ReplayTV RTV5516 160-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Good activation experience
I bought a 5508 via Amazon on 4-Dec-2003 as a Xmas gift for my wife. It shipped 5-Dec-2003 and arrived on 11-Dec-2003. Paid $519.99 including 3-year activation. Box has a large green sticker on it stating as much. Today (25-Dec-2003), when I tried to activate online I was prompted for a service activation coupon code, which of course was nowhere to be found. So I called the ReplayTV customer service number. The CSR asked me for the unit's serial number. Then asked me where I bought it, when I bought it and how much I paid for it. It took about 2 minutes of him tapping away on the keyboard and he confirmed that my unit did have 3 year activation included. In fact, he said the unit had &quot;lifetime&quot; activation. He says I'll never need to pay for service, even after the three years. The CSR said the registration would be confirmed within 24 hours and he gave me a reference number for the call. So, at this point it sounds like all is well. I'll re-post again within a few days if any activation problems persist. In terms of setup, the unit required a hard reset (hold the power button for 15 seconds) to correctly register itself on my ethernet network. Other than that brief moment of angst, setup was a breeze.