skar

Yes, but the T-60 is a DirecTiVo and has no quality settings.

About 72 hours bonus space for adding an 80GB drive to a DirecTiVo.

bfrank

I am going to need to jump on this soon!

What about cost? Replay has a lifetime deal, does Tivo? If they are so close than this lifetime deal seems like a big part. After one year the Replay is free but you are still paying for tivo- right?

Icculus

They both have basically the same pricing structure. Replay is $10 a month/$249 lifetime, Tivo is $12.95 a month (I think)/$249 lifetime. If you're planning on buying one soon and looking at replay check out avsforum - there's a thread about how you can pick up a 5040 for $154 after rebates.

TeeSeeJay

Here's the icing on the cake. I just read about this in the January 2003 issue of Sound & Vision Magazine.

SonicBlue is going to release a portable ReplayTV player -- "about the size of a paperback book", 4-inch color LCD, with the ability to transfer files from a PC or directly from a ReplayTV set-top box. Late 2003, for "under $1000".

huzefa

Don't forget Directivo pricing which is $4.99 for DTV subscribers who have Total Choice or Total Choice Plus and free for those who have Total Choice Premier. Plus with all the new subscriber deals that DTV has, it's more cost-effective to just get a DirecTivo.

mikehunt

another thing to think about. a computer can be turned into a tivo for less. $50 for a tv tuner/capture card $100 for a 80gb hard drive and there is free software for the tv program info
I saw a tv card with software with just about all the same features
plus guide plus has programming info and is sent for free over most cable systems
some info on guide plus http://www.vgi.com/guideplus1.html

al_bundy

Is Tivo ever planning on having a broadband model that works with DSL? I'm not talking dial up over DSL either. I'm looking at replay TV just because I can hook it into my home network and have it download everything over DSL.

BizRodian

I didn't know these things were so expensive... I'll just use my computer for now, since it's like, free and such...

JM

Actually, it has ethernet capability whether or not you have broadband. As long as you have at minimum a NIC in your computer and a crossover cable, you can transfer shows from the RTV to your computer over the LAN using programs such as ReplayPC or DVarchive (not compatible with the 5xxx series yet--soon). Then you can burn the .mpg's to VCD/SVCD/DVD/whatever.

Yep. That's one less conversion from digital to analog at the very least.

No hack required for RTV. With a JP1 remote one can even perform 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. minute skips (forward or backward) with the press of a button. Without it, the same requires only two button presses (X + Quickskip or X + Instant Replay jumps X minutes forward or backward respectively).

RTV outputs progressive scan. Though I haven't tried it yet, this may be a noticeable difference.

Works well for me with most shows. If it gives you problems on a show, one button toggles it off. Then you can manually skip with 2 or 3 minute jumps (see above).

Bottom line, IMO ReplayTV beats Tivo hands down. I have owned a Showstopper (aka RTV 3xxx series) for over a year now and love it. I recently bought a 5040 too and have been very happy with it so far. While I have never owned a Tivo, I have seen them in action, and they are not for me. Tivo's interface requires too many steps to do simple things and is too colorful and cartoony for my tastes. Looks like it was designed for children. ReplayTV, to me, is just a lot classier and elegant--not to mention it has a lot of features Tivo doesn't (some of which are mentioned above).