Rating: 
Summary: RUN - Don't walk...
Review: I would suggest you add this product to your basket now. ReplayTV has changed the way I have watched TV for almost 3 years now. I purchased one of the original ReplayTV's from Amazon back in 1999 and have never, ever been sorry. Now with the addition of the 5000 series I couldn't be happier.The new 5000 series is generations ahead of TiVO. Broadband connectivity, Commercial Advance, myreplaytv.com, and an unmatched viewing experience are all innovations by ReplayTV and SonicBlue. I have found that the SonicBlue team has been very responsive to my calls and questions. Yes, there is some hold time, but no more than when you call your bank or cable company! I echo all positive reviews of this product and would NEVER be without one for as long as I watch TV! Don't settle for more expensive wanna-bes - purchase this product and I promise, you will never watch TV the same again!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT TIME SAVER!!!
Review: Replay TV is the best time saver! I can watch a 60-minute prime time show in 40 minutes by skipping commercials! It's made it worth having premium cable channels since I can now plan on recording movies and shows I may miss if I'm not in the house! I heartily recommend it to ANYONE that wants to make the most out of their cable bill and their time!
Rating:
Summary: Why would you watch TV any other way?
Review: I was skeptical when I first heard about ReplayTV but had to give it a shot. Four units later, I'm not sure how I ever watched television before. With ReplayTV you are in complete control of what you watch and when you watch it. In a nutshell: Phone interruptions: Hit pause and resume when you want. Missed something: Back up and watch it again - normal speed or slow motion Hate commercials: They're gone in your recorded shows thanks to Commercial Advance. Is it perfect? No. It misses a few but it catches about 95% or more. Love commercials: Just turn Commercial Advance off. Scheduling: Couldn't be easier. Bring up the channel guide, hit record, you're done. You'll never miss a show again. Share shows between multiple units: Have more than one unit and a home network. Record on one unit and watch on another even while someone is watching something else on the other unit. Screen Saver and Slide Show: Upload your digital pictures to your ReplayTV to have a personal screen saver or slide show. A great way to organize and view all those pictures. I've become so addicted to both pause and instant replay that I find myself trying to do the same to the radio in my car. This just scratches the surface of what you can do. There's a lot more waiting for you. Is ReplayTV perfect? Not yet but SONICblue appears to be quickly fixing minor glitches. Is ReplayTV the perfect way to watch TV? Absolutely. It's perfection! Try it and you'll never go back.
Rating: 
Summary: poor product, poor support
Review: In the 3 days I owned this, I had the following problems: 1.Screen would suddenly go blank with erroneous error message "program not available" 2. when trying to record abc, unit recorded nbc but indicated it was recording abc 3. not compatible with sports package such as directv center ice 4. I spent one hour on hold but never got to talk to customer support to get help clearing these problems up some things are just not ment to be- I think an integrated unit of satelite- digital recording might be better- beware if you buy this product and it does not go perfectly- you probably won't get help troubleshooting from the company and the retail outlets seem to be bewildered too.
Rating:
Summary: super time saver
Review: TV watching at our house is not the same with the Replay. We no longer watch commercials. And the fact that it was designed to be put on a home network with dedicated Internet access really shows in it's functionality in fours areas: 1. The ethernet network jack connects you to the Internet and allows you to set recordings up just by logging into my.replaytv.com. No more going home for lunch because you forgot to set the vcr. Just login to the web and tell your replay what to record. 2. The guide and firmware updates are downloaded over the web so no need for a phone line. 3. With multiple Replay's, that network jack allows you to stream from one unit to another. So set up a family room unit to record movies and the bedroom unit to record sitcoms. Want to watch a recorded sitcom in the family room that the bedroom unit recorded? Just select the show on the bedroom unit and it's streamed in real-time! No waiting for a file transfer. Even better is extracting the recorded videos off of the Replay to your PC over the network jack and burning them to DVD-R or VideoCD instead of archiving to VHS tape. 4. Send shows to your friends. Missed a show that you forgot to record? Just go to the web and ask someone who got the show to send it to you over the internet! As for commercials, they are skipped 100% of the time for a majority of programs. Seems like it's more dependent upon the network or TV station then the Replay detection commercials. For example, This Old House Classics on HGTV are always perfect. But commercials during This Old House Classics on the local UPN station are sometimes missed. The show's the same. Just the way the station cuts to and from commercials. Many people who are familiar with the DVR market are amazed what you can do with the ethernet jack and that the Replay doesn't cost anything more than other DVRs. They're amazed that so many more features don't add to the price.
Rating:
Summary: Some pros, but lots of cons
Review: ReplayTV 5000 pros: * internet show sharing
* streaming shows between other ReplayTV 5000s on your home network
* commercial advance can automatically skip most commercials
* remote scheduling over the web Things to be aware of: * commercial skip isn't completely reliable. It can fail to skip some commercials, and it can mistakenly skip parts of an actual show. I find I have to turn it off more often than I'd like.
* internet show sharing takes from 8-24 hours to send a 30 minute show at common broadband upload speeds. It's not something you'd want to have to use routinely to get a show the ReplayTV missed, and thanks to it's convoluted recording system ReplayTV can be annoyingly good at missing shows.
* calls to fetch remote scheduling requests made with it's web scheduling feature, MyReplayTV, only happen once a day even when using it's hooked via broadband, and the web interface won't even allow you to request shows that air before 6am the next day so you can't make last minute requests.
* only 4 days of trial use before the recorder disables everything, even channel changing and playback of shows it had already recorded. Make sure you don't set it up until you have time to try it out.
* despite having progressive output and a digital audio output, ReplayTV supports neither HDTV nor digital audio recording. It has no inputs for digital audio or video, only plain old NTSC 4:3.
* slow search features. searches on ReplayTV take minutes, while searches on Tivo take seconds. ReplayTVs search capabilities are also more primitive and less versatile than Tivos, and don't find as many shows because ReplayTVs guide data is less detailed.
* sluggish user interface. User interface and other functions respond more slowly than Tivo or even previous ReplayTV models.
* primitive recording control. It can't automatically ignore repeats, doesn't have a multi-level recording priority system. Reasons to avoid ReplayTV: * very poor system for managing recordings. ReplayTV provides no authoritative list of what will record like Tivo's to-do list does, and it's ability to warn you of conflicts in advance and let you control them is crude for some kinds of shows, nonexistent for others. It's system for resolving conflicts is complicated without being powerful, making it difficult to predict and time consuming to manage.
* wasteful disk management. ReplayTV requires you to "block out" space for shows. Make the blocks too small and you risk shows being deleted or not recorded even if the disk has space to keep them; make the blocks too big and you run into limits on how many shows you can schedule, even if the shows will get watched and deleted before they ever fill the disk.
* stability problems: ReplayTVs software updates have been getting less stable of late. Crashes, lockups, freezing video and reboots are not uncommon. I've tried two 5040s in a month, both crashed every 2-3 days on average, and so far one recording was lost to a crash. Both 5040s have suffered from sometimes severe bouts of freezing, pixellation, and stuttering or looping audio. This alone would have knocked it down to zero stars if that was an option. For more detailed lists of pros and cons search for comparison sites like pvrcompare.com or egotron.com/ptv.
Rating:
Summary: Poor product
Review: All good points were mentioned by the previous reviews. now bad points. -This product is not for anyone without some knowledge of computer. Forget about it if you don't have a broadband. -support from the maker is always substandard. For example, the maker's website was in worse design. I was unable to locate the image transfer program needed by 5040. Why not include a CD with the program in the package(my point of not user friendly)!!!! -while the unit is recording, the tv screen just blank out. How about displaying RECORDING is in progress.. -two-four seconds delay while switching channel:) -output from the first video degrade the image. I thought the unit screw up. and indeed something WRONG with the first vidoe output. Quality control!!! Overall impressional is a low quality product with lot of NEAT features but leave most people having NO IDEA what and how to make use the features. After using the 5040 for one week, dispite many shortcomings of the unit, I keep the 5040 because it changes my tv waching habit. I don't waste time on TV commercial. The best advice for shoppers is to try it out, return it for full refund if it doesn't work in your situation. This is the second weeks using the 5040. I DOWNGRADE the unit rating from 3 stars to 1 star. THe build-in TV turner failed to tune to 7% of the cable tv channels from my cable tv provider. Problems began with the unit. First the unit reboots during recording or playback if overloaded by repeating remote control commands. THe unit failed to record schedule shows. 5040 fails to performs it job! Good advice is try it for 30 days to make sure it work for you.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the single best product I've EVER owned!!!
Review: If you watch television, even a little, then you simply must have this product. Won't be around for an episode of your favorite show? No problem, just press "Channel Guide", scroll through the listings and, after you've found the show, press one button to record . . . et voila! You'll be enjoying the show AT YOUR LEISURE. Just missed that 60-yard touchdown 'cause you went to the 'fridge thinking nothing would happen? Never fear, simply "rewind" the game a few seconds (the unit is ALWAYS recording the show you're watching -- even when you haven't set it up to record!). Or maybe you missed a few seconds of dialogue . . . an "instant replay" is just a button press away. Or what if you want to find a show on a subject that interests you -- like, say, WWII? ReplayTV can, by keyword search, find all shows on the subject you specify within the next ten days. The SonicBlue folks have created a truly fabulous machine, one that is significantly more reliable and functional than its competition. Its features are too numerous to list here. I own a lot of tech gear (including a prior generation ReplayTV unit), and I have to say that neither my wife nor I could do without our ReplayTV RTV5040. Thanks SonicBlue!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, and it just keeps getting better
Review: I've been using ReplayTV units since their beginning, and I can truly say that they have totally changed how I watch TV. It's rare that I watch live TV anymore, since I can watch the same shows in less time without the commercials. Having the Commercial Advance feature really makes this unit far superior than the Tivos. The customer service people are superb, both via e-mail and live. I think the previous reviewer was way off-base with his bashing. What other company has personnel on an internet forum taking suggestions, giving solutions to concerns, and just listening. The units have been very reliable, and every few months you get surprised by software enhancements that make it better yet. Again, what consumer device do you buy that is routinely upgraded for free with new, improved software? The photo album screen saver always stops people in their tracks when they come over the house. And there is nothing like forgetting to record a show and being able to log onto the internet at work or on vacation and arrange for it's recording. The audio and video quality are great -- I watch everything through them these days. And the first time I forgot to record the season finale of one of my favorite shows, and was able to log onto Planet Replay and found someone who sent it to me, the unit paid for itself. I have friends using the unit with VGA outputs to their computer screens to get progressive output, and I modulate mine throughout the house so I can watch it anywhere in the house. With the network capabilities built into the unit, all this and more is possible. Basically, I'm thrilled with both the ReplayTV unit, and SonicBlue's dedication to listening to their customers needs. Two huge thumbs up for ReplayTV.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough hours in the day
Review: I find that I can watch the shows I want, when I want w/ReplayTV. It's fantastic! I can record the show I want to watch and simultaneously watch another show I already recorded. Unlike a VCR I don't have to wait for the program to end, rewind the tape and find the shows that were recorded.
ReplayTV provides a list of all the shows that have been recorded and allows me to view them easily and quickly. Even better, ReplayTV will skip all the commercials. I can watch the show from beginning to end without having to fastforward through the commercials. ReplayTV really helps me make the most out of the time I do spend watching TV. Thanks!
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