Overall, I really like this Direct TV Satellite TV receiver. The digital satellite picture and sound are incredible. I'm sure they would be even more impressive if they were being aided by a system slightly newer than my 5-10 year old, moderately priced surround sound system. As noted in the title I have only had one significant problem in the year and a half I have owned the system. Ultimately it was more Direct TV's fault anyway. Suddenly after approximately 15 months of flawless performance, my satellite reception starts acting screwy. One day we are only getting about half the channels subscribed to, the next they all come in, and yet the next day none are coming in...only the Direct TV freebie info channels. To make a long story short, I went round and round with customer service and got the usual, unplug it for 5 minutes solution that they give for everything. Needless to say this didn't fix the problem. Ultimately a technician at Sony gave me the right answer to the problem in about 15 seconds. The access card was shot. I had to get Direct TV to send me a new one which solved the problem. Only major downer is that it cost me $89 to get the new access card (with $50 refunded if you send the old one back to Direct TV to prove it was a malfunctioning card and that you didn't run over it with your car or pick several locks with it). So that whole experience sucked, but now the receiver is back working like new. I just wish I had more money to upgrade my supporting home theater equipment!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 400