I just upgraded from a Hughes HTL-HD + normal Tivo combo to this DirecTV HD21 (black one). Overall it's not a bad receiver -- getting used to the non-tivo dvr interface is going to take a while. However, not having current channel display (LED) on the front is kind of annoying, actually quite annoying. That and not having an OTA input is a pisser. I've got one of those Zenith star trek looking things that surprisingly works amazingly. Given the option, I'd rather watch the OTA version of network shows than the overly compressed versions via SAT.

Is anyone else making hardware for DirecTV HD/DVR like hughes or samsung?

thanks,
damon

See if you can get a HR20. They are available.