ReplayTV RTV5040 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Very good product -- could be even better.
I've had my replayTV for a few weeks now connected to my cable-TV.<BR>Here are my impressions:<br />What I like with ReplayTV:<BR>- Works great. Revolutionizes TV watching.<BR>- Skips most commercials on major networks -- really nice!<BR>- 30-second forward skip, to jump through commercials that weren't skipped.<BR>-...BR>- Ethernet port allows me to download shows I wasn't able to watch onto my PC, and burn them as a VCD to see them later.<BR>- Nice user interface.<BR>- Nice channel guide.<BR>- Appears to be the best DVR for the money.<br />What could be better:<BR>- Changing channels when viewing TV through the replayTV takes 5 seconds.<BR>- System response lags a little -- I'm used to appliances that respond immediately.<BR>- Can only record 1 show at a time -- I would be willing to pay a little more money to have a system with 2 or 3 tuners.<BR>- When you've programmed several shows that overlap, it's difficult to tell which ones will get recorded and which ones won't. It's even more difficult to understand how to change their priority.<BR>- Can't specify to record only new shows, and not re-runs.<BR>- The progressive video output doesn't work with my JVC TV (although that may just be due to the TV)<BR>- Doesn't always detect commercials on all channels.<BR>- The system is finicky. If it works, it works great, but it clearly has bugs. It occasionally fails to connect at night with the phone line (this is discussed in many user groups), and has crashed a few times.<br />Features I found useless:<BR>- Storing and displaying pictures -- really too slow to be useable.<BR>- The 5 (!) different video outputs on the rear of the device -- why do I care?<BR>- The digital audio output -- which supposedly sounds just like the normal audio outputs.<BR>- Sharing shows over the internet with other users -- it just takes too long to be practical.