Philips DSR6000R DIRECTV Receiver with TiVo Service
Just get it!!!
I've been using Tivo for about 2 years now.  I can't imagine watching television without it.  I always tell people, if I had to give all my home theater equipment up except one thing, I would keep the Tivo.  Well, a Tivo alone wouldn't do me much good without a tv, so I'd have to go get a cheap tv after giving up my big one ;-)  But, the point is, this is the best piece of equipment you can buy!<br />Tivo is one of those, &quot;just get it&quot; items.  Don't ask too many questions, don't worry about weather you &quot;need&quot; it, don't worry if you'll like it... JUST GET IT!  I've told my friends about this and they always think I'm overexaggerating how good it is.  A few put it off saying it wouldn't do much for them or they wouldn't like it.  Well, as soon as the caved in and bought one, they tell me that they don't know why they waited and they couldn't imagine watching TV without it!<br />I like Tivo, but I'm not a brand bigot when it comes to things like these... so, even if you don't want the Tivo personal video recorder (PVR) look at the Microsoft UltimateTV... either way get a PVR!!!  I've never tried the Microsoft Ultimate TV, but I can say that I am very happy with Tivo and would be very surprised if I could be wooed away from it.  They are probably pretty close in features/specifications and now Tivo has dual tuner available, so there is not likely any great advantage of one over the other.<br />Some of the drawbacks for me are:<BR>Image quality.  With the DirecTV model this isn't as much of an issue since it records everything at the highest quality possible.  But, there still is some picture degradation.<br />No HDTV support yet.  I have a HDTV set but I don't have an HDTV decoder yet... the reason I don't is because I couldn't use it with the Tivo.  Hopefully it won't be too long before they have an HDTV model.<br />Like I said, just get it!!