ReplayTV RTV5040 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Only for a "tinkerer" NOT FOR the AVERAGE USER!
I bought one before Thanksgiving last year for my wife.  It's been a constant source of annoyance and some weeks I've spent several hours trying to revive it.  It was rushed to market apparently in an attempt to head off bankruptcy and was never properly tested.  If you are willing to be a BETA TESTER then go ahead and buy it.<br />IF you are going to put it on ETHERNET and update via the Internet you may find it works MOSTLY OK though you will find some possible problems like \\"stuttering\\" at times.  If you are going to use the PHONE MODEM and have it call in as it is supposed to nightly you are in for nothing but trouble.<br />I should have bought a TIVO and then maybe my wife could use it without my checking every morning to see if the unit is locked up and if it was successful in updating the guide and then using the hidden menus and manual reboots to try to make it start working again.<br />The new owner after the bankruptcy of SonicBlue is trying to fix the numerous problems in the unit but so far has only made it so that if the call in is unsuccessful the unit will not lock up as it did before.  However it then won't be successful with any other attempts to do the nightly call in until the unit reboots (once a week automatically) and in our case that call in will also be unsuccessful and after two weeks no guide information will be there.<br />Unfortunately the Replay TV which I consider to be superior to the TIVO --- **IF** it worked as it was represented to work -- would be a great product.  But it's NOT READY FOR CONSUMER USE.<br />Unless you want a daily hassle and challenge to tinker with every day ....<br />SAVE YOURSELF THE HASSLE and BUY SOMETHING ELSE until the new company is successful in fixing the software of the 5000 series Replay....if every!