ReplayTV changes hands again, acquired by DirecTV

DirecTV just did itself a solid and picked up the pre-TiVo DVR company, ReplayTV, from parent company D&M. We don't know what all bundle of valuable time-shifting IP and patents wound up being worth in the form of an acquisition price tag, but it's got to be a pretty penny -- especially to a company like DirecTV, which has watched its peers have a prickly run-in or two with TiVo and its heavyweight "time warp" patent. Something tells us the brand will probably only live on in legacy alone, though. We just can't see much reason for DirecTV to bother carrying on with the half-assed comeback ReplayTV's been trying to make over the past couple of years.

[Via Zatz Not Funny]

[Daren Darrow @ Dec 13th 2007 12:38AM]

I loved my Replay RTV4504. Hopefully DirecTV will use it in their DVRs rather than that crap they switched to. Perhaps they'll even bring back commercial skip. But I'm sure that's just a pipe dream. I use TiVO now, but Replay has had all the networking features for years that TiVO is just now adding.

[Enki @ Dec 13th 2007 1:16AM]

Exactly, I have a Direct TV DVR and it could be better. I got my mom a Direct TV Tivo, right before they went with thier own stuff. Her Tivo has better features than my own, and gives her less problems. I think the whole reason for this purchase is that Direct TV just can't get the DVR "thing" down.

[DT @ Dec 13th 2007 12:51AM]

Wow I loved my RTV 5000 series! They STILL fetch a high price on eBay...alas, lack of HD finally led me to go to a cable co DVR (horrific), then to Tivo (which is also amazing). My heart skipped a beat when I saw that pic...I thought for a second that maybe they would be bringing back the RTV box!

[TVGenius @ Dec 13th 2007 9:35AM]

Ahhh... you latecomers. I've got a 2000 series Panasonic Showstopper that I upgraded to a 120 GB HD a few years ago, and it's still chugging along great, dialup program guide updates and all. Wonder how long they'll keep up the service now, though. Maybe at least another year, thru Feb 2009 for those of us rocking it old-skool over-the-air? (since the analog tuner will be useless after that anyway)

[Tony C @ Dec 13th 2007 9:59AM]

Hah, you're not the only one with a ShowStopper, but I can top you, I have a ShowStopper 1000 at home still! That and and an old 3000 series ReplayTV plus a 5000 that was never activated because they changed to a subscription model. :P

The older ones have had hard drive upgrades, but I ran into data corruption problems because the old hardware/software combo hits a "usable partition size" limit. I haven't fired them up in years, but maybe I should now just to remember how great their GUI and software design was! =)

[RyogaHibiki @ Dec 13th 2007 1:19AM]

I love my ReplayTV with its lifetime service. It's still going strong.

Long live ReplayTV!

[Thorin78 @ Dec 13th 2007 1:35AM]

Oh wow, I hope my lifetime subscription will truly be life time. It's ashame that Replay couldn't compete with Tivo at all. If they had HD and commercial skip, they would've been the company to beat. I love my 5040 replay too. It's now got 100hours of recording space.

[pog @ Dec 13th 2007 2:03AM]

ReplayTV was and is bar none the best DVR ever made. This machine was doing things 5 years ago that Tivo still hasn't figured out. Basically Tivo is DVR for dummies and the RTV with its rich features I think was too much the public.

The audio/video and DVR functionality options that RTV offers are insane. When my RTV crashed last year (literally, from my entertainment center to the hardwood floor, thanks to my Doberman), I decided to buy a Tivo, and I just could not believe all the things that Tivo would not allow me to do - like record from outside sources onto my RTV HD, like renaming shows, like having 25+ hours of live buffer instead of the measly 30 minutes Tivo gives you, etc, etc. Eventually I just couldn't take it anymore and I returned the Tivo to Best Buy and bought an RTV 5 Series with Lifetime from ebay. I'm happy again.

Please Direct TV, please resurrect this company. At the very least keep the TV guide going. RTV has enough of a very rabid fan community to support this.

[pog @ Dec 13th 2007 2:16AM]

BTW, my buffer is NOT just limited to 25 hours. It's actually UNLIMITED. UNLIMITED! It's whatever free space the hard drive has, and my RTV, which has a 400 GB hard drive, currently has a little over 300 GB used and the remaining 100GB, at medium quality, turns out to be about 25 hours of live buffer.

And another thing, RTV's medium quality setting is better than Tivo's high quality setting, and while Tivo's lowest quality is barely watchable, RTV's lowest quality is almost as good as Tivo's high quality.

What a shame this company couldn't stay afloat. Let's hope Direct TV knows a good thing and brings this back to life ... with HD.

[Arvind Ganesh @ Dec 13th 2007 2:35AM]

Not much of a DVR user myself, but my non-geeky wife really loves her ReplayTV that I got her a few years ago. I've got a MediaMVP device hooked up to her treadmill (serves ReplayTV content over the network) and she loves watching the recorded programs while working out. That, and DVArchive!

[Scott Gatz @ Dec 13th 2007 2:40AM]

I too love my 2 Replay TV units (with the auto-commercial jump). I've played with TiVos and other DVRs and all of them either suck or try to be too "friendly" and end up being less efficient. I was disappointed that they dropped their boxes, but I'd love their software to power DirectTV boxen going forward. That'd give me a real reason to dump Comcast.

[Brandon h @ Dec 13th 2007 3:30AM]

I love my Tivo's, but if this has an interface that is as reliable and easy to use, then I'd give it a shot. Here is hoping DirecTV updates it and throws it onto their boxes, replacing that dreadful OS and interface they have now. Oh, and add HD support.

Probably won't happen though, at least not with DirecTV DRMing the hell out of it and eliminating most of the features that make it special.

[Kip @ Dec 13th 2007 10:27AM]

Two things that make ReplayTV kick TiVo's butt:
* Commercial Advance
* Show Sharing (poopli.com)

[DallasGadgetGuy @ Dec 13th 2007 11:49AM]

I had never had of replaytv until one day while I was on my thrift store bargain sweeps, I saw 2 5508s in a box, brand spanking new. The design caught my eye and then the network connection in the back really got my curiosity. I went home, called replaytv and voila ! one of the units had a lifetime subscription on it. I hooked it up, connected a slingbox and I've been so happy ever since. I love my replays.

[DallasGadgetGuy @ Dec 13th 2007 11:54AM]

Just to add, the lifetime unit cost me $8.00+tax. I've had them for about 9 months now and I don't care about HD right now. This is serving me just fine.

[Gorganzola @ Dec 13th 2007 12:51PM]

I agree the Replay is the best DVR bar none. I bet DirectTV picked them up to get the software and patents. Their guide and search has yet to be bettered by anyone. Replay won the court fight over commercial advance and it really does change how you watch TV. I also figure that with Dish buying TVGuide that replay was the only other company with lots of software and patents (other than Tivo)

[gargoyle999 @ Dec 13th 2007 1:20PM]

I hope the guide data continues for awhile at least. I have four ReplayTv's although only one gets used on a somewhat weekly basis. The others are hooked up though and still going strong if I need them. Had to buy a couple Tivo series 3's last year for the HD however.

I really like the HD picture quality on the Tivo but as others have mentioned it is missing features the ReplayTV's have. It is too bad they didn't make it, the competition would have been good for us end users.

If the guide data ends that would mean I would need to get another HD Tivo, and have to get a new HD TV to go with it!

[MegaZone @ Dec 13th 2007 1:36PM]

Since RTV hasn't produced a DVR in years, and all the old RTV engineers have since moved on, don't wait for DTV to adopt RTV software. The software has been dead for several years now, and DTV would have to rebuild a development team from scratch. (The ReplayTV PC software is basically independent, not the same code.) And DTV doesn't have an in-house STB group, they've always out-sourced that. So it would be a whole new area for them.

I think this is more about the patents. RTV and TiVo both had solid patent portfolios in the DVR space. And RTV and TiVo also have a cross-licensing agreement, which may carry over to DTV now. Which would protect them from TiVo's patents, and give DTV a better bargaining position in any negotiations to bring TiVo back to DTV's DVRs - as has been repeatedly rumored to be in the cards post Liberty Media.

[Trent @ Dec 13th 2007 3:17PM]

The current DVR's both the R15 and the HR-20 are in house development. DirecTV is worried about Tivo winning their suit against Dish, as a result they are worried that the patent protection they bought through 2008 is going to expire and Tivo will come at them with an "offer they can't refuse". As a result they bought ReplayTV, a company (I believe the only one) Tivo actually did a patent protection swap with. DirecTV probably figures this is cheaper than buying the patent protection from Tivo in the future.

[MegaZone @ Dec 13th 2007 3:29PM]

Trent - The R15 and HR20 are *not* 'in-house' to DirecTV. They are 'in-house' to the *parent* company, News Corp. They were developed by NDS, not DTV. News Corp owns both NDS and DTV - but Liberty Media is buying DTV from News Corp, so NDS will no longer be 'in-house'.

[buttabean @ Dec 13th 2007 1:40PM]

i loved my replaytv wish it had hd and dual cablecard tuners. id still be using it today without a doubt. nothing beat that commercial skip :). i miss that button

[Rob @ Dec 13th 2007 1:51PM]

Folks,.. don't worry about the guide data. Even if DTV stops serving RTV guide data after the acquisition, there are other workarounds if need be. In fact, I'm not even using RTV guide data on my 5504 right now.

That's the other thing I love about RTV,.. there is a good sized community of people that are constantly working on software and fixes for whatever ails your RTV.

RTV FTW!

[MegaZone @ Dec 13th 2007 3:32PM]

According to what Zatz posted, DirecTV didn't acquire the subscribers, just the assets of RTV. D&M Holdings will retain the RTV subscribers and continue to service them for the foreseeable future.

[Bob Mc @ Dec 13th 2007 3:05PM]

I loved my ReplayTV. Online programming was the coolest.

[MegaZone @ Dec 13th 2007 3:31PM]

ReplayTV isn't 'pre-TiVo' - they were both founded in 1997, and they both shipped units in 1999 - but TiVo actually shipped units before ReplayTV. They're contemporaries.

My thoughts: http://www.tivolovers.com/2007/12/13/directv-buys-the-remains-of-replaytv/

[Ed @ Dec 14th 2007 11:26PM]

I have 3 5000 series units. That and DVArchive. If these units were HDMI capable, there could not be anything better period. I have a Win2K server box running DVArchive. All of shows are downloaded to it automatically and served out from it to 3 different rooms.

You just can't beat the networking features of these units and NO DRM.

I just wish they would continue development, but alas.....

[frankz00 @ Dec 16th 2007 9:07PM]

I love the TiVo interface alot better but the networking in ReplayTV has TiVo beat. DVArchive and VLC make watching it ReplayTV over the wire(less) a breeze. My ex took the TiVo and ReplayTV was all I could afford at the time (during the $30 clearance). It took time but I learned to love my ReplayTV. I hope they keep it running though. A software update for the better would be great too!

[Rufus @ Dec 19th 2007 6:07PM]

The fanbase of ReplayTV is so vehement because ReplayTV users have seen the alternatives, and we know we have it better. Sorry Tivo lovers, but I was just staying in a house last week with a brand new Tivo box. I figured that after all these years, Tivo would have erased or at least narrowed the gap. No chance. My ancient Showstopper box still kicks ass and it hasn't been updated in years. As for the generic Cable/Satellite boxes, just shoot me now. Serving ads to me on the control screens? Buggy software that hangs? A user interface that makes Windows 3.1 look advanced? I'll pass.

My ReplayTV has served me well all these years, but I have no particular emotional connection to it. I'd certainly drop it if somebody could get me a box with the same or better capabilities that also does HD recording. But when the analysis is still "how much do I have to give up just to get HD recording?" I'll stick with ReplayTV. It just keeps quietly chugging along, providing the best DVR experience available.

If DirectTV was smart, they'd just port the ReplayTV software to a modern box, add HD support and watch the money roll in. People hate the lousy DVR options they have now, why not make this another differentiator between them and cable? With DirectTV's marketing muscle, they could introduce a whole new audience to ReplayTV. If you get somebody to try out ReplayTV who had been using a cable box DVR, that person will become your customer for life. It is the ultimate "sticky" application.