Replay TV

Have you seen the tv ad with fake COPS-like footage of a loaded Springer extra failing an sobriety test? The commercial seems to have an instant replay that repeats itself over and over. The punchline is something to the effect of "It's not just for sports." What the heck is it? It's basically a hard drive that you hook up to your televison and you use it in place of your VCR. Why would you want to do that? Repalay TV let's you do more than just record tv. It's got a mini computer in it (probably linux or Unix based) that opens up a host of other options that really will "change the way you watch tv" as they say in their promotional material. I first became aware of Replay TV in an issue of Wired a few months back. I'm in the process of collecting commercials featuring skateboards, so I thought this might be the perfect sollution. Read on and I'll let you know how it turns out.

Replay Tv is a VCR sized box containing a hard drive and a processor and more than a handfull of input and output options. ( Rear A/V Inputs 2 * Rear S-Video Inputs 1 * S-Video Outputs 1 * RF Antenna Inputs 1 * Telephone Jack 1 * Rear A/V Outputs 2 ) The first thing you'll notice when you plug the thing in and turn it on is the tell-tale spinning sound of the hard drive starting up. It's kind of strange untill you get used to it. Depending on your needs, connecting the unit can prove to be as easy as hooking up a vcr or almost as annoying as trying configure interupts on a wintel computer. The thick instruction guide includes diagrams for just about any configuration possibility except the one I wanted, but more on that later. Once you're connected you fire it up for the first time Replay Tv will hold your hand through the initial setup process. After filling out your area code, cable provider and other information, Replay Tv dials into HQ toll free to get a list of local numbers. That's right, you need to hook it up to a phone jack. Pick a phone number and wait about 10 minutes or so while the Replay Tv downloads your local listings for that week. Every day Replay Tv dials in for updated information at a time that you can program. It defaults to midnight, so I you're like any other reasonably young person and ocaisionally find yourself on the phone at that time, set it 2:00 am or later. Better yet, put it on your modem line and it will check the line before dialing to avoid dropped connections.

Get a bag of chips and beer. Sit on you couch. Watch tv. Say you're watching the X-games and you've just seen Bucky Lacek bust a one footed Smith grind. If you're sick of hearing Sal blather on about how Bucky approaches a contest from a philisophical point of view, you can hit the "replay" button on the remote and jump back 7 seconds at a time, as many time as you want. Then hit "live" to return to the live broadcast. Phone ringing? Gotta pee? Hit "pause" and the the live broadast will do just that, untill you hit "play" or "live". Let's say girlfriend pops over for a visit a half an hour later. Hit "rewind" a couple of times to back up at 20x normal speed just so you can share the beauty of the one-footed Smith grind. Let's say you have to report to jail to spend a couple of weeks in county for breaking parole on your public nudity bust. If you don't want to miss all the reruns of Beverly Hills 90210, you can program Replay Tv to record any or all episodes on one or any channel. What if you've developed a sudden fetish for Charles Nelson Rieley? Hit a few buttons and you can have Replay Tv search program descriptions and actor listings to pick up any show with the other Sir Charles.

It's a miracle! Well not really. Instant replays of live shows are high qulity because live shows are recorded at that level. There are three levels of recording quality. The higher the level, the more hard drive space it takes up. The low end model comes with 20 hours at standard (low) quality. The good news is that the standard level is going to be better than most VCRs for most types of shows. However, the compression codec (Mpeg 2) creates highly visible artifacts in fast motion situations like sports and motion graphics. Setting the record level to a higher standard usually compensates, but also dratically reduces available time for pausing and recording other shows. Even at the highest setting there is still some artifacting in high speed motion. Also, banding is evident in large patches of solid color like Bart Simpson's head. depending on how anal you are, you can live with the results. Can you watch one live show and record another simultaneously? No. You can record a live show while watching a previously recorded show.

You must have Replay Tv turned on to watch tv. The Replay Tv unit will not pass through the signal otherwise. Less annoying is the short wait while the OS gets started and the slight delay in signal. You can bypass this with a cable switching box but that is really something that should be taken care of by the box itself, especially considering the fact that you can buy a $70 VCR at the grocery store that pass the signal through without being turned on. Also, corporate Replay Tv does not want you to hook up your VCR inline with the box. This makes it impossible to record the Replay Tv output to the VCR. Why would you want to do that? Imagine a scenario where something unexpected pops up on the telly and you want to preserve it forever on tape. Say, something like your ex-roomaate being arraigned on Court Tv for defrauding the Columbia House Record Club by joining under the name of Seyemoore Butts and his 100 closest friends and relatives. Replay Tv should be perfect for moments like this. How many times have you been watching tv and saw something hilarious or cool that you wish you could have taped? The manual would have you connect the VCR to Replay TV on a closed circuit. recording to the VCR then requires an extra menu step from Replay Tv that is set up in such a way that you can only dump pre-recorded shows. Bummer. If you ignore the manual and route the Replay TV signal to your tv via the VCR you can bypass this with only a few side effects: The VCR must be on (at least in my case) to view the Replay TV feed, and there is an audible volume decrease.

Replay Tv   continued   --->

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