Well, I have had time to spend a few weeks with all of the various PTV receivers on the market now and the time has come to compare them all.   Since this will be the first all around comparo, I have decided to come up with some new categories to compare these receivers.   For this review I will be comparing Features, Upgradability, Styling, Cost of Ownership, Picture Quality, Usability and  Compatibility.    

Let me say before I begin that these are all great receivers.  But depending on what you want in a receiver, there are definitely reasons to buy one over another.     

  The Contenders

The ReplayTV RTV2020 running Version 2.0 - This is one of the newest entries to the PTV market and is running the soon to be released 2.0 version of the software.

The Echostar DishPlayer 7100 running WebTV Version 2.3.2  - This PTV only recently became a full fledged PTV receiver addition of Personal TV services.

The Philips TiVo PTV112 running Version 1.2.1 - New version 1.3 is expected soon, but was not available as of this article.

  Feature Comparison Tie: TiVo/Replay

I will not go in to all of the various features of these receivers because you can check out the ReplayTV Guide, TiVo Guide and DishPlayer Guide to find out anything you want to know.  I want to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the different units.

There are three areas that differentiate these PTV receivers.  Here is a quick description of each feature before I explain the differences.

• Live TV management - Live TV Management is what I am calling the ability to Pause, Rewind and fast forward a show you are watching

• Recording Setup - The ability of the PTV receiver to help you find shows you want to watch

• Proactive TV Management - The ability for a PTV Reciever to proactively make sure you don't miss shows you want to watch.

Live TV Management - No Winner 

TiVo - TiVo's information rich Live TV Queue is Great.   The queue shows your position relative to Live TV by showing the current hour of time at the end points and the amount of time recorded as a green bar moving across the screen.  Unfortunately, TiVo can only stay paused for 30 minutes.  Hopefully this drawback will go away in a future release.

ReplayTV -  ReplayTV doesn't have an onscreen queue, but can display your position relative to live TV by selecting the Display button on the Remote.

DishPlayer - DishPlayer has an onscreen queue , but it doesn't give you any information.  It simply shows a bar with the position relative to Live.

All of the PTV receivers have some improving to do in this area.  If I was designing the Ultimate PTV receiver it would probably have the ReplayTV and DishPlayer ability to  pause until the HD runs out of space and the TiVo's onscreen queue. 

Recording Setup - TiVo

TiVo - Currently TiVo has the most sophisticated methods of setting up a recordings.  You can set up Season Passes (record every time) and Manual Timers.  It also has many methods for searching for shows to watch, such as By Time/ Channel and by Name.

ReplayTV -  ReplayTV has the ability to setup a show to record every time, but no manual timers.  Hopefully in a future release we will see manual timers.  It also has very good searching features to help you find shows you want to record in the future.

DishPlayer - Much like ReplayTV, DishPlayer can be setup to record a show every time but unlike ReplayTV, it may end up recording multiple copies of the same episode if they are in the same time slot.  Rumor has it that manual recording capability will be added in a future release.

Proactive TV Management - TiVo/Replay

ReplayTV -  ReplayTV has the ability to find shows you want to watch by allowing you to setup Themes.  Themes are keyword searches that are used to search for shows that Replay will automatically record.  I have found it easier to setup the Replay to record themes than to rate shows for TiVo.

TiVo -  TiVo has taken a different approach to helping you make sure you see what you want.  TiVo Season Passes are smart enough to find other instances of a show so you don't miss it.  It also goes one step farther by actively recording shows you might want to watch based on you ratings.  Keep an eye on this feature, I expect we will see it on other PTV receivers.

DishPlayer - Currently DishPlayer's only way of ensuring you don't miss a show is to setup a Show to record "Every Time".  Hopefully more Proactive TV Management features will be incorporated in a future release.

  Upgradability: DishPlayer

All of these PTV units are theoretically upgradeable.  However some are easier than others.

DishPlayer - No Official upgrades have been announced.   However, they Unofficially it is user upgradeable using standard off the shelf IDE drives.  For complete steps on how to perform the upgrade your self, check out the DishPlayer FAQ.  Keep in mind that this upgrade will void your warranty.   

TiVo - Philips recently announced a program to upgrade your 14 hour TiVo to a 30 Hour. You must return the unit to Philips, but fast turn-around times are available.

ReplayTV - ReplayTV hasn't announced plans for a hard drive upgrade as of yet.  I hope we hear about ReplayTV's upgrade strategy soon.

Continue to Page 2 - Styling, Pricing and Usability