[Creech]

My brother-in-law got married this past weekend and my wife and I put one of his groomsmen up for the night and shared a car with him to get to the ceremony.


I discovered he was a technophile when he started asking lots of questions about my network, the Audreys I have on it, and then we chatted about ReplayTV. He bought a TiVo about three months ago and wanted to know about the competition.


As I showed him:


1) In house show sharing

2) CA

3) IVS (I was getting sending and getting shows from friends at the time)

4) DVArchive

5) Watching shows on my laptop


he kept frowning and saying, "My TiVo can't do that". Poor guy was in serious buyer's remorse by the end of the evening.


"Why didn't I know ReplayTV was still around???! I thought it was bankrupt" was the final thing said. Moral of the story is that Replay REALLY needs to bump up the marketing...He probably would have bought a Replay.


Best,

Matthew in CO.

 

[lizard_boy]

Somewhere Dr. Strange is twitching right now.

 

[Bixit219]

I've had people over at my house saying the same things or, "what is replay?"..


I describe as Tivo but much better... then I usually get the "oh ok..."..

 

[antibody128]

I get the "isn't that the cheap knock-off of TiVo?"

 

[jones07]

Which one of as has never said "It's like a Tivo. But just another brand " ?




I hate doing it. But people know the name Tivo. I get a blank stare when I just say ReplayTV an leave at that.

 

[AndrewF]

Perhaps what hurts most of all is when the O.C. has highschool students talking about whether they Tivo'ed Leno or the Daily Show.


I'm 5 minutes from Newport Beach, maybe that's why I'm allowed to have a Replay.


hehe

 

[lizard_boy]

Quote:

Originally posted by jones07 Which one of as has never said "It's like a Tivo. But just another brand " ? I hate doing it. But people know the name Tivo. I get a blank stare when I just say ReplayTV an leave at that.

I explained to my Mom a few times that what I gave her was a Showstopper and it was similar to a Tivo but a different brand. A friend of hers who does have Tivo was at their house and couldn't figure out why my Mom's "Tivo" didn't work the same as the one she had at home.

 

[collin]

I've been having the same problem. Nobody I know has Tivo or RTV except me and the family members I've evangelized, but people always ask me if I have shows they missed "on my Tivo." I usually say, "I don't have a Tivo, I have a ReplayTV." But maybe adding the phrase: "It's the high-end version of Tivo." would be more accurate.

 

[MethodMachine]

To highlight how ingrained "TiVo" is in the popular lexicon, consider the following:


I bought my parents a RCA DRS7000N DVR/DVD player. These things were going for cheap ($200!) at Circuit City and I figured it would work well enough for their purposes. I brought the beast over to their house, hooked it up, and showed them how to use it. Keep in mind that the RCA really is just a DVR (not a PVR like TiVo or Replay) where all recordings are time-based and not name-based. It uses Guide+, so it is not as bad as setting VCR timers, but it is certainly not a TiVo or a ReplayTV.


Anyway, once it was in place, my father and mother both insisted on referring to it as a TiVo. I tried to explain that it was not a TiVo and I think they understood (after much explaining), but I think "TiVo" just rolls off their tounges easier than "DVR" (and much easier than "DRS7000N").


They still refer to it as a TiVo.

 

[jones07]

Hey ! Buy your Mom and Dad a ReplayTV............with lifetime

 

[Grimdeath]

Yeah, but then show him how friggin long it takes to change the channel on the Replay and it makes you happy you have a Tivo.


Don't get me wrong, I like the Replay, but I could NEVER use it on my primary TV; it just does everything way too slowly. I use a DVR as my primary tuner and the Tivo is on that TV; the Replay is on one I hardly use.

 

[blabber]

Speaking of TiVo...

San Jose Mercury Article

 

[Creech]

Quote:

Originally posted by Grimdeath Yeah, but then show him how friggin long it takes to change the channel on the Replay and it makes you happy you have a Tivo. Don't get me wrong, I like the Replay, but I could NEVER use it on my primary TV; it just does everything way too slowly. I use a DVR as my primary tuner and the Tivo is on that TV; the Replay is on one I hardly use.

Change channel? What's that? I just choose a show in my Replay Guide and watch it.


To be fair I did point out how long it took to change a channel live and said that TiVo dealt with that much better. For me...it aint a big deal. I almost never watch live TV. Just the news at night, and even that is delayed by 15-20 minutes.

 

[MethodMachine]

Quote:

Originally posted by jones07 Hey ! Buy your Mom and Dad a ReplayTV............with lifetime

Well, seeing as the RCA was $100 less than the lifetime subscription of the Replay alone...well, you do the math.

 

[jones07]

Quote:

Originally posted by Grimdeath Yeah, but then show him how friggin long it takes to change the channel on the Replay and it makes you happy you have a Tivo. Don't get me wrong, I like the Replay, but I could NEVER use it on my primary TV; it just does everything way too slowly. I use a DVR as my primary tuner and the Tivo is on that TV; the Replay is on one I hardly use.

The only thing that I watch live is sports and the local news. I have no need to change the channels. Besides I also use the Replay Guide to change channel the few times that I wish to surf

 

[MrFussy]

TiVo is to PVR as Walkman is to personal/portable audio cassette [et al] players ... sort of.


Technically, only Sony ever produced a walkman, yet that's what everyone refers to them as, regardless of the brand.

Quote:

Originally posted by MethodMachine To highlight how ingrained "TiVo" is in the popular lexicon, consider the following: I bought my parents a RCA DRS7000N DVR/DVD player. These things were going for cheap ($200!) at Circuit City and I figured it would work well enough for their purposes. I brought the beast over to their house, hooked it up, and showed them how to use it. Keep in mind that the RCA really is just a DVR (not a PVR like TiVo or Replay) where all recordings are time-based and not name-based. It uses Guide+, so it is not as bad as setting VCR timers, but it is certainly not a TiVo or a ReplayTV. Anyway, once it was in place, my father and mother both insisted on referring to it as a TiVo. I tried to explain that it was not a TiVo and I think they understood (after much explaining), but I think "TiVo" just rolls off their tounges easier than "DVR" (and much easier than "DRS7000N"). They still refer to it as a TiVo.

 

[gduprey]

Quote:

Originally posted by collin "It's the high-end version of Tivo."

I like that - don't try to describe it as "like a TiVO but different" (folks get confused), but just a much better type of TiVO (people like hearing about things that are better -- unless they just bought a TiVO). Not 100% correct, of course, but getting this point across is likely to be more digestable than trying to tell them how it's the exact same thing but it's not.


I'm going to try this out for a while.

 

[Ace987]

The "high-end version of Tivo" probably wouldn't sell too many units to the average J6P. It's not a bad thing, but when someone says "high-end" I hear "high-cost." Typically, I use the phrase "it's like Tivo, except it's much better." Still not true in every sense, but since when is there honesty in sales?

 

[gduprey]

I guess it's all about context. Most folks I talk to often ask me for what I'd recommend (when asking about technology things) and I tend to have a "it'll get you by" item (cheaper) and a "nicely done, higher end" option. In very few cases do folks go for the "it'll get you by" option (this is from a sample of friends, family and coworkers

 

[Bixit219]

Depending on who I am talking to.. I also use a "Coke/Pepsi" analysis.. Where I say Tivo is like Coke, Replay is like Pepsi.. they are both cola just different companies who make it.