Digital Trends

ReplayTV says its PC Edition is going to revolutionize DVR functionality on PCs, with new features, multiroom networking, and fast search capabilities.

ReplayTV today announced ReplayTV PC Edition, the company's long-anticipated DVR software for PCs. ReplayTV PC Edition promises users "the ultimate DVR experience," combining an intuitive interface with multi-room networking capabilities and quick searching tools.

"For many consumers, their PCs are the center of their entertainment life for music photos and the Internet. And with the PC experiencing exponential growth as an entertainment platform, it's natural that TV and DVR will be a central experience on the PC. We've created an affordable DVR that lets everyone in the home enjoy TV on the computer. We at ReplayTV consider ourselves true 'TV fanatics,' and after seven years in the DVR business, our new PC Edition is everything we've always wanted to provide for our customers—and for ourselves!" said Bill Loewenthal, ReplayTV's vice president and general manager.

ReplayTV PC Edition is based around the idea of letting users spend more time enjoying television programing and less time managing, programming, and configuring their DVR system, aiming to create a "set and forget" system that's easily enjoyed by an entire family.

Some new features build on information like genre, directors, and actors for a particular program selection: Surprise Me automatically records programming featuring users favorites, and Find More lets users discover shows and movies similar in genre or other characteristics to the programming currently being vieweed. The PC Edition also enabled users to search shows by genre, actor, and director, and can even categorize shows ito categories like primetime, series premieres, and series finalies.

Multiple systems running ReplayTV PC Edition can be networked to consolidate programming from all ReplayTV PCs into a single view available from any point on the network; ReplayTV also plans to offer ReplayTV PC Companion for PCs without tuners.

ReplayTV PC Edition also offers interface enhancement designed to make programming more accessible. Shows are grouped by airing, and displays newly recorded items in a "What's New" listing alongside episodes grouped by show, enablinng quick navigation of hundreds of episodes. Similarly, movies are organized under their own tab, separate from television episodes.

ReplayTV PC Edition is designed to run on Windows XP systems equipped with TV tuner cards, and will be bunded as a 30day-trial with select Hauppage WinTV/PVR tuners. ReplayTV PC Edition is expected be available in September for $99.95, which includes one year of electronic program guide service; program guide subscriptions will be $19.95/year thereafter.

What's missing from ReplayTV PC Edition? Support for DRM-protected media, for one thing, and it doesn't look like HD content is supported, although that may be a function of tuners rather than the ReplayTV software.