So I was a pretty happy ReplayTV owner. I initially had chosen the Replay over Tivo because of several features. For one you could connect it to your network via ethernet. This was a big plus for me since I didn’t have a phone line where I was going to put the unit. This also had the following two added benefits. There is great program called DV Archive that allows you to move shows from your replay to your computer. You can also program your box from a website to record shows. The only problem with this is that you have to do it a day in advance. But still these features all led me to Replay over Tivo.
Then I heard about my cable company (Time Warner) introducing an HD DVR. I waited patiently for this and it’s finally arrived. The unit that I got was the Scientific Atlanta 8100HD. I was worried after having read about many problems people were having with the unit but I must say that I’ve been very lucky and haven’t had any major issues. You also can’t beat the current offer. Time Warner is providing the unit for free and offering the service for only $4.95 for the first 6 months. After that it will go to 9.95 which is comparable to Replay & Tivo unless you go with the lifetime subscriptions. A comparable DirecTV unit will run in the neighborhood of $800 just for the hardware.
Anyways, I lost the archiving and web programming features of my Replay, but I’ve gained the following:
HDTV Recording
Dual Tuner (record 2 shows at once)
Cable and DVR in 1 unit (before had Digital Cable box and Replay with many cables)
Fast channel switching (Replay used RF to change cable channels)
PIP built in unit
…and more
Overall these have more than made up for what I lost. Anyways, I thought I’d provide this info in case anyone was considering getting one of these units.