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This
is your guide to ReplayTV PTV boxes and services. If you have
questions be sure to look for answers in the ReplayTV
FAQ. If you have additions or ideas on how to improve
the guide send them to info@jriver.com
 The
ReplayTV RTV2020
The ReplayTV RTV2020 is a new PTV
set top box from a company called
ReplayTV. If you are unfamiliar with PTV, this
new technology allows for "VCR like" features such as recording of
television while you are not home and adds many new and innovative
features that help you take control of your television watching,
such as live TV pause.
Configuring
the ReplayTV receiver
Setup - When
you open the ReplayTV box, you will be greeted with a large setup
card, which explains the setup options. ReplayTV has a vast
assortment of inputs and outputs to help you setup many different configurations.
The only missing connection is an RF (coax) output. ReplayTV
choose
to put an extra set of Video/Audio outputs instead of an RF
modulator. This means that if you are going to use the ReplayTV
with a very old TV that doesn't support Video/Audio inputs or you
want to route the ReplayTV output throughout you house, you will need an external RF modulator. I found a good one at
Radio Shack for around 30 dollars, but you can probably find one
cheaper. For more information about the input/outputs see
the TiVo/DishPlayer/ReplayTV
comparison
The ReplayTV
Setup begins when
you first turn on the unit. It will guide you through setup
of the various inputs and outputs. Either a Satellite or
Cable box can be configured for each of the inputs. I
haven't tried this, but this may be a really cool way to integrate
both DSS and Dish satellites into one guide. Once the setup
is done it will spend around 10 minutes getting the information
needed for the Guides. Total time is around 20-30 minutes to
be up and running.
The ReplayTV Personal Televisions Services
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The
Main Menu
To begin using
your ReplayTV PTV Services the best place to start is the
Main Menu. To access the Main Menu, simply hit the
menu button on the bottom of the ReplayTV Remote
Control. The main menu screen is available without
leaving the current channel. It pop's up as a small
section at the bottom of TV screen and presents
the following options, most of which are also available
directly on the remote control.
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Main Menu
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- ReplayTV
Guide
- Shows the ReplayTV Channels you have created.
- ReplayTV
Zones - ReplayTV Zones are common themes of shows
organized together.
- Channel
Guide -
Shows a grid style TV guide for selecting something to
watch.
- Messages -
Shows any messages you have received.
- Find
Shows - Search tool to help you find something to
watch or record.
- Setup
- Configuration of the ReplayTV TV Reciever.
The ReplayTV
Guide
ReplayTV's
personal TV
services were definitely designed with the future in mind.
Rather than organizing the recorded shows into a simple list , ReplayTV decided to use a concept similar
to a grid style guide to organize the recorded shows.
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When you select shows to
record, whether they are setup to record based on a theme
or setup to record a specific show, they
appear as a channel in the ReplayTV Guide. At
first I didn't completely understand the reasoning behind
this guide as you will mostly have only one show on any
channel at a time. However, hard drive prices are
dropping rapidly and I will not be surprised to see next
years ReplayTV's coming with over 50-75 hours of record
time. With this amount of record time this method of organizing
the shows will be not only useful, but necessary.
Good thinking ReplayTV.
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ReplayZones
ReplayZones
are logical groupings of shows. For instance, there is
a ReplayTV zone for NBC and Cartoon Network, which lets you
explore some of the best shows on the channel. There are
also zones for Movies, Comedies and ReplayTV Picks. The
ReplayTV Movies zone shows various movies
that are coming to a channel near you organized by
category ReplayTV Sitcoms, shows
you comedies organized by audience, such as 17 and
over. Finally, ReplayPicks lists a random show in
various categories that you might want to watch.
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ReplayZones
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Replay Search
Create a Theme |
Also in the ReplayZones
screen are two other options,
Search and
Create a Theme.
Search allows you to search for shows based on a large number of
pre-created groupings, such as rating, or genre. The Create
a Theme option allows you to specify your own keyword searches to
use for looking up shows that will be recorded. You can also
specify if the keyword will be compared against actors,
directors, title or part of the description.
These themes show up in your ReplayGuide as channels and are great
for creating themes for related shows when the title isn't the
same. For example, I have created a Star Trek Theme that
records all of the various Star Trek shows regardless of the
specific title. |
The Channel Guide
ReplayTV's channel guide is pretty
conventional. It is a Grid style Guide that shows 6 channels
down and 1 1/2 hours across. It also shows the currently selected
channel, title, time and description of the show.
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The Channel Guide
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One very cool feature is
the way it shows your position in the selected
show. Rather than showing how much time is
remaining,
which is pretty useless information, it tells you how
far into the show you are. For example, on a thirty
minute show that has 10 minutes left, the ReplayTV will say 20
minutes in progress. This is great if what
you want to know is how much you have missed.
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Another great feature of the ReplayTV's Channel
Guide is that it integrates the guides of your cable and satellite
receivers.
PTV Services
As with all PTV Receivers, there are certain features that separate
these boxes from VCR's And ReplayTV is no exception.
For
instance you can pause, rewind and fast forward Live
TV. When you hit pause the box will begin
recording to the hard drive. This happens regardless of
whether you are watching Satellite or Cable programs. Also,
whenever you change the channel, ReplayTV immediately starts
recording the new channel. This means that you can rewind at
anytime to the point where you switched to the current channel.
You can also jump backward or forward to live television at the
touch of a button.
A feature of the ReplayTV's Personal TV services, which should be
a part of all PTV receivers, is
that pause time is only limited by the available space on the
hard drive, so you can hit pause and leave for hours. Some
units limit this to 30 minutes. However, while
other PTV receivers have an on screen queue when you are
fast forwarding or rewinding to help you find your place relative
to Live TV, ReplayTV has only a indication of the
speed. If you want to see your position relative to Live TV,
you can press the display button as you are fast forwarding or
rewinding.
No
monthly Fee
One of the features that isn't available in a guide or screen is
the fact that the ReplayTV PTV services are FREE. If you are
going to keep your ReplayTV receiver for a while, this is very
important.
Just plug it
in and you are ready to go. One thing to check before you
buy, however, is that there is a local number where you live so the receiver can
call and get it's guide information. ReplayTV doesn't
currently have a 1-800 number. Without a local number,
the phone
bills could get a little expensive.
Thanks, but I still have questions?
If
this web site wasn't able to answer all of your questions, feel
free to send us a quick question
to be added to the list
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