But I just heard about their promotion, and wondered whether the quality of the DVR was any good at all. Any of you know anything about it?

• Dish Network Free DVR Promotional

One is a Sony DirectTV receiver. It works well, too. Here, in Kansas, I get a good signal. The C-band satellite receiver gave a better signal, and the Ku-band was sometimes better and sometimes not. But, when the wind blows (always in Kansas!), the big dish was unreliable, where the little one rarely loses signal except in storms.

The good thing about TIVO is that you can set it and forget it. The only time it has a problem is if, say, the President gives an unscheduled speach, and the programming is thrown off schedule, so that you miss the last 15 minutes.

My neighbors across the street have a Dish and they like it.

Since I am served by an REC, I have Pegasus and had to buy and install my TIVO dish myself (easy), but I also do not have a long term contractual obligation either. I feel screwed because I pay the same as the guys who got the special deals, but what can you do.

BTW, I remember when I bought my first TIVO, I thought "I'll just use it as a fancy vcr and not use the programming features." Many people feel this way. And, most find out just how wrong they were. The programming guide and season passes are great!

I suspect that Dish has something similar, but not quite as fancy.

Crystal