Doomed Hybrid?
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Like some folks, Anthony Wood has a love-hate relationship with his videocassette recorder.
A fan of TV's ''Star Trek: The Next Generation,'' Wood used to tape episodes. Setting his VCR wasn't a problem -Wood's an engineer. But the device was unreliable.
After selling his Iband Inc. software company to San Francisco-based Macromedia Inc. in '96, Wood set out to solve his VCR troubles. The next year, he founded Palo Alto, Calif.-based Replay Networks Inc.
By year-end, privately held Replay plans to start selling its ReplayTV product, which is part VCR, part computer. Instead of videotape, ReplayTV stores recorded TV shows on a hard-disk drive, like those in personal computers.
''The desire to tape Star Trek fueled Replay Networks,'' said Jim Plant,the company's marketing director. ''Everybody has a similar story. They've been through this frustration.''
The ReplayTV recorder looks like a cable TV box. On the inside, it's more like a PC. There's a processor from Mountain View, Calif.-based Mips Technologies Inc., a modem, a digital encoder and a 7-gigabyte disk drive that stores at least seven hours of programming.
ReplayTV recorders will cost about $1,000 at first, Plant says. Replay Networks plans to sell the product via the Web and over the phone. The company also is talking with consumer electronics makers about making their own ReplayTV recorders, he says.
By mid-'99, Plant says the company hopes to see major-brand $500 ReplayTV recorders in stores. Replay Networks hopes to get prices in line with VCRs, which start at $150.
ReplayTV is clever but unproven, says Gary Arlen of Bethesda, Md., market researcher Arlen Communications Inc. ''It's a pretty sexy product,'' he said. ''I'm just not sure how big the market is going to be.''
The company aims to fill a gap. Some 90% of U.S. homes have VCRs, but fewer than 20% of users program them to record, analysts say.
The appeal of ReplayTV is easy programming, Plant says. With an on-screen channel guide and a remote control, ReplayTV can record either one episode or an entire season's worth of shows. There's no tinkering with channel or time settings.
The device also offers custom ''channels,'' where programs of interest are tracked and recorded from an online programming guide run by Replay Networks. The company hopes to also offer pay-per- view movies.
Replay Networks has 20 employees and is looking for venture capital or investment by a computer or consumer electronics company, Plant says. Monday, Netscape Communications Corp. co-founder Marc Andreessen disclosed that he has invested in the company.
Replay isn't alone. Start-up TiVo Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., is readying its own digital recorder and online programming service. And Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of Panasonic products, showed a video-storage device and digital-video-disc jukebox at October's Japan Electronics Show.
But Plant sees Microsoft Corp. as the biggest rival. The software maker has big plans for its Mountain View, Calif.-based WebTV Networks Inc. unit, which include adding recordability to its set-top Internet box.
''I am sure Microsoft will be in this business,'' Plant said. ''Microsoft's in every business.''
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Copyright (c) 1998 Investors Business Daily, All rights reserved.
Investor's Business Daily - Computers & Technology (11/11/98)
VCR Haters Have New Option
By Michael Lyster
11/10/98 9:05 PM |
