I have heard good things about TiVo's service but I can not feel to bad for them. My beef with them has always been the monthly fee. The other thing is the lawsuits over 30 seconds skip technology patent. That seems absurd to me.

I know comcast is no better but at least they give you the equipment to use. Because I hate monthly fees I have gone the Windows Media Center route. Works great for standard signal except in MCE there is no good way to record any HD except over the air. I think the real problem is the strict DRM that go with HD which is making it possible for cable providers to hold a monopoly of this sort of service.