More on the Replay TV 4000

boskone noted that Replay TV's site has updated with a variety of new information that will definitely allow the Tivo/Replay flamewars to escalate. Besides the networking capability we mentioned earlier (send shows to friends, or to other Replay's on your home LAN), and the gigantic 320 hour maximum storage capacity, there are more detailed specicifcations. Also notable is the progressive video output port, and the fact that it actually requires ethernet, but doesn't require a subscription! I'd love to try one of these buggers out when they ship.

Comments

subscription

[Sc00ter]

"the fact that it actually requires ethernet, but doesn't require a subscription!"

Part of the reason early replayTV units were almost twice as much as the same recording capacity was because the subscription price was included.. You do pay for it.

Re:subscription

[Syberghost]

Don't be so quick to jump on the "no commercials" idea.

The broadcast networks can only afford to be free if they have income, and if enough people start skipping the commercials, they'll have to do something about it.

So unless you wanna pay a monthly fee for access to the networks and your local stations, you better hope Autoskip stays a niche product.

Re:subscription

[Zaknafein500]

Also, FWIW, the 2.5 version of the TiVo software includes a backdoor to enable 30 second skip. Check out the AVS Forum and I'm sure you'll be able to find it. Almost all DirecTiVos have been updated to 2.5, so they have this feature right now. Stand alone TiVos won't see 2.5 until about January ufortunately due to some delays with VBR encoding.

Also, what about dual tuners? Having a second tuner is invaluable, as it allows you to record two shows at once. So far, I haven't seen any mention of dual tuners on the RP4000. DirecTiVos have this ability right now.

I'm not even convinced that Sonicblue can pull off the features they are promising. The "Send Show to Other RPTV User" has so many copyright issues I won't even get into it. Plus, who really wants to spend at minimum $700 on a RPTV when you can find DirecTiVos for as little at $129 with new DirecTV service. Add in the $250 TiVo lifetime sub, and you're still about $300 ahead. Hack your box, and you can have over 120 hours of recording time, and still be underneath the cost for the base RPTV 4000 model.

I'll stick with my TiVo. UTV came along with big promises, and has largely failed. Replay won't have me convinced until they actually get the thing working with all the features functional.

Yeah, TIVO is in trouble now (sarcastic)

[hoggoth]

I don't think they have the engineering resources to figure out how to install a bigger hard drive and an ethernet card.

One FAQ, I'd like to see answered

[eam]

I read the FAQ on their site, but there was one important question that went unanswered:

If I buy a Replay4000, and Replay goes under, will I still be able to use it, or will it go dead when it can't get schedule updates from the Replay server?

Rock on, Commander!

[AtariDatacenter]

Thanks for posting the new updates. I'm going to save over them. But if all of this isn't enough to get you going, there is something else for you:

ReplayTV PROMOTIONAL CODES!

Some are geared at existing ReplayTV customers. Others are for 'people in the industry'. But they were freely given over the phone. I worked with this guy and got some codes corrected, so they now work properly.

I took the $100 off and no payments. (That'll make it easily financable over a few months.) Note! Most of these promo codes are for all but the most basic model.

It will send to other ReplayTVs via ethernet...

[-=OmegaMan=-]

... so, a hack to make your PC look like a ReplayTV at the end of the cable would be miiiiiiighty useful. :)