ReplayTV 5160 Digital Video Recorder
This will change the way you watch TV forever !!
This product will forever change the way you watch TV.  Suddenly, you are in complete control of what you watch and when.  I don't watch less TV, but I do watch the TV that I want to watch.  <br />I wouldn't recommend this for someone who isn't somewhat comfortable with technology. And yes, it does crash at times, but the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience.  <br />Purchase at least 80 hours of storage time if you plan to record on medium quality which I recommend.  <br />The commercial skip feature is great.  Ok...it isn't perfect, but it is by far the best available.  This feature will be GOING AWAY with the introduction of the 5500 series due to pressure from the entertainment industry.  Take a look at the article below.  <br />-------------<BR>ReplayTV has agreed to remove two features from its product that infuriated the ad and broadcasting industries even more than they delighted consumers. <br />ReplayTV's new 5500 model, on sale next month, has been re-engineered so that it cannot automatically skip entire commercial breaks without recording them. Nor will it be able to send recorded programming over the internet to other ReplayTV users outside a home network. <br />But the devices will still indefinitely store many hours of programming, while enabling users to skip manually in 30-second segments through recorded commercials. <br />Two years ago, a consortium of movie and TV studios sued Sonicblue  the former owner of ReplayTV and now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection  for abetting copyright infringement with the devices commercial-skipping feature. The company and its technology was subsequently acquired by D&M Holdings of Japan. <br />D&M executives insist that the dropping of these features was voluntary, although critics see the move as capitulation rather than an accommodation. Jim Hollingsworth, president of D&Ms ReplayTV division, denies this. We did this on our own. There was no coercion. We will take features out because we wantto be a positive force in the industry. <br />But Jeff Joseph, vp and spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association, is not convinced: Companies are under considerable pressure to bow to the wishes of the entertainment industry. This is unfair and anticompetitive. If advertisers and broadcasters are seeing their traditional business model threatened, then it would behoove them to consider alternative business models.