DirecTV Buys ReplayTV

ReplayTV, which many still believe had at one time the best DVR solution, has been sold yet again. This time the buyer is DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite TV provider.

In a press release, D&M Holdings CEO Eric Evans said,

"Although we valued this asset and the business was profitable, the sale of ReplayTV to DirecTV makes the most sense for this business, its employees and us."

The press release went on to say that for the time being, D&M will continue to be the provider for existing service contracts.

What will DirecTV do with these "assets?" The best DirecTV DVR was the DirecTiVo, and that is no longer sold --- and we can likely thank Rupert Murdoch for some of that, as it was his desire after acquiring a controlling stake in DirecTV to move to in-house DVRs. Now he's gone, and we still have the DirecTV DVRs.

I've owned both the DirecTiVo and the DirecTV DVR, and to be honest, the DirecTV has some features that the DirecTiVo was missing.

For example, in the DirecTV DVR Guide, it has an R icon with that shows if a program is going to be recorded, and a different one for "Season Passes" (yes, I realize that's a TiVo term). This is something that ReplayTV has, and something people have been asking for on TiVo for a long time.

Of course, the DirecTV DVR isn't as accurate as the DirecTiVo: it records repeats whereas the DirecTivo made, I believe, one mistake in the whole time I owned it (before it died, sob). The DirecTivo also only crashed twice in two years, and I had two crashes in the first week with the DirecTV DVR, though none since.

The DirecTV DVR also is more sluggish in the guide, and although it has a 30-second skip, it fast-forwards 30 seconds in that skip. Gives you a chance to "see" the commercials and is less likely to tick off ad providers, I guess.

Will ReplayTV software be melded into DirecTV DVRs (maybe) or is it all about the patents that ReplayTV owns and has cross-licensed with DirecTV (possibly)? Time will tell.