I recently purchased this as a upgrade for my parents' Dish Network 301 receiver. I am an avid user of TIVO and thought that this would be the best way to get them involved using a tivo with satellite tv. The other option would be purchasing a tivo and using the IR blaster, which would cost around $600 with the lifetime subscription option. This little unit was only $150, and there is no monthly fee or subscription required.

Audio:
The audio was a definite upgrade from the 301. The sound through the TV was the same, but with this unit there is an optical output. This was absent on our 301 receiver, and allowed us to get digital sound on our receiver now.

Picture:
The picture was the same as the 301, I didn't expect to see a huge difference here. The difference that I was impressed with was that when using the guide option, the window that shows what you are currently watching in the upper right corner loaded instantly. With the 301, there would often be a black box in the upper right corner, and after about 30 seconds of browsing through the guide it loads. The program information loads a lot faster too, it no longer shows "No Information Available".

Price:
As I stated above, the price was great. For a Replay TV it costs about $250 for a similar 60gb unit (Costco) and then the $250 lifetime subscription fee. Tivo is a bit more expensive around $300, then $250 for the lifetime subscription. This was a $150 upgrade, we just called dish network and they sent it to us. Dish told us at the time we would have to send the 301 back, but when I called to install it they told us just to keep it.

Ease of Use:
This is the area that I think Dish could definitely improve on. There is no "season pass" feature as with TiVo, you have to program the DVR just like a VCR. This would be fine for people who know exacltly what they want, and exactly when it is on. It requires a bit of programming, I was hoping that it would be like with tivo where you just find your program and push "get a season pass". This unit is just a fancy VCR, with no real "record first run only," "record repeats" or other TiVo season pass options. The interface also isn't very attractive, it could use a little graphic design and GUI work.

Program Info:
As I stated above the guide and program info load much more quickly and reliably than with the 301. However, there is a disappointment. With TiVo the whole month's programming is downloaded to the DVR when it makes nightly calls to get the data. However with DishPVR, only 3 days is available for viewing. this is very annoying when you are trying to set something to record that is more than 3 days away. You have to know exactly when it is on and on what channel. Dish should emulate tivo with this and extend it to one month. I heard from somewhere that you are able to download firmware or software that lets you view up to a week in advance, however I was not able to do this.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 150