TiVo vs. ReplayTV: What's the difference?

01/18/2001

By Doug Bedell / The Dallas Morning News

The contest to control your television set-top box is heating up as more companies introduce digital boxes. The just-announced UltimateTV from Microsoft, which will attempt to mix Internet content with the functions of tapeless VCRs, is the latest to join the fray.

But for now, the North Texas retail choices for personal video recorders, or PVRs, are limited to the two original gladiators in this arena, ReplayTV and TiVo.

Panasonic manufactures ReplayTV, while Sony and Philips have teamed with TiVo.

Microsoft's Ultimate TV was unveiled this month at the 2001 International CES in Las Vegas but won't be in stores for several months.

In recent months, we've installed and sampled two of the newest PVR versions available in Dallas-area electronics stores – the Philips DirecTV with TiVo (DSR-6000) and the Panasonic Showstopper (PV-HS2000), which we hooked up to AT&T's Digital Cable service.

Capabilities and pricing, at about $600, are about the same for both boxes after adding costs for on-screen programming guides. Both offer about 30 hours of recording at Extended Record mode and can play back, slo-mo and easily store selected shows.

Similarities end

But each model requires users to interact with them in different ways. TiVo employs a pushy technology that anticipates what you want to view. ReplayTV's model is much less intrusive.

With TiVo, the remote control allows users to vote Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down for each show viewed. The onboard machinery then matches keywords from the programming guide to suggest other shows that you might like to see.

But there are problems with this concept.

If you once gave a Thumbs Up to a cartoon show, for example, the TiVo box infers you might want to watch another cartoon show with the same generic description. Rather than leave your channel set where you want, TiVo sporadically changes channels to those containing its suggestions. It then asks if you want to watch, record or ignore the selection.

More pay-per-view?

Beyond that, once you've purchased a pay-per-view program, TiVo tends to keep pushing for more cash transactions that add to your monthly tab.

Another snafu occurs when other members of the household dominate the Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down voting. Instead of getting what you want when you want it, you wind up seeing suggestions tailored for others' viewing habits.

Many viewers will find TiVo's behavior intrusive and unnecessary. In particular, those who like to synchronize televisions to show the same channel throughout the home will find themselves cursing TiVo's persistent channel-changing. Default settings can be altered to reduce the channel-changing.

The ReplayTV model has an attractive, simplified interface that allows the same functions but doesn't cram them down your throat. In action, it's much more like a VCR. You can select genres or specific programs for recording by setting up specialized "channels." And, yes, your television will switch channels automatically whenever a designated show comes up. But, unlike TiVo, the channel-switching only happens when you've requested it.

In remote controls, TiVo offers an award-winning design, although its Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down buttons are too large for our tastes. Beyond that, the TiVo controller has limited ability to control other audio-visual components.

The ReplayTV version is more akin to a typical VCR remote and allows the advanced programming of a universal controller.

ReplayTV also includes a QuickSkip button that lets viewers jump through commercials in 30-second hops – a feature that has not endeared it with television executives who worry that it makes advertising too easy to ignore.

Recording options are somewhat limited using TiVo's DirecTV model. Dual LNB satellite connections will not allow recording of one satellite feed while viewing another satellite station.

ReplayTV and non-DirecTV TiVo models do offer that option by accepting two feeds using a cable splitter. TiVo promises the dual LNB dishes will be accommodated in later editions of the satellite box.

Both TiVo and ReplayTV allow viewers to get the most out of their purchased services. Industry insiders call this ability time-shifting because you watch programs when you feel like watching them, not just when stations air them.

With more than 225 channels available with the most expensive DirecTV service and more than 100 being piped into cable these days, any help is welcomed.

But TiVo and ReplayTV offer two disparate answers to the same question: "How much help do you really need?"

For our money, TiVo is like an overattentive pet. It's nice to have a friendly little pup noticing your every move, but sometimes you just want to be left alone.