I have a soft spot for ReplayTV, having gotten an early Panasonic version of the company’s hardware back in 2001. However, there’s been virtually no word of the DVR pioneer since ReplayTV moved to a software-only business model last year.
Now Gizmodo reports that the company is launching a new product – an HD/DVR tuner for your computer. These types of gadgets already exist, and in fact I got a Pinnacle stick for Christmas last year. Unfortunately, I haven’t found much use for the product-type… yet.
First HDTV on my laptop ain’t that exciting. Second, with a USB tuner I’m not getting any content different from what I already receive and digitally record on my living room TV. I can, however, think of two scenarios where the ReplayTV gadget could come in handy:
- For use with a large-screen computer display that could do justice to the HD
- For use with a media extender for anyone who wants to digitally record over-the-air content (on the cheap) and doesn’t have TV service from a cable, telco or satellite provider
The problem is that both of these scenarios seem unlikely to occur for the general viewing public, which means the buying audience is very niche tech geek. Probably not going to create a great revenue stream.
Gizmodo says an official announcement from ReplayTV is due out on Wednesday.
The hardware looks the same as Hauppauge’s HD USB stick… (which may actually come bundled with a ReplayTV DVR software eval).
I live outside the US (Asia ) and have little access to US contest esp HD so I put a laptop in my parent’s house connected to the internet. I use Fusion’s USB product along with BeyondTV to record over the air content and then compress to xvid (videoredo then autogk) and ftp to my house in Asia. I do about 20 hours a month and it works great. While I realize I am a unique situation, this solution works great!
Does ReplayTv have a desktop (i.e. HTPC) solution for HDTV with QAM support?
Shouldn’t they focus on home machines first, instead of laptops?
Frank, they do have DVR software but I’m not sure if it supports QAM.
Daniel, it’s convoluted but sounds like a nice solution – especially give the time differences you’d be dealing with for live TV.