TIVO and Ultimate TV. Any recommendations?

Having a Replay, Dish PVR, and a Tivo with the latest software, I can wholeheartedly recommend a Tivo for features and the PVR for sound quality and picture. There is no category I can recommend the Replay for except maybe price if you can find a great deal on one due to a dealer feeling stuck with one. The TIVO search is actually better than the Replay now that the last update occurred. I have no experience with the Ultimate and can not comment. The dual tuner-recording function would be nice for those with DSS, instead of DishNetwork. As I already have three individual Dish tuners and recorders, it has no value to me at this time. A HDTV PVR will be my next upgrade. If someone with no PVR were to ask me if they should wait for the HDTV unit, I would say no way!You've already missed out for too long and there is always going to be a need for that extra PVR somewhere in the house. Best Regards, Aaron

Both Tivo and ReplayTV have had dismal financial performance, but I don't know that either is in danger of going under. They both have technology that is in demand and I would guess they will survive, at least with respect to the service side of retrieving the guides, etc. As for owning one, absolutely! I own a couple of the Panasonic ReplayTV units and can't imagine life without them again. Both ReplayTV and Tivo units have been extremely well reviewed and, while I haven't done a feature comparison myself, I believe the feature comparison comes down more to preference than anything - I wouldn't want to give up the 30 second skip forward feature of ReplayTV (which Tivo doesn't), but there are features of Tivo that ReplayTV doesn't have. The initial reviews of UltimateTV have been along the lines of "heart's in the right place, but it's a generation behind the others" which makes sense given that it's the newest. -Kirk

I got the Philips DSSreceiver/TiVo combination unit a couple months ago, and it truly changes the way you watch TV. I wish I'd done it much sooner. I don't have experience with Ultimate or Replay, but I am happy with the features and functionality of TiVo, and wholeheartedly endorse SOME kind of PVR. The more video-based forums have areas dedicated to PVR's and even the individual brands/services. Email me if you want some suggested links.
Tim

I would highly recommend a replay unit where there is no subscription fee. I have the panasonic show stopper version and the only area where the sony tivo is slightly better is in the remote control design. This is the ONLY way to deal with t.v.

I have been debatinbg one of these also but I dont understand why they have a monthly fee? What do you get for your 10 bucks a month.