Some of you seem skeptical of why this would be a good idea. As a ReplayTV owner for almost a year, let me explain.
Replay is designed to be a very simple "set top" type box. It has no keyboard, only two LED's and one button on the front panel. The entire UI is manipulated via the remote.
It works OK, but there are certain operations that are undeniably tedious when attempted via a remote. For instance, entering "Clint Eastwood" via an on-screen keyboard, to program it to record all movies that Clint is in. You have to use arrow keys to move around an on-screen alphabet and press ENTER on each letter. You get used to it, but it can be quite annoying.
By providing a web-based alternative UI, it gives some users a way to work around the limited I/O capability of the set-top box. On the web site of course you can use your mouse, keyboard and so on. Conducting various searches to look for things to watch would be much less tedious when you can use a richer web-based UI.
And consider the possibility of building scripts that visit the site automatically for you. You could figure out arbitrarily complex criteria for recording programs, put them in a script, and have it run your replay for you. This would give you lots of flexibility that you don't have right now.
I'm sure from ReplayTV's perspective, this is also probably going to turn into another revenue opportunity for them. Remember, Replay's service is free for life, so they have to have an ongoing revenue from alternate sources. They already sell ad space in the "Replay Zones" menu. I will almost guarantee you they will be selling banner ads on MyReplayTV.com to generate more revenue.
I agree there are definitely privacy and security concerns here. For instance, a web site with banner ads would have the potential to allow ReplayTV to link viewing habits to other web-oriented habit information collected by ad services like DoubleClick. Replay also knows your zip code (in order to give you the right cable listings) so the potential for geographical demographics are interesting too. And then of course the whole idea of someone hacking the web site and using it to program other people's boxes.
That having been said, I think there is a good chance that the Replay folks will get this right. So far I've been impressed with the technical competency of their staff, both in their hardware and their web site. For an example, disable Javascript in your browser and visit http://www.replaytv.com. Unlike many sites which just go brain dead in this case, Replay's site recognizes the issue and lets you view a less snazzy version of the site. Very smart.
One is for generating statistics on who is contacting your site and from where. Just collect all the itrace packets that hit your network, and you could get a statistical map of which routers on the Internet send the most data to you. With a little knowledge of the location of these routers, you could generate a statistical average of the logical and/or geographical distribution of your readers/clients/customers/whatever.
This might be handy if you're a big site and you are considering putting up another mirror, or switching to a new ISP to better serve your customers. You could base your mirror location and/or your ISP move on real statistics rather than educated guesses. And best of all you don't have to collect any personal information about your users to do it.
Sorry for the paragraph from hell. I swear to god I previewed that post, and it had great formatting in HTML. Then for some reason the post interface threw it all away. That's the second time its done that to me.
OK, I know I'm gonna get flamed big-time for this, but here goes... For the sake of my point, I am disregarding for the moment the current worst practices of patent law, such as trivial software and business method patents. I am only thinking about the theory that underlies the patent process. So please don't mention Amazon or any other current anecdotes in any flames aimed my way. Think about the theory underneath all this drek, the theory that led our founding fathers to put that clause in the Constitution in the first place. In my opinion, that theory is the same idea that underlies Open Source! If you open up technology for others to look at it, you encourage advancements that would never have happened otherwise. Clearly wonderful things like Linux could never have happened without the Open Source process. Likewise there are many inventions that have become revolutionary, and spawned many other further innovations, that would never have seen the light of day were it not for the patent process. The purpose of patent law is to act as encouragement to inventors to disclose what they have done. Without patent law in place, inventors are practically required to keep their inventions secret. If you don't, someone will steal your idea. If that someone happens to have more capital or better connections than you, you're screwed. So you keep it a trade secret and hope nobody reverse engineers what you are doing. Do I need to explain that this is a bad thing? Suppose someone invents a limitless power source that would forever solve our energy problems. Without patents, they would have to keep this a secret. Now suppose they screw up their business and go bankrupt. A priceless technology could go completely to waste, lost in the mildewing estate of a bankrupt inventor. Patents break this cycle in the same way that open source does. In fact, patents do it better than open source because they grant special rights in exchange for the disclosure. You don't get much in the way of immediate tangible benefits by open sourcing your product. But you do get an immediate, tangible benefit for a patent. By granting exclusive rights to the inventor for a limited time, patents encourage inventors to disclose what they have done. This disclosure helps other inventors innovate by adding to the published literature. And of course, once the patent expires, the invention is free for all to use, with the exact instructions on how to do so on file with the government. I find it highly ironic that some of the biggest opponents of software patents are the same folks who push open source. Because in my mind, the fundamental motivation of both of these ideas is the same thing. That is: open technology up for the good of society.
I agree, Max Headroom kicked ass and indeed is very relevant to this discussion.
Up until a few months ago, they would occasionally run the episodes on a cable channel called Bravo. However a quick search reveals they aren't running any episodes currently. I believe the original UK pilot film used to be available on home video, I've seen it in rental stores. However it doesn't show up online currently so it must be out of print.
Incidentally, finding stuff like this is an excellent use for Tivo or ReplayTV. I have a Replay, and if I wanted to see Max Headroom I merely need to key that in as a keyword search, limit it to the title of the program, and the next time Max comes on my Replay will catch it for me with no intervention.
Here's another way to dub Macrovision encoded content easily: use your ReplayTV to do it.
Over in the CmdrTaco's Week with Tivo thread, I posted this message about Macrovision and Replay. It turns out that Replay can record Macrovision content quite easily, and the early units (the 2000 series) do not reproduce the Macrovision encoding when outputting. I cannot speak for Tivo's capability in this area.
This press release says they partnered with NBC, Showtime and Encore (to start) to implement this.
The other features mentioned in that press release, like 'Wish List' and 'Teach Tivo' sound like Tivo will have something equivalent to Replay's keyword searching (or 'themes') soon.
The 'Tivomatic Recording' feature, which is what we were discussing, is definitely not yet supported in Replay. I imagine they will move to offer something like it. I can't imagine the broadcast networks doing something like that but offering it exclusively to one vendor. At the very least, unless Tivo patented it, Replay could make their device compatible with it.
The 'Overtime Scheduler' feature is also something that Replay needs badly. It's my number one request currently. Not just for sports events, but for some channels (like Fox) that are constantly starting programs 30 seconds before the hour. Used to be you could literally set a clock by when a TV program started, currently some networks are up to 2 minutes off when they start programs. This is somewhat easy to compensate for in a VCR (I always started taping the Simpsons 2 minutes early and left 5 extra minutes on the end) but with Tivo/Replay they deliberately don't give you control of the start end times---to make it EASIER.
One thing I'm getting out of this is: isn't competition great? Its obvious to me that the existence of two products in this category is driving these constant improvements to both services.
Apologies for the strange formatting of that previous message. I *did* preview it, and it looked fine, but when I posted it that happened. Gremlins, I guess.
If I want to keep something in my Replay, I dub it off to my VHS VCR. The new software has a feature that steps you through the process. I usually cut the commercials out in the process (see next paragraph). I understand that Tivo provides some convenience features to do the same thing.
Replay does have commercial skip, though it is not automatic. There's a button that skips forward exactly 30 seconds. With some practice you can bop through commercial breaks with a few button presses.
I seriously doubt you are going to see these vendors add features that let you copy off programs in digital format. The same IP nazi's that are leading the DMCA and RIAA stuff that is going on now will never let this happen. But I have a couple of data points that point toward this.
First of all, remember that both Replay and Tivo are making deals with program producers to guarantee themselves alternate revenue streams. These program producers are not going to want to encourage a vendor producing a product that will allow easy digital copying of their precious programs. The broadcast networks are already paranoid about devices like this allowing users to more easily skip commercials, so the hardware vendors have to get in bed with the networks to make sure everyone stays cooperative.
Second of all, I can point to a press release at the Macrovision web site that says that both Replay and Tivo have licensed technology from that company to support their copy-protection scheme in future versions of their hardware. Basically, you will still be allowed to time-shift Macrovision encoded programs using the units, but if you try to dub them off to another device, they will be re-encoded with Macrovision to prevent that. Judging from the timing of the press release (last April) I don't think the original units made by either manufacturer had this capability.
In fact, I discovered that my ReplayTV 2004 unit, which I bought in October, does NOT have this capability in it. I can record Macrovision encoded stuff into my Replay, and then dub it off onto VHS tape just fine. That recently came in handy. (No, I was not pirating something, it was completely a fair use situation).
Does the Replay save what you watched forever (or other long time), so it never records something twice?
No, that can still be an issue with Replay. It only checks for dupes on shows you have kept.
And just what "more direct control" does their software give you with recording?
In Replay, you can prioritize the recordings by choosing "guaranteed" or "not guaranteed". When you choose guaranteed, it will pre-reserve disk space for that program, and recording that program will be the priority if there are conflicting non-guaranteed programs. It also warns you if you attempt to set up two guaranteed records that conflict.
Non-guaranteed lets the Replay manage the disk space itself, more like Tivo does. So it might choose to delete a non-guaranteed program to make room for another one. However it will never delete a guaranteed program without you telling it. In the new software, you can mark a program to keep it, basically changing it from non-guaranteed to guaranteed.
It takes some getting used to, but basically what you want to do is set up most everything as non-guaranteed, and reserve guaranteed for those once-only can't-miss programs. For instance my Star Trek channel is non-guaranteed, but I set it to tape the Oscars on Sunday (since I'll be somewhere else then) and I made that guaranteed.
Replay also lets you choose shows to record in a variety of ways. The two main ones which existed in the first version of the software were "show based" and "theme based" channels. Show based channels work like Tivo, you pick a show and tell it whether you want to record all of them, or just one episode. However unlike Tivo it does try to tie it to channel and time so you don't get syndicated repeats. I.e. if you say tape Star Trek at 9pm on UPN on Wednesday, you only get the Voyager episodes, not all the old reruns on SciFi and elsewhere.
Theme based channels are like keyword searches. Basically anything thats listed as text in a listing can be the target, people, titles, descriptions. If you want every talk show that George Carlin appears on, that's trivial to set up in Replay. If you really do want all the Star Trek's, no matter what channel they are on, you do that with a theme channel.
The new software lets you do some new things with theme channels. You can restrict the searches to actors, directors, titles or show descriptions. Thats handy when searching on a keyword that might have multiple meanings. For instance, you may want movies directed by Paul Mazursky, but not stuff he appeared in as an actor. You can also have it show you a list of matching shows, which is a good way to check your query to see that it is working the way you expected.
Because you control the way theme channels are set up, that thing mentioned in the review where recording DragonBall and Simpsons resulted in tons of other animated programs getting recorded could never happen in Replay. That's good in that you're more in control, on the other hand it does reduce the "serendipity effect" where Tivo might record a program that you would really like, but never knew about. However, you can get some serendipity like effects from the new Replay Zones feature, described below.
The new software also adds a thing called "Replay Zones" which are basically predefined queries into the program listings. So for instance if you want to look up all the R-rated movies that are on this week, you can do that with a couple of clicks in Replay. One that I really like is you can look up all the movies that are being broadcast in letterbox format.
Replay zones are also where the advertiser-supported stuff resides in Replay. There are zones for Cartoon Network and NBC Comedies, that are obviously paid for by Time Warner and GE respectively. But they are not intrusive, and I don't mind there being some ads in there if it keeps my subscription cost at zero.
can record a show when you see a preview
I'm curious, how does that work? Do you mean to say that when an advertisement for a show comes on the network, you can click a button and Tivo knows which show to tape based on the ad? That's pretty damn cool. No, Replay can't do that.
I think some are focusing too much on the removable media issue.
Neither Tivo nor ReplayTV are designed to replace your VCR. Both vendors make that clear in their marketing materials. Though these devices do overlap in capability with VCR's, their main strength is in the things they can do which VCR's cannot.
Acceptance will come. Some parallels might help you realize this. DVD's do not replace your VCR, yet they are widely accepted. CD's did not replace recordable media like cassette tape and mini-disk, yet they are widely accepted.
Why? Because both DVD's and CD's provide capabilities that go far beyond the previous media which they ostensibly 'replaced'. In their case it was better picture/audio quality, higher media reliability, random access, and so on.
Likewise personal television devices like Replay and Tivo will be widely accepted, but will not completely replace VHS VCR's. I personally have both a ReplayTV and a VHS deck, and I plan to continue this way for some time. In fact I'm planning to buy a new VHS deck because my current one is getting a bit long in the tooth.
These devices are a paradigm shift in the way you watch television, and as a result many folks have a hard time seeing how they fit in. But that's natural, since they are hardly a year old.
Compare the current discussion with the skepticism that greeted DVD's in some quarters when they were first released 2 or 3 years ago. Three years from now, devices like replay and Tivo will be as common as DVD players, perhaps more so.
I realize I'm repeating some of what is elswhere in this thread, but I thought another testimonial from a happy owner might be useful. I've been a heavy user of VCR's for 15 years, and since I've had my ReplayTV it has revolutionized the way I watch TV.
Yes, there are a few things that overlap with VCR's, for instance:
Time-shifting programs
On-screen program guide (if you have VCR+ Gold)
Pause, slow mo, rewind, etc.
Here are some of the many things Replay and Tivo can do that no tape-based VCR can do:
Pause, slo-mo and rewind live TV
Record automatically without having to put in a tape, or put the VCR into a 'mode'
Record one program while watching a different recorded program
Watch the beginning of a recorded program while the machine is recording the rest of it (ever walk in while your VCR was halfway through taping a program?)
Automatically adjust to changes in channel lineup on your cable
Automatically adjust to changes in network schedules
Automatically search program lineups for titles, actors, directors, etc that you are interested in.
Instantly access any of the shows you have recorded without swapping tapes or having to FF or REW around on tapes
Give you an easily usable list of what you have recorded. (No more unlabeled tapes on the coffee table..."Where's last week's Friends?")
I'm a Replay owner, so I'm partial to it of course. I like being able to punch in keywords and have it search for related programs. I have a channel set up that shows me whenever George Carlin is on, another that tapes ever time Penn & Teller are on TV. In my VCR days it was very tedious to pore over TV listings to find this stuff. Now its a snap.
FWIW, ReplayTV has this same characteristic. I've never tried to measure it, but its about 1/2 to 1 second or so, as reported elsewhere in this thread. Also the reasoning elsewhere in this thread as to why this occurs is dead on.
That is a good point about alliances. Tivo's alliance with Philips alone has gotten them into many national retail chains like BestBuy and CircuitCity. So far I don't know of any brick-and-mortar retail store where you can go to buy a ReplayTV.
Last year Replay announced an alliance with Panasonic, there are supposed to be Panasonic-branded Replay units coming out some time this year. Presumably that will start to level the retail situation.
They do have some media alliances too, for instance NBC and Cartoon Network are already sponsoring "replay zones".
Generally though, you're right, Tivo has the lead in market penetration. However I think there is definitely room for more than one vendor in this space. Look at how many brands of VCR's there are.
Did you really find it necessary to post this same comment twice in two different sub-threads?
It's still not true. ReplayTV has a whole directory of local dialups it can use, when you configure it you tell it what area code you are in and it suggests the nearest number.
From what I've read, ReplayTV units make long distance phone calls
Sorry, not true.
I own a ReplayTV and it most certainly makes a local call. Of course I live in a major US city. I'm sure they're probably using the dialups of some national ISP to provide the service.
I didn't look (since it wasn't necessary for my situation) but I think they had an 800 number you could choose too. I'll check on that.
I have owned a ReplayTV since last October and I can comment.
Replay solves several of the problems mentioned in the Tivo review. It does save the program summary with the program, and its supposed to not tape the show again if it has the same summary. The subscription fee is bundled into the cost of the unit. The software gives you more direct control over what gets recorded.
Customer service at Replay is also GREAT. When I bought mine, it was 3 weeks before they released a far cheaper unit last November that had a better remote. I called to complain, and not only did they rebate me $300, but they sent me the new remote for free.
Now I'm having some minor problems with my unit that are suspected to be bugs in the latest software (which auto-downloaded into my unit a couple of weeks ago). I was on the phone with them yesterday, and today they are FEDEX-ing me a new unit to try out. I haven't personally used a Tivo, but my impression is that if you are the type of person who had trouble working a VCR to begin with, the software in the Tivo is oriented toward you. If you're the type of person who could program a VCR with no problem (i.e. 99.999% the/. audience) then the software in the ReplayTV is more for you.
> I wonder what the Linux Killer will be? Any suggestions?
Game stations like Dreamcast and Playstation. The new and upcoming models play CDs and DVDs directly, and have internet access. For the bulk of home users, what else do you need?
If some basic applications like word processing and such become available for these platforms, with most of the rest being supplied by the Web, say bye-bye to the PC, at least in the home market.
The Belkin OmniView 2-port that I use doesn't seem to have a problem with video modes. Every one that I can get my card into it handles.
One minor gotcha that is definitely true for the Belkins, and probably for any such switch:
When you switch from one system to another, the monitor obviously has to re-sync if the video mode on the other system is significantly different. As a result, it's much more pleasing to the eye to use these things if you can manage to get all of your systems into an identical video mode including refresh rate.
When the modes are identical, you get near-instantaneous switches from one box to the other. But when they aren't the monitor has to re-sync which usually takes a second or two on most monitors. That can be very annoying if you have to switch back and forth alot.
Slashdot Mirror
There was an article about that company's products just under one year ago right here on Slashdot.
Some of you seem skeptical of why this would be a good idea. As a ReplayTV owner for almost a year, let me explain.
Replay is designed to be a very simple "set top" type box. It has no keyboard, only two LED's and one button on the front panel. The entire UI is manipulated via the remote.
It works OK, but there are certain operations that are undeniably tedious when attempted via a remote. For instance, entering "Clint Eastwood" via an on-screen keyboard, to program it to record all movies that Clint is in. You have to use arrow keys to move around an on-screen alphabet and press ENTER on each letter. You get used to it, but it can be quite annoying.
By providing a web-based alternative UI, it gives some users a way to work around the limited I/O capability of the set-top box. On the web site of course you can use your mouse, keyboard and so on. Conducting various searches to look for things to watch would be much less tedious when you can use a richer web-based UI.
And consider the possibility of building scripts that visit the site automatically for you. You could figure out arbitrarily complex criteria for recording programs, put them in a script, and have it run your replay for you. This would give you lots of flexibility that you don't have right now.
I'm sure from ReplayTV's perspective, this is also probably going to turn into another revenue opportunity for them. Remember, Replay's service is free for life, so they have to have an ongoing revenue from alternate sources. They already sell ad space in the "Replay Zones" menu. I will almost guarantee you they will be selling banner ads on MyReplayTV.com to generate more revenue.
I agree there are definitely privacy and security concerns here. For instance, a web site with banner ads would have the potential to allow ReplayTV to link viewing habits to other web-oriented habit information collected by ad services like DoubleClick. Replay also knows your zip code (in order to give you the right cable listings) so the potential for geographical demographics are interesting too. And then of course the whole idea of someone hacking the web site and using it to program other people's boxes.
That having been said, I think there is a good chance that the Replay folks will get this right. So far I've been impressed with the technical competency of their staff, both in their hardware and their web site. For an example, disable Javascript in your browser and visit http://www.replaytv.com. Unlike many sites which just go brain dead in this case, Replay's site recognizes the issue and lets you view a less snazzy version of the site. Very smart.
One is for generating statistics on who is contacting your site and from where. Just collect all the itrace packets that hit your network, and you could get a statistical map of which routers on the Internet send the most data to you. With a little knowledge of the location of these routers, you could generate a statistical average of the logical and/or geographical distribution of your readers/clients/customers/whatever.
This might be handy if you're a big site and you are considering putting up another mirror, or switching to a new ISP to better serve your customers. You could base your mirror location and/or your ISP move on real statistics rather than educated guesses. And best of all you don't have to collect any personal information about your users to do it.
The original article is here.
Subject line says it.
Sorry for the paragraph from hell. I swear to god I previewed that post, and it had great formatting in HTML. Then for some reason the post interface threw it all away. That's the second time its done that to me.
OK, I know I'm gonna get flamed big-time for this, but here goes... For the sake of my point, I am disregarding for the moment the current worst practices of patent law, such as trivial software and business method patents. I am only thinking about the theory that underlies the patent process. So please don't mention Amazon or any other current anecdotes in any flames aimed my way. Think about the theory underneath all this drek, the theory that led our founding fathers to put that clause in the Constitution in the first place. In my opinion, that theory is the same idea that underlies Open Source! If you open up technology for others to look at it, you encourage advancements that would never have happened otherwise. Clearly wonderful things like Linux could never have happened without the Open Source process. Likewise there are many inventions that have become revolutionary, and spawned many other further innovations, that would never have seen the light of day were it not for the patent process. The purpose of patent law is to act as encouragement to inventors to disclose what they have done. Without patent law in place, inventors are practically required to keep their inventions secret. If you don't, someone will steal your idea. If that someone happens to have more capital or better connections than you, you're screwed. So you keep it a trade secret and hope nobody reverse engineers what you are doing. Do I need to explain that this is a bad thing? Suppose someone invents a limitless power source that would forever solve our energy problems. Without patents, they would have to keep this a secret. Now suppose they screw up their business and go bankrupt. A priceless technology could go completely to waste, lost in the mildewing estate of a bankrupt inventor. Patents break this cycle in the same way that open source does. In fact, patents do it better than open source because they grant special rights in exchange for the disclosure. You don't get much in the way of immediate tangible benefits by open sourcing your product. But you do get an immediate, tangible benefit for a patent. By granting exclusive rights to the inventor for a limited time, patents encourage inventors to disclose what they have done. This disclosure helps other inventors innovate by adding to the published literature. And of course, once the patent expires, the invention is free for all to use, with the exact instructions on how to do so on file with the government. I find it highly ironic that some of the biggest opponents of software patents are the same folks who push open source. Because in my mind, the fundamental motivation of both of these ideas is the same thing. That is: open technology up for the good of society.
I agree, Max Headroom kicked ass and indeed is very relevant to this discussion.
Up until a few months ago, they would occasionally run the episodes on a cable channel called Bravo. However a quick search reveals they aren't running any episodes currently. I believe the original UK pilot film used to be available on home video, I've seen it in rental stores. However it doesn't show up online currently so it must be out of print.
Incidentally, finding stuff like this is an excellent use for Tivo or ReplayTV. I have a Replay, and if I wanted to see Max Headroom I merely need to key that in as a keyword search, limit it to the title of the program, and the next time Max comes on my Replay will catch it for me with no intervention.
MIR orbits at an average of 333 km above ground, while Iridium satellites orbit at about 780 km above ground.
Here's another way to dub Macrovision encoded content easily: use your ReplayTV to do it.
Over in the CmdrTaco's Week with Tivo thread, I posted this message about Macrovision and Replay. It turns out that Replay can record Macrovision content quite easily, and the early units (the 2000 series) do not reproduce the Macrovision encoding when outputting. I cannot speak for Tivo's capability in this area.
This might be short-lived, however, because both products have licensed Macrovision's technology for incorporation into future units.
The other features mentioned in that press release, like 'Wish List' and 'Teach Tivo' sound like Tivo will have something equivalent to Replay's keyword searching (or 'themes') soon.
The 'Tivomatic Recording' feature, which is what we were discussing, is definitely not yet supported in Replay. I imagine they will move to offer something like it. I can't imagine the broadcast networks doing something like that but offering it exclusively to one vendor. At the very least, unless Tivo patented it, Replay could make their device compatible with it.
The 'Overtime Scheduler' feature is also something that Replay needs badly. It's my number one request currently. Not just for sports events, but for some channels (like Fox) that are constantly starting programs 30 seconds before the hour. Used to be you could literally set a clock by when a TV program started, currently some networks are up to 2 minutes off when they start programs. This is somewhat easy to compensate for in a VCR (I always started taping the Simpsons 2 minutes early and left 5 extra minutes on the end) but with Tivo/Replay they deliberately don't give you control of the start end times---to make it EASIER.
One thing I'm getting out of this is: isn't competition great? Its obvious to me that the existence of two products in this category is driving these constant improvements to both services.
Apologies for the strange formatting of that previous message. I *did* preview it, and it looked fine, but when I posted it that happened. Gremlins, I guess.
I agree with your analysis of the prices, but it only applies if you happen to live in one of those areas where Replay has no local dialups. I live in a major city, so the cost analysis comes out in favor of Replay for me. I haven't dug through the phone listings in my Replay, but I expect they have a goodly percentage of the country covered by local calls. If I were them I would be using one of the national ISP's to provide the dialups, I'm sure that's what they are doing. For me, actually none of that factored into my analysis. I liked the inputs/outputs on the ReplayTV over Tivo---at the time Replay had three separate input channels while Tivo had only one or two. I know, Tivo has improved that in the more recent units. But really the main thing that sold me was the level of control that Replay's software gives you. I left a very long message explaining what I mean by this elsewhere in this discussion, look for "Replay control details" in the subject line if that link doesn't work. So even if it is more expensive, Replay was better suited to what I wanted to do with it. To each his own. That's what competition is all about! I think there is definitely room for two vendors in this space. VCR's are 25 years old now, and look how many vendors there still are building them. Just because Tivo appears to have the lead now, don't count Replay out. Heck, I fully expect you will see some of the other VCR vendors jump into this space with independently developed hardware, offering yet more options.
If I want to keep something in my Replay, I dub it off to my VHS VCR. The new software has a feature that steps you through the process. I usually cut the commercials out in the process (see next paragraph). I understand that Tivo provides some convenience features to do the same thing.
Replay does have commercial skip, though it is not automatic. There's a button that skips forward exactly 30 seconds. With some practice you can bop through commercial breaks with a few button presses.
I seriously doubt you are going to see these vendors add features that let you copy off programs in digital format. The same IP nazi's that are leading the DMCA and RIAA stuff that is going on now will never let this happen. But I have a couple of data points that point toward this.
First of all, remember that both Replay and Tivo are making deals with program producers to guarantee themselves alternate revenue streams. These program producers are not going to want to encourage a vendor producing a product that will allow easy digital copying of their precious programs. The broadcast networks are already paranoid about devices like this allowing users to more easily skip commercials, so the hardware vendors have to get in bed with the networks to make sure everyone stays cooperative.
Second of all, I can point to a press release at the Macrovision web site that says that both Replay and Tivo have licensed technology from that company to support their copy-protection scheme in future versions of their hardware. Basically, you will still be allowed to time-shift Macrovision encoded programs using the units, but if you try to dub them off to another device, they will be re-encoded with Macrovision to prevent that. Judging from the timing of the press release (last April) I don't think the original units made by either manufacturer had this capability.
In fact, I discovered that my ReplayTV 2004 unit, which I bought in October, does NOT have this capability in it. I can record Macrovision encoded stuff into my Replay, and then dub it off onto VHS tape just fine. That recently came in handy. (No, I was not pirating something, it was completely a fair use situation).
No, that can still be an issue with Replay. It only checks for dupes on shows you have kept.
And just what "more direct control" does their software give you with recording?
In Replay, you can prioritize the recordings by choosing "guaranteed" or "not guaranteed". When you choose guaranteed, it will pre-reserve disk space for that program, and recording that program will be the priority if there are conflicting non-guaranteed programs. It also warns you if you attempt to set up two guaranteed records that conflict.
Non-guaranteed lets the Replay manage the disk space itself, more like Tivo does. So it might choose to delete a non-guaranteed program to make room for another one. However it will never delete a guaranteed program without you telling it. In the new software, you can mark a program to keep it, basically changing it from non-guaranteed to guaranteed.
It takes some getting used to, but basically what you want to do is set up most everything as non-guaranteed, and reserve guaranteed for those once-only can't-miss programs. For instance my Star Trek channel is non-guaranteed, but I set it to tape the Oscars on Sunday (since I'll be somewhere else then) and I made that guaranteed.
Replay also lets you choose shows to record in a variety of ways. The two main ones which existed in the first version of the software were "show based" and "theme based" channels. Show based channels work like Tivo, you pick a show and tell it whether you want to record all of them, or just one episode. However unlike Tivo it does try to tie it to channel and time so you don't get syndicated repeats. I.e. if you say tape Star Trek at 9pm on UPN on Wednesday, you only get the Voyager episodes, not all the old reruns on SciFi and elsewhere.
Theme based channels are like keyword searches. Basically anything thats listed as text in a listing can be the target, people, titles, descriptions. If you want every talk show that George Carlin appears on, that's trivial to set up in Replay. If you really do want all the Star Trek's, no matter what channel they are on, you do that with a theme channel.
The new software lets you do some new things with theme channels. You can restrict the searches to actors, directors, titles or show descriptions. Thats handy when searching on a keyword that might have multiple meanings. For instance, you may want movies directed by Paul Mazursky, but not stuff he appeared in as an actor. You can also have it show you a list of matching shows, which is a good way to check your query to see that it is working the way you expected.
Because you control the way theme channels are set up, that thing mentioned in the review where recording DragonBall and Simpsons resulted in tons of other animated programs getting recorded could never happen in Replay. That's good in that you're more in control, on the other hand it does reduce the "serendipity effect" where Tivo might record a program that you would really like, but never knew about. However, you can get some serendipity like effects from the new Replay Zones feature, described below.
The new software also adds a thing called "Replay Zones" which are basically predefined queries into the program listings. So for instance if you want to look up all the R-rated movies that are on this week, you can do that with a couple of clicks in Replay. One that I really like is you can look up all the movies that are being broadcast in letterbox format.
Replay zones are also where the advertiser-supported stuff resides in Replay. There are zones for Cartoon Network and NBC Comedies, that are obviously paid for by Time Warner and GE respectively. But they are not intrusive, and I don't mind there being some ads in there if it keeps my subscription cost at zero.
can record a show when you see a preview
I'm curious, how does that work? Do you mean to say that when an advertisement for a show comes on the network, you can click a button and Tivo knows which show to tape based on the ad? That's pretty damn cool. No, Replay can't do that.
Neither Tivo nor ReplayTV are designed to replace your VCR. Both vendors make that clear in their marketing materials. Though these devices do overlap in capability with VCR's, their main strength is in the things they can do which VCR's cannot.
Acceptance will come. Some parallels might help you realize this. DVD's do not replace your VCR, yet they are widely accepted. CD's did not replace recordable media like cassette tape and mini-disk, yet they are widely accepted.
Why? Because both DVD's and CD's provide capabilities that go far beyond the previous media which they ostensibly 'replaced'. In their case it was better picture/audio quality, higher media reliability, random access, and so on.
Likewise personal television devices like Replay and Tivo will be widely accepted, but will not completely replace VHS VCR's. I personally have both a ReplayTV and a VHS deck, and I plan to continue this way for some time. In fact I'm planning to buy a new VHS deck because my current one is getting a bit long in the tooth.
These devices are a paradigm shift in the way you watch television, and as a result many folks have a hard time seeing how they fit in. But that's natural, since they are hardly a year old.
Compare the current discussion with the skepticism that greeted DVD's in some quarters when they were first released 2 or 3 years ago. Three years from now, devices like replay and Tivo will be as common as DVD players, perhaps more so.
Yes, there are a few things that overlap with VCR's, for instance:
Here are some of the many things Replay and Tivo can do that no tape-based VCR can do:
I'm a Replay owner, so I'm partial to it of course. I like being able to punch in keywords and have it search for related programs. I have a channel set up that shows me whenever George Carlin is on, another that tapes ever time Penn & Teller are on TV. In my VCR days it was very tedious to pore over TV listings to find this stuff. Now its a snap.
FWIW, ReplayTV has this same characteristic. I've never tried to measure it, but its about 1/2 to 1 second or so, as reported elsewhere in this thread. Also the reasoning elsewhere in this thread as to why this occurs is dead on.
Last year Replay announced an alliance with Panasonic, there are supposed to be Panasonic-branded Replay units coming out some time this year. Presumably that will start to level the retail situation.
They do have some media alliances too, for instance NBC and Cartoon Network are already sponsoring "replay zones".
Generally though, you're right, Tivo has the lead in market penetration. However I think there is definitely room for more than one vendor in this space. Look at how many brands of VCR's there are.
Did you really find it necessary to post this same comment twice in two different sub-threads?
It's still not true. ReplayTV has a whole directory of local dialups it can use, when you configure it you tell it what area code you are in and it suggests the nearest number.
Sorry, not true.
I own a ReplayTV and it most certainly makes a local call. Of course I live in a major US city. I'm sure they're probably using the dialups of some national ISP to provide the service.
I didn't look (since it wasn't necessary for my situation) but I think they had an 800 number you could choose too. I'll check on that.
Price. TiVo simply offered more storage and features for less money.
You need to check the current pricing. Replay has dropped their price twice in the last six months, so they are very competitive now.
Replay solves several of the problems mentioned in the Tivo review. It does save the program summary with the program, and its supposed to not tape the show again if it has the same summary. The subscription fee is bundled into the cost of the unit. The software gives you more direct control over what gets recorded.
Customer service at Replay is also GREAT. When I bought mine, it was 3 weeks before they released a far cheaper unit last November that had a better remote. I called to complain, and not only did they rebate me $300, but they sent me the new remote for free.
Now I'm having some minor problems with my unit that are suspected to be bugs in the latest software (which auto-downloaded into my unit a couple of weeks ago). I was on the phone with them yesterday, and today they are FEDEX-ing me a new unit to try out. I haven't personally used a Tivo, but my impression is that if you are the type of person who had trouble working a VCR to begin with, the software in the Tivo is oriented toward you. If you're the type of person who could program a VCR with no problem (i.e. 99.999% the /. audience) then the software in the ReplayTV is more for you.
You can buy Replay direct from them but its cheaper on Amazon or 800.com.
> I wonder what the Linux Killer will be? Any suggestions?
Game stations like Dreamcast and Playstation. The new and upcoming models play CDs and DVDs directly, and have internet access. For the bulk of home users, what else do you need?
If some basic applications like word processing and such become available for these platforms, with most of the rest being supplied by the Web, say bye-bye to the PC, at least in the home market.
The Belkin OmniView 2-port that I use doesn't seem to have a problem with video modes. Every one that I can get my card into it handles.
One minor gotcha that is definitely true for the Belkins, and probably for any such switch:
When you switch from one system to another, the monitor obviously has to re-sync if the video mode on the other system is significantly different. As a result, it's much more pleasing to the eye to use these things if you can manage to get all of your systems into an identical video mode including refresh rate.
When the modes are identical, you get near-instantaneous switches from one box to the other. But when they aren't the monitor has to re-sync which usually takes a second or two on most monitors. That can be very annoying if you have to switch back and forth alot.