After a few weeks of using this thing... figured I'd give an update for anybody else considering getting one.

Like, I'm totally blown away with how much it's altered my viewing habits.
I haven't seen a commercial for over 3 weeks. After spending some time programming my fav shows.... every day I turn it on, there's like, 30 of my favorite shows to choose from that I can watch just like a VCR.
Even pay per view movies can be stored permanently.
Live tv can be paused when a commercial starts and I go away for 5 minutes, then come back and fast forward through em....
Recording 2 shows while watching a third....

What can I say. The major advantage for me is totally avoiding commercials.
Whoever those people are that create commercials to completely annoy you and then play them every 5 minutes during your favorite shows, deserve to be locked away in a room and forced to endure them for the rest of their lives.

Anyways.... just wanted to blab on about how amazed I am by this thing.
I come home and there's like 30 of my favorite shows just waiting for me to watch..commercial free.

I'm not a huge TV freak, but one thing I do when recording in the studio, is watch DVD's in the background to break up the monotony from hours of endless editing. There's no way you can sit at a computer monitor for 5 hours, editing little notes and timing issues, without something going on in the background to break up boredom.
This way, I'm not stuck watching annoying commercials anymore.

ie,
(I'm knock knock knockin... I'm knock knock knockin ...I'm knockin on Buck a Day's door... and "Everyone Loves Marineland"
AAAAAAAARghhhh