ReplayTV RTV4516 Digital Video Recorder
Largest capacity PVR on the market
If you ask anyone that's owned a ReplayTV or a Tivo, they will tell you that they never want to go back to TV without one. The 4532 is just more of a good thing. While it's rated at 320hrs. of recorded material, nobody I know watches on low resolution, which is the reason to own a large capacity unit. When run at medium quality setting, you are down to 160hrs, and increasing to highest quality reduces that even further. For us, an 80hr unit is plenty, however we want all 80hrs to be of the highest video quality, hence the 4320. <br />Watch shows when you want to, pause to answer the phone, schedule your viewing for a week and then watch it later with no commercials. Commercial Advance allows you to skip the commercials entirely. There is also a 30 second button that allows you to step through commercials.<br />Nothing is perfect, and PVR's (personal video recorders) are still relatively new products on the market. There are occasional software glitches, but overally these units work very well. ReplayTV was recently bought by the parent company to Denon, a very large Japanese consumer electronics company, which should ensure it's future.<br />Having owned earlier ReplayTV units, the advances with the 4xxx series are nice. The 5xxx series does not have the same level of build quality, and the software is buggier. I feel like the 4320 is the best PVR on the market right now. We also own a Tivo, but we let the kids use it. The ReplayTV units have features that Tivo just doesn't have, however Tivo is a solid platform, and doesn't suffer the occasional minor software glitches the Replay units do. Casual user should steer toward Tivo, while people that want to use the networkng capability and are willing to do a bit more setup will be well rewarded by the Replay 4320.<br />Warranty and out of warranty repairs are handled by exchanging for a reconditioned unit. These units also carry a warranty. We have never hand to exchange one, and from what I see on the AVS forum, not many others have had to as well. ...