nStar,
Just purchased a ViP612 from dishdepot.com in first week of June. Put it in the bedroom for wife when I'm hogging all the 622 tuners in the den. : ) It works fine for what we need in the bedroom. It doesn't have PIP. but, my wife doesn't like that feature in a TV anyway. It does have an OTA hook-up for HD locals.
FYI (Unsolicited advice follows)
It is in an enclosed cabinet with a huge computer case fan and a cheap $10 fan from wally world. A/C piped into cabinet. Before I got the fans to pulling heat out, I ran the HD temp to 141. (OOOPS!) It crapped out with an error message. I did a power cord reset and haven't had any issues with it since. So, have cooling in place before turning on box.
END (Unsolicited advice)
I haven't experienced ANY bugs on this box, yet. It is a new box. I have surmised that the leased boxes that are "recycled" by E* to new customers seem to have the majority of the issues. But, that's just MY experience. Your mileage may vary. (i.e., my mom's 222 leased boxes. She's on her second one and still having freeze up issues).
So they are out there. I wish I had found the dishstore.net had a sale on them before I bought. I could have saved thirty bucks. Good Luck
David