vIf you are wondering about ReplayTV vs. Tivo, start with post 24. Though I have heard Tivo has something similar to DV Archive for putting shows on your pc, I am willing to bet that there are a lot of restrictions in place on what you can and can't do with shows you have recorded.
In addition to DV Archive, there is a huge community of ReplayTV users who employ Poopli (www.poopli.com) to send and recieve shows over the internet, pvr to pvr (no need to switch formats or go from pvr to pc to pc to pvr). For example, if my wife forgets about the new Bachelor and does not set it up to record, no problem. I simply request the show from another poopli member and they send it to me. The community has a lot of kind people who are interested in helping each other out, not by just recieving shows, but also kindly sending requested shows.
Then there is commercial advance. While this only works about 80% of the time, it is great to not even have to touch a button and the show continues on. For the other 20%, there is the 30-second skip button, so no loss there.
I am speaking specifically of the discontinued (but easily available on ebay) 50xx series, not the latest 55xx series of Replays. However, there is plenty of documentation on how to make a 55xx perform exactly as a 50xx with an easy hack, since the hardware is exactly the same (only the software changed removing commercial advance).
On the Tivo side, all I hear about are the commercials that pop up while you fast forward and the shows recording that you did not request. But the word "Tivo" has replaced the term "dvr", so I always tell people that the ReplayTV is a better product with worse marketing.
And for the cost (I paid $450 for the unit and a lifetime subscription), it is really worth it. My wife and I both work and have a small child, plus there is housework and thousands of other things that take time away from tv. Being able to watch our favorite shows at any time, and effectively shrinking a 1 hour episode of, for example, Alias or Desperate Housewives to 50 minutes, has saved us time and sanity. If I could convince my wife, who is a financial analyst and die-hard penny pincher, in to a believer and regular user, than that should be testament to the power of a dvr in general, and replay in particular.
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vIf you are wondering about ReplayTV vs. Tivo, start with post 24. Though I have heard Tivo has something similar to DV Archive for putting shows on your pc, I am willing to bet that there are a lot of restrictions in place on what you can and can't do with shows you have recorded.
In addition to DV Archive, there is a huge community of ReplayTV users who employ Poopli (www.poopli.com) to send and recieve shows over the internet, pvr to pvr (no need to switch formats or go from pvr to pc to pc to pvr). For example, if my wife forgets about the new Bachelor and does not set it up to record, no problem. I simply request the show from another poopli member and they send it to me. The community has a lot of kind people who are interested in helping each other out, not by just recieving shows, but also kindly sending requested shows.
Then there is commercial advance. While this only works about 80% of the time, it is great to not even have to touch a button and the show continues on. For the other 20%, there is the 30-second skip button, so no loss there.
I am speaking specifically of the discontinued (but easily available on ebay) 50xx series, not the latest 55xx series of Replays. However, there is plenty of documentation on how to make a 55xx perform exactly as a 50xx with an easy hack, since the hardware is exactly the same (only the software changed removing commercial advance).
On the Tivo side, all I hear about are the commercials that pop up while you fast forward and the shows recording that you did not request. But the word "Tivo" has replaced the term "dvr", so I always tell people that the ReplayTV is a better product with worse marketing.
And for the cost (I paid $450 for the unit and a lifetime subscription), it is really worth it. My wife and I both work and have a small child, plus there is housework and thousands of other things that take time away from tv. Being able to watch our favorite shows at any time, and effectively shrinking a 1 hour episode of, for example, Alias or Desperate Housewives to 50 minutes, has saved us time and sanity. If I could convince my wife, who is a financial analyst and die-hard penny pincher, in to a believer and regular user, than that should be testament to the power of a dvr in general, and replay in particular.
Just my $0.02. Good day!