Ben-
I did the self install. I ordered the board on a Monday and received it on Wednesday as promised, ie shipped the same day.
I would only recommend you do the self install if you are skilled with micro soldering ability and tools. Also, there is some drilling of the chassis that requires some precision location of the holes and being that the metal is steel sheet it bends easily. I had to fabricate a jig to prevent the metal from bending under the drill bit pressure and since I took too big of steps to go from pilot holes to spec size, I had to put the DTC-100 on the milling machine and us an end mill to de bur the holes. I should have drilled the holes larger in very small increments which prevents burrs but that's for next time. For soldering, I used two heat controlled low wattage soldering stations with sharp pencil points. Plus, I used triple magnifying head gear to see the tiny soldering pads. This is NOT like building your own PC or changing a car battery. LOL
169Time has been reported to be delivering with good customer feedback for some time now so all the old problems you heard about, I believe, have been resolved to customer's satisfaction and business has been progressing with new features being added to the firmware along the way. eg. support of the JVC and Mits DVHS VCR's as well as PC HDTV board input. When you saw it last I believe they only supported the Panasonic DVHS recorder.