REPLAY TV chat Sunday, May 2, 1999 Session Start: Sun May 02 21:58:00 1999 We noticed many of you were interested in REPLAYTV and the units that were starting to ship. You all posted many questions. We contacted REPLAY and had them send us Jim Plant. Jim is the Director of Marketing for REPLAYTV, as you all are aware. He has agreed to spend some time with us and answer your questions tonight. Jim, on behalf of everyone...Welcome Thanks. It's good to be back in the HTF So without further ado, your questions....... Anton, you are first... If I buy a basic unit and decide I want a larger recording capacity, can it be upgraded easily to a larger hard drive? Yes, ReplayTV was designed to be expandable. There are two primary ways this can happen... First, we are working on a program to swap out the internal hard drives inside ReplayTV. This will not be a user operation, so we are working on the logistics to to a unit swap or something like that. Secondly, we have FireWire ports on the back of ReplayTV to facilitate external storage expansion, as well. Next up is Jim... Hi Jim Plant, are you planning future integration into satellite receivers i.e. DirecTV or any other partnerships? Absolutely...in fact our primary business model is based on licesnsing the ReplayTV technology to other consumer electronics companies. These companies are most interested in integrating ReplayTV technology into their existing products....Satellite receivers, DVD players, TV sets, etc. Next up is GregStaten... TiVo is your major competitor. Besides their monthly fee, what do you consider to be ReplayTV's primary advantages over their system? TiVo and ReplayTV are more similar than different. but there are differences... One of the main ones is that we don't try and profile your viewing habits and use that information to target advertising. Also, we think our user interface is much simpler and easier to understand. It's not a big leap for anyone used to DSS or other channel guide-based UI's. Next up is RandallC.... Greg asked my question, so let me ask if the Dishnetwork recorder/receiver is based on ReplayTV's technology or entirely different? And is Replay shippnig at this time? There is a lot of similar techology in any satellite receiver...things like MPEG decoders, NTSC decoders, etc... and yes we are shipping. We started about two weeks ago, and we are currently working through our backlog of orders placed before we began shipping. so dish didn't license tech from you guys? No, EchoStar has not licensed any technology from us DONE Next up is JohnMorris... Hi Jim, welcome and thanks for joining us! How long will the RePlay unit without MacroVision be available? And since MV costs money to implement, will those units without be less expensive? I don't know how long before Macrovision is actually in the box. My guess is a couple of months. The cost to add Macrovision is insignificant, so there would be no price reduction related to that. I should also point out that our Macrovision (when we add it) is simply a pass through of existing Macrovision protection. We don't add it to anything. Will the higher capacity units be available before MV is onboard? No, I doubt if higher capacity will be available prior to MV inclusion. Next up is GregStaten... One important facet to me is the functionality and ease of your user interface. I've seen TiVo's (they were at NAB). Where can I see yours? Your web site doesn't seem to have any screenshots... We're currently doing a complete overhaul of our web site. One of the things we're adding is a virtual demo of ReplayTV. That way you can "experience" the interface before you commit to buying it. Next up is RandallC... Regarding the FireWire interface on the ReplayTV, how long of a cable can be run without having to worry about interferences and signal loss? That is unknown at this time. Because of unresolved copyright/encryption issues. We have not yet enabled the FireWire ports. We can do this through the network when all the issues are resolved, but we have not yet done extensive testing on this part of our system. Next up is Samuel... Thanks! What's the difference between recorders and what are the prices? Also, is 28 hours the max recording time? The only difference is storage capacity...the prices are... 10 hours for $699, 14 hours for $899 and 28 hours (this is max) for $1499 And of course, no monthly fees. Next up is JohnMorris.... I recently had a problem hooking up a DVD player to a TV with only a Coax hookup... I had to hookup through a VCR and this activated Macrovision. Ended up returning the DVD player. Would this type of TV hookup also activate MVin the RePlay unit? This version of ReplayTV does not have RF/Coax out. Right Jim, neither did the DVD, that is why I had to hook up through the VCR. There should be no MV impact from the set-up you described. Next up is Anton... I think the REPLAYTV website said that the unit was integrateable with some DSS receivers. Where can I find out if the receivers I have are compatible with the unit? Right now, you can call our technical support directly and tell them what DSS receiver you have. But, soon we'll have a page on the web site that lists the various DSS receivers that have a "low speed data port." My receiver has a "wide band data port." This will not work without a custom cable. We finally get to Jim....... You mentioned licensing ReplayTV on DVD players, what application do you have in mind here? Also I'm ready to write Ron and Packy a check :) any discount?? Just a combined DVD/ReplayTV unit...and in the future Recordable DVD... so you would use DVD as the storage media? As far as discounts, Ron will have to contact Jonathan Harris, our Director of Sales, to discuss this. To bring you all up to date on that... I contacted Anne Holland and asked for a possible discount but she had no answer. I will certainly try again... One thing you should know is that there is very little room to discount. We are subsidizing the cost of the hardware to get the prices where they are now. We do not make money selling hardware. Our revenues come entirely from advertising, sponsorship and transactions that take place within the Replay Network Service. Next up is GregStaten... What is the duration of your "retroloop"? By that I mean the amount of time you are constantly buffering? If the user hits pause during a live program, does the loop extend? Also, does the loop clear when you switch channels? The buffer is a minimum of 20 minutes, but it can be longer depending on how much free space is on your hard drive. It will use whatever hard drive space is available. Next up is RandallC.... Are you manufacturing yourselves, or is it sourced out? If it is sourced are you allowed to say who is doing the manufacturing. ReplayTV are manufactured by Flextronics. They are large contract manufacturers. The same people who manufacture all WebTV's. Next up is John Tuohy... Thanks, What type and length of warranty do your units come with, and where would they be serviced(if need be ) OK, don't hold me to this, but I think it is a 1-year warranty. Definitely check that with the call center (1-800-266-1301). All repairs would have to be sent back to us. Next up is JohnMorris... Jim, what type of HD does the RePlay unit use? SCSI, UDMA, U2W SCSI and is it specifically designed for A/V apps like the old Micropolis drives? ReplayTV uses standard IDE drives. We buy ours from Quantum. They are not A/V drives. RandyTalbot is next... Does the unit have to be plugged into a phone line 24 hours a day? No, it only uses the phone line for a few minutes between 1-4AM. Next up is GregStaten... Your box is currently only available direct. When do you plan to offer the system to resellers? Replay Networks will not be directly involved in reseller sales. This will be done by our consumer electronics partners. We haven't announced who they are yet, but we expect to have ReplayTV-branded products in the retail channel by late summer/early fall. TaylorSelden has the next question.... I just bought a Repay TV 28 hour, and I was wondering just how successful you have to be in order to continue the service. The Replay TV seems essentially useless without the service and from what I've read, it seems like Tivo has more support than Replay TV, as of today. Are customers really just out of luck if the service goes down? Do you plan on doing monthly fees in the future to make a profit? We have no plans to add a monthly fee. Monthly fees look good on spreadsheets. But consumers don't like them. We think that with all things being equal, that no monthly fees are a competitive advantage. Next up is JohnMorris... If you are making the majority of profit from advertisers, where and how would we RePlayTV users be exposed to this advertising in the program guide? Just to be technical, we are not necessarily making the majority of profit on advertising... Sponsorships and transactions (e-commerce) is also very big. But, your point is still valid. Advertising will be displayed in certain parts of the user interfaces such as the channel guide and Replay guide. They will be like small banner ads, but when the viewer selects them (voluntarily, of course). They will be served up video off the hard drive. I should also point out that we will not be using any of your hard drive space to store advertising. We will hold back a few minutes of space for our own use. So, if we say you are getting a 14 hour unit...you will get 14 hours. Thank you for your honesty! Next up is Michel.... hi and thanks... (1) what kind of sources can i record on replay? for example, you mentioned the fire-wire port... can i hook up my digital sony camcorder or output from my computer and download to replay via fire-wire? (2) and back to expansion and fire-wire. can i plug in any 3rd party hard dirve for more recording time? Not yet. The FireWire ports are not enabled yet. You will be able to do that in the future. At this time, we have not implemented any support for third party storage of any kind. DONE Next up is Joe_linn.. You mentioned a custom cable to connect to a wide band port on older DSS units. That is what my DSS unit has. I contacted tech support & they said that you will be offering one at some point in the future. Any idea how far off that is? Is there any other way I could construct or find a cable that would work for that purpose? Joe_linn, yes that is my understanding. Of course, I have a personal interest in that solution, so you can be sure that I will be pushing for sooner rather than later. My guess is that it's 2-4 weeks away. Great! Thanks very much. Next up is GregStaten.. What resolution are you capturing at? Full ITU-BT/601 720x486, 720x480, 640x480??? Also, what capture depth: 4:2:2, 4:2:0, 4:1:0? Greg, you just blew me away. Sorry. Didn't mean to... ;) :) No problem, but I'm going to defer that question to our tech support. You can e-mail them. Check the web site for tech support e-mail. I believe it is support@replaytv.com My question is next. I am a beta-tester, and I love REPLAYTV. In fact, I am not giving my unit back. My question is this...I never tried hooking up my 8mmm camcorder to record to REPLAYTV. I see a S-VIDEO input, but never figured out where I could select an auxillary input to over-ride the tuner. How do I select different auxillary inputs from the menu? Ron, you have beta remote, right? I have the Home Theater Master There should be an input button on it. I know there's on the regular shipping remote... I'll look for it again that button cycles through the three inputs on the back of ReplayTV. Great. Thanks Next up is JohnMorris... Jim, without divulging patent secrets, what's inside the RePlay box? HD, MPEG2 card, processor, memory...? Yes :) Also a modem, FPGA's... Jim, wow impressive...;) various video/audio decoders and processors. Very similar to a satellite receiver of DVD player with the addition of the hard drive and MPEG2 encoder. The really cool stuff is in software. Especially, all the real-time MPEG2 a/v streaming software. Thanks, windows based? No, not windows based. That would never work in a living room product. The average consumer has a very low tolerance for having their TV crash! :) Next up is RandallC... You mentioned that replay doesn't make money on hardware sales. If that is the case, how do you entice a CE company to license the tech and sell the hardware? Is higher volume a key to generating profitable hardware sales, or are there other incentives for a CE company to license. randallc, the secret is sharing the revenue stream with our CE partners. They are VERY excited about this. It changes everything for them. I am going to let Jim have the next question... When you license your product to satellite manufacturers, will they use your guides or their own? Jim, that is unknown at this point. There are a number of technical/political issues that will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis. next up is TaylorSelden... I know Replay TV will let you watch something in its memory and record at the same time, but can you record a program on one channel and just plain old watch a program on another channel? You know, like you can with a regular VCR with the TV/VCR button. Does the Replay TV have a TV/VCR button? I guess this would be the solution to the fact that Replay TV can't record two channels at once. Certainly, you can split your cable signal and run one through ReplayTV and the other directly to your television, and then just switch inputs. Is that what you mean? No... not really. jim I think he's asking if it has its own tuner] My VCR lets me watch one channel and record another. I don't really know how it works. I guess a splitter would do it. ReplayTV can only deal with one signal at a time, so you cannot watch one live channel while recording another live channel, unless you split the signal prior to ReplayTV. What you can do is watch one of your previously recorded "virtual" channels while you are also recording something live. Gotcha GregStaten is next.... Question for those of us with DirecTV. Since DirecTV is MPEG2 also and most players have a wideband port, any possiblity of recording the MPEG bitstream directly rather than recompressing an analog stream? Not with the current stand-alone version of ReplayTV, but certainly that's exactly what we'll see when one of our partners builds a combo ReplayTV/satellite receiver. JohnMorris has the next question... Will/does the telephone connection on the RePlay unit cause any additional AV noise to be introduced into our Home theater Systems such as that produced by some cable systems? No, the modem is completely isolated from the a/v processing part of the system. Next up is Jim... Finally Jim, can you share any news with us on the latest exciting developments? I'm sure there's an itch there to scratch! Jim, there are some itches...but I can't really spill the beans right now. I can tell you that we'll be making some major announcements in the next 30-45 days regarding CE partners, as well as content partners. Some very exciting stuff coming down the pike. We are in the final 3 questions. RandallC is next..... regarding clicking on a banner ad and going to a video stored on the harddrive, is this transmitted via the modem connection? And related, for people like me who use an Ethernet card to connect to the internet, any chance of using a network connection for ReplayTV instead of a modem? (future addition maybe) No, the video is not transmitted over the modem. It is broadcast in cooperation with certain partners and ReplayTV captures it. over the air? Yes. Or cable or satellite. wow, thanks Regarding Ethernet and other online connections. The ReplayTV technology is extremely portable. I think you will see ReplayTV enabled devices with all types of network connections in the not to distant future. great thanks much. TaylorSelden is next... One thing Tivo has that Replay TV doesn't (from what I heard) is no slow motion, frame by frame advance, or multiple fast forward speeds. Is this something that can be added through a software upgrade in the future (which I'm told are free), or would a new unit need to be purchased. My second question is just what kind of NEW features are going to be added through software upgrades? Taylor, all those things you mentioned are already planned for the next software upgrade. Plus, lots more related to various ways to search for and record your favorite shows. wow! I'm glad i bought this thing! I wouldn't commute from Oregon to Silicon Valley every week if this wasn't the absolutely coolest technology I've been involved with. The final question goes to JohnMorris.... Are you planning future upgrades involving MS ASF? I can only say that I have been trying to figure out how to build one of these for a couple of years, and even now, the RePlay unit comes close to my best possible build price and includes the online guide... I gotta get one! Thanks for coming Jim! John, what's MS ASF? Nevermind, MS beta AV streaming technology Nothing like that planned at the moment. I should say this. ReplayTV is essentially signal agnostic. Right now we take any cable, satellite or OTA source, but in the future that could include internet-related streams, as well. What is the backlog on the orders? I want mine now! :-) Taylor, right now it is about 2 weeks. But I would definitely get the order in right away... things are piling up right now. Jim thanks much for your time and information. (and I hope to see some sort of PCI ReplayTV card to add into my computer sometime in the not too distant future...) I've been using one for about 4 months now, and it has definitely had an impact on the way I watch TV. I have a whole room full of home theater equipment, but my wife would trade it all for ReplayTV. She won't let me take it back to the office. With the 60 second skip I'll never have to watch commercials again! [Evil Laugh] BTW, it's a 30-second skip. okay.... I need to thank Jim Plant for his time and REPLAY TV for giving him to us... I can say this...I have been a beta-tester. My unit is not going back :) I love this thing and it is worth the purchase Thanks for all the info. I hope ReplayTV is a huge success! Yeah, thanks for answering my questions jim! Good luck! Jim, thanks so much! Thanks again, Jim! Thanks everyone. I enjoyed it. I'd love to come back when I have some new stuff to talk about. Hey Jim? Where can people with more questions contact? My e-mail address is jim@replaytv.com. I will forward your e-mail to the right people. That's great Thanks for putting together another great chat, Ron! Session Close: Sun May 02 23:24:16 1999