Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect, but pretty damn hip!
Review: I've had my Replay for about a month now. First thing, I can't tell you how sad I am to see that the price has dropped $200 since I plunked down $700+...but whaddya gonna do?I read a lot of other Replay owners saying that 'this box has changed my life' or some-such. I won't go that far, but it HAS made it possible for me to see many programs that are incompatible with my families schedule. Now I can watch "Politically Incorrect," which airs at 1AM in my market, absolutely painlessly. I never miss "The Sopranos" any more. I was getting a weekly dose of "Dilbert" before UPN yanked it last week, hopefully temporarily. When my kids are going to bed at 8PM, my wife can be assured she'll see all of "Ally McBeal." And my kids can always have a new episode of "Blues Clues" to enjoy. I use the Replay in conjunction with a Dish Network satellite system, and it's really nice to have the combined local and satellite channels in the same grid. Some users have mentioned the noise of the unit. I did notice that (we have ours in the bedroom) but: With the new software revision that came out last week, the hard drive spins down when not in use. It's now silent when you aren't recording or playing back. Good move on Replay's part. On the whole, it's a big step in the right direction. Now if I could get a $200 rebate...Replay could have that 5th star. <g>
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment is an understatement, Replay can't cut it
Review: First of the all, the unit can't have anything else near it because it has cooling vents on every side...I had to clear out a huge space in my entertainment center... Easy hookup, but no local number for dial-up! They say their is no subscription price, but I am gonna pay $60 a month because of nightly dial-ups! The machine kind of hums and whirs all day and night, even when it's not in use. If you care anything about annoying sound in your home theater, this machine basically ruins the peace and quiet. If you care about picture quality, then don't consider this a 20 hour unit, consider more like 14 hour since the lowest settings are pretty much unwatchable...if you own a t.v. 25 inches or larger, you can't watch a thing on the slowest speed. It tapes the t.v., it skips commercials, but that's about it. Not worth the nuisance. I'll wait for a bigger unit, a quieter unit, and I'd much rather pay $10 a month subscription than $60 to the phone company. I'll wait for a real electronics company to make a personal digital recorder...isn't Sony releasing something soon?
Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary, yes. Perfect, not yet.
Review: I'm on my third ReplayTV unit, the first two having been replaced under warranty. (the power supply in unit #1 failed shortly after purchase; the modem in unit #2 died not long after it was delivered.) The functionality and flexibility of this device is truly revolutionary...so much so that the faulty units are now forgotten. The machine's greatest feature is its abilty to "pause" live TV or repeat a line of dialogue. If you've ever said to yourself, "what did he say?" while watching 'The Sopranos', this machine is for you. Timed recordings are a snap, too...much easier than a VCR. One gripe: the machine degrades the signal coming from my cable. Not so, my satellite receiver. One more small gripe. It's impossible to retrieve an inadvertendly "deleted" program from the Replay Guide. I accidentally zapped a 'Sopranos's episode and was disappointed when I called tech support and was told there was no equivalent of "Control-Z" on the system.
Rating: 
Summary: Noise problem resolved
Review: This is an addendum to my prior review of the replay 2020. My only problem was with the ambient noise. Amazon replaced the unit (promtly and politely, I might add) and the new unit is barely audible. 5 stars -- great customer service amazon
Rating:
Summary: I want a second one
Review: If you even think you might want to get one of these just write out the check now. I studied all the features and finally decided to get a ReplayTV about 2 months ago. My VCR hasn't been on since. There are so many things I didn't even realize I was going to use. Many other reviews here tell about main features. Here's one I didn't even think about until we began using it regularly. Chicago Hope starts at 8pm in my town. The kids go to bed at 8pm. Unfortunately it's usually REALLY 8:15pm or later before they get tucked and we actually get to the TV thus missing the first few minutes. Now with Replay we purposely don't bother turning on the TV until 8:20pm. We know the show is recording and we can start at the beginning whenever we get there. Even better we can jump past the commercials. ER starts recording at 9pm (while we're watching Hope)and we pick it up about 9:10 as we finish up a commercialess Hope. By 10pm we've watched both shows without commercials. With a VCR we would have had to wait until 10pm when they were done recording before we could start watching. My only down side is if I want to record two shows - so I think it's almost time for my second Replay. It's really that great. I'm a gadget guy so it's expected I'd like it but it's my wife who now wants her own.
Rating:
Summary: Spent $700, got $90 VCR! ReplayTV isn't gonna make it...
Review: So I spent the $699 on ReplayTV, it includes everything, no monthly fee. As I unpacked I realized that there was a cable missing...I called Replay and waited on hold for 30 minutes, they sent the cable...2 days later I am ready to hook up the machine and I plug it in, loud noises from the machine...after waiting another 30 minutes the phone rep assures me that this is normal and something just to get used to... So, it tapes what I want, it doesn't find anything new for me...I could have my $300 VCR tape my weekly programming with the it's daily/weekly feature and the quality is just as good...Talking about quality, Replay doesn't give you 30hours if you want viewable quality...if you choose the lowest quality a large quality tv will show a grainy image...no good for sports or fast moving pictures... Replay's concept is okay, but they haven't produced a machine that is quiet or that has enough memory for anything useful... Hopefully the next generation of PVR/DVRs have some better features!
Rating:
Summary: Online Connection Problems Sour Experience
Review: I should like this unit. I think the concept behind the technology is great, but there is one basic flaw and it renders everything useless. I can't connect to download the tv listings. After speaking to customer support, they told me that the problem has been going on for three to four weeks and they are having problems with their ISP. What has been happening is that the moden connection always gets terminated before the listings have downloaded. Anywhere from 10-98% of the listings make it, but then it ALWAYS disconnects. I tried over 40 times at various times during the day and night, but it never works. Without those listings, the unit is just a useless hard drive. Tech support said it has been going on for a few weeks and they don't know when it will be fixed but they are aware of the problem. So beware. I've wasted a day trying to get it work and will now try out the Philips system.
Rating:
Summary: ReplayTV - Almost there!... Just a few improvements needed.
Review: I love the ReplayTV idea! I have been following the development of ReplayTV with some interest as I would like to buy a unit but at present the ReplayTV system schedule access is just too limited. Unfortunately the system seems to have been designed primarily for a US only environment while in my opinion it could have been just as easily designed to be able to be used anywhere on the planet where a satellite or cable channel could be received and fed into the unit. Here are the items that could be fixed to get ReplayTV ready for the global market. 1. Internet Dial Up: Rather that only dialing up a Replay services number to get downloads the units should be able to connect to a local Internet Service Provider as well and download data over the internet. To do this the unit would have to be able accept a local phone number, a user ID and password, and be able to handle a brief login script (if needed by the ISP). Or a user could be able to download the data from their PC via an internet connect and then upload the data file to the Replay unit. 2. Channel Reassignment: Persons living in different parts of the world may have cable/satellite channel numbers for TV contents. i.e. A program may be on channel 35 in one area and channel 25 in another for the same content. A simple re-assignment feature would allow the user to re-map their local channels to that of a ReplayTV program schedule. 3. TIME ZONE Offset: A basic feature to allow for compensation between different time zones so that users can adjust their unit to be able to record at the right time. OR..... 4. A work around - develop a separate PC program that could download the ReplayTV data via the internet, convert it for local user time and channel re-assignment. Once this is done the Replay unit could be directed to dial the PC modem and download the data as if it had dialed direct to the Replay service. It would be a minor inconvenience for perhaps once or twice per month to do the PC download and transfer to the ReplayTV locally but it would solve the "global market" problem without major re-engineering of the ReplayTV units. The PC program could even eventually allow the user to edit their own local and other channel schedules (this would be great). In this way a user could quickly set up schedules for recurring network shows and other one time events. I would love to see ReplayTV take its place as a world product. It is great idea that just needs some polishing. Now-a-days each product made should be able to make it on the world stage rather than be limited to just one market place. Maybe in version 3... Replay 2030?
Rating:
Summary: Very, Very Good and getting better
Review: I ordered my ReplayTV a few days before my parent's Christmas visit with me. It turned out to be a great entertainment product during the holiday period and it continues to do that now. Yes, there are the occasional glitches but you have to look at this product from a software standpoint as opposed to a typical mechanical gadget. I've already submitted my wishlist for future improvements. That's the great thing about the product - it's going be get a whole new update via software download in the first Quarter of 2000. If you check ReplayTV.com you'll see press releases on the new features coming, (like slo-mo in both directions !). All for free ! Okay, so there's a Tivo unit for the same price and '30' hours. But I'm sure that their '30' hour recording time produces a really crude image. And you still have to pay for their schedules ! I'm sticking with ReplayTV. It looks like they're going to go global soon - they've already registered international domain names. Hope this helps....
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE ReplayTV
Review: I just got a ReplayTV and it is absolutely incredible. I love this machine. Now I can watch all of the shows that I usually miss. And it was SO EASY to use. I looked at TiVO but it was a little complicated for me. Before I got Replay, I had pretty much given up on television-by the time I got home from work, there was nothing much on to watch. But with Replay, I just type in a topic and it finds every show that matches the topic and I get to pick the ones I want to see. Unbelievable. It's the most amazing product. When I get the money, I'm buying another one.
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