I have not use Tivo, however I have seen a demo, I have the ultimate tv and all the functions are slow i.e, search, guide, home etc. Does anyone else have these problems? Is there a message board for this product yet?

Try www.dbsforums.com and look in the Dishplayer/UltimateTV section.

Just bought/installed a 1-line UTV. Slow, but greatly improved sound/picture over previous Sony unit. We need a message board.

I just bought one also. The menus are definintely on the slow side. The picture is good and the receiver itself does seem better than the Sony A50 I replaced (finally got sick of it losing sync with the audio).

I agree that we need a forum.

Since this was designed by Microsoft it sound a lot like the $10 that dishplayer owners have to fork over to dish to get the recording capabilties. I think the $$ goes right to microsoft. On the UltimateTv website here is what $10 gets you..
BASIC ULTIMATETV SERVICE: $9.95/MONTH, INCLUDES:

· Live TV Controls (live pause, rewind and fast forward, skip ahead, instant replay)
· 35 hours* of Digital Video Recording
· 14 day searchable Advanced Program Guide™ for DIRECTV® programming
· Picture-in-picture: watch and record two live shows at the same time
· 3 hours per month of Internet connect time for Internet on TV and interactive TV features
· 6 e-mail accounts
· Automatic upgrades

I am very happy that dish's new hardrive receivers have no monthly fee.. Looking to get one soon

The $9.95 a month actually is going toward the TWO WEEK advanced programming guide (APG) (as opposed to the 48 hour guide that DishPVR gives you). Also, UltimateTV has two tuners (Dish doesn't) so you can record two things at the same time or watch one thing and record another. (Don't you just hate being stuck watching what you are recording??)

It should be noted the the Dishplayer does allow you to watch something other than the show that you are recording. Dishnetwork never charged for the 7 day guide on the Dishplayer. Also Dishnetwork has had a number of specials that gave you free (or $100 for three years) video recording on the Dishplayer for all of your Dishplayer units. Dishnetwork is working on a two tuner PVR that should be out by the end of the year and the 501 should have a 7 day guide with a search function by the end of the year. Other PVRs with internet functionality will be out next year, which will provide similar functionality to the UltimateTV Unit. Dishnetwork seems to be setting a standard for free video recording (I hope it stays that way).