Price Paid:  $298.00 from Sears

Summary:
Now that I have owned one of these for a year, I will never be without a digital TV recorder in my life. Pausing and replaying are a must. The slow motion is great too. Do NOT compare one of these to a VCR. Keyword recording is just great. If you only watch a little TV, you will find this system very worthwhile to help you watch "only" what you want to. If you watch a lot of TV you will be amazed at what it can do for you.

Strengths:
Pausing, Pausing, Pausing, Replay, Replay, Replay, Record, Record, Record.
And 30 skip to SKIP ALL those commercials. I regularly pause a 1 hour show at the beginning of the show - go do somethin useful for 15 minutes - come back and release the pause - then skip every darn commercial to the end of the show!

Weaknesses:
Cannot watch on one channel and record another - But I'll live easily with it.

Similar Products Used:
I haven't put a show to VCR tape since I bought this.

Price Paid:  $0.00 from unknown

Summary:
I can honestly say that this product will change the way you watch TV. And I might also add that it is "wife and family friendly". Once you have it for a while, and are farmiliar with the unit, you can go to the sites that I have links to at the end of my review and REALLY customize this unit. I have added an extra 80GB hard drive to give me much more disk space and if you have to use the IR blaster, and are frustrated with the length of time it takes to change chanels, you can also speed up that process too!! Just check out the links and you will see that there's much more to theese units than the manual tells you.

http://www.widemovies.com/replaytv.html

http://replayfaq.reidpix.com/faq.asp

Strengths:
upgradeable-- customizeable

Weaknesses:
none, now that I have upgraded and customized!

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I have the 60hr unit. This totally revolutionizes the way one watches television. From slow motion to 30 sec quick skip of commericals this unit is definitely worth getting. MyReplayTV also allows you to program shows on your unit a day in advance. Unlike TiVo, the subscription is included. Just make sure you have unlimited local calls, since it dials once a night. Can find a used unit on ebay at a bargain.

Strengths:
picture quality, indispensible, can go out without rushing home to catch a show

Weaknesses:
couch potato syndrome

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I purchased this product and it worked very well for the first 8 months. Of course, it started to give me trouble after the 6 month warranty ran out. Screen would hestiate and freeze while audio kept playing. Sent to "factory" for repair...nearly $200.00 including shipping. Worked well for 1 1/2 months, and then did the same thing.

Strengths:
Good Software.

Weaknesses:
Extremely poor quality electronics, reliability, service from Panasonic. They had the nerve to contact me to get a warranty AFTER my repair.

Price Paid:  $435.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I also own a Tivo but like the RePlayTV best. The menu system is better, it is easier to determine what will be recorded, the 30-second skip is infinitely better than Tivo's fast-forward. I bought my daughter the 20-hr version for Xmas 2001 and she loves hers. NO ONE SHOULD WATCH TV WITHOUT ONE OF THESE! After learning how to use it, you'll wonder why everyone doesn't have one.

Strengths:
Skip button, ease of program-record selection, visual confirmation of what will be recorded, back-7-second button to catch the joke I missed, the 30-sec skip button is perfect for football games.

Weaknesses:
No integrated DirecTV tuner (it does work well with separate satellite tuner), only 1 tuner (Tivo allows 2 shows to record simultaneously)

Similar Products Used:
Tivo (Sony model)