After seeing the new 4000, 4500 and 5000 ReplayTV units hit the streets, I wanted to see if it was worth upgrading my Panasonic Showstopper 2000 (OEM version of the ReplayTV 3000 series). Here are my initial comments after using the 5040 for approximately 6 hours. The features and other pros/cons are available from other reviewers, I just wanted to give a side-by-side comparison from the "upgrader"s point of view.

First impressions (unbox and initial setup):
) Unit is well made, although noticably lighter than the 2000.
) Powering it up, its MUCH quieter, the harddrive is nearly silent both running and seeking.
) The 2000's "NEW CONTENT" indicator is not on the 5040. Perhaps no one else appreciated this indicator, but I did. It was always nice to see that it found something to record and there was something new ready to watch.
) "Cold" boot time (ie, from power cycle or power-button-hold) seems longer than the 2000.
) Machine walked me through the inital setup, I used dialup as I have no ethernet near the setup. Made several connections, dialing in to get access numbers and information, and then did an OS upgrade. The whole setup process was about 45 minutes to an hour. During setup, I did not have any RF or line in feeds for it to decode. During some of the setup menus (having to do with inputs and other selections) the machine would seem to go into a 30-60 second "lag" where it was no longer accepting input, apparently looking for a signal. I would assume that providing a signal would have solved this "issue", although it was frustrating.

The remote:
Since the remote *IS* the interface, its something that I paid close attention to. First off, I don't like the way it feels. The "crinkle" plastic is not what I would have chosen over the smooth plastic of the 2000's remote. Comparing functions:
) missing from the 5040 remote are the "SAT" and "VCR" buttons to use alternate sources. It only has buttons for TV and REPLAYTV.
) The "INPUT" button is gone (how do you change input sources?)
) Compared to the 2000 remote, the VOLUME UP/DOWN and CHANNEL UP/DOWN buttons are on opposite sides.
) The CHANNEL GUIDE and REPLAY GUIDE buttons are now next to one another, but are kinda "buried", too close to the buttons above, and recessed from the "cursor" buttons. For functions that *ARE* the point of the unit, it would have been nice if these were spaced better and were a bit larger.
) PLAY and STOP buttons are *SO* very tiny now. Whats up with that? PAUSE, RR and FF are normal sized, why aren't PLAY and STOP? They are quite difficult to press.
) The MENU button is now on the far left in the upper middle. Does anyone really *USE* the MENU button, except to check for "Dialup numbers have changed" messages? Its not anything I use with any sort of regularity, although with the new "View Photos" functions (which has no button, you must access these via Menu) I assume they wanted to make the whole thing easier to get to.
Overall, I like the 2000 remote better. It will take quite a bit of time before I can get used to the new remote.

Operating the 5040:
) The very first thing I notice is that changing channels is slow. Painfully slow. Unbelievably what-in-the-world-is-it-doing slow. I timed the average channel change to about 6 seconds. Black screen inbetween. While the 2000 was no speed demon when changing channels, it was at least tolerable. This is rediculous.
) The INSTANT REPLAY (7 seconds back) and QUICK SKIP (30 seconds forward) functions have a slight lag that isn't there on the 2000. There is about an extra 1/4 to 1/2 second lag before the video starts streaming again. While this isn't much, when you try and go skip-skip-skip to get past something, you feel the delay.
) Guide navigation (both saved shows and channel guide) is much improved from the 2000. Its MUCH faster to slide through pages of guide information - most of the lag is gone. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to look at the 5040. While the slow navigation isn't unbearable on the 2000, I was looking for something a bit more snappy.
) Those quickly-to-navigate guides now have a not-very-pretty color scheme. Its too soft, using soft blue and green pastels, not providing the contrast of the white on blue of the 2000's guide. It does have a pretty background image now, but the data itself is hard to read with such low contrasting colors.
) On screen data "fade aways" are now very smooth. Not that anyone cares, but you can see a difference.
) Video and audio quality seem similar. I used Svideo outputs and the standard RCA audio outputs. Input is from a standard cable feed.

Why bother?:
Why did I want to upgrade? I wanted a faster, more "mature" unit. The ethernet options are nice and something that I was definately interested in, if only for the quick updates and it no longer using my phone at 3am. I'm on 144K IDSL, so transfering programs to other ReplayTV owners across the net would be painful at best, but perhaps sharing data with another ReplayTV unit in my home would be interesting. The quieter harddrive is also a big plus. The 2000's drive didn't bother me per-se, but it was noticable. Some of the new UI features sounded nice (like show categories, 12 day guide data vs 7, etc) as well.

I have 4 days to decide if I like the unit before having to pay for a subscription (the clock starts ticking the moment you go through initial setup and it dials in the first time).

Conclusion:
So far, I'm not sure if its worth the "upgrade" for me. While I do like some of the new features, the slow channel change time, the annoyingly different (and lack of feature buttons) remote, the pastel colors on the guides, all add up to keeping the unit a difficult decision. Had I never owned a ReplayTV before, I probably wouldn't notice (probably would only be annoyed by 1/2 of the remote issues) but as an upgrade, I'm torn.

I'll keep the unit for the next couple days, doing more side-by-side comparisons with the 2000. We'll see how I feel about it then, if its worth keeping or I should just take it back. For now, I'll give it an "AVERAGE" rating. I still *LOVE* ReplayTV and couldn't live without one. I'm just not sure if the 5040 is what I was looking for in an upgrade from my old unit.

Unit was purchased from CircuitCity.com, picked up at my local store. Unit was $299 with two mail-in $50 rebates from ReplayTV.com.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 299