Digital Video Recorders

Rating : Best Price :$149.99 Availability : N/A

ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder Specifications

You’ve heard the hype, but just how well does ReplayTV actually work? We tried the RTV5504 ourselves just to find out, and its performance was better than we’d imagined. It’s great to be able to pause and replay live television. Even better: apart from gotta-watch-it news and sports, “live TV” is something ReplayTV users no longer have to think about. The RTV5504 puts all that’s good in the TV universe at your beck and call, recording and storing content from TV, satellite, antenna, or external sources like DTV receivers and camcorders on its spacious, 40 GB hard drive. While watching either live or recorded TV you can freeze an image, advance frame-by-frame, watch in slow motion, or view at 2x to 20x normal speed.

What’s more, the RTV5504 is home-network-capable, letting you hook it up with additional 5500 Series recorders for multi-room convenience and/or link it to your PC for viewing custom slide shows of your digital photos. Not a cable or satellite user? Not to worry–there’s an RF antenna input on the rear panel, just like on your TV. Just understand that the quality of your recordings can never surpass the quality of your reception. If you’re using a satellite receiver, a supplied IR blaster will correctly configure the receiver to feed the ReplayTV recorder your desired programs at the correct times.

Some basics: 40 GB holds 14 to 40 hours of programming, depending on the quality setting you select (standard, medium, or high). Use of the unit requires ReplayTV service, to which you can subscribe on a monthly basis (.95) or pay up front for lifetime access (9.99). The ReplayTV recorder requires regular scheduling updates via either standard analog phone line (RJ-11 cable provided) or broadband cable modem (router or access point and/or Ethernet cable not included).

But once it’s set up, using it and appreciating it couldn’t be any easier. Before you record anything, ReplayTV delivers real-time, onscreen scheduling information for everything in your area, making paper guides unnecessary and taking all the guesswork out of channel surfing. The channel guide shows program names, program durations, and even offers short descriptions or summaries for each program.

ReplayTV’s best features all stem from its ability to capture shows you’re interested in, either one by one, categorically (all shows of a given title or in a given time slot), or by theme (baseball, music videos, romantic comedies, action movies, documentaries, dance, you name it). You can also search by actor, director, title, or description, and set the unit to capture anything that fits your queries. ReplayZones let you browse all scheduling for the next two weeks by seven primary categories and countless subcats within each category, a terrific way to discover programs you’d never think to look for.

You can set recordings to start early or end late or skip broadcasts on any day of the week, one of many options for settling the inevitable recording conflicts. If you walk into a live broadcast you decide you want to keep, you can schedule on the fly to save the remainder of that program.

The recorder shines most brightly in active use: navigating, viewing, and managing (resume playback/keep/delete) recorded programming. The QuickSkip button is indispensable, bumping you a commercial-appropriate 30 seconds forward with each press. If you first enter a number, such as 15, QuickSkip will take you forward an equivalent number of minutes, making it easy to hunt for a specific section of a program.

Another essential feature is the ability to watch a recorded program while another recording is in progress. And, by turning the unit off (the hard drive is always on, even if the power is ostensibly off), you can watch a live program on one channel via your TV tuner while ReplayTV records another program on a different channel.

At a minimum, all quality settings are what we would call “watchable.” In the “high” setting, picture and sound quality are both excellent, if still slightly inferior to the raw signal. (If your TV is HD-ready, using the unit’s progressive-scan video outputs should result in an improvement, however.) Using the medium and standard settings greatly expands the recorder’s storage capacity, which–trust us–you’ll probably find yourself wanting a lot sooner than you think. Let’s face it: a dip in audio/video quality is a small price to pay for the programming discoveries and incredible conveniences afforded by this device. –Michael Mikesell

Pros:

• Lets you easily prioritize and manage the TV you want to watch
• Intuitive operation
• Can play one recorded program while capturing another
• Well-designed remote control
• Myriad options for choosing and discovering programs to record
• Extensive options for navigating recorded content quickly and easily
• Makes it easy to skip commercials
• Switches quickly between menus and programming

Cons:

• Best-quality image (live or recorded) is slightly inferior to the source signal
• May require use of a video amplifier when feeding a cable signal directly to the unit

What’s in the Box One ReplayTV RTV5504 PVR, a remote control, remote batteries, a user’s manual, an RF coaxial video cable, a composite-video/stereo analog audio interconnect, an IR blaster cable, a 9-to-15-pin adapter, an RJH-to-9-pin adapter, and an RJ-11 phone cable.

ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder Overviews

The ReplayTV 5504 has everything that makes DVRs great and advance features that make it the best DVR available today.

[if One of my ReplayTV boxes is a 4500 model purchased in 2002. It has NEVER needed repair. On the RARE occasion (less than a Windows-based computer) it hangs, just reboot it by pushing and holding the power button until it reboots itself - instructions are easily found in the manual). In the beginning when I had questions and hadn't read the manual, I found their Tech Support people to be fast, exceptionally helpful, knowledgable, and friendly. The machine is either recording or being watched or both nearly 24/7 and is still going strong after all this time. Love, love, love it! How Tivo users live without commerical advance, commercial skip, or 30-second skip is unfathomable!]

Customer Review

One of my ReplayTV boxes is a 4500 model purchased in 2002. It has NEVER needed repair. On the RARE occasion (less than a Windows-based computer) it hangs, just reboot it by pushing and holding the power button until it reboots itself – instructions are easily found in the manual). In the beginning when I had questions and hadn’t read the manual, I found their Tech Support people to be fast, exceptionally helpful, knowledgable, and friendly. The machine is either recording or being watched or both nearly 24/7 and is still going strong after all this time. Love, love, love it! How Tivo users live without commerical advance, commercial skip, or 30-second skip is unfathomable!

Definately used but still works – Gayle Ostic – Morganville, NJ United States
I purchased this DVR because I have 2 boxes already and one broke. I love the service and software that it uses. They do not manufacture the units any more so I purchased a used one. It was sent pretty quickly (10 days) and I was taken back by the condition. It was very scratched and dirty. It was also missing the raster blaster cord which is needed to change channels on any cable box. BUT it works so I guess thats all that matters so far. The seller did respond to all my emails regarding questions and stating the condition. He said he wrote it was scratched in his description but that wasn’t posted on the amazon item.

Terrible Service Ruins Everything – M. Mitton –
When my ReplayTV worked, it was great. (Though now having tried others, it was worse–except for those few features, like commercial skip, that they took out anyway.) But every single time I had to get support from them, it was an awful experience.

Most recently, I just called for my third time (at least a 20 minute wait each time) to try and cancel my service. You can’t cancel on-line–it’s the only thing you can’t cancel on line. Somehow, that charge never stopped coming. 4 months and counting. This time around, assuming they do actually cancel the service, they refused to even consider refunding the other three months.

Whenever there were problems with the unit, their technical support was incompetent. The only advantage they has was they knew the service codes for the remote, but once I found them on-line, their support was useless. I’m a competent computer person, not a geek, but I was better than they were.

On two occasions, my service stopped, with them claiming that they couldn’t charge my card. (It was a “glitch” in their system each time) I went a week without being able to use it, and they didn’t credit my account. Then, when I got my new ATM card, I changed it with them. On-line, the change was reflected, but they kept charging the old. Eventually the old one expired, and they didn’t even have the patience to let me explain what was wrong; they kept insisting they had made the change. That was two weeks without the use of my unit, no refund for time lost.

I’m using Comcast’s DVR now, and it’s almost as good, and–I can’t believe I’m saying this–their customer service is far superior. Last time I called for help, the woman asked if she could find some specials for me, and 5 minutes later, she had lowered my cable/Internet bill by . And later this year, Comcast is switching to TiVo software.

In Sum: even if you think the ReplayTV is a bit better (debatable), you better pray you never have to call them, because then it just won’t be worth it.

NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS – Peterc Wu –
im not going to write a long review on this. i’ve had mine for about 6 month now and it has broken down 3 times!! everything was coverd under warrenty but each time i have to ship it back,it takes about a month to get back. imagin having to re-enter your shows…three times..not having a dvr for a month 3 times. i had a tivo before…now i kick my self for not buying another one when they still had the life time subscriptions.

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