Rio ReplayTV 4504 (40 GB)

Pros: Power inputs and outputs. Broadband ready.
Cons: User-interface is inferior to Tivo.

Greetings. I purchased a ReplayTV 4504 off of eBay over a year ago. However, it was not put into use until this time last year. The reason I am reviewing this device is not necessarily because it is a prominent product on the market today, but ...

Pros: Long pause time available for live tv; commercial skip feature
Cons: Won't work with digital cable box; worst remote control ever

I wish ReplayTV worked. I really do. I've tried both ReplayTV and TIVO, and I like the product styling, features and operation of ReplayTV better than TIVO. However, I took my ReplayTV back and bought TIVO for one reason - ReplayTV's IR Blaster...

Pros: Ease of use Auto commercial skip, ability to share shows
Cons: Can't think of any

We were early adopters and have had Replay's for about 6 years. We now have 4 4500 series networked together so that we can watch shows recorded on any machine anywhere in the house. We looked closely at Tivo and found the Replay interface more user friendly. We love the auto commercial skip and can't imagine life without it.
We bought ours from DigitalRecorderTv.com with 160 hours.

Pros: Networking between units and computers. broadband connection for downloading guide.
Cons: No dolby digital or HD support.

The great advantage of Replay Tv over other DVRs is the ethernet port. If you have broadband internet, you can forget about using a phone line to download the program guide. And you can network the player with other Replay Tv units. With open source DVArchive software, you can even send recordings to or from your PC or Mac and even run shows from your computer to your Tv.

The picture quality is great and you can use the network to tune in your local cable and antenna stations as well as satellite programming.

The downsides are that it doesn't support HD or dolby digital and you can't manually add channels not included in the downloaded program guide. Also the 4000 series can't directly network with 5000 series, so if you plan on owning more than one of these, make sure you get them in the same series.