ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder

by Replay Tv

Product Details

Product Manual [3.55mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 14 x 16.9 x 3 inches ; 12 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 16 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0000BYRIN
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (142 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,035 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Capacity: 40-Hour

Amazon.com Hands-On Review

You've heard the hype, but just how well does ReplayTV actually work? We tried the RTV5504 ourselves just to find out, and its performance was better than we'd imagined. It's great to be able to pause and replay live television. Even better: apart from gotta-watch-it news and sports, "live TV" is something ReplayTV users no longer have to think about. The RTV5504 puts all that's good in the TV universe at your beck and call, recording and storing content from TV, satellite, antenna, or external sources like DTV receivers and camcorders on its spacious, 40 GB hard drive. While watching either live or recorded TV you can freeze an image, advance frame-by-frame, watch in slow motion, or view at 2x to 20x normal speed.

What's more, the RTV5504 is home-network-capable, letting you hook it up with additional 5500 Series recorders for multi-room convenience and/or link it to your PC for viewing custom slide shows of your digital photos. Not a cable or satellite user? Not to worry--there's an RF antenna input on the rear panel, just like on your TV. Just understand that the quality of your recordings can never surpass the quality of your reception. If you're using a satellite receiver, a supplied IR blaster will correctly configure the receiver to feed the ReplayTV recorder your desired programs at the correct times.

Some basics: 40 GB holds 14 to 40 hours of programming, depending on the quality setting you select (standard, medium, or high). Use of the unit requires ReplayTV service, to which you can subscribe on a monthly basis ($12.95) or pay up front for lifetime access ($299.99). The ReplayTV recorder requires regular scheduling updates via either standard analog phone line (RJ-11 cable provided) or broadband cable modem (router or access point and/or Ethernet cable not included).

But once it's set up, using it and appreciating it couldn't be any easier. Before you record anything, ReplayTV delivers real-time, onscreen scheduling information for everything in your area, making paper guides unnecessary and taking all the guesswork out of channel surfing. The channel guide shows program names, program durations, and even offers short descriptions or summaries for each program.

ReplayTV's best features all stem from its ability to capture shows you're interested in, either one by one, categorically (all shows of a given title or in a given time slot), or by theme (baseball, music videos, romantic comedies, action movies, documentaries, dance, you name it). You can also search by actor, director, title, or description, and set the unit to capture anything that fits your queries. ReplayZones let you browse all scheduling for the next two weeks by seven primary categories and countless subcats within each category, a terrific way to discover programs you'd never think to look for.

You can set recordings to start early or end late or skip broadcasts on any day of the week, one of many options for settling the inevitable recording conflicts. If you walk into a live broadcast you decide you want to keep, you can schedule on the fly to save the remainder of that program.

The recorder shines most brightly in active use: navigating, viewing, and managing (resume playback/keep/delete) recorded programming. The QuickSkip button is indispensable, bumping you a commercial-appropriate 30 seconds forward with each press. If you first enter a number, such as 15, QuickSkip will take you forward an equivalent number of minutes, making it easy to hunt for a specific section of a program.

Another essential feature is the ability to watch a recorded program while another recording is in progress. And, by turning the unit off (the hard drive is always on, even if the power is ostensibly off), you can watch a live program on one channel via your TV tuner while ReplayTV records another program on a different channel.

At a minimum, all quality settings are what we would call "watchable." In the "high" setting, picture and sound quality are both excellent, if still slightly inferior to the raw signal. (If your TV is HD-ready, using the unit's progressive-scan video outputs should result in an improvement, however.) Using the medium and standard settings greatly expands the recorder's storage capacity, which--trust us--you'll probably find yourself wanting a lot sooner than you think. Let's face it: a dip in audio/video quality is a small price to pay for the programming discoveries and incredible conveniences afforded by this device. --Michael Mikesell

Pros:

• Lets you easily prioritize and manage the TV you want to watch
• Intuitive operation
• Can play one recorded program while capturing another
• Well-designed remote control
• Myriad options for choosing and discovering programs to record
• Extensive options for navigating recorded content quickly and easily
• Makes it easy to skip commercials
• Switches quickly between menus and programming

Cons:

• Best-quality image (live or recorded) is slightly inferior to the source signal
• May require use of a video amplifier when feeding a cable signal directly to the unit

What's in the Box One ReplayTV RTV5504 PVR, a remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, an RF coaxial video cable, a composite-video/stereo analog audio interconnect, an IR blaster cable, a 9-to-15-pin adapter, an RJH-to-9-pin adapter, and an RJ-11 phone cable.

Product Description

ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

159 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tivo vs. Replay, December 28, 2003

By 

Keith "kc31824" (STAMFORD, CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder (Electronics)

First of all, the DVR (digital video recorder) category is amazing. It is not just an incremental step up from a vcr -- these things make TV watching far more convenient. Start a show whenever you want, pause it, rewind live tv, etc etc. There are plenty of reviews on all of that, so just a word on choosing a Tivo or a Replay:

I have 2 Replays and 1 Tivo now. On the whole, both are great and for the most part, they do exactly the same set of things. The only "important" feature that Replay has that Tivo does not is the ability to skip commercials automatically, which works most of the time and is very cool. The only major feature Tivo has that Replay doesn't is that it automatically records "similar" shows to ones you've chosen in the past to fill unused disk space -- also cool. Outside of these two, they are functionally very similar.

The main differentiator I find is power vs. ease of use. Tivo is slightly easier to use -- our 5 year old is a pro at it. Replay requires a couple extra keystrokes, but is a bit more flexible, such as giving you more range on how many of each show to save to use your disk space, etc.

If any of the above are decision makers for you (commercial skip, auto record, or ease of use vs. flexibility), then go with it. If not, the rest really is about the same so just shop on price.

Enjoy -- they're both great.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get the better version., September 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder (Electronics)

This replay is good but you can still get the better (previous) version RTV5040 at www.replaytv.com.

Get the "ReplayTV 5040 (Brand New Unit) with Lifetime Service Activation" for $399.50 after rebate and free shipping.

The old RTV5040 version includes the Commercial Advance® and the ability to send program to friends via broadband. Both features have been removed from the newer RTV5504 version due to a lawsuit againt ReplayTV.

Also the newer version has only three years of service included in the price. But if you buy the older RTV5040 version from the replayTV website, they include the Lifetime Service Activatio (a 250 dollar value).

So the RTV5040 version is better and cheaper.

Remember ReplayTV is better than Tivo!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Product!, September 5, 2004

By 

J. Baehr (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder (Electronics)

I bought this after much debate between the TiVo and ReplayTV about a year ago, and am very happy with my Replay. Although the TiVo is easier to understand for most people, this doesn't mean the Replay is difficult by any means. While visiting some family friends out of town, I told them about my Replay and how much better it makes TV watching, and I set it up for them the next day. Since then, I haven't heard of any problems figuring it out. I'm also showing some local friends my Replay and encouraging them to get one. Although it sounds like I'm a ReplayTV missionary, I wouldn't convert my friends if it wasn't worth it.

Since getting my Replay 5504 about a year ago, I upgraded it from 40 hours to 120, something that's apparently more difficult to do on the TiVo. Also, although ReplayTV was hit with a lawsuit for the 5000 series because of the ability to automatically skip commercials, the "Show|Nav" feature does the same thing, although they can't advertise it as that and you need to push one (1) button now. The TiVo makes you fast-forward like a VCR.

2115|R2ILQ3WGCANBNF;2115|R1JD3RC3VEGRK6;2115|R1AFJ2Z7Z9X8FZ;