ScottC is right, nothing really compares to TIVO as far as user interface, features, functionality. It really just works great. And, there is a huge community of users who have upgraded, hacked and networked their tivos, so if upgrading and networking is at all interesting to you, there are readily available options for you - if not the ones that are included in the TIVO itself.

Although, today, I find it really hard to make the price/benefit argument. The TIVO at 100-300$ for the box, plus 12.95$ a month fee (yes, this can be lowered, but you have to have been a sub, and call and whine to get it lowered) I find the cost/benefit getting lower. With directv, that is the best choice since one gets a dual tuner tivo for about 50$, and only pays them 5.00$ a month for the tivo service, not the 13$ that tivo demands.

while the cable boxes have a high upside, in low price relative to tivo, their downside is that they haven't had a DUAL TUNER model until just recently. The one that came out a while ago, crashed and burned.

They have only just now come out with a dual tuner, HD model. I think the downsides to that one are that it cannot be upgraded, at least not easily. It doesn't offer a great deal of space, I think 10 hours HD. And I am not sure, but I don't THINK it can record OTA signals. That makes NO sense.

Tivo is going to offering their TIVOtoGO service sometime in Q1 next year, which will allow an actual TIVO owner (not directv tivo owner) to transfer the shows to a computer, or laptop and thereby take in on the road. This is somehthing that you are just NOT going to see from the cabelcos.

So, 60$ a year for reasonable timeshifting ability with the cableco, vs. 100-300$ investment, plus 150$ a year in TIVO fees, only you can decide.

I will say, if you have some technology neophites in da hows, think grandma, older parents, wife who just doesn't get it, etc. Tivo is the easier product to adopt, IMHO. I have had no problem getting my 96 year old grandma up to speed, and my father included. It took my mother all of about 20 seconds to figure it all out. She's a trip!