I'mgrowing increasinglyfrustrated with the Motorola DVR that Comcast includes with their HDTV package. AlexScoble (who works at Corillian) had similar problems and recentlygave up. He went to DirectTV. However, apparently the big draw towards DirectTV,the DirectTivo unit, is being phased out and DirectTV is passing out crappy no-nameDVRs again. (Can anyone confirm?)

Just this moment I noticed that Comcast added channel 706 - our local CBS affiliate, KOIN -after a protracted battle, they've worked something out. However, the compressionartifacts are ridiculous. It's so hard to watch, even my wife noticed them. When Monotices MPEG artifacts (in the guise of, "what's with the picture" questions, thenit's BAD.

I just want:

• 5.1 Audio out via optical
• 720p HD video out via DVI/HDMI
• Dual Tuner DVR with 20+ hours of storage
• No blips, bloops, skips, stutters, random reboots

What's a dude got to do to get a single wire into a single box to get HD in this town?Get me this for $50 a month and we're done. (Comcast has it down 90% if the DVR suckedslightly less. If it glitched less, you'd never hear from me on this subject.)

What are my choices?

• Comcast
• Pros - reasonably priced, around $50 a month for more channels than I care about,over a dozen in HD and a (crappy) dual tuner DVR with quirks for only $10 a monthwith no big lump fee.
• Cons - increasingly bad DVR, only 120gig ~15-17hrs in HD.
• DirectTV
• Pros - They aren't Comcast. 250gig DVR ~30hrs in HD.
• Cons - A dish hanging off my house. Need a receiver for every room in the house. $399(actually $599(!)-$200 rebate) for a HD DVR (whoseperformanceIcan't be sure about). Regular HD Receivers are $199!
• Dish Network (Arethese guys even a player?)
• Pros - DVRsupports PiP. Upconverts SD beyond 480i.
• Cons - A dish hanging off my house. DodgyHD lineup. Only two tuners, one SD, one HD - the difference is called out in theinterface, and forces the user to think about which tuner tapes what show. $300 upfront HD fee and it's a lease not a buy. 18 month commitment if you want to save money.