Replaytv 3020 Digital Video Recorder
ReplayTV's 3020 server provides up to 20 hours of storage space and offers a host of upgrades, including an advanced programmable remote control with a ReplayZones button that makes it very easy to find the shows you want to record. In fact, it's almost too easy. Once we grew accustomed to recording shows in advance, we found ourselves watching three times as much TV as we had in the past. For those unfamiliar with the concept of TV servers, ReplayTV records programs digitally and stores the information on a hard drive. Like a VCR, if you want to record your favorite show while you're away from home, you can store it on the 3020's hard drive and watch it later. Unlike VCRs, the personal TV server doesn't require tapes or other media to store programming. It's important to point out that the actual amount of storage space depends on the video-recording quality that you select. A higher quality picture will take up more storage space than a lower quality recording. At the lowest setting, the picture quality is still better than standard VHS. At the middle setting, the picture quality is better than an S-VHS VCR, but storage capacity decreases by approximately 40 percent. The highest-quality setting approaches 500 lines of resolution (depending on the source) but further reduces storage capacity. We recommend using the highest setting for movies and the middle level for sporting events, sitcoms, and other programs, then erasing the content immediately after viewing it. Before doing so, however, you may want to consider taping it with a VCR for your VHS library. One of the coolest features on the 3020 server is the ability to pause a live broadcast and resume watching it if you're interrupted for any number of reasons. When you utilize this feature, ReplayTV acts as a time buffer by storing the show in memory so you can pick up the program from where you left off. A ""Return to Live"" button on the remote allows you to skip forward to real time, which is great if you're watching a sporting event and you wish to catch up to the live action. There's also an ""Instant Replay"" button on the remote that allows you to rewatch portions of a show or sporting event in 7-second increments, so you're not limited to rewatching only a brief segment. ReplayTV also allows you to personalize programming for a specific theme. For example, you can set ReplayTV to monitor TV listings for any program featuring a specific actor. You can also refine theme-based searches of programming. For instance, if you wish to record Friends , you can limit your search to title only, so you won't waste time pulling up every movie and talk show that has the word ""friends"" in the description. ReplayTV's onscreen guide appears with a blue background and white characters that are very readable. Since you'll be using the guide a lot to search for programs and to preview descriptions, it's important that you can read the text on a standard-size TV from your sofa. ReplayTV's onscreen guide gets an A+ in this regard. We loved ReplayTV's QuickSkip feature, which allows you to instantly jump ahead 30 seconds, so you can skip through TV commercials on prerecorded programs. We also like the ReplayZones, which make it very easy to find programs that suit your tastes by searching according to genre. ReplayTV delineates programming into a wide variety of categories, from action and romance movies to cooking and home-improvement shows--and everything in between. ReplayTV also offers a Search Zone that allows you to input words such as ""love"" or ""vacation"" using the remote control and an onscreen keypad. If you wish to save a particular prerecorded show, you can record it on to a VCR using the back-panel outputs. We were impressed by ReplayTV's inclusion of two sets of audio-video inputs and outputs, as well an S-video input and output. This enables users to hook up a DSS or
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