TiVo/DirecTiVo questions? See the TiVo/DirecTiVo forums at
http://www.tivocommunity.com
Fee recap: Standalone TiVo $12.95/mo. for first box, $6.95/mo. for additonal boxes. The standalones only have 1 tuner, you must choose record quality. Guide info via phone line or (if you add a 3rd party card) via internet. Current software has cool features that use networked boxes such as Home Media Option (view pics or play MP3s from your PC), MRV (multi-room viewing), TTG (Tivo-To-Go: copy shows to your PC or laptop).
DirecTiVos are dual tuner (you need two cable runs from the dish or multiswitch). "DVR Fee" for DirecTiVos is $4.99/month for
your entire account, not
per DVR. The standard "additional receiver fee" still applies... you would pay that if it were a DirecTiVo or a just a vanilla receiver.
There is no DirectTiVo that is equal to a 522 from the standpoint of driving two separate TVs, one TV per tuner - this is unique to Dish. If you want separate viewing control on two TVs then you'd better count on getting two DirecTiVos.
DirecTiVos record compressed satellite data, just like Dish DVR. Guide download via satellite. Default software doesn't have all the neato networked HMO, MRV, TTG features of the standalone unless you hack the box and put on a version of the standalone Tivo software on it; then you can have the HMO and MRV stuff.
TiVo/DirecTiVo boxes are very 'hackable'; hard drive upgrades being the easiest and the skill to acomplish this is pretty much basic PC hardware skills and the ability to follow (the very good) instructions.
All sorts of other cute stuff can be done once you get the USB ports enabled, but this requires some Linux skills and isn't for the technically faint-of-heart.