ReplayTV RTV5516 160-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Life changing concept, not ready for prime time
I've had my ReplayTV for two months.  The concept is fantastic, and indeed, my TV experience has improved a lot because I'm watching things when I want to and have discovered a litany of great biographies and discovery channel shows.<br />There are some neat features and some frustrating aspects (like the remote, the noise).  If I were to do this again, I would seriously look at newer the TiVo products.<br />What's cool:<br />  The ReplayTV unit has built in USB and Ethernet ports.  I just connected it to my home LAN and it worked from the onset.<br />  Lots of space inside for a second drive, and it's pretty easy to swap the 40Gb with a 200Gb, thus increasing programming time by 4x.  I'll deny any knowledge of having 67 high quality proogramming hours until my warranty expires.  :0)<br />  \\"Zones\\" guide separates programs up into 12 major categories, over 100 sub-genres.  You can set up recording of \\"zones\\" (e.g., twisted cynical comedies) or programs.  There's basic queue management to ensure your child's animated cartoons don't bump all of the Simpsons episodes (and vice versa).<br />  ReplayTV unit supports multiple inputs, including recording of DVD and VCR content.  One side effect is all programming is buffered, thus playing your DVD through the ReplayTV (which I do only because my TV is limited on its inputs) is buffered.  On the other hand, this allows me to quickly jog back for a scene.<br />What's disappointing:<br />  The remote has a small cone of reception.  What this means is you have to be directly in front of the ReplayTV unit, aiming the remote at the center, for it to register.  This makes the remote frustrating.<br />  The commercial skip option is no longer available.  ReplayTV caved into pressure.  Quick skip works fine for the first two tries, but if you have a block of 3 minutes, it can get confused, especially with the finicky remote (see above).<br />  It's noisy. The hard drive runs *all the time*, even when the unit isn't being used.  Since it's in a TV cabinet, I can close the door to filter out the sound.  Ideally, it should spin down when not being used.<br />  Support has been frustrating -- I'm able to get a human relatively easily, but each time I have to re-explain my problem with the unit not downloading its software update.  The analyst gets stumped, says I should get a call back.  This has repeated a few times.  Twice, I've been instructed to factory reset the device, losing all of my settings.<br />Features I haven't used:<br />  Multi-unit -- the ReplayTV supports sharing programs among networked units.  This sounds pretty cool, though I only have one TV set.<br />  Photographs -- Some of the original disk partition can be allocated to storing digital photos.  This isn't particularly useful to me since I have my own website, but maybe for a quick TV-based display, this would be fun.n a TV cabinet, I can close the door to filter out the sound.  Ideally, it should spin down when not being used.<BR>  Support has been frustrating -- I'm able to get a human relatively easily, but each time I have to re-explain my problem with the unit not downloading its software update.  The analyst gets stumped, says I should get a call back.  This has repeated a few times.  Twice, I've been instructed to factory reset the device, losing all of my settings.<br />Features I haven't used:<BR>  Multi-unit -- the ReplayTV supports sharing programs among networked units.  This sounds pretty cool, though I only have one TV set.<BR>  Photographs -- Some of the original disk partition can be allocated to storing digital photos.  This isn't particularly useful to me since I have my own website, but maybe for a quick TV-based display, this would be fun.