Tonight, at Digital Experience, ReplayTV will debut their software-only DVR product. I’m skipping the event, but perhaps my Engadget or Gizmodo buddies will take the new software for a spin and report back. ReplayTV is expected to ship this fall for $100. I hope that includes the referenced Hauppage tuner card, otherwise it’s horribly overpriced compared to Windows MCE, Yahoo, and BeyondTV. Guide data is included for the first year, but will cost $20 for subsequent years… effectively killing any chances at success they might have had. I can’t say I’m too excited about any of this — PC-as-PVR is a niche and Replay is late to the party.
USA Today says: While ReplayTV will continue to serve its stand-alone DVRs, it has been unloading inventory to focus exclusively on software. “The PC is a very vibrant market,” says ReplayTV General Manager Bill Loewenthal. “It’s natural that a DVR experience come to that.” ReplayTV will require a PC with at least a Pentium 4 processor and Windows XP operating system. Users can decide how much hard drive space to devote to TV shows (an hour typically requires a gigabyte). The unit also has a device that sends infrared signals to a cable or satellite box so people can use a single remote to also change channels.
ReplayTV has updated their web site. It appears the $100 is just for software — which is at least 50% too much given future guide fees. They’re signing up folks who want to test drive a beta version prior to the September launch.
Still born.
I couldn’t sleep last night – so I got up and wrote this: http://www.tivolovers.com/318402.html