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The Best Personal Video Recorders Reviews and Ratings
Important Features to consider when Buying :
The Reviews
TiVo Series2 140-Hour Digital Video Recorder
TiVo's Series2 DVR delivers more recording capacity at a lower cost and also offers the latest in networked home entertainment. TiVo DVRs record television programming directly to a digital hard drive, eliminating the hassles of videotape. The TiVo Series2 offers up to 140 hours of recording time in TiVo's small, sleek chassis (15 inches wide by 11.5 inches deep and 3 inches high).
The TiVo DVR Series2 is compatible with virtually every television available. It also works with VCRs, TV antennas, cable systems, and satellite systems. A patented remote control simplifies program recording and controls multiple TiVos within the home (two devices can share your existing phone line). Connections include three video inputs and outputs (S-video, composite-video, and RF coaxial), one set of stereo RCA analog audio inputs, and two sets of stereo audio outputs. A standard female RJ-11 telephone jack is the channel by which the Series2 accesses the TiVo service, or you can use a USB cable to connect via broadband.
TiVo subscribers can pay $12.95 per month or a one-time product lifetime fee of $299. Benefits of TiVo service include, but are not limited to, Season Pass (TiVo automatically finds and records every episode of a series all season long, even if the network schedule changes); WishList (TiVo finds and records programs that feature your favorite actor, director, team, or even topic); Smart Recording (TiVo detects lineup changes for you and suggests programs to match your interests, if desired); and Showcases (exclusive entertainment plus recording shortcuts from some of the most popular networks on TV).
Toshiba SD-H400 Combination Progressive-Scan DVD Player and TiVo
Digital Media Server
Toshiba's SD-H400 digital media server offers the convenience of
no-fee PVR service with the option for immediate upgrades alongside
high-quality, progressive-scan DVD-Video playback--all from a single,
easy-to-use component. The SD-H400 houses an 80 GB TiVo Series2
PVR that comes with TiVo Basic service, providing free, limited
TiVo features right out of the box, with no subscription fees.
TiVo Basic service offers the ability to control live TV through
features like pause, fast forward, rewind, and slow motion playback
of live television; three days of electronic program guide; and
manual recording capability by time and channel. The SD-H400 is
the first device to offer TiVo Basic service.
The SD-H400's DVD-video section is equipped with a 10-bit/54 MHz video digital-to-analog converter for maximum color purity, detail, and resolution. When connected to a television via the unit's ColorStream Pro component-video outputs, you'll be ready to enjoy Toshiba's Digital Cinema Progressive technology with either DVDs or TiVo PVR playback. The SD-H400 can also play formats such as DVD-R, DVD-RW, video CD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and MP3 CDs.
Because the SD-H400 is built on TiVo Series2 technology, you have the ability to upgrade to full TiVo service to enjoy features such as Season Pass (the ability to record every episode of a program no matter when it airs, automatically), WishList (which finds and records programs that feature your favorite actor, director, or genre), Search by Title (which helps you find any show when all you know is its title), 14 days of program guide data, richer recording options, and an easy-to-use scheduling interface. (Full TiVo service costs $12.95 a month or $299 for a lifetime subscription; visit www.TiVo.com for detailed information.)
Another upgrade available to the Toshiba SD-H400 is the TiVo Home Media Option, a premium package of networked home entertainment. This configuration takes full advantage of the SD-H400's capabilities as a digital media server. The Home Media Option--an upgrade available via phone or broadband connection--lets you use the SD-H400's USB port to connect the SD-H400 to your wired or wireless home network and PC.
The Home Media Option adds the following features to the SD-H400: streaming MP3 files and digital photo viewing from a PC or Macintosh for playback through your TV or home-entertainment system, remote scheduling (through which you can schedule TiVo recordings from anywhere you can access the Internet), and connection to another TiVo Series2 PVR within your home (so you can share programs between the two units--for, say, viewing a program in the bedroom that was recorded in the family room, and vice versa).
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ReplayTV RTV5504 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
The RTV5504 personal video recorder, or PVR, delivers the ability
to pause and replay live TV while recording and storing 40 hours
of digital, tapeless audio and video--about a season's worth of
memory for four hour-long programs. Enjoy a broadband or phone-line
connection to the ReplayTV service and convenient home networking
through a built-in Ethernet port--there's no extra hardware required.
Subscription to ReplayTV service is available either as a $12.95
monthly fee or a one-time lifetime fee of $299.99.
ReplayTV's 5500 Series is the most powerful and flexible PVR yet.
With the RTV5504 and the other models in the 5500 Series, ReplayTV
has made major revisions, enhancing its feature base while removing
certain contentious features found on previous models. ReplayTV's
5.0 software adds four powerful features: recording priority, which
identifies recording conflicts and lets you decide which shows to
record; network recording, which identifies conflicts and automatically
assigns recordings to a home-networked ReplayTV with available hard-disk
storage; pause and resume, which lets you pause a movie in the living
room and finish watching it in the bedroom; and First-Run Recordings,
which records only the new episodes and skips the repeats.
