Just finished upgrading my 80 hr upgraded Panny ShowStopper to a dual drive 160gig/80gig which yielded 240 hours record time. With all that time, man, if I don't see that red record light on all the time, then somethin' needs recordin'!
Your replaytv purchase will be well worth it... but 40 hrs won't be enough, especially at "high" record levels.

40 hours seems like more then enough. What are high record levels? Is that like the speed on a VHS tape? Like ELP, or SP, etc.

Does it affect the quality is what I am asking, basically.

Also, does Directv have any trial offers or money back guarantees for trying the Tivo? I'd hate to get it, and then not use it. Yet, it seems like it'd help so much. I had to record the Apprentice last week on my VCR, bleh. First time I'd watched a tape in months

It records without commercials?

No, but I use 30-second skip to FF through the commercials with just a few clicks.

I'm tryin to talk the wife into a third DTivo for our bedroom. She doesn't see the need in it though. She says the old standalone should be enough. I think since I got my first one in November I'm eligable for another one for $99 + free instal since it's a new year. I could be wrong though.

The quality is exactly what you see on your DirectTV now. It takes the MPEG stream and writes it directly to disc.

I am thinking about switching from cable to DirectTV or DishNetwork. I was going to try Voom but at the last point I read, they was still a lot of trouble with them. I have an HDTV so I was wondering if they have come out with the HDTivos yet?

I pre-ordered one from ValueElectronics. It seems like Hughes/DirecTV isn't producing them fast enough and it won't be available to the "general public" until late 2004. If you pre-order through the link over at AVS/TC, you could get it much sooner (April?, May?).

I have to second the "post at AVS Forums" idea. They've helped me a few times with my RTV problems as well.

There are even a few DNNA employees who work RTV Support that read and post in that forum. One in perticular, ReplayLyndon, has helped me recently. I'll send you his email address just incase.

Good luck!

great isnt it?!?!

I got in on the $150 for a 5504 with at least 3 years free service (99 cents per month after that), most likely free lifetime activation.. back around christmas. that was a pretty sweet price mistake.
I doubt I would have bought one yet otherwise.. but now I dont know how I lived without it!

With a Replay you can transfer what you have recorded to your computer can't you? How does that work?

You certainly can, using DVArchive.

Twikoff, I hate you. I wish I was in the market to buy a ReplayTV during Christmas.

I ended up paying the $299 lifetime subscription. Oh well.

Yep, I tried it for the first time last night. Tried it at Medium quality and it looked pretty good. I love this thing!!!!!

aftermath, same here. I saw it and was planning on getting one. If I had known the deal was only going to last a few days I would have jumped on it in a flash. Now I am patiently waiting on the next big deal.

btw.. with dvarchive.. you can schedule some programs to record directly to your computer(s).. no need to rush to upgrade the harddrive in the rtv, when you skip the middleman and use your computer(s) space for recording and playback

That is awsome. I saw that the 5504 is only $150. Is this the best one to get? On the Replay website they only differ by number of hours on each model. Is this true?? $150 is too good to pass up for this kind of machine.

thats $150 without activation.. youll still have to pay for the service


the deal i was referring to above was when they first switched to selling the service with the machine and started seperating it out.. they screwed up and put the new price (for seperated out) on the old units that still included service.. they tried to take it away and charge for service, but they knew they had no case, and gave us our free service

Thanks for the hot tip. I just bought a 160 gig drive for my computer, now I don't have to worry about upgrading the RTV too (not for a while at least).

So I have Digital Cable. I have a cable box. If I got a Replay would I need two cable boxes? One would go to the Replay then to my reciever. The other cable box would go to my reciever so I could watch a channel while recording another on Replay correct?? Then if I wanted to watch something from Replay I would just switch to that input on the reciever right?

What's the difference between the DirecTv one, the Tivo, and the Replay TV?

nickdawgy

This should keep you occupied for awhile.

http://www.pvrcompare.com/

I've said it before because depending on what you're looking to do will decide on which you choose.

Conflict checking
Tivos checks for conflicts between all shows when you schedule new recordings and allows you to set each shows priority to control how both current and future conflicts are resolved. ReplayTV checks for conflicts between series and single recordings but not themes, and offers less control over how they're resolved. However ReplayTV has a limited ability to schedule shows on another compatible ReplayTVs on your home network.
Winner: Tivo


Summary
Overall ReplayTV is better at manipulating video once it's been recorded and the 5000. However it's not quite as easy to control what records. Tivo offers better control over scheduling, making it easier to be sure it will record what you want it to.

These two areas made me choose Tivo over Replay. I wanted to make sure what I wanted to record was going to be recorded. I have no interest in moving stuff to my computer as I want to watch television shows on my television. Some people may be the exact opposite. Just figure out what you want to do and go from there.

It depends. Can you receive regular cable if you plug your cable line directly into the TV? If so, you don't need 2 cable boxes, although you will only get the analog channels on 1 split. That is how I had mine set up when I had 1 Replay. Now with 2 Replays, I have the following setup:

Cable split 3 ways:
Split 1) Cable > Digital Cable Box > Replay #1 > TV (via A/V jacks)

Split 2) Cable > Replay #2 > TV (via coaxial 1 jack) - note that I can only record analog channels on this one

Split 3) Cable > TV (via coaxial 2 jack) - note that I can only watch analog channels on this one.

Therefore, under my setup, I watch an analog channel while recording 2 programs (1 on digital and 1 on analog).

Well as I'm sure you know I can only get analog channels if I connect the coax directly to my TV. So I think I would need to split the signal. I want to be able to watch digital stations while recording digital as well so I think my setup needs to be like this..

Split 1) Cable> cable box > replay > reciever video 1

Split 2) Cable> cable box > reciever video 2

Does this sound correct? That way I can watch anything I want while recording anything I want. It doesn't matter if it is digital or analog?

Yeah - that would work.

There is no denying that Tivo's conflict management is superior to ReplayTV's (although it has been slightly improved in the 5.1 software). However, depending on what you record and how observant you are, unexpected conflicts won't occur very often. However, if you only have one PVR, whether Tivo or ReplayTV, there are probably going to be times when there are two shows on at the same time that you want to record. You can only record one with a current standalone Tivo/ReplayTV, and no amount of conflict checking will solve that. However, with a ReplayTV 5xxx, you do have the ability to download the show you missed from another user over the Internet via IVS. This is very useful. Also, Automatic Commercial Advance works very well on the shows I watch and is also a nice plus that Tivo doesn't have. I use it all the time. IMO these 2 features counteract the weaker conflict management given the rarity of occasions(for most people) where better conflict management would have made a difference.