The Sony Ultimate TV is the first box to have 2 tuners! Where do you think TiVo got the idea? The SAT-W60 has 2 tuners which gives you the ability to record 2 shows at the same time while simultaniously watching another pre-recorded show. It also has optical output (not "in", though I can't imagine what purpose this would have, record a DVD into a device that compresses the signal more than the original DVD to begin with?). It can record 35 hours of material and includes WebTV and the wireless keyboard, though it is optional if you want to use it or not. You pay $9.95 a month to DirecTV and if you want to utilize WebTV more than the included 3 hours a month, you can pay an additional $4.95 directly to Ultimate TV which will allow you to configure the dialup account to use your own ISP.

I agree that Ultimate TV needs to have a one-time charge like TiVo but get real, do you really think that "lifetime" price is going to be relevant in 5 years? With technology the way it is today, someone will have a new service (possibly TiVo but likely not) which will offer so much half of us here will end up buying it instead. Also, TiVo service doesn't include the equivalent of WebTV, which in the future I suspect will be quite useful as the connection between all your different appliances. I really think someone will come out with a box with an ethernet port, this will plug into your LAN and get all content from the web. TiVo may have it too but c'mon, when was the last time you purchased a subscription to anything you still use/have years later? Dial-up ISP (nope), Cable TV (nope), telephone (we all use mobile 90% of the time). I think the "lifetime" service while it sounds good, will be like having a service that replaces your 10MB RLL hard drive for life if it ever fails...

Jack Fetter