I played with the Replay a while and here is what I like about it:

Commercial advance it works and is very cool. It worked almost every time and for the times it doesn't there is still the 30 sec skip button.

Fast. The menus are very fast compared to the ungodly slow ones the tivo has.

IR blaster. The IR blaster the replay comes with is the kind that sticks right in front of the sensor as opposed the the tivo one that sticks to the top of the box and would fall off (for me at least)

Photo viewer. The replay comes with a photo viewer yeah I know I can the tivo HMO for 80 dollars and get one but I don't want any of the other stuff it comes with.

DVarchive. DVarchive is great it works with no hacking on the replay and you can download the shows off the replay easily.

It's always recording something. The tivo would have to sit for some period of time before trying to record a suggestion so it would not be recording of long periods.



Now here is what I don't like.

I want a dvr so I always have something I like to watch available and so I can see the shows I really want at when I want.

The problem I have with the replay is you can set it to record a show every time it's on but only at a specific time so if I use that method I have to keep track of when shows are on. The other way to do it is to make a theme channel and you can tell it to keep however many hours of the show you want and how long to keep it sounds great. The problem I have is with this method is I also want the dvr to record show that I may like but didn't specifically tell it to (yes I want it to read my mind ). The replay has a method to do this called replay zones. They have zones for tons of themes I like cartoons so I made a cartoon one well there is no way to tell it what not to record so I get many shows I like but I get more that I don't. Also it would keeping recording shows for the zone instead of the theme channels no matter what order I made them in.

The remote. The size and shape is ok but I have to have it pointed directly at the replay for it to work the tivo one would work pointed about anywhere.

It's always recording something. The tivo would have to sit for some period of time before trying to record a suggestion so it would not be recording of long periods.

Sorry, this was the only one I didn't understand. What do you mean?

Well the tivo has to sit untouched for some amount of time or something not really sure before it decides you aren't watching a live show then it will try to record a suggestion. The replay must have used a better method to tell if you weren't watching live tv because it would be recording shows for the zones I set up all the time.

I guess I like that because I would rather have it record something I might like than just be sitting there waiting.

I gotcha. That doesn't bother me in the least, since I rarely watch the suggestions anyway. I prefer to have it be over sensitive. Oh well.

Well the tivo has to sit untouched for some amount of time or something not really sure before it decides you aren't watching a live show then it will try to record a suggestion.

Unless you put it into standby mode. Then it knows you aren't watching live TV, and will start recording suggestions right away. At least that's what I'm told.

I never tried that before I thought I was just supposed to leave it on all the time ?

It worked almost every time and for the times it doesn't there is still the 30 sec skip button.


Has the commercial skip technology improved that much, then?

Last time I played with commercial skip was on a VCR, and it would catch about 85% of the commercial breaks; the rest of them it would play.

But more important -- about once an evening it would decide that a quiet/dark scene in a program was a commercial break, and would take off and start fast-forwarding through the program looking for the end of the "break" which never came.

Even if my TiVo had Commercial Advance (tm), I probably wouldn't use it because it is so easy to FF (60x viewing speed!) through a break, and at the same time see what commercials are being skipped. (Sometimes there are commercials I actually want to see.)

tanstaafl.

But more important -- about once an evening it would decide that a quiet/dark scene in a program was a commercial break, and would take off and start fast-forwarding through the program looking for the end of the "break" which never came.

I had this argument with Tod the other night.

"I've seen products which tried to skip commercials, but if they never saw the 'end' of the commercial they would fast forward past the show," he says. I think that he, too, was referring to a VCR he'd seen.

What you and Tod are forgetting is that the Replay is a PVR and has the entire show on the hard disk. It can detect both potential "in" and "out" points of each commercial break. If there's not an out-point within X number of minutes of an in-point, then it can assume it was a "false" and won't try skipping that particular commercial.

What you and Tod are forgetting is that the Replay is a PVR and has the entire show on the hard disk. It can detect both potential "in" and "out" points of each commercial break. If there's not an out-point within X number of minutes of an in-point, then it can assume it was a "false" and won't try skipping that particular commercial.

Correct. And ReplayTV units do use a buffer during live TV to commercial skip. The program must be at least two minutes delayed for the feature to work. One of the things that can prevent commercial skip from working is late night shows with solid commercial breaks, like mini-infomercials. The ReplayTV unit refuses to skip any moment longer then two minutes.

I have had my unit cut a small section of a show off once. It was easy enough to hit the back arrow (jumping to that point) and disable commercial skip. The benefit of rarely touching the remote to skip commercials is well worth that slight risk to me. And I can tell the engineers at ReplayTV are still working on it to make it better, as the last software upgrade brought my unit back closer to the 90% success mark.

I probably wouldn't use it because it is so easy to FF (60x viewing speed!) through a break

Not as easy as not doing anything I always use the 30 second skip on the tivo because I hate how it jumps back after fast forwarding I wish it would just stop where I tell it.

If you're really brave you can edit the overshoot timing. Don't ask me how, I'm not that brave, but I have read about it.

I hate how it jumps back after fast forwarding

That's where the user preference comes in. I consider this one of the best features

I read something about that but I didn't want to try and risk messing up my tivo.

What you and Tod are forgetting is that the Replay is a PVR and has the entire show on the hard disk. It can detect both potential "in" and "out" points of each commercial break.

The VCR is a VCR and has the entire show on a mile of plastic. It can detect both potential "in" and "out" points of each commercial break...

Seriously, The VCR ones (at least RCA's) work by going back later and adding the in/out point markers to the tape. I don't know if it's deciding where they should be while it's recording the first time and just marking them later, or deciding where they should go after the recording's over, but either way it has the same opportunity to analyze.

Considering that VCRs have done it for many years, and they still have the same dinky chips in them with 64 bytes of memory to store your 8 programs, I think it's amazing the VCR ones work at all.

I read something about that but I didn't want to try and risk messing up my tivo.

Especially when I read the line "Do not do this unless you are EXTREMELY comfortable with the thought of buying a new Tivo."

I read something about that but I didn't want to try and risk messing up my tivo.

Especially when I read the line "Do not do this unless you are EXTREMELY comfortable with the thought of buying a new Tivo."