), but that has been my only complaint. I recommend checking this product out if you know someone who has it. I warn you, once you've used it, you'll want to own it!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Unit/Big Service Issue
Review: Hi everyone. I had hoped that when I bought my ReplayTV 5040 that it would work fine. BUZZZ-wrong answer. It died on me about 6 weeks after I bought it. (Infinite reboot problem) Alright, no big deal, I'll just send it back. On January 27th I called technical support and after some troubleshooting and it was determined that I had to send it in. I was told that I would have a new unit 10 days after they got my unit. I sent it in and UPS delivered it to ReplayTV on January 31st. It was delivered at 10:09 AM and signed for by "Cooper."
Two weeks later I sent an email to technical support asking for a status report. No response. Two more days went by and I sent another email to which they replied with this cryptic quote: "Your RMA is in process and will be fulfilled as soon as possible." Not very helpful. After patiently waiting for nearly a month, on or around February 27th I decided that I should try to give someone a call, so I called in and they had no record of my unit or even me! The guy finally said he would have to put me on hold. I held for over 30 minutes and then got sent into his voice mail. I immediately called back and had to tell my story all over again. The new person I talked to was very polite, found my information and said she would "escalate my case." Great, I thought, finally! After more discussion she said I should have my unit very soon. I told her that I would like a confirmation email when the unit was shipped. March 6th rolls around and I still have not heard anything from anyone at SonicBlue so I called in again. This time I got a man who was sorry to hear about my case after I told him the story. This time he gave me a case number and told me the he would "escalate" my case to the supervisory level. I told him that I though that had already been done! He told me that it should now get some high level action. I ask him to send me an email when the unit has been shipped. Today is March 11th and I since I haven't received an email, I decide to call tech support and see if they can give me a status report. I happen to talk to the same woman that I spoke to on February 27th. She apologizes to me and says that my case has been "escalated to a higher level" and that she will check with her supervisor for the status. After about 10 minutes she gets back on the phone and tells me that her supervisor told her that the unit should have been shipped, but that they don't know for sure. (At this point I am taking everything they say with a grain of salt!) She suggests that I call back in two days and they should be able to tell me for sure if the unit has shipped. That is where things stand right now. I can't say that I can give any advice based on this report, but I thought people should be aware of the situation.
-------------- Epilogue: The day after I posted the above review I had an email exchange with other people at SonicBlue and they sent me a new unit 2nd day FedEx. Once I got to the right people they were very responsive.
Rating:
Summary: Does not work as advertised...
Review: Streaming from one unit to another using wireless (801.11b) does not work (choppy). Sending shows via internet to another machine does not work (4XXX's & 5XXX's incompatible). Watching one show and recording another with DirecTV satellite does not work. Tech support was horrendous - mindless robots with canned answers and lies galore ("We'll call you back tomorrow"). *Update* 4/22/03: My Replay 5040 unit died. It was 4 months old. I'm currently dealing with tech support to get a new unit. I wish I could get my service activation fee back and return my unit (not worth the frustration). *Update II* 4/28/03: I took my Replay to the SonicBlue hdqtrs. in Santa Clara, CA and had an engineer offer to take my unit, reformat the hard drive and apply the latest software release that would fix my "terminal reboot" problem. He told me it was a "known" issue and they were upgrading 500 machines nightly with the fix. I'm one of the lucky ones - I live seven miles from SonicBlue. Awesome product when it works - buyer beware! *Update III* 6/18/03: To clarify - I use and love this product daily - when it WORKS! Again, it does not work as advertised: program sharing via internet, wireless streaming, satellite boxes are hell with this unit and it does change channels S - L - O - W - L - Y with a satellite box. Please, if you have NOT tried these functions, don't say it works great. It should do EVERYTHING advertised - not just a few things. One reviewer suggested weekly plugging/unplugging the phone line to prevent the machine from locking up - I missed that .... suggestion in the owner's manual. You should not have to fuss with this thing for it to work properly! Oh yeah, the activation fees are going up for this product. ...
Rating:
Summary: If it worked, it would be great.
Review: I originally bought the ReplayTV because of the composite outputs and supposedly better picture. What a mess. First, I have regular cable (no other cable boxes) and it has problems tuning. I'll either get a blue screen saying that I don't subscribe to the channel, or I will get a fuzzy version of C-SPAN. If I change the channel a few times it will eventually tune in correctly. My cable is perfectly fine and the tuner on my TV doesn't have any problems. This tuning problem also happens when it records, so when I want to record a show there is about a 25% chance that it will record C-SPAN instead. On top of that, about every other night the box will hang when it dials up to the server. The only way to get the box working again is to unplug it and plug it back in. Any shows that you wanted to record while it was "hung" are not recorded. This thing should have a reset button on the front of it, I need to unplug it so often. I've emailed their tech support and cannot get anything but automated canned responses. If they work the kinks out this would be great, but right now all of the problems I'm having aren't worth the features. Buy with caution, and keep track of your 30 day return window.
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