ReplayTV vs. TiVo Comparison Chart

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ReplayTV and TiVo are personal television (PTV) products. Sometimes they go by personal video recorders, digital video recorders, digital network recorders, smart TV, video recording computers, time-shifted television, hard disk recorders, personal television receivers, television portals, or on-demand TV. Choose your favorite, or coin your own lingo by mixing and matching the above terms. Some naming conventions distinguish between the hardware unit (supplied by a third-party manufacturer) and the personal television service (supplied by ReplayTV or TiVo). This site only covers "stand-alone" units. Other personal television systems are available that combine functionality with satellite receivers, televisions, and cable boxes.

What do they do? They sit in between your television and your cable box, satellite receiver and/or antenna. Ideally, they act as a personal assistant, changing channels for you, recording programs that interest you, and helping you watch them when you want. They are more than just digital VCRs. Features common to both units include live TV buffering (the ability to pause/rewind television shows as they are broadcast), simultaneous digital recording and playback (the ability to watch a recorded show while recording another), short-term storage of recordings, dumping of recordings to videotape for long-term storage, an electronic program guide (EPG), time-shifted viewing, and timed recordings.

ReplayTV Models. Denon and Marantz Digital Networks North America (D&M/DNNA) manufactures ReplayTV's primary offering, the 5500 series, which consists of the 5504 (40-hour), 5508 (80-hour), and the 5516 (160-hour). SonicBlue previously owned ReplayTV, where they made several models (4000, 4500, and 5000 series units). Panasonic's "Showstopper" models are discontinued, which were the PV-HS1000 (20-hour), PV-HS2000 (30-hour), and PV-HS3000 (60-hour). ReplayTV manufactured their own models for a while, back when they were an independent company. These were the 2001 (10-hour), 2003 (14-hour), 2020 (20-hour), 3020 (20-hour), 2004 (28-hour), 3030 (30-hour), and 3060 (60-hour). Discontinued models are supported by the ReplayTV service, although they may not receive the latest software upgrades.

TiVo Models. TiVo manufactures their own branded unit, called the TiVo Series2 (40 and 80-hour). Discontinued models are TiVo Series2 (60-hour), AT&T's 130040/230040 (40-hour), 140060 (60-hour), 240080 (80-hour), Philips PTV100/HDR112 (14 hours), HDR212 (20 hours), PTV300/HDR312 (30 hours), and HDR612 (60 hours), Sony SVR-2000 (30 hours) and SVR-3000 (80 hours, Series2-compatible), and Thomson Scenium (40 hours) from the U.K. Discontinued models are supported by the TiVo service, although they may not receive the latest software upgrades.

Feedback. If you own a ReplayTV or TiVo unit, please let me know how I'm doing. Submit additions, corrections, and comments to Eric W. Lund. Thanks to everyone who has written!

Changes to this site are annotated on the History page.