We have DVR's from Time-Warner.
They're all Atlanta Scientific brand, running Pioneer ApTiV software.
It's not as fancy as the "AI" in a TiVo, but it get's the job done for an extra $7/mo. We did the math, and after the $250-300 for a base-model TiVo, then the subscription fee to have it programmed, or the "lifetime" subscription of an upfront $250, it would take something like 5-7 years for buying the TiVo to start saving us money over the Time-Warner rentals, and by then, it would be obsolete.
I'm sure that even $100 TV's from Wal-Mart will have crude DVR's (With no programing guide menu) built into them within five years...
Our boxes are dual-channel, so they can record two different channels simultaneously, while playing a third recorded show from the recordings already saved on the hard drive. The rare times there's a conflict, (three shows we want at once) we just record the show on a different TV, or just record when it repeats later. So I guess I'm lucky as compared to charby.
Having a DVR to watch TV where you can pause, record, and play back whenever you want, and FF through the commercials is huge. It's on par with cell phones and broadband Internet.
The box also lets us do pay-per-view movies from a menu, and it's about the same price as Blockbuster, or a buck less. Although if you watch lots of movies, Netflix or Blockbusters competing mail service is still way cheaper.
We actualy have three boxes in our house for different floors, my biggest gripe is that I can't "move" TV shows from one box to another inside my house. You could do that with early TiVo's and RePlay TV brand boxes over a home LAN (Move it onto your PC's hard drive with software, then shunt it to another box&), but the networks got pissy about it, so later versions locked those features out. I wouldn't mind a proprietary system between the Time-Warner boxes, but the DVR itself is good enough as is. I'm just spoiled.
We realy only watch TV for 2 hours a night, give or take, but we can get about 4 hours worth of programming in, skipping commercials, skipping news segments we don't want etc. And of course, we can "miss" TV to go out or do something whenever we want because it'll be there when we get back.
