DVR Wars
I recently changed my DVR from a ReplayTV to Comcast’s Motorola DVR, which is surprisingly good. There are several clunky issues in the Comcast interface but I can deal with that. I switched for two main reason; 1) there has been no updates to the Replay software in the last year; and 2) The cost was less.
Three years ago, the only reason I choose Replay over Tivo was it had the ability to copy recordings from the DVR to my computer. That feature alone sold me but reality was that Replay never officially supported this “feature” and the process was extremely slow. I did copy a few shows but overall I never used this “feature”. My observation is that I still desire this feature but Replay just didn’t do it properly. I want the ability to record shows in my living room (and not with a big dell computer) and then watch the shows I’ve recorded on my laptop or in my office without having to run some program which is not officially supported by the device. The shows are in a digital format I want to move them around like I do all my other digital media. Screw digital rights management, its really simple there will always be 10% of the population that will lie, cheat, and steal anything they can the other 90% will use the tools for their own personal use and will continue to purchase DVDs.
The Comcast DVR doesn’t allow me to do this but what Comcast did get right is easy configuration in the living room. All the other DVR options suffered from multiple cables and remotes causing havoc in the living room. The most annoying feature is the inferred emitter that is used to change the channels on the cable box. The problem is quite simple and why Replay or Tivo didn’t solve this problem is beyond me. When I’m channel surfing and want to go up one channel send a channel up command to the cable box not a goto channel 302. The problem is to send a goto channel 302 requires 4 commands to be sent (3-0-2-enter) but if I’m already on channel 301 for the love of mankind just send a channel up command. The response time will be quicker and make channel surfing a much more pleasant experience.
So the question is why is ReplayTV still making DVRs? The answer is they aren’t. The only product officially listed on their site now is ReplayTV PC Edition which allows you to record TV shows on your computer. What? You mean I can have my Dell computer record a TV show to the hard drive and then I can watch it. This is going to change the world as we know it everyone will be running out to buy a computer put a special card in it then pay Replay a monthly fee so they can record TV shows on their computer. This is so 1995 and the people running Replay had better realize that going backwards in product design isn’t usually the right direction. The appliance model is the best model for providing a DVR and will continue to be the correct model for the foreseeable future.
To sum this rant up let me just say that the Comcast DVR while not perfect is much better than Replay. It is cheaper and it records HDTV (now I need HDTV).