RePlay it again, Sam...

USA Today has an article in yesterday's paper about TIVO and it's competitors. It talks about Tivo and it's competitors - cable and satellite/DSS providers that are including their own DVR's in their cable or satellite boxes, as well as PC companies that are including it in Windows Media Center PC's and DVD-R settop boxes.

The article doesn't mention Tivo's only competitor in traditional DVR boxes, however - RePlay TV. They have been around since 1997, have a pretty strong cult following, and make what I think is a really good product. They had commercial skip on some of their DVR's until the MPAA made them pull it. They also had home networking and ethernet connectivity on their units way before Tivo.

As I said, I own a RePlay - a 5060 - and I love it. Not to sound cliched, but it's changed the way I watch TV. I bought it over Tivo for a couple reasons - native ethernet connectivity, which Tivo didn't have when I bought it (I don't have a phone line), commercial skip, and a really good price ($50 rebate plus $50 gift card from Amazon).

It could be that the author looked at RePlay and didn't think it was worth a mention. Still, when you are writing an article on a company's competitor, shouldn't you mention the company that has been competing directly pretty much since day one? Especially when you mention fringe products like Media Center PC's, which haven't exactly been rousing sucesses?

It makes you think about the mainstream media, and why people are turning away from it. Unlike some things, I don't think this is any bias, but it strikes me as really sloppy reporting to ignore a major aspect to a story, and is probably the reason that people are turning away from newspapers.