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I finally got one of these (sent the first one back when they went bankrupt) and I am very impressed so far

it's a 5040 with 40hr HD - the mother's day special with lifetime subsription


works about the same as an an ATI AIW in the controls - get the channel selection/program schedule via ethernet, etc. seems to have about the same search capabilities.

I have been recording on "standard" (40 hrs on this unit) and the quality has been fine, I guess HQ would be prudent for something you would burn to a DVD

I REALLY like the commercial skip part - all you get is the occasional blip as it goes by the commercials in playback

little critter has collected 5 ER, 4 X-File, 5 Third watch episodes for my wife

special on armored cars (lol) and a couple of movies for me

truly fire and forget with regard to weekly shows - tell it to record, keep 5 shows, that all you need to do

sometimes I will just surf the listings and tell it to record stuff - just push the record button

there is also an option to access unit via internet from wherever, if you see a show while surfing that you would like to have

all in all well designed and very easy to use

assuming it last for a while, I would give it 8/10 with the drawback being the initial cost

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yeah, we got one too...I LOVE IT!! Don't really have any complaints other than it will only connect to our reciever via serial, that one bit/sec transfer rate makes changing channels a real bitch. My dad cracked it open and put in a 200 gig hdd, so now we have a lot more programs on there. I highly recomend it. Glad you're having luck w/ it...I'm sure after a while, you'll be glad you spent what you did on it (initial cost high or no).