ReplayTV RTV5516 160-Hour Digital Video Recorder
minus 5 stars!
As the title suggests, I am less than thrilled with my ReplayTV 5504. In fact, after just 35 days with the product I have terminated the $12.95/month Replay service agreement and am looking for a good guide on how to &quot;hack&quot; the Replay unit (so that it can be used as a standalone DVR).  This is BY FAR the worst consumer electronic device I have ever owned. To give you a bit of context, most of my friends refer to me a an electronics &quot;geek.&quot; <br />The first 5504 I bought on the Amazon site worked for about 3 weeks before it froze up and refused to come on. Because there are no external controls on the 5500 DVRs (other than the off/on switch -- which, by-the-way, is not a real off/on switch) all interaction with the unit is via the TV interface and remote unit (if the remote dies, your screwed). And since both the TV and remote interfaces are very poorly designed, it is almost impossible to figure out what's wrong  with either unit when they malfunction. Note, it doesn't have to be this way! After all, the Replay is really just a PC in VCR clothing. It would be a simple matter to have added some diagnostic functionality to the embedded operating system it runs on.<br />After the 5504 stopped working I spent an hour on the phone to India. I knew the unit was kaput, but the tech insisted that we go through a series of bone-headed checks (none of which produced any result other than a blank screen). Finally the tech decided that I qualified for a new unit -- but here's the catch -- only if I agreed to gave him a credit card number, just in case I didn't return the broken unit. Well, it's now two weeks later and the new unit has finally arrived (they must have sent it via covered wagon). But after just two days this new unit has also started to malfunction -- at first refusing to pass-through the video signal from my cable to the TV and then eventually with the very annoying (and helpful) default Replay screen  &quot;Wait one moment...&quot; (which turned out to be the longest moment in history). Needless to say, now twice burned I will not bother asking for a third 5504. As I said above, I have now canceled my Replay service and will now either try to make this thing work as a stand-alone DVR or if that doesn't work, I'll rip out the hard drive and use it in a computer. <br />ATTENTION -- note that unlike the TIVO the Replay 5500 series DVR WILL NOT work at all unless you subscribe to their service. So while the initial price of the 5504 is an enticing $149, the real price is closer to $450 when you factor in the $299 subscription service.