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I thought I'd miss my (HD) DirecTivo a ton.. I seriously considered never upgrading, and saying fuck it about the new HD lineup (mpeg4)
However.. after giving the new DVR a decent shot, and getting the latest software on it, it's truly "not bad". It's definitely not Tivo by any means, but it doesn't offend me that much.
Really the only feature I *truly* miss from Tivo is the suggestions.. I really loved that feature, since I'm too lazy to actually sit there and look for shit I might want to watch sometime. Usually when I'm in a "TV Mood" it's 1am, and nothing good is on. I loved that my Tivo would record a bunch of history channel shit, random movies, etc. and I could page through it all.
Other than that though, the DTV DVR isn't horrible. It's much, much, much, faster than the DirecTivo is (beta code makes it even more so), and generally is pretty stable. The shortcuts take a bit to get used to and learn, but they are essential. Some thing tivo sucks at, the new DVR is great with. Being able to setup "season passes" from the guide by hitting record twice, is one such thing. It also seems a lot smarter about some stupid "bug" type things tivo had w/ dual tuner use.
That said, it does have one bug I see regularly, which is inexcuseable. One tuner randomly "goes out" and no longer thinks it has sattelite link. Only a reset fixes it. It's beyond annoying, and you can miss shows due to it if you have multiple things being recorded in the same timeslot.
All in all though, DTV has "won me back" after hearing they were going to dump Tivo. I was very close to canceling. If the rumors of them coming up w/ a Tivo interface for their DVR's are true, I will be very happy!
All in all, DTV is usually the absolute best choice for HD content delivery right now. Some markets may have a cable provider that "gets it" - but most simply do not.
-Phil
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