ReplayTV RTV5516 160-Hour Digital Video Recorder
The best DVR by far!
To start out I will admit that ReplayTV has gone through some quality issues since it was taken over by Denon & Marantz earlier this year.  However, given the strong backing that they bring to the ReplayTV brand I am sure these problems will be short lived.  Now back to the review...<br />A ReplayTV will, honestly, change your relationship with television.  No longer will the broadcasters and advertisers be in charge of your time - YOU will be!  <br />If you don't like when a program normally airs - record it and watch it later.<br />If you feel harassed in your own home by annoying commercials - zap through them with the QuickSkip button.<br />If the reality TV's cliffhanger endings leave you stressed out all week waiting for the outcome - record two or three episodes and watch them in one sitting.<br />Now let me tell you why you should choose this DVR over the others:<br />Lowest quality level is actually watchable - the encoder on the ReplayTV is much better than the others and creates a picture that is actually watchable on the standard quality level.  The others I have seen are unwatchable at the lowest level turning your 40 or 80 hour DVR into a 20 hour and 40 hour respectively.<br />Menu's are easier to navigate than the others.  Instead of multiple steps to record something with the other brands with Replay you just select the show from the channel guide - hit the record button once and it will record once, hit the record button twice and it will record everytime that the program comes on in that time slot.<br />Free in house networking and more connection options than competitors - the competitors charge you $99 in addition to the base price to do networking (in addition to this they give you MP3 capabilities which is pretty cool - HELLO REPLAYTV PEOPLE!)  Replay also gives you component out for the video and digital audio outputs.<br />And Finally...  the open source community is constantly writing very cool applications that take advantage of the Replay's capabilities.  These are not Hacker programs and are actually usable by the average joe.