ReplayTV RTV5040 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
I'm hooked!
If you think you watch too much TV now you do not want to buy this unit.   I am hooked.<br />I have to confess I really agonized over buying this thing.  I actually put in the order, canceled it and then reordered.  The reason I agonized so much is the wide divergence of opinions here on Amazon (and other review sites).  I've never seen a product with so many reviews clustered around the one and the five.   As I read the 'good' or 5 reviews I read about everything I wanted this unit to do for me.  Allow me to watch TV on my schedule, skip commercials, download shows to my laptop to watch on the road (a hack not a supported feature) and so forth.  The bad or 1 reviews where mostly people who had bad experience with the reliability of the unit or customer support.  So I thought if I bought this thing I was playing the lottery to some extent.<br />Well I have only had the unit for a few days but I have to tell you I LOVE IT.   The picture is great (one of my main concerns). Set up took 20 minutes.  When I did set it up the picture was not a great as I would like and I called tech support.  In one minute I had an extremely knowledgeable person on the line (my 2nd greatest concern).  He suggested I replace the RCA cables I was using with the Coax and we quickly discovered the problem was the cheap RCA cables (bought in a flea market in Brazil).<br />If the unit does not last over a year I'll be back with a more negative report.  ...  One precaution I took is I hooked it up to a UPS.  It does seem that some of the reliability problems where cause by power problems.  Hey this is a little computer dedicated to recording your shows.  Computers do not like power problems.  Got a UPS ... at a local place (after rebates), so it seemed a prudent precaution.<br />One of the greatest pleasures in this unit is starting to watch your shows a little later and skipping all the commercials.   How often have you rushed dinner, rushed home or rushed something else to catch a show.   Nowyou want to be late.  Start your show at 20 minutes after the hour, skip the commercials and be finished watching at the same time.   If you watch 2 hour long dramas in a night, that saves you 40 minutes.  Of course you will probably invest that 40 minutes in watching another show, but still it is more productive then watching commercials.  I also love that my son is no longer bombarded with all the marketing messages during his shows.   Commercial skip does not work 100%, but when it misses one the 30 seconds skip button works great.  If you overshoot the beginning of the next scene, there is a 7 second 'instant replay' that takes you back.   If you want the commercial skip (imperfect as it is), you better buy a unit now.  The new version coming out in August will not have it.  Live pause is wonderful if you have children.   I cant wait for football season.  Ill probably start to watch the game an hour late, skipping commercials and half time shows will give me back over an hour every Sunday (thought I might use some of that with instant replays).<br />The UI (user interface) is good.  I have no problem finding and setting the thing to record my shows.   A new feature (just added) is a conflict alert system that tells you if the show you are going to set to record conflicts with something you already told it to capture.   I do have a degree in computer science and work all day with computer systems so my view of usability might not hold for a more technically challenged individual.  I wish there was a space management feature that let me see how much space everything is taking up and allows me to remove stuff from the disk.   It is easy to delete old shows either after you watch them or from a menu.  And you can set it to auto-delete old shows for space (if you like), but the replay channel (where you can delete old shows) does not show how much space a show is taking up.<br />Now my dilemma is should I get one in the bedroom??   ... fees would be a bit steepfor me.  I wish the company would have a discount for multiple units in one house (like Cable TV).  Until they do, everyone in my family is going to be fighting to watch the one TV with the replay hooked up.  BTW, I got the 60 hour model, but since all the reviews seem to be here with the 40 hour model, Im placing it here.