I bought the TiVo HD to replace the Comcast HD DVR, which I'd been using for several years. Having been a TiVo user from the original Series 1 days I was expecting a much better user experience and a better remote, and I was not disappointed. The Cable Card (a PC card) inserts easily in the front of the device, and it wasn't difficult to get working. Other DVRs just can't compare!

Update: One of features that Tivo added recently via a software update is the ability to stream movies from Netflix at no additional charge. They don't have all of the movies available that they do to rent on DVD, but quite a lot of TV shows and films are available. Using it is straightforward and it is way better than pay per view, because streaming movies are already included in the Netflix subscription price.

Highly recommended. I'd give it 4.5 stars if rateitall allowed me to.

Best UI of any DVR that I've seen. Wishlists make this a notch above the generic boxes. It thinks like you do. If you want to pause and come back later it actually does... the generic boxes don't. The closest I've seen to the quality of TiVo HD are the DirecTV HD DVR boxes. But, with TiVo set to come back to DirecTV, I imagine some users will want to switch to TiVo for those reasons.

I got the external 500 GB Seagate drive that is rated to work with the TiVo HD. It works like a charm. However, I did have a power outage (yes, the units were both hooked up to a power strip) and lost all the recordings on both the internal and external drives. A simple reset worked to save the system but what's gone was gone. If you really want to save stuff, use TiVoToGo to transfer your Mac or PC via ethernet or wifi.

Downsides are few, but one of them is that a CableCard needs to be installed by your cable provider (should be free) and in my experience the On Demand channels don't work.