Philips HDR212 TiVo 20 Hour Digital Video Recorder
Compared Replay and Tivo.....
I recently bought a 20 hour Tivo and liked it, but I didn't like the fact I had to pay so much to get lifetime service, so I returned it and opted to go with a replay because it was a bit cheaper and I didn't have to pay for the service. I thought it would be a good move, but boy was I wrong. First of all, if you only have a CO/EX cable on the back of your TV like I do, you will have to buy a seperate RF modulator to correct the problem. Cost me an additional ... to get that which actually made the price difference about even. Secondly I had a whale of time learning all the remote keys. It seems like they just made them all the same size and stuck them on there, I had to look down to make sure I pushed the right button. Also I did not appreciate the fact of the gauranteeing and non-gauranteeing shows. The way I watch television, I have a lot of favorite shows that are on all different times of the day and the schedule is constantly changing. I didn't appreciate that in order to record every episode of my favorite show at all times I had to type in keywords instead of the actual title and I found out that if 2 shows gauranteed to record conflict with each other it will pick the first one you gauranteed to record. Let's say you gauranteed a new series premiere of Friends to record and Ally Macbeal as well, but by some wierd reason it is a rerun. If you gauranteed to record Ally Macbeal first, it will pick that one and you will miss your series premiere. If you don't gaurantee 2 shows to record, let's just say those same 2 shows again, it will pick the one in alphabetical order. So once again, the rerun of Ally Macbeal will record instead of your long anticipated season premiere of Friends. Also if you gaurantee a certain show to record, it will set aside an additional half hour or hour (depending on the show's duration) which really cuts on your disk space quickly. You have to constantly monitor your space to make sure you have enough room. With Tivo, first of all with the new software 2.0, you can choose when 2 shows conflict which one to record, even if both shows are season passes. It will tell you OK, we'll record all these shows of this season pass but we won't record this show because it conflicts with this other show that is a higher priority on the season pass manager (another great Tivo feature!) and it will let you say OK to it or record the show you wanted to record originally over the other show that was a higher priority on the manager. Needless to say I returned my Replay and got my Tivo back and am sticking with it. I like the software a lot better and my TV watching experience is so much better now than it was before. Now I always have something to watch whenever I want and at my convenience...