[s.bradford]

I love my ReplayTV! ButÉ


This month I took the plunge and bought a HDTV. The shows I now get in 720p & 1080i add so much to the viewing experience I now find myself back to watching live TV, and sitting through hours of commercials.


No news from ReplayTV on ANYTHING new since October (and that was just a software update, so effectively no technology based announcements for over a year), and this from "a consumer electronics company"! Just more of the same noise about them being "ahead of the competition".


Well DNNAÉ HDTV PVRS are beginning to ship. There pricey, but so are the TVs. And folks who spent the bucks on the TVs, will spend for the PVR. Where are yours?


I have spent the last year defending ReplayTV from comments from TIVO users that DNNA is just a clearing house for a bunch of old inventory. I am getting ready to switch. Before I do, I would like to give you the opportunity to announce that you are working on "something" beyond marketing a dead product and creating confusion in the marketplace due to continuously changing policies.


Sorry if this sounds harsh... but if it does, it's your own fault as it is "just the facts Ma'am".

 

[handydave]

QQ: Are you watching HDTV through Cable, over the air or Direct TV?


If it's cable, if you cable company offer a HDTV recorder for $10-$15/month would you consider buying a ReplayTV or Tivo?

 

[s.bradford]

Quote:

Originally posted by handydave QQ: Are you watching HDTV through Cable, over the air or Direct TV? If it's cable, if you cable company offer a HDTV recorder for $10-$15/month would you consider buying a ReplayTV or Tivo?

So far no one (at least in my region) are offering anything like that. Sure there are PVR/tuners for both cable and sat, but none of these free/$10-$15 a month hardware/tivo service offers are HDTV compatible. If I have missed anyone please let me know as I will be on it in a second.


Based on what I have researched, currently you are going to have to spend up to a grand for the box. These units are 1080i, include a 250 GB drive that supports appx 30-40 hours of HDTV programing (or 6 times that for SD/ 480p DTV programming.


Currently I am renting a Moto DCT5100 from Comcast for $5/month. While I would love to have (and pay for) more programming, I don't have the time to watch it unless I can Replay/Tivo it.


It seems the technology shift for this is minimal. The hard part (the guide/listings/interface software) is already done. Slap in a bigger hard drive (a hundred bucks more if that), and new encoder/decoder (or deal with it all digitally like d-vhs [an 80's technology], as all HDTV boxes have digital out.


Obviously the cable/sat/atsc tuner would be the big part of it but I would be thrilled with one without a tuner. Just feed one of the ouputs from the moto to the Replay and use the IR blaster.


But I am guessing there are little to no resources at DNNA to do this.


As to whether I would spend the money on a ReplayTV when my cable/sat company gives them to me for a minor monthly charge, the answer is I already did. I am a fairly new RTV user (about a year or so) and these offers were available at the time I bought mine. Not only did I pony up cash for the box... my monthly fee is double what the Comcast's monthly fee is for the service for the "free" box.


Why, you may ask (but I doubt it cause you're here)É because ReplayTV is better. And all things being equal (i.e. both units record the programming I want to watch) I would spend the extra money for ReplayTV's feature set.


You would think DNNA's aquisition meant they had a plan for ReplayTV but I think their silence over the last year means they have NO plans for RePlayTV. Like so many aquisitions it was done for a part of the technology and the current product will most likely be killed when they run out of old units to sell.

 

[Ol Dirty Wes]

Where have you heard that DNNA is about to start shipping HDPVR's?


Could you provide links?

 

[s.bradford]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ol Dirty Wes Where have you heard that DNNA is about to start shipping HDPVR's? Could you provide links?

Wes...


The whole point here is we have heard nothing for over a year.

 

[l8er]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ol Dirty Wes Where have you heard that DNNA is about to start shipping HDPVR's?

Wes, this line from above:
Quote:

Originally posted by s.bradford Well DNNAÉ HDTV PVRS are beginning to ship. There pricey, but so are the TVs. .... Where are yours?

I think what is being said is: DNNA, HDTV PVRs (by other companies) are beginning to ship....where are yours?

 

[BrettStah]

What's the deal with the É's?

 

[Wilde1]

Have you tried recording any HD shows on your ReplayTV?


I've been recording HD off DirecTV for 6 months on my 5040 (upgraded to 160GB) and playing the shows back with component out and progressive scan on my Panny 42" EDTV Plasma.


The 'high-quality' recordings look surprisingly good. Now granted, it's not 1080i, but it looks a hellava lot better than any SD recordings, fills the screen, and is comparable to some DVDs. The quality is good enough that I'll merrily time shift HD this way until a true-HD PVR is available and reasonably priced.

 

[horseflesh]

I just got an OTA decoder so I am in the same boat. But the darn Replay only has ONE S-video input! I will have to put either my dish or my OTA HD into the Replay over composite video. Yuck.

 

[s.bradford]

Quote:

Originally posted by Wilde1 Have you tried recording any HD shows on your ReplayTV? I've been recording HD off DirecTV for 6 months on my 5040 (upgraded to 160GB) and playing the shows back with component out and progressive scan on my Panny 42" EDTV Plasma. The 'high-quality' recordings look surprisingly good. Now granted, it's not 1080i, but it looks a hellava lot better than any SD recordings, fills the screen, and is comparable to some DVDs. The quality is good enough that I'll merrily time shift HD this way until a true-HD PVR is available and reasonably priced.

I'll certainly give this a try. So let me get this straight... you're sending the output from the receiver to the Replay via s-video on L2, and outputing the Replay to the TV via component. And you see 16:9 (without stretching) from the Replay when HD shows are recorded this way?

 

[wincrasher]

I don't quite understand why HDTV pvrs would carry a much higher price tag - technologically they should be simpler - there would be no encoding required - you are simply saving the transport stream to hard disk. I guess the novelty of it- and savy marketting - will allow the manufacturer's to extract a hefty premium for awhile.

 

[s.bradford]

Well, after trying Wilde1's suggestion of recording HDTV from the DCT5100's S-Vid out, and outputting it via Replay's component out to the TV... it is better, but not acceptable for the shows I really want to watch that are broadcast in HDTV.


First of all it does not fill the screen. My TV is 1280x720 and what I get looks like a letterboxed 4:3 DVD.


Second, the quality I am seeing isn't even close to the worst looking DVD I have. While it is better than most SD, it just doesn't float my boat. So for The West Wing (and a handful of other shows) I am once again at the mercy of network schedules and back to sitting through commercials.


The good news is we are heading into Summer reruns and hopefully by Fall we'll see some decent HDTV PVR's.


Or hell... I may just try and build one.

 

[s.bradford]

Quote:

Originally posted by wincrasher I don't quite understand why HDTV pvrs would carry a much higher price tag - technologically they should be simpler - there would be no encoding required - you are simply saving the transport stream to hard disk. I guess the novelty of it- and savy marketting - will allow the manufacturer's to extract a hefty premium for awhile.

The boxes I am seeing have tuners built in, and a variety of outputs (which does mean decoding) hence the hefty price tags. But since I have yet to buy an ATSC tuner, I would be willing to pay close to a grand for an all in one box. Unfortunately the ones I have seen so far do not have OTA support.


Correction - The Hughes unit has two ATSC OTA tuners built in, plus two SAT tuners, for $999. This really isn't such a bad deal. I guess it is time to try and borrow an ATSC tuner to see what kind of reception I get here up on the mountain (about 45 miles from the towers).

 

[moyekj]

Sounds like a lot of trouble/expense to get SAT + OTA HDTV broadcasts. I think I'll have to wait until the local cable company offers more HDTV programming and hopefully will never have to bother with OTA. LOL, I thought the days of big roof antennas and rabbit ears were long gone! Are there any satellite services offering non-OTA network HDTV broadcasts? (or are they all bound to FCC regulations preventing this)

 

[Jeff D]

Quote:

Originally posted by s.bradford Well, after trying Wilde1's suggestion of recording HDTV from the DCT5100's S-Vid out, and outputting it via Replay's component out to the TV... it is better, but not acceptable for the shows I really want to watch that are broadcast in HDTV. First of all it does not fill the screen. My TV is 1280x720 and what I get looks like a letterboxed 4:3 DVD.

This is a limitation on the 5100 and not the replayTV. If your decoder box did what it should, and output the anamorphic 4:3 image you'd be closer to what you want.


On all the directv receivers there's a tv screen size option, either 4:3 or 16:9. If you choose 4:3 you are even give options of letterboxed or cropped. If you select your TV is 16:9 then 16:9 stuff comes out anamorphic and the replay records it fine. When you playback the replayTV recording stretched to 16:9 the image looks close to what it did when broadcast.


I'd be talking to motorola asking if they can fix the box to output the down converted 16:9 material as a full anamorphic 4:3 frame without adding in the letterboxing.


From what all of us have been saying for the past 4 years on this subject... it's NOT HDTV, but it's a hell of a lot better than SDTV. Sorry your equipment doesn't allow you to get it in a form it should be in.


BTW Zoom modes on your TV might get it back closer to full screen. I do this with the dtvio recordings of deadwood that are broadcast letterboxed.

 

[lizard_boy]

Quote:

Originally posted by BrettStah What's the deal with the É's?

 

[s.bradford]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeff D This is a limitation on the 5100 and not the replayTV. If your decoder box did what it should, and output the anamorphic 4:3 image you'd be closer to what you want. On all the directv receivers there's a tv screen size option, either 4:3 or 16:9. If you choose 4:3 you are even give options of letterboxed or cropped. If you select your TV is 16:9 then 16:9 stuff comes out anamorphic and the replay records it fine. When you playback the replayTV recording stretched to 16:9 the image looks close to what it did when broadcast. I'd be talking to motorola asking if they can fix the box to output the down converted 16:9 material as a full anamorphic 4:3 frame without adding in the letterboxing. From what all of us have been saying for the past 4 years on this subject... it's NOT HDTV, but it's a hell of a lot better than SDTV. Sorry your equipment doesn't allow you to get it in a form it should be in. BTW Zoom modes on your TV might get it back closer to full screen. I do this with the dtvio recordings of deadwood that are broadcast letterboxed.

IMO blowing up pixels just makes it look worse (rather see the small image).


While the solution you suggest is certainly an improvement... it is not enough of one for the shows I really care about, so I will continue to watch those live. For the ones I don't care about (news, letterman, etc.) I can live with the replay until I can make a decision on a new box.


The new Hughes box looks good but I wish it did cable as I would miss INHD and INHD2. What I would really like to see is a HD PVR based on the Broadcom BCM7038 chip, with a modular design that enabled you to plug in several receivers of your choice (cable, sat, ota). I'd drop a grand on that in the blink of an eye!


Cheers