I know there are lots of postings related to this. Here's my own story. After my old DTiVos died (again) I decided to take the HD plunge, opting to go with Comcast, mainly because of simplicity and a special "triple play" promotion they were holding at the time (I now get cable, phone service, and internet through Comcast). When I called to disconnect my DIRECTV service, they weren't about to let me go without a fight. They say they will give me a free HD DVR if I make a two year commitment to stay with DIRECTV. My wife took the call and I still have to get details about which DVR they are offering, but I assume it's an HR21, their latest model, but I wonder how much capacity they're offering? I did a quick search and it seems there is a model that has 100 hours of HD capacity. Is this true? I've also read the CNET review of the HR20 and it wasn't all that positive. I've been using the Comcast HD DVR for a couple of weeks now and while its no TiVo it's not too bad. I'm thinking though that I might prefer to get an HD TiVo in the long run.

So, my question to this forum is should I take DIRECTV's offer and drop Comcast HD, or stay with Comcast and plan on moving to an HD TiVo box?

Unfortunately I have to make the decision by the end of the day!

I doubt this is the box DirecTV is going to give me, but I've been reading about the new HR21 Pro. Sounds pretty nice:

http://www.weaknees.com/directv-hd-dvr.php#hr21

Anyone have one of these?

I know there are lots of postings related to this. Here's my own story. After my old DTiVos died (again) I decided to take the HD plunge, opting to go with Comcast, mainly because of simplicity and a special "triple play" promotion they were holding at the time (I now get cable, phone service, and internet through Comcast). When I called to disconnect my DIRECTV service, they weren't about to let me go without a fight. They say they will give me a free HD DVR if I make a two year commitment to stay with DIRECTV. My wife took the call and I still have to get details about which DVR they are offering, but I assume it's an HR21, their latest model, but I wonder how much capacity they're offering? I did a quick search and it seems there is a model that has 100 hours of HD capacity. Is this true? I've also read the CNET review of the HR20 and it wasn't all that positive. I've been using the Comcast HD DVR for a couple of weeks now and while its no TiVo it's not too bad. I'm thinking though that I might prefer to get an HD TiVo in the long run.

So, my question to this forum is should I take DIRECTV's offer and drop Comcast HD, or stay with Comcast and plan on moving to an HD TiVo box?

Unfortunately I have to make the decision by the end of the day!

If it's more about the DVR than the content for you then choose the DVR you want. DirecTV is not likely to ever join forces with TiVo again. If you want to get an HD TiVo later, as you stated, you're probably better off with cable.

I used to be a major TiVo fan, even bought some for friends. I have the HR20 now. When it first came out a couple of years ago it was apparently riddled with problems. It's much improved now. I've had my HR20 for over a year now and have had fewer problems with it than I had with my DirecTV TiVo. I almost never get a blank recording now, but did a few times with the TiVo (it didn't seem to like recording Lost for some reason.) I wouldn't go back, especially with all the HD that DirecTV has to offer.

You need to decide what's more important, TiVo and the HD content you get from Comcast or the HD content you can get from DirecTV.

Edit: You can add external drives to the HR20 and HR21 if you find it doesn't hold enough for you. They will replace, not augment, the HD drive in the receiver itself so you'd have to re-do your season passes and lose access to whatever is recorded on the internal drive as long as the externals are plugged in.