ReplayTV is set to take the world by storm. In the first of our new ongoing series, “”The Future of Home Entertainment.”” We take a look at the next wave of VCR’s or what Anthony Wood, Founder of Replay Networks and the President of Product Development, called “”Personal Television Systems.””
Instead of fumbling around trying to find a blank tape to record your favorite soap or entertainment programs these new machines record television on built in hard drives. These new PTS’s are essentially tapeless VCR’s that allow consumers greater flexibility and ease of recording.In a recent telephone interview with Anthony Wood, the founder of Replay Networks the makers of ReplayTV, “”The idea for ReplayTV actually came to me about 10 years ago. I used to watch a television show called ‘Star Trek – The Next Generation. For some reason, I was never able to watch my favorite show on a consistent basis. Either I would get home late from work, or my wife would record over the tape, or it just wouldn’t work. There were about 10 reasons why the VCR just wouldn’t work. So, I started thinking there has to be a better way of doing this.””At the time hard drives were too small and expensive, it wasn’t until a few years ago that hard drives would become big enough and the prices dropped enough to make the idea a reality. Once the idea became feasible, Mr. Wood, had to create a business model, “”Our model is based on licensing the service and sponsorships, and not the hardware itself.””Mr. Wood who created one of the most popular web development tools ever, Dreamweaver, started the company with his own money. The original team consisted of the software programmers who helped create Dreamweaver. According to Mr. Wood, ReplayTV created their own hardware and software for the Replay service and system. If you buy into the marketing hype these machines will change everything you ever thought about watching television by giving you more control over what you watch. These systems allow you to pause live TV and take that phone call from the obnoxious relative who has a knack for calling you right before Buffy is about to slay that mean old Vampire. Not only that, if you forget to set your PTS and you come home later than you thought, you no longer have to worry about missing the first