What is Replay TV?Brand of Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
Similar to Personal Video Recorder (PVR)
HistoryReplay TV was founded in 1997 and purchased
by Sonic Blue in 2001March 23, 2003 SONIC blue filed for chapter 11
bankruptcy and on April 16 sold most of its assets, including Replay TV, to the Japanese electronics giant D& M Holdings. SONIC blue was fighting a copyright infringement suit over the Replay TV's ability to skip commercials when it filed for bankruptcy.
On December 13, 2007, D&M Holdings sold most of the assets of Replay TV to Direct TV
OperationAllows users to record television programs
Allows automatic commercial skipping with no user intervention
Has a subscription service with a monthly fee
Only available in the United States
Hardware and FeaturesThe "4000 Series" and "5000 Series“ of Replay TV
units have Ethernet connections that allow the user to stream shows to another similar Replay TV unit within the same local network and transfer shows to another similar Replay TV unit or to a personal computer. This capability enables the users to move recorded programs to PCs using third-party programs
These units also have the capability to automatically skip commercial advertisements during playback
Recording of television programs could be accomplished either manually or through use of the program guide