I took the chance. I called up DirecTV and was delighted to learn that their DVR just dropped in price down to $200. That's for a unit capable of recording a decent 50 hours of HD and an excellent 200 hours of SD -- and it can record two channels at once.

Now this latter feature was not something that particularly interested me, mostly because I assumed it came with more costs. If you're familiar with satellite and cable pricing, they charge a monthly fee for each additional outlet in your home. It's just a few dollars, but those annoying charges add up. It's frustrating to pay $5/month for satellite box/connection in your bedroom when you hardly use it. I had thought that connecting two lines to the DVR would count as an additional connection and another charge -- but the DirecTV rep assured me that wasn't the case. The charge is for each cable box, not each line. (DirecTV's marketing should explain this better: I might have made the switch much earlier if I'd known.)

That was the final straw: my resistance broke and I ordered a DirecTV DVR with HD service.

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