ReplayTV Worth a Second Look
ReplayTV is a personal television service that lets you stop, rewind, and fast-forward live TV. But that's not the half of it.
The ability to cut through the morass of mind-numbing programming to find worthwhile content sans the VCR nightmare could pay for itself in money that otherwise would have gone to the therapist.
Getting started isn't easy. Installing the unit -- about the size of a VCR -- can take the better part of an afternoon, although it's more cumbersome than complex. Like any piece of consumer electronics equipment, there are lots of wires going to and fro, and the device could require you to reconfigure your setup.
You'll need to figure out the best way to connect ReplayTV so that it can communicate with all of your video sources -- TV, cable box, and VCR. While there are lots of combinations, it's best to plug the aerial or cable directly into ReplayTV, then daisy chain the video to the VCR and back to the TV.
It took me about an hour of reading the directions and a little trial-and-error to get the ReplayTV menu up on screen. My hodgepodge setup of wires -- which now looks a lot like those digestive-tract pictures from Biology 101 -- required me to flip a TV switch to make the auxiliary video input (where ReplayTV is connected) go live.
It may mean you'll have to get up and walk across the room when you want to use the VCR. Alternatively, you could buy a video signal splitter -- available at any Radio Shack -- to route your cable connection to ReplayTV and your VCR. That would avoid the mess.
All plugged in? Then you'll need to dial in to get the ReplayTV service -- which does most of the magic -- working. The box needs to download TV listings for your area to build the Channel Guide that will let you automatically record programs.
I'm lucky enough to have a phone jack in my living room, and I also had a 20-foot phone cord -- long enough to reach around the furniture. You may have to buy an extra cord, or even a wireless jack, if the distance is too great.
The call to get the listings (a toll-free number) took about seven minutes. The reward? A grid basic and cable channels that let you see what's on weeks in advance.
According to ReplayTV director of product marketing Jim Plant, the phone will dial to get updated listings between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m. The software built-in to the unit will shut off if you accidentally pick up the phone, and it won't interrupt a call if you're already on the line.
It was a relief to spend only three minutes to set up the recorder to copy some Saturday night shows before I went out for the evening. I clicked on the Channel Guide, navigated to the time and channel, hit select, and everything was programmed to record. If you hit select a second time, you can record all future episodes of a show.
You can type in the name of a show -- or use a keyword as a theme, such as "home repair" -- and the service will tag matching shows. One problem with the system is that the grid depends on information from Tribune Media Services, which may not accurately reflect your cable listings.
For example, in San Francisco, cable provider AT&T splits Channel 39 between CNBC during the day, and Comedy Central at night. But Tribune lists only the CNBC programs.
That means I can't auto-record Comedy Central shows, like the Daily Show or The Man Show. But, hey, nothing's perfect. Plant said ReplayTV is working with Tribune to try and resolve the discrepancies, which happen frequently.
When watching recorded shows, I was pleasantly surprised by the video images, even at the lowest recording quality. I've never been impressed with video stored on hard drives, but ReplayTV got it right. I noticed very little pixelation (distortion) in any of the shows I recorded. In fact, I couldn't tell the difference between live and recorded content.
The current model of the ReplayTV, which came out on 2 November, uses a super-fast Quantum drive that stores video in MPEG-2 format. At the lowest setting, that's about 20 hours, or seven hours at the highest quality, the recommended setting for fast-moving images, such as sports that aren't golf or bowling.
The upside is that I waste less time vainly channel-surfing for something decent to watch during the odd half hour I feel like being a couch potato. The downside? I have started to watch more TV, period. Oh well, the rainy season was coming anyway.
Speaking of channel-surfing, the ReplayTV remote isn't as friendly as its onscreen menus and guides. It's got lots of buttons for entering, saving, recording, and navigating menus that seem to be laid out in no particular order. Like the Bermuda Triangle for receipts near my desk, I can never seem to find the one I need when I'm looking for it.
Using the ReplayTV remote also slows down your channel-hopping, adding a one-second delay to each move up and down the dial. You can still use your old remote if you get tired of waiting.
Being able to pause, rewind, and fast-forward through whatever you're watching is a kick. ReplayTV uses available disk space to automatically make a copy of whatever you're watching.
It's good to know that if there's a controversial call against your team and the damn networks don't replay it, you can just hit rewind and relive the agony or the ecstasy over and over again.
If you're interrupted by the phone during that "very special" 90210 episode, you can just hit pause, and resume watching at your leisure. There's even a button to jump back to live TV.
You can accelerate your rewinding or fast-forwarding through commercials by hitting the buttons multiple times. To permanently save a show that you're watching, you need to press the red record button or it will eventually be erased.
All this wonderful functionality does come at a substantial cost.
ReplayTV sells for an "early adopter" price of US$699. But once you get it, I can just about guarantee you'll use it. So far, ReplayTV is only available in the United States, but the company plans to expand the service throughout North America soon.
Competitor TiVo has a very similar service that starts at $500, but there's also a $10 monthly subscription fee and, unlike Replay, the company tracks your usage patterns, aggregates them, and turns them over to -- dare I say it? -- marketers.
Plant says ReplayTV will always offer a basic service for free, but may roll out premium services in the future. The company will also upgrade the software on the box with more features.
This is just the beginning for customizable TV. The features will likely be rolled into televisions, VCRs, and cable boxes before too long. TiVo has already licensed the technology to Sony, which should help to build competition and reduce prices.
Ladies and gentleman, start your remotes!
