[toots]

Just had a phone conversation with someone last night. She was telling me how her mother wanted to buy a DVR (probably TiVo), and how she (my friend, not the mother) couldn't stand to watch TV without a DVR.


All of this was pretty odd to me, because of all the people I've known to buy a DVR, this one was the hardest sell. Back then, I tried to explain to her what my ReplayTV was - shoot, I showed her what it was - program guide, VCR, something to find TV shows no matter where or when, time shifter, commercial (I mean unwanted scene) skipper - everything. She didn't get it.


"I can do that with a VCR" or "But it only holds 20 hours" or "But I can't save all the episodes of {x} on it, 'cause the disk would fill up." All sorts of reasons that seemed to completely miss the point as to why you'd want to own one (and coming from someone who probably doesn't watch 20 hours of TV in one week).


Now, she owns a TiVo and tells me she can't live without it. Why? Well, she heard about hacking TiVos, and the hacker in her couldn't resist the urge to buy one just to upgrade it. She now has a 92-hour TiVo, and probably still watches less than 20 hours of TV a week, but she's a total convert.


Which gets me to my main question: How do you describe to someone what makes these boxes so cool? Most of the people in the office think I'm silly - after all, they say, it's just an expensive VCR with non-removable media, right? And these guys are all software engineers.


But, I betcha if you stuck a Replay in everyone's home and came back a month later, everyone would understand. (Me, I'm still tickled silly at the joy of coming to a TV show 15 minutes late.)


Seems to me that both Replay and TiVo are a bit ahead of the market here.

 

[Amazingly Smooth]

I consider myself a true convert. I never used a VCR to record anything. In fact I didn't watch much TV. But when I heard about ReplayTV I thought more about why I didn't watch TV--there was nothing good on! I used my Replay to find shows that I did like (such as Star Trek). These shows aren't always on when I'm awake. So instead of missing good shows I catch everything I want. I missed the last 4 seasons of ST: TNG because it didn't match my schedule. That was my first big draw to a DVR. Then I got it. I never watch live TV now. Even if a show I really want to watch is recording I wait; the commercials drive me nuts! To me a VCR is like a 6 hour Replay as you have to change tapes in order to get more space--I'd never do that! What I also found is that I save so much time with my Replay. In a given hour of TV viewing I can watch three 1/2 hour shows or one 1 hour long show and a 1/2 hour show. Basically, each hour of TV has only 40 minutes of content. So the question is not: can you do it with a VCR, but rather would you? I contend that no you would not.


Cheers


------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ReplayTV -- The only one that had firewire...

 

[The Robman]

I'm with you all the way toots. I try explaining the concept of Replay/TiVo to my collegues all the time (and yes, they're all computer programmers too). Two of the most common responses are;


a) "I don't watch that much TV"


and


b) "There's not much good stuff on TV"


To address the second point, I argue that they are right, there isn't much good stuff on the box, but there is some, and that you can use a PVR to find it. That way when you do sit down to watch TV there will be something good to watch, almost guaranteed!


To address the first point I try to get them to think about how they watch TV right now. If you only have the occassional hour here and there to watch something, what you tend to do is sit down when you have a spare moment and dig out the TV guide to see if there's anything that's even slightly watchable, and you usually end up watching crap because it's all that's on. With a PVR you can pick 3 or 4 shows that you know you like and it'll record them for you. That doesn't mean that you HAVE to watch them, it just means that whenever you sit down to watch TV, there's gonna be something available that's worth watching. And that's before you even think about the fact that you can watch those shows commercial free.


To the sports fans, a PVR would be a Godsend! I used to be a big Chicago Bulls fan and would have LOVED to have my Replay back when the team was still worth watching. You could reduce a 2.5 hour game down to about 1.5 hours by not starting to watch until about an hour into the game, that way you still get to finish at about the same time as the folks watching it live.


So far at work I have only been able to convince one person to jump into the Replay waters, but now he's a total convert.


I agree 100% that anyone who has a Replay for a few weeks will be unable to give it back, that's why I started the "Rent to Own" thread. People keep coming up with reasons why they think it's not right for them without ever having seen a PVR in action, I doubt that there are many people who would not totally dig it once they have seen one working.


------------------

Later,

Rob.
http://www.hifi-remote.com/

 

[jbarr]

Toots,


That's an very interesting question, because I don't believe it can be answered simply (and especially in a 30 second commercial spot!) The problem is that DVRs, while conceptually similar to VCRs impose complexities that are often hard to grasp from the "normal TV viewer" point-of-view. When explaining DVRs, I have found that it is best to start out simple with concepts that are familiar and work up the complexity ladder. When I "evangelize" about DVRs in general and ReplayTV in particular (TiVo too), I point out several main benefits in this order:

1. Consolidated program guide

For us, this is HUGE. Having our OTA locals and DirecTV listings combined into one grid, and not having to worry about switching inputs, makes the channel changing process very easy. For the uninitiated, this is really cool because it offers them a feature they never had and makes channel selection easier. For those who already have or have seen interactive guides, ReplayTV's grid-guide is familiar enough that they can easily relate to the function.

2. Find Programs

Building upon the Channel Guide, I next show them how easy it is to search for programs using both the channel guide and the main menu. This is a real "Wow!" feature that I still find impressive. Again, it's something they can easily understand.

Notice that I haven't even mentioned pausing Live TV yet. I'm trying to get them comfortable and familiar with the interface and the underlying concepts before I get to the "good" stuff. Trust me, they aren't bored yet, In fact, by this time, they are asking "What else can it do?"

3. Program Recording Management

This is another huge one. Yes, many of what DVRs can do can also be done with VCRs, but not as easilly.


(As an aside: My Father-in-law used to have to manage upwards of 8 video tapes for all the shows he liked to watch. ReplayTV has eliminated the entire tape-shuffle, mis-label, find-a-blank-space, and mis-placed-tape routine with a clean, point-and-shoot screen. I GUARANTEE that he won't touch a video tape for a very long time! Selecting shows to record and managing the recordings is easy and even fun.)


That said, to me, this is really the "meat" of the beast. Showing how to manage recordings without fumbling with video tapes really shows the DVR strengths. Also, because you have shown them the channel guide and some of the menus from the Find Shows function, the ReplayTV Guide and recording screens look familiar.


Recording selections, playback, FF, REW, deleting...I show off all these. Because they are familiar with the VCR, this comes easily. I also keep stressing that they don't need to mess with tapes while reassuring them that they can still save stuff to tape if they want to.

4. Watching another part of a show while it is still recording

Try that one on a VCR! The entire issue of "when" I can watch a show has completely changed as there are now no restrictions as to when I can watch it. Explaining this, along with the whole "time-shifting" concept really demonstrates the power of hard-disk recording over tape.

5. Oh, and did I mention that you can pause Live TV?

Only after I have explained the above features do they start to "get" the live TV manipulation stuff. Once they understand that everything you are watching is either a previous recording (in the Replay Guide) or a buffered, slightly-delayed recording (live TV), they begin to understand the "concept". Marketing Live TV Pausing as a key benefit is nice, but until the viewer "gets" the DVR concept, this may actually be lost on them.


When I go in this order, it takes them logically from easily understood concepts (the Channel Guide) to more complex concepts (pausing Live TV). The cool thing is that my wife, being very against the whole ReplayTV concept in the beginning, is probably more articulate about the benefits than I am! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif


When the advertizers simply say that DVRs let you pause live TV thay are really limiting the scope of their capabilities.


------------------

-Jim


ReplayTV: The only way to watch Iron Chef!


[This message has been edited by jbarr (edited 11-09-2000).]

 

[toots]

Why I bought a ReplayTV:


Babylon-5, season 2


(Ok, so now everyone knows for absolute certainty that I'm a hopeless geek.)


I really got hooked on that show. The local TV station, on the other hand, wasn't. They were shifting it all around the schedule, and it was getting difficult to keep up with it.


Someone, somewhere mentioned that he tracked those changes in his area using a VideoGuide. I went out and bought one. What it gave me was pretty much what you'd get if you built a ReplayTV around a VHS VCR - program guide, automated recording, managing things by program name. A bit more primitive than the Replay's guide, but the same basic idea.


I confess that I was a hopeless convert by the end of the week. By the end of the second year, they killed the product. I tried replacing it with a TV that had built-in TV Guide Plus - same idea but markedly inferior implementation.


I guess I came to the ReplayTV because it was the most like my VideoGuide, with the added benefits of recording to a random access device instead of tape. At the time I bought the Replay, I understood and even looked forward to things like 30-second skip and play while record, but I was really in it for the program guide.


Since then, I've come to be a convert on the random access features, too. Still, I don't know if I'd be evangelizing like I do now if the local TV station hadn't jerked my favorite show around so much.

 

[JANVideo]

Where does one begin. I won't repeat all of the great things you can do with this technology, but I can give a different slant on how I promote this device.

I used to own/run a VCR repair shop, almost from the day home VCRs became available. As you know, the price of these units today don't justify fixing them (most of them are not made to be fixed anyway). I shut the business down 2 years ago. I still get calls from my customers wanting the fix their old machines. I tell them about Replay (I think Replay is better than Tivo, so I push that). In almost every case, they

1. never heard of it.

2. takes about 15 mins to get them to understand what it does.

3. they all say that they will check one out locally at BB or CC. Using

the internet is still a little far fetched for most of them, so it

will be a Panasonic unit they will check out (or maybe a Tivo).

Another reason Replay should think about mass marketing.

4. In all home theatre systems I now design and install, a PVR is now

standard equipment just as important as the control center and good

speakers, etc.


The greatest thing that customers finally understand is that they do not have to learn how to program the device in a "VCR" like fashion: no clock to set, no funny numbers to type in, no channel numbers to remember and all of that nonsense. It's a common fact that most people use their VCR to play rented movies, and a great many people have actually never recorded on their machines. All of the live stuff you can do is icing on the cake.

When I mention a phone line hookup, no one complains as they understand the real reason for that. I've had people balk at phone hookups for satellite systems, but not PVRs.


I think we can truly say that we can place a mark on the wall, at this time, stating that we have witnessed a major change in the way people will be watching TV in the future. And it will have a profound effect on the way broadcasters use and design commercials as we no longer have to actually look at them. Commercials will have to be entertaining and make us want to watch them.


I could go on and on. I'll let the rest of you add more.


Joel N.

 

[fubie]




-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote from MikLowe:

Forget about giving "copies" of recorded shows to your friends.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Actually I do this all the time! I get co workers aking me if I recorded That 70's show, or anything else, I almost always say yes I do. Then they ask if they can borrow the tape. I then let them know it's not on tape but on my RTV, But I can easily copy it to tape for them.


This is a great selling point for me. If they come to me saying they didn't have a blank, or someone left the VCR power on & their show did not record. I always tell them that would all go away with a ReplayTV.


I have 8 people who have purchased one & I just got my boss to get one off of Mercata.


------------------

If only she could be paused like my ReplayTV.

 

[toots]

That has got to be one of the most briliant features of both flavors of DVR - I don't have to remember to shut it off or hit the "timer record" button or any of that crap. If I tell it to record something at a particular time, it just does it.


Well, my 3030 was refusing to record anything the other night, but it's feeling much better now.

 

[PRMan]

I've explained it this way:

-------------

I have a theme for "Cirque Du Soleil". Bravo shows it repeatedly for a week every year or so and the last time it was on, I missed it. Now, the next time it is on, Replay will catch it for me automatically.


I also like Jackie Chan movies. I have a theme that will record every movie where Jackie Chan is an actor. I don't even have to know that it's on.


The other reason I got it is for Kings hockey. Now I can start watching those Eastern Time Zone games whenever I get home. And, I can watch a 3-hour hockey game in an hour and a half.

-------------

I also get the "I don't watch much TV" or there's nothing good on. I just tell them that on Saturday afternoon at 2PM, when I actually have time to watch TV, there's always something good on.


But my absolute favorite is, "Did you see the commercial where..."? I respond, "I don't watch commercials."



------------------

PRMan

 

[DrJoe]

When I bought my Showstopper I didn't know anyone who had a PVR, and itt was pre-TiVO television advertising campaign. I saw some advertising window on a website for ReplayTV and it caught my eye. After the initial click I thought "Wow! -- Looks COOL -- but costs WAY too much!" I kept track of the prices and the rebates and such -- and when I saw I could get a 30 hour unit for $400 I did some web-research into the unit and chose Replay over Tivo.


I bought it because:


a)My VCR was OLD (top of the line in 1990!)

b)My viewing habits are weird -- I am usually out LATE (after midnight) at least Tues and Wed shooting pool (I play in a league, two nights a week) as well as Fridays... When I got home after midnight there was NOTHING on that I wanted to watch so I found myself

c)Rewatching a dozen or so tapes filled with Simpsons episodes, which I had taped when I had RF cable. My VCR had the standard "tune to channel XX on day(s) YY at hour ZZ" -- but it DIDN'T work well with cable boxes -- you had to program both the box and the VCR... Plus tapes tapes tapes...


So I got Replay for the Simpsons



Now -- I find I always have something on...


Something that surprised me though -- perhaps my attention span isn't so long, but often I find myself watching a show, recorded OR live, and I decide to get up and do something -- make a phone call, check email, make dinner... With any other form of viewing this is a pain -- especially because I usually don't think to hit pause... With instant replay, click click click click I'm back where I left....


Love it!



Joe

 

[MultiSync]

Quote:

Originally posted by toots: Which gets me to my main question: How do you describe to someone what makes these boxes so cool? Most of the people in the office think I'm silly - after all, they say, it's just an expensive VCR with non-removable media, right? And these guys are all software engineers. But, I betcha if you stuck a Replay in everyone's home and came back a month later, everyone would understand. (Me, I'm still tickled silly at the joy of coming to a TV show 15 minutes late.) Seems to me that both Replay and TiVo are a bit ahead of the market here.

I have a confession to make. I am one of those people that just did not grasp the concept of PTV at first. I have worked the last 9 yrs as an engineer with a high-tech company and love to experiment and test new technologies. This is difficult for me to admit since I am a gadget freak to the core, but my dad was the one who first told me about this new "digital recorder" I believe were his words. I just stared at him with a blank expression I'm sure. He went on describing all the features and when he finished I just said something like "that sounds like a very limited replacement option for a VCR... convenience over functionality". You mean to tell me it only records up to 7.5 hours on medium quality? I just didn't get it, I kept on comparing ReplayTV to a VCR.


Despite my comments and lack of faith in the product, he bought a Replay 2020. The day it arrived he called me up very excited and wanted me to rush over to hook it up for him. Once I got to his home, I looked over the in & outputs... very straight forward hook-up and I was done in a few minutes. We then spent 40 minutes waiting for the updated software to download. When the download finished and I started to play with the features, my dad had to practically pry the remote from my hands. I was instantly hooked.


When I later returned to my home and turned on my home theater system, I knew TV would never be the same for me. So I did what any impulsive gadget freak would do. I flipped open the lid on my laptop that sits next to my TV viewing chair, (my laptop is equipped with an 802.11 wireless NIC card that is networked back to my home server and DSL router), and fired up Amazon.com. I firmly believe that it is the best money I have ever spent on A/V equipment. I LOVE my ReplayTV!! I watch TV on my schedule and no one else's. It is so liberating to pause live TV!!


I don't compare it to a VCR anymore. Now when I find someone who makes that analogy, I correct them. I my opinion it is a digital A/V buffer that allows you filter, capture, and reschedule TV information. Then if you find something worthy of keeping, you have the opportunity to archive it to inexpensive video cassette tape. I like to think about ReplayTV hooked to a VCR as an A/V Data Server with tape backup.


When the price drops to the sub $200.00 range, I think more people will be willing to take a chance on one. The real show stopper, no pun intended, is the price tag. I can get most of the people I talk to excited about the product. Once they find out how much it costs, they get very negative and say they will wait until prices drop. I think what Toots says is very true, even with the current price tag, if they just got to try it in a private setting, for a few hours, they would understand, they would be hooked, I was!!