Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Which DVR should I get?

Your only options

If you want to use DirecTV as your service provider, your only real option is the (no longer made) HR10-250 (Tivo-based), or the new HR-700 (D*TV DVR). I have them both, and they both have positives and negatives. The TiVO-based DVR needs a reboot about once a month because the Tivo menus become unbearably slow. The D*TV DVR is still an early model that is undergoing a lot of software updates (about one every other week). The current version is very stable, but the OTA is not yet enabled, though should be in a new release by the end of next week (12/31/06).

I liked the fact that on the D*TV tivo you could upgrade the internal hard drives, but the D*TV DVR allows you to hang an eSATA drive off of it in a RAID0 configuration. Many people have 2 or more drives configured as RAID0 providing several TB of storage (hundred of HD hours). The other major thing is that the Tivo does not support the new MPEG4 satallites (all HD sat locals, and all new national HD feeds starting mid '07), wherease the HR700 does. The HR700 also supports streaming of content from your own PC down to your TV.

In the end, I actually enjoy my D*TV DVR (HR700) more than I did my TiVO because of it's faster skip features (1-4x FF), faster and more reliable menu system. One warning though is the HR700 is maturing quickly, but it does still have bugs.

The reason you can't just go and pick up any old Tivo is because DirecTV streams it's data in a format which is different from what you get either OTA (ATSC) or over cable (QUAM). Although rumor is that D*TV will be coming out with an HD tuner card for your Vista-equipped PC (only Vista is supported because its DRM support) sometime early '07.