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Most ReplayTV assets sold to DirecTV

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

December 13, 2007, 2:47 PM

The struggling DVR company has once again changed hands, this time to the nation's largest satellite provider.

"Although we valued this asset and the business was profitable, the sale of ReplayTV to DirecTV makes the most sense for this business, its employees and us," D&M Holdings CEO Eric Evans said in a statement.

It is not immediately clear as to what DirecTV plans to do with the company's assets or technology holdings. However, it will be the third time in only four years that ReplayTV had changed hands.

The company was originally a private startup, founded in 1997. SONICblue acquired the company's assets in 2001, however it fell into hard times and filed for bankruptcy in March 2003, and ReplayTV's assets were sold to D&M Holdings a month later.

Now in DirecTV's hands, the future of ReplayTV is uncertain. While the assets of the the company are now the satellite provider's, D&M will remain the operator of existing service contracts "for the foreseeable future."

This seems to indicate that the company is more interested in the technology than the actual service. David Zatz of Zatz Not Funny speculated that it may be a defensive measure for the future.

"I suppose it's possible they could think about using the ReplayTV interface on their satellite DVRs, re-enter the stand-alone hardware business, or just hang onto Replay's patent portfolio for a rainy day, or to prevent that rainy day," he wrote in a blog post.

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By tigger4046

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 4:13 PM

i actually just acquired my free TIVO Series 2 Dual Turner with 1yr subscription, recently gave up on the PVR craze. Only some of my recording where able to stay on the Wintv/Scheduler. So it was a like a 50% / 50% chance that the pVR may have recorded all or just a few minutes. After loosing so much programing we made the decision to return to TIVO. I could not be more happier with our decision. I guess the real question for those on Replay will it's programing continue to be available while it's fate?

Score: 0

By DZNetworks

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 8:33 PM

You should use Media Center - I've never missed a recording. (of course when my computer was on)

Score: 0

By big_k

edited Dec 13, 2007 - 3:28 PM

Hopefully DirecTV will replace their DVRs with Replay interface.

Score: 0

By Hellcat_M

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 3:10 PM

When ReplayTV came out I only heard good things, I heard TIVO killer and such and that the interface was nice. I think DirecTV buying them is a good thing. If they use the interface in their DVR's it could work out well for them.

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 3:12 PM

"When ReplayTV came out I only heard good things"

Yea...but have you actually used it? There's a reason why Replay isn't doing so well...

Score: 0

By MikeTechno

edited Dec 13, 2007 - 3:33 PM

I am amazed that people even buy and use these things still. I use a TV tuner card and BeyondTV software on my PC and it works WAY better than anyones Tivo/Replay setup I have ever seen. The beauty of doing this on your PC is that you can burn any show you record onto CD/DVD for long term storage and watching. I can burn a show as a standard MPEG-2 video file that will play in any media player app or output it to regular DVD format on a DVD+/-R disc.

And, you just pay a very small, one time fee for lifetime channel guide updates and you are done, no monthly subscription fees at all to worry about. Why do people still use Tivo/Reply when you can do it on your PC so much easier with so much more flexibility?

It must just be that people still don't know that you can do a DVR solution on your PC easier, cheaper and with more options/flixability.

Score: 0

By vincentw56

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 3:43 PM

CHEAPER! You got to be kidding.

I can buy a Tivo or DirectTv DVR for $ 199. I can't even touch a good PC with a TV tuner card for that. I have used both Tivo and Directv DVR. I actually have both running. Each has it's advantages. I have looked into doing the PC DVR thing and it is way more expensive than a standalone DVR. It is also WAY EASIER!

Score: 0

By MikeTechno

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 5:10 PM

Well, I think you need to take another look then. I am going on the assumption here that you already own a PC, so the only additional cost would be that of a TV tuner card ($99 to $149 approx) and the BeyondTV software (usually included with the card for free like mine was). You just pop in the TV tuner card, install the software, hook up your cable TV line and you're done. What could be easier than that? It took me all of ten minutes to set up my PC based DVR solution that way on my PC and now I can record any show I want AND burn the ones I want to keep to CD or DVD for long term storage. As far as I am concerned, it is the best of all possible DVR worlds doing it that way. No down side at all from what I have experienced over the past two years of using my set up this way.

Score: 0

By vincentw56

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 9:01 AM

The problem is I have a PC that I use everyday. When I want to play a game I don't want to worry about whether my shows are going to tape or not. I use dual tuner DVRs. So by your calculation ($ 99 to $ 149 for a tuner card), I would need two. Now the cost is over the stand alone DVR. You also need a fairly good PC to record and playback so using an old PC isn't the best choice.

I am not new to this. I know all about using a PC for a DVR as I have done it before. For my money and almost all others the best solution at this time is using a stand alone DVR.

Now, when I get enough money, MythTV will be what I am using with 4 to 6 tuners and networked to all of my TVs. But as I said, it cost money to do it right and until I can get the money, I will stick with what is cheaper and easier.

Score: 0

By MikeTechno

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 2:31 PM

Not familiar with MythTV yet. I will have to look that up and check it out. Thanks.

Score: 0

By horsecharles

edited Dec 14, 2007 - 2:20 AM

I would also answer to Vincent that all one has to use is an older pc for DVR-- can be dedicated to it exclusively, leaving newer pc undisturbed for other work.
I 'never' throw out pc's when upgrading(i almost killed my wife when she threw out an older 486-33)... can find so many uses for them-- from storage & backup to web & multimedia server to dedicated proxy/anonymous surfer...

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Dec 14, 2007 - 9:38 AM

Good luck recording HD content on that older PC...

Score: 0

By RickNY

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 3:31 PM

"Yea...but have you actually used it? There's a reason why Replay isn't doing so well..."

Yeah because their product was a little too good.. The automatic commercial skip and the internet video sharing features got them nearly sued out of existence. I still have my 4000 series, along with a TivoHD and the feature set and capabilities are on par with the Tivo -- puts the crappy cable company DVRs to shame.

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Dec 13, 2007 - 4:05 PM

"On par" feature set isn't going to win you much market share when most people like the Tivo UI better...ofcourse that's subjective, which is why Replay did get SOM market share :)

But yea, they both put all cable/phone companies DVR's to shame.

Score: 0

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