Rating: 
Summary: Walk, Don't Run AWAY!
Review: Briefly, we were very dissapppointed. Attempted both Broadband and Direct connection on phone line and both failed. We consider oursleves technical people too. That being said, we would have continued to try but NO TECH SUPPORT! On hold for 2 hours once, 1 1/2 hours the next, and an hour the next.....and never did get through. Same with another Sonic Blue product, which was mechanically defective, but due to lack of support we took both products back and are now enjoying the competition's products.
Rating:
Summary: Similar bad experiences
Review: I completely concur with the negative postings recently added. In a nutshell, the issues I experienced are as follows:
- System freezes
- VERY slow response time to change channels
- Component video connections do not work - only able to use coax
- Customer service is horrible - I was on hold for over an hour to get through to an agent who did little more than confirm that the problems I am experiencing are known bugs with the 5000 line. I'm definitely returning the product, although I may give the previous model or Tivo a shot.
Rating: 
Summary: What they don't tell you...
Review: I just bought Replay TV after debating about which is better, TIVO or Replay TV. After just one day, I am confident that this is the best choice.
There are a couple of things that they don't tell you that you ought to know. First, when they say that there is 40 hours of record time, that is only if you choose to record at the lowest quality level. If you choose high quality, it gives you about 13 hours. I haven't recorded enough to know the difference in quality yet. Second, when you first sign up for the service, you have to connect over the telephone line for a long time. In my case, my Replay TV kept "timing out" because it was taking so long. Finally, in the middle of the night, I got it to work. Third, forget about getting any technical support. They don't answer the phone. I found some help on their website.
Other than that, Replay TV is the best invention of all time. The commercial skip is key. One thing that I didn't really know that you can do is rewind live tv. So if you are watching a football game, (and not recording it) you can still rewind the last play. Then, you can do slow motion, pause, etc...
Make sure that you have a phone jack near the unit. If not, buy one of the wireless jacks.
Finally, the best thing in my opinion about Replay TV that you can't do with TIVO is to trade shows that you have recorded with other people over the internet. You can actually hook up your replay tv to the internet, and share programming with any other Replay TV owner. Very cool if you miss a show and your friend records it.
Debate no longer, this is the best choice!
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Unsatisfied - I just returned mine - Don't Bother
Review: From the posted reviews, it seems like there are two outcomes for purchasers of the Replay TV. Either it works perfectly out of the box - and the user is ecstatic, or it fails miserably. No middle ground. I'm one of the latter. After spending two hours hooking it up (you will notice inconsistencies between the quick setup guide, the manual, and the onscreen instructions) and trying multiple alternatives for connecting, the picture quality was similar to watching something in sepia tone. I tried the first of four calls to Customer Support (was on hold for two hours without an indication of wait time, until I was disconnected - presumably because support hours were over. I tried twice more over the next two days (all prior to Christmas) and never could get through. On Christmas night, after 1 1/2 hours of hold time, I did get a person - after another 1 1/2 hours of troubleshooting, including being put back on hold on a number of occasions, the resolution was to send it back. (at my own expense, with a minimum 10 day turnaround time. It was clear that this turn-around time would not impact the normal 30 day return policy for Amazon.) At this point, I've decided I've invested far too much energy into a product (and company) which is not ready for the consumer market. For the limited time that I had it working, I would echo other reviewers comments about difficulties in changing channels, lack of knowledgeable support, and most aggravating -- the 4 day window for activating the product. If the product is not activitated within 4 days, not only does the channel guide features not work (which is understandable), but you will not be able to use the TV without disconnecting the device. I should also point out that customer support does not reply to emails either.
Rating: 
Summary: I am unimpressed
Review: We have digital cable hooked up using coax between all the components so I hooked up the DVR using composite cables. That way I could compare the 2 paths. I am really disappointed in the quality and performance and will probably return it. The problems are: 1) Noticeable degradation in image quality. I understand that when using the replaytv I am actually looking at a recorded signal but I thought the whole idea was that there would be so little degradation it wouldn't be noticeable. When viewed via the DVR, the images are quite fuzzy and everyone I've shown imediately notices. 2) The system is REALLY slow to change channels 3) It hangs periodically. I set it up to record from the VCR and when I tried to stop it, the system hung so I had to unplug it. 4) It takes forever to boot. I suppose this is one component you aren't supposed to turn off but even my old 8088 based IBM PC's booted faster than this. Overall, I am completely unimpressed
Rating:
Summary: Bad experience
Review: I would not recommend this product. On the positive side, setting up the recorder was not a problem. The on-screen recording system was also simple to use.
However, I experienced multiple episodes of the screen freezing. The only way to unfreeze the screen would be to unplug the product and re-install the product. This occurred multiple times and require 15 minutes of my time each freeze. When the controls worked, the response time was sluggish and made even changing channels frustrating. The commercial skipping mechanism only worked approximately 50 percent of the time. I tried to call the company, but I only got an answering machine. Perhaps the hard drive machine on my replay was faulty. Not being able to talk to a customer service rep, however, I simply returned the product. Would not buy from this company until improvements are made. (read the other similar experiences in this forum)
Rating:
Summary: Huge impact in my life
Review: I purchase replay tv and it is probably the first time in a long time that I was completely satisfied with a electronic product. All the features I could ever ask for. I would definitley recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Early impressions
Review: I went with the ReplayTV 5040 over the Tivo beacuse it seems to have more input/output options and better recording/playback quality. The unit comes with a great setup guide sheet so you can easily figure out what connections are what without crawling behind the unit. To me it's all about the connections. Here's some info for others who have those "illegal" universal decoder boxes (BLACK BOX). Black boxes DO NOT decode the channels the same way a covertor box does from your cable compay. Your cable company may decide to put MTV on channel 57 but the BLACK BOX will decode it on say channel 94. Guess what? When the unit dowloads the CHANNEL GUIDES from your area, it will not sync up correctly. You will be forced to manually set recording times for the channels and shows you want and bypass what the GUIDE says. Some channels to sync up corectly though, but it is a hassle. If there was ever a reason to go legit and start paying for cable service this is it folks. (Shame on me). To control a regular cable box (analog, digital) you will need to connect a wire called an IR blaster. The plugs in to the back of the ReplayTV. The other end is placed over the IR port on your cable box and sends it a signal to change the channel. THIS IS WHY THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT DELAY ON CHANGING CHANNELS. You can tweak how the unit interacts with your cable box by going to the code selection menu and hitting the ZONES button. This will let you manipulate delay and response times to help speed up channel surfing and adjust how quickly the REPLAY TV enters each number into the cable box. So far I have had some difficulty getting certain channels to work perfectly. ReplayTV is unable to control the volume levels also. I am forced to use the remote for my home theatre. AGAIN, never a better time to go legit and use an approved cable box. I bet these problems would then be corrected somewhat. I first setup the unit using the composite audio out to my home theater setup. This sounded OK. Then for fun a tried the optical digital output. What an improvement. It is not 5.1 digital dolby. But the sound quality is exceptionally clear using this method. If you have a cd player with an optical digial output, then this is the same clarity. You will hear alot more on the broadcasts in my opinion. Initial setup was 45 mins using regular phone line. Play back quality is great using high quality setting. Better than VHS Tape. If I am not mistaken, using the high qulaity exclusively leaves you with 11 to 13 hours of recording time. So keep in mind that 40 hours of recording time would be using the lower settings. Anyhow, I think 13 hours is still plenty of room to catch many shows. You might run into problems if the lower quality settings bother you and you like to record many shows all week and view them on the weekends. Buy with caution. I still think cable boxes and DVR need to more compatible and possibly incorporated for better channel surfing. Things may work better with DirectTV.
Rating:
Summary: Great product, lousy support
Review: The 5160 is my second ReplayTV unit. I also have a 4508 that I just love. My problem with the 5160 is that you have to download a humongous operating system update from SonicBlue's network before you can do anything with it, and SonicBlue's network isn't robust enough to handle all the download requests it seems to be getting this Christmas season. My connection kept timing out an hour or two into the download, and as a result it took me three days of trying to finally complete the setup process. Meanwhile, SonicBlue's tech support department was no help at all. Sometimes I couldn't even get through; other times the wait to speak to a representative was over an hour. I'm a fan of SonicBlue's products, but I'd hold off on the 5160 until SonicBlue works the kinks out. To capitalize on the holiday buying season, SonicBlue seems to have rushed these units out the door before they were ready.
Rating:
Summary: basically good product, but horrible customer service
Review: For the first few days the product worked fine, but after four days I was required to activate and pay the monthly fee. You would think that a rational corporation would make activation as easy as possible in order to get their money. Their website sent me in circles, so I phoned. After a half hour of recorded announcements, the phone disconnected, although I hadn't touched the speakerphone. After several similar problems, I finally got through on the last day. After arranging my payments, they told me that it would take 24 hours to activate and that I would not be able to use ReplayTv or record in that time. But it did not activate in 24 hours.After 2 hours of attempts I finally got through to them. I was told to press various buttons and that it would definitely activate in 4 to 8 hours. It didn't. So I called again and spoke to the supervisor, Jenny Johnson. I spoke to the supervisor three times, each time going through the usual aggravation. The third time she said I would be contacted the next day by a technician. I waited three days and then decided to return the set. I have seen terrible support and customer service before, but this was definitely the worst. I doubt that this company will last very long, and I think that all the users will be out a lot of money.
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