ReplayTV 5160 Digital Video Recorder
So far we are happy
I purchased the ReplayTV 5160 when it first came out and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I received it.  So far we are very happy with it.  I chose the ReplayTV over the Tivo because of the broadband support.  I had previously made the decision to not buy any DVR until it had broadband support.  I already had a cable modem connection in my house with a Linksys Etherfast Cable Router.  I also work in the computer field and have connected many different computers to the internet via both static and dynamic IP addresses.  It took me about 30 minutes to get the ReplayTV all connected.  I didn't time it, but with broadband support it took around 10 minutes to get the operating system update and download the latest guide and channels.  I would imagine with a regular phone dial-up connection it would take a very long time to get the updates.  If a person is not very computer literate they may get very frustrated trying to set up the ReplayTV if it doesn't work right the first time.  My suggestion is to find a friend who understands modems, routers and IP addresses.  The fact is that ReplayTV is just a computer with a large hard disk that compresses broadcasts real-time and stores them on the disk.<br />So here are the good, the bad and the so-so.<br />The good is what everyone else raves about: watch shows when you want without commercials.  I was just getting into the N.E.versus Miami football game when I had to leave for a lunch meeting.  I just hit the record button and watched the overtime when I got home.  I also watched a Laker game in just over an hour that would have been 2-plus hours if I had been sitting thru the game live.  We've also used it to record favorite shows.  I had no problems purchasing the activation.<br />The bad is that the channel changing is very slow, as others have mentioned.  Someone suggested it was the IR blaster.  I'm not sure that is right.  An interesting test is to change the channel of the cable (or dish) box with your cable remote while the ReplayTV is on.  The channel changes just as slow.  This tells me that the cable box is changing quickly and there must be some kind of setup time (delay) in the ReplayTV when the channel changes.  I think it starts recording right away or something.  Not sure exactly what is wrong but it is annoying.  I end up turning the ReplayTV off if I'm channel hopping. The other bad is that it seems like you have to agree to their very long licensing agreement about a zillion times (okay only a few times but it does seem repetitive). Once you set up the box, do the on-line registration and do the activation you will know what I'm talking about.<br />The so-so is the channel guide and the web sites.  The channel guide shows all the programs and has a good amount of information about the shows.  However, it takes up most of the screen so you can't check out the guide while watching a show and it is a bit sluggish moving from show to show.  The cable guide that we get with Time Warner feels much more responsive.  As for the replaytv.com web site I didn't need support so I'm not sure how good (or bad) it is.  However, their FAQs are very limited.  I would have expected more. The MyReplayTV.com is a good idea but it appears to download the information to the box at night and not right away. Which means you can't tell it to record a show that will be on that same evening.  MyReplayTV.com is also kind of a sluggish site.<br />Even with the bad and the so-so, ReplayTV does what I expected and wanted it to do which is why I gave it 4 stars.emote while the ReplayTV is on.  The channel changes just as slow.  This tells me that the cable box is changing quickly and there must be some kind of setup time (delay) in the ReplayTV when the channel changes.  I think it starts recording right away or something.  Not sure exactly what is wrong but it is annoying.  I end up turning the ReplayTV off if I'm channel hopping. The other bad is that it seems like you have to agree to their very long licensing agreement about a zillion times (okay only a few times but it does seem repetitive). Once you set up the box, do the on-line registration and do the activation you will know what I'm talking about.<br />The so-so is the channel guide and the web sites.  The channel guide shows all the programs and has a good amount of information about the shows.  However, it takes up most of the screen so you can't check out the guide while watching a show and it is a bit sluggish moving from show to show.  The cable guide that we get with Time Warner feels much more responsive.  As for the replaytv.com web site I didn't need support so I'm not sure how good (or bad) it is.  However, their FAQs are very limited.  I would have expected more. The MyReplayTV.com is a good idea but it appears to download the information to the box at night and not right away. Which means you can't tell it to record a show that will be on that same evening.  MyReplayTV.com is also kind of a sluggish site.<br />Even with the bad and the so-so, ReplayTV does what I expected and wanted it to do which is why I gave it 4 stars.