RCA DWD490RE DIRECTV/UltimateTV ReceiverSee Restrictions)
Nifty product: still room for improvement &amp; expansion
Purchased last Xmas, I've been quite pleased with the product.  Ultimate TV is a must for anyone who has Direct TV.  Once you own a Digital Video Recorder, life without it is unbearable.  This I know as I have two TVs with receivers, but only one Ultimate TV.<br />The single most feature that makes or break this product is ironically enough the PAUSE button.  It has more than paid for the price of the product.  Need to go to the bathroom or another beer but it's the bottom of the 9th inning, full count, bases loaded tied score and the MLB division playoff?  No problem.  PAUSE.  Plus, when you return, you'll relish being able to &gt;&gt;/FAST FORWARD through commercials.  They've also incorporated segmented &gt;&gt; and &lt;&lt; by 5 and 15 second segments.<br />Brilliant.<br />And I haven't even gotten into being able to record programs on the fly or scheduling the recording of your favorite TV series every week.  Even if they move the program's time slot Ultimate has you covered.  But this is perhaps the biggest drawback.  There is an option to record only new shows, but Ultimate TV does make a mistake with some frequency and records reruns.<br />The second negative aspect that you'll see prominent on other people's complaints is the slowness and unwieldy style of menu browsing.  I've heard TiVo is faster.  Good for them, but I'll still keep my Ultimate which is designed to best perform with Direct TV.<br />My personal complaints: the hard drive isn't large enough, and in a day and age of commonplace 80gb HDs.  2nd complaint: an ERASE button instead of clicking through 3 menus to get to YES I WANT TO ERASE GOSH DARNIT!  With only 35 hours of recording, you'll find yourself managing your disk space almost every day.