If you are still using a replay..tell us here

I have three 50xx lifetime units ready to roll, plus one monthly unit with no hard drive BUT with a socketed chip (!)--that have been sitting idle for a couple of months now since I transitioned out of them.

But I was right in the middle of a deal to trade these to a buddy of mine for something else I wanted, and now that deal is on hold pending the final status of WiRNS/Schedules Direct. He'll happily do that if it all works out and we can continue our trade, but the big unknown about Replay shutting everything down including clock sync puts everything on hold right now.

So, call me affected.

I use mine everyday, a 5504 I believe, every stinking day and frankly I have no idea what I would do without it. It's a monthly unit, but I'm happy to continue paying the $13 so I don't have to hassle with setting up an alternative. Plus I still have a non-HD tv, so there's no point in upgrading to an all HD DVR at this point.

I'm going to try out WiRNS for the first time in the next couple of weeks and see if I can get that working. The only thing that worries me is the activation. My hard disk has some bad spots, but I've kept it working for the last six months regardless. So if I put in the new drive it has to go out and activate itself. I really hope someone hacks that.

I have two 50xx units, a 200GB and a 750. I'm bummed to say the least.

I have 5 total ReplayTV units. 4 RTV 50xx units and one 30xx unit (on dial-up).

All but one are lifetime.

I don't use the 50xx non-lifetime unit (I just got it for spare parts, and I think the hard drive is dead).

If the authentication issue can be worked out, I would have no problem paying the $20/year to Schedules Direct to keep these working.

I would probably just replace my 30xx unit (since it uses dial-up and I don't really want to mess with it to get it working with WiRNS) with the non-lifetime 50xx unit and get rid of the 30xx unit (assuming the non-lifetime unit would become a lifetime unit for free).

I have six 4500 lifetime units that are in use daily and three 4500 units I
purchased for spare parts. My biggest fear is that they will lose activation after
7/31. I've gone through many HDD repairs and upgrades to keep these units
running. And they always had to connect for activation. So how do you manually
record if you can't get pass the activation screen?
Wish they weren't so vague in their announcement.
I will do whatever it takes to keep them functioning

Two 5040 units, "lifetime", both in daily use
Two 5040 units, refurbs, not activated
Two Panasonic Showstoppers, not in use

I tested the two refurbs today and both are recognized by the service as non-activated. although one did initialize it's 10-day, free trial period.

3 here with lifetime... all used daily.

**cough** classaction **cough**

3 ReplayTV units here.
Bought a SchedulesDirect year subscription yesterday, and downloaded WiRNS onto my laptop. Not sure how I'm going to work the 24/7 aspect of WiRNS, but I do run my laptop quite a bit at night. I'll have to see if it is enough to keep the ReplayTVs reasonably updated, if not I'll have to re-assemble a pc from spare parts lying around. My PC graveyard is pretty big, should be able to tinker up something that will work without buying anything else.

I have a 5040 and a 5080. Both with upgrade drive capacities. Can anyone provide the web links to the WiRNS website.

Thanks

I have a bunch of 5040 units around the house, some of which I upgraded the drives.

There are 4 lifetime units in daily use.

There is 1 broken lifetime unit which I've been meaning to fix.

I have 1 unactivated unit that has been scavanged for parts, which I was going to fix the broken lifetime unit.

There are 2 never activated units that I've been sitting on (one of which I tried to activate yesterday but to no avail).

In storage there are 2 monthly units which have been dormant for years.

I don't like HD tv, gives me a headache. There must be some way to keep my replays going....

SeeSpotRun

I recognize the withdrawal symptoms. I remember the first few days after I learned that my cableco was effectively removing the ability of my Replays to be functional, because they were going all digital.

But this, too, shall pass. Eventually you will all end up with something else, something that came about because as Replay owners you know how good things CAN be. You will shun the crap that the rest of the non-Replay-owning world seems to accept without blinking, and you will force your new world to behave very similarly to your old world.

I have seven showstopper 2000's, four in use and three for backups. I feel like I was told a best friend was dying when I saw the message on my tv today. I have changed out hard drives and power supplies and one motherboard (thanks Mikeyboy!) but reading about how to hopefully make the showstoppers (dialup) work has given me a headache. I hope someone can come up with an easy solution to keep the guides going. My showstoppers are hooked up to both cable (cox San Diego) and Direct Tv and I really like how they work. I have one big screen tv and the picture is great on it. My other tv's are not HD and again we are happy with what we have. It is sad when lifetime does not really mean "lifetime" . Shame on DNNA!

One 5508 lifetime used daily. One 5504 monthly rarely used.

2x 5040's used every single day in our house. My folks have one as well that I bought for them. All three are lifetime units

I have four - one 5504, two 5508, and one 5040 - all are lifetime. The three 5500s are my main units that I use daily. The other is my backup, and now, testing unit.

I have double cable box setups in two rooms so I can watch another show while I record on the replay.

I have to admit, I am freaking out a little since these units are a major part of my entertainment life, not just because of the interface and obvious features we all now, but for the features you cannot get ANYWHERE else, such as actually streaming shows all over the place, using the extra large buffering capability so I can watch something hours later without having to record at all. And DVArchive makes it easy to download on occasion so I can keep video that you cannot even buy if you wanted to.

I am ready to call D&M can ask if there is a way to buy them out. Maybe we could form a co-op.

One showstopper here, with Manual Clock Set installed, new powersupply, new remote, new hard drive, kept the 3 original working parts as spares. Still connected to a dishnetwork 301 on input 1, directv on input 2 and OTA digital converter on RF3.

I have 5 replaytv units.

Actually now that I think of it I have more than that.

Three units are connected and receiving guide data right now, two Panasonic Showstoppers and a lifetime RTV4500.

I have two more 4500s and a couple more units, one a Showstopper and one RTV 3000 I think that are not currently in use.

I suspect the WIRNS guys know how the activation works and will be able to resolve that if it's a problem, maybe with the help of some of the old RTV engineers that have posted here. There was one that worked on commercial advance, I'd like to know more about how that works.

This is exactly why the State of California outlawed health clubs selling "lifetime" memberships. Actually, not that I think of it I'm not sure that applies only to health clubs. It's possible DNNA could be the recipient of state inquiries about the shutdown.

Maybe they should endow the operation and staffing of the backend equipment? Come to think of it, DirecTV bought that company and they are in California.

Hmm.

DirectTV bought the patents and other IP. DNNA kept the name and existing customers.

Even if DNNA *wanted* to help us keep the boxes alive (and there is no evidence they want to help), they may not be able to if the IP is owned by DirectTV.

Had two 5040s, but the disk on the Lifetime died, so I moved the disk from the Monthly over and bricked the Monthly.

Now using SageTV for Comcast HD and Replay for Comcast clear QAM locals.

Using WIRNS and love it. It and Poopli let me recover programs I've missed due to Sage's flakiness (or my steep learning curve).

The Sage UI has lots of features, but the simplicity and reliability of Replay can't be beat.

I'm hoping that it's only the Program Guide issue that needs to be solved, and that there will be a 'lifetime' solution.

Would there be a way to find out about current users via Poopli? There's still plenty of action over there.

So odd, I came here after years away for a different reason. My 5040 just began the endless boot loop last week and I'm pretty sure after eight years of constant service the hard drive is just fried. So I never saw the pop-up screen.

I was deciding whether to buy a new drive for it but I'm thinking based on all this that it's time to move on. Too bad, because as a monthly subscriber (I know, I know... I'm an idiot), I could now get cheap guide data through WiRNS. Of course, I'm a Mac user, so it would involve some hoop-jumping.

Since I'm not techy enough to build a Myth box, I guess this means I'm moving on to Tivo or the cable company's DVR. Really a shame.

I have a lifetime activated ReplayTV 30XX (dial up only) which I replaced the drive in once quite a few years ago. I think we bought it in 2000, I'd say we got our money out of it!

My heart sank when I saw the message on the Replay today :-(

We've been weaning off TV anyway (down to the basic $19 cable package right now), this will just be the final straw that cuts the cord completely I think.

I have a RTV5516 that is used every day and workd perfectly. I intend to get WIRNS running.

I wondered when this day would come...
3 5000 series boxes at one location.
2 4000 series boxes at a second...

Time to remember how wirns works...
Between that and Schedules direct I hope that is all we need.

I have 4, my mom has 2, and my sister has 2 in use on a daily basis. All 45xx units.

I also have a 5500 that was one of those with the 3 year subscription included (that ended up being a lifetime unit), but it hasn't been used for years.

I expect that they already know how many are in use by the simply looking at how many "phone home" or by how many they bill for.

The unfortunate truth is that they probably just don't want to bother with the overhead and practice of supporting the servers used to provide the guide information.

I currently have
3 50xxs (1 lifetime, and 2 monthly), and 1 55xx - lifetime. All but one have had their hard drives replaced.

I also have 4 "spare" units in the basement that I've picked up over the years off of Craigslist. Most are 55xx, and one has a bad hard drive.

We use them every day. And, "she who must obeyed" is making sure that I'm taking care of this.

I work in the computer industry and have built my own machines for years, and built the one I'm using now and that is running WiRNS and 2 instances of DVArchive, but I don't want to unless I have to. The Replays just work, and work, and work.

So, I got DVArchive getting it's guide data from WiRNS this morning and will be getting WiRNS getting it's info from Schedules Direct and I'll go from there.

Rob

Wife uses Lifetime 5040 in kitchen, would like to use subscription based 5540 in bedroom if no subscription now. I haven't messed with either other than a fan replacement and hard drive update.

5 Replays, of which three were Lifetime. The three lifetimes are now "Activated"

I had two monthly machines. One monthly I let expire. I left it connected and it dialed in each night. It is now "Activated" and the channel guide is populated. The second monthly was purchased for parts. I assume that once I fire it up, it too will be "Activated".

Two of these units are in a vacation home. These will become useless w/o an active EPG. No, I do not have an internet connection there. Only dial-up. Yes, I guess I could get them to work when I am there, but definitely they won't be able to do things while I am away without a lot of heartache, and that is the real reason they are there....

I'll have to wait to see how everything shakes down on August 1.

Cheers!
-Doug

I have 3 lifetime 5040s, which have all had their hard drives expanded over the years. They control my FIOS cable boxes and are in use every day. I don't stream video between them, much, although they are capable.

Since this is just gathering the people who happen to populate this forum, I am adding two more family members who are not on the forum.

My dad has four lifetime 5000/5500 units (not sure what sizes) - two in different locations, so he has them networked in each place and then uses slingbox in each place to access two remotely wherever he is.

My brother has two lifetime 5500 units, but I think they both need some work, so he hasn't used them for a while.