Rating: 
Summary: Internet Show Sharing Site Shut Down
Review: PlanetReplay, the site that facilitates the sharing of shows over the internet stopped that function on 1/16/03. The ethernet port still gets the program guide only. This is a BIG loss
Rating: 
Summary: A few rough spots, but well worth it
Review: I had been tracking the PVR's waiting for the price/performance to get down to a reasonable level. The 5040 came out at [a reasonable price] we decided to jump. I consider my self a techie - so I can tolerate some hitches as an 'early adopter'. I'll run through my experience: Price: The [month to month payment plan] was the kicker. I wasn't going to gamble a long term commitment on a new unproven technology/business. But for $10 month I can switch if something better comes along. Setup: Setup was a breeze. i already had my home network setup, and the 5040 just worked. Our cable TV subscriber was listed so the EPG setup was easy. Recording: The EPG is easy to use and setting things to record is straight forward. So far I haven't missed any shows. The 40 hour recording time advertised is at standard quality, you'll only get about 10 hours at high quality. For us, we ran out of room pretty quick. Standard is ok *if* your input signal is good. Unfortunately for me, most of the shows we watch are on our local CBS affiliate. For some reason this channel looks *awful* through the replay. if you check out the boards at planetreplay.com or avsforum.com you will find more complaints about the tuner/quality. I am probably going to switch to DirectTV, which should improve things. [update]
I know there have been complaints of poor quality throught the built in vidoe tuner. I was having problems as well with my local channel 6 (CBS) looking espescially bad (compression artifacts). The picture looks good through my VCR, but bad on the replay. Unfortnately a lot of the shows we wanted to record are on CBS. I was able to dramatically improve the quality by installing a 10db signal attenuator and an FM blocker on the feed to the RTV. I have an OpenHouse (Multiplex/ChannelPlus) video distribution amplifier which was causing the signal to be too strong on the shorter cable runs in my house. I bought a packet of fixed attenuators from smarthome online, a variable 0-20db attenuator and the FM blocker from radio shack. Probably cost a total of $20. Use the variable attenuator to dial in the amount, then use the corresponding fixed attenuator. The picture quality is now acceptable on channel 6, and really good on the other channels. this doesn't mean the RTV tuner is blameless - but before you throw your RTV out the window you should make sure your signal isn't too weak or too strong. It could be that MPG compression will cause a marginal signal to look *really* bad. [/update]
MyReplayTV.Com: I was not impressed by there 'remote programming' site. Shows i setup to record via the internet didn't always get to my Replay. Photo Transfer: The software didn't work at all at first, but I upgraded my computer from Win98 to XP and that seemed to fix things. Internet Sharing: This is a great feature, but as a practical matter it has its drawbacks. Its not the RTV's fault - most broadband ISP's limited upload speed. An average 1 hour show (~2GB of space) will take all night to transfer. But if you miss your favorite show its a great feature. Customer Support: I haven't had to deal with this yet. i have heard they are going through some growing pains right now. I heard that they moved the support offshore (India?) - which was a disaster and they are backtracking. I also think that they are a victim of their own success. Remember when AOL was overwhelmed with customers?
Rating:
Summary: A few rough spots, but well worth it
Review: I had been tracking the PVR's waiting for the price/performance to get down to a reasonable level. The 5040 came out at the sub $250 with rebates we decided to jump. I consider my self a techie - so I can tolerate some hitches as an 'early adopter'. I'll run through my experience: Price: The switch from $250 lifetime to $10/mo to month was the kicker. I wasn't going to gamble a long term commitment on a new unproven technology/business. But for $10 month I can switch if something better comes along. Setup: Setup was a breeze. i already had my home network setup, and the 5040 just worked. Our cable TV subscriber was listed so the EPG setup was easy. Recording: The EPG is easy to use and setting things to record is straight forward. So far I haven't missed any shows. The 40 hour recording time advertised is at standard quality, you'll only get about 10 hours at high quality. For us, we ran out of room pretty quick. Standard is ok *if* your input signal is good. Unfortunately for me, most of the shows we watch are on our local CBS affiliate. For some reason this channel looks *awful* through the replay. if you check out the boards at planetreplay.com or avsforum.com you will find more complaints about the tuner/quality. I am probably going to switch to DirectTV, which should improve things. [update]
I know there have been complaints of poor quality throught the built in vidoe tuner. I was having problems as well with my local channel 6 (CBS) looking espescially bad (compression artifacts). The picture looks good through my VCR, but bad on the replay. Unfortnately a lot of the shows we wanted to record are on CBS. I was able to dramatically improve the quality by installing a 10db signal attenuator and an FM blocker on the feed to the RTV. I have an OpenHouse (Multiplex/ChannelPlus) video distribution amplifier which was causing the signal to be too strong on the shorter cable runs in my house. I bought a packet of fixed attenuators from smarthome online, a variable 0-20db attenuator and the FM blocker from radio shack. Probably cost a total of $20. Use the variable attenuator to dial in the amount, then use the corresponding fixed attenuator. The picture quality is now acceptable on channel 6, and really good on the other channels. this doesn't mean the RTV tuner is blameless - but before you throw your RTV out the window you should make sure your signal isn't too weak or too strong. It could be that MPG compression will cause a marginal signal to look *really* bad. [/update]
MyReplayTV.Com: I was not impressed by there 'remote programming' site. Shows i setup to record via the internet didn't always get to my Replay. Photo Transfer: The software didn't work at all at first, but I upgraded my computer from Win98 to XP and that seemed to fix things. Internet Sharing: This is a great feature, but as a practical matter it has its drawbacks. Its not the RTV's fault - most broadband ISP's limited upload speed. An average 1 hour show (~2GB of space) will take all night to transfer. But if you miss your favorite show its a great feature. Customer Support: I haven't had to deal with this yet. i have heard they are going through some growing pains right now.
Rating:
Summary: SONICblue=bad customer service
Review: I bought this product based on the good reviews but it soon turned into a disapointment. The picture went in/out between color and B&W. The fan noise was VERY loud, more than enough to be a distraction. Best of all, the SONICblue customer support could never be reached, regardless of how much time spent on hold or time of day. This box has the features but they don't work and the company can't support the product.
Rating:
Summary: Great concept, Horrid support, Many report units failing....
Review: I guess it's my turn,
And I thought there was a "possibility" that the 5160's being a bit later (than the 5040's) were not going to RFH - guess i'm wrong again. Here I sit, listening to the "Thank you for calling, your call is very important to us, all of our representatives are currently assisting other customers, please hold on for the line for the next available representative" message. I called 800-993-5899 and it's my turn to wait and ponder. Geee - I was really enjoying watching that show, probably now gone forever. Now I get to spend hours on the line - to repack and ship (eventually after getting an RMA) - and to fight to get credit for the "lifetime" activation as it's been under a month. What a bummer. Well, I am getting off the merry-go-round. Cash back is the goal. I will "play again" after reading in this forum of joy and happiness in units with 6 months+ under their belt. Even then I would get a 2 year support contract. Anybody who wants a show sent from EDELSKE has my apologies - cant stop the reboot from hell. FAIRWELL WORLD OF REPLAY - BYE BYE COMMERCIAL ADVANCE. When you grow up I'll be back, but for now - it's just too much hassle and not worth the effort, grief, time on the phone, shipping bother, and worry about what the next one will bring. Others may choose to "swap" but for me, this is a TOY not an important item. I will miss it, but the VCR is reliable and "fast forward" will see me thru. BEST WISHES AND GOOD LUCK? (Hmmmm, that should not be needed with a half a grand+ device) and may your units work forever...........
Rating:
Summary: Tech support ... no answer!
Review: I tried calling tech support, I am on-hold forever (all afternoon). I am giving up.
Rating:
Summary: Remain Calm! The system works well.
Review: I had asked for a TiVo for Christmas. I received the ReplayTV 5040 instead. I was a little disppointed until I read the features. I kept the unit based on the features. The first couple weeks I owned the ReplayTV 5040 were a mixed bag of pleasant surprises and frustrations. Here is what I have discovered about the unit: 1) It works pretty darn well and the picture quality, even on Standard play back, is great. 2) It doesn't offer you programs based on your profile. It gets the zones and programs you want. Be specific with the unit and it will get you more TV shows than you can shake a stick at (or your remote for that matter). 3) Use one of the alternate phone #'s to access the network. I was having trouble getting my unit to not crash while it was connected to the programming server. Customer Service is terrible, but if you try this technique it will fix many programming related problems (like myreplayTV not being updated daily). The unit seems to get all my programs now with out any of the problems I was experiencing. I almost traded in my unit for a TiVo till I read that both company's have similar Customer Service Issues. 4) Take the time to get familiar with the unit. It's easy to use, but it doesn't work the way you would expect if you don't know what to expect (the descriptions of features are not always clear to the new DVR user, so expect a lingo learning curve).
Rating: 
Summary: MAKING LIFE EASIER
Review: Since we purcased this product life is a lot easier because now we can watch TV when we want to and how we want to without all the annoying commercials to put up with. With the 5160 it gives us 160 hours or over 26 VHS tapes available with just a few clicks and even if we cann't figure out if a program is a rerun our machine can and not waste our time taping and rewinding etc. It doesn't take up much space and very easy to operate. Thank you SonicBlue for this product.
Rating:
Summary: Replay rules
Review: Replay has worked, as advertised, from the minute I've taken it out of the box. I thought I might have a problem when it wouldn't record my satellite signal but it was operator error. After reading the owners manual (novel concept I know, I found that the S-VHS is input 2 and I had assumed it was input 1. Hooked it up to the phone for downloads (took about 20 minutes but then have you been on AOL lately?) and the guide and box were ready to go. Commercial skip is money! The box has so many features you begin to assume it can think for itself. My wife, a San Francisco 49er fan, was watching the recorded game against the Giants. Zipping through dead time, skipping commercials she caught up to the last 5 minutes of the game when it stopped! I had assumed Replay would stay with the game (it stayed with the three hour block listed in the guide) and so hadn't switched her over to the live game to watch the heartwrenching ending. I got no complaints (since the Niners won) so far.
Rating:
Summary: very disappointed with replay tv
Review: I recently bought this replay tv unit. I was very disappointed. When I was trying to set up the unit, it took very long. After trying various times, I finally got it set up, however, when i tried to watch tv, the screen kept freezing. I then called customer service, but could not get through. After trying for 4 days, i finally gave up and decided to return the unit. overall, this was a horrible experience. I will never purchase a replay tv unit again.
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