ReplayTV RTV5516 160-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Can I give it less than one star? ReplayTV is an awful, awful company!
I had a Panasonic ShowStopper 2000 (made by ReplayTV). I got it in 2000 or 2001. Worked great. Loved the features. Couldn't live without it. Well I decided to upgrade to get some of the newer features, plus my remote was broken and I couldn't find any universal remote I liked, and the thing was just plain sluggish. What a mistake. I should have just stuck with it.    First thing was ReplayTV wouldn't allow me to transfer my lifetime membership from one box to the other. They only give you a discount if you pay by the month. Great another monthly bill. $7 a month for a channel guide they just get from zip2it.com. What a rip off. And this is over my broadband connection. It doesn't cost them anything.    Second, the hardware and software are just flaky. The power button caved into the box. It stutters during playback. Sometimes the audio lags behind the video. It crashes on some of my uploaded JPG files. The picture upload software crashes my PC. Sometimes the ReplayTV itself crashes and even holding the power button down wont reboot it.    Third, the warranty materials and customer support are terrible. The warranty is really only 90 days long. After that you can send it in to be fixed under warranty at a \\"fixed price\\". (...)The tech said it was my hard drive. Why is a hard drive dying after 120 days of service?    I love DVR's but the current ReplayTV's are terrible. I'm probably going to lease one from my cable company until someone can make a decent one. Something you can buy for a resonable price ((...)) and no monthly fees. That sounds like my old ShowStopper.