Well, initial impressions of the HR21-700: (Just my opinions, YMMV)
Good:
- The prioritizer- fast and easy. Nice!
- The Record Button - very nice, you can toggle between record once, record series and cancel recording with a single button click
- List of recorded programs - if there's a folder with multiple episodes you can expand/contract that folder and see the individual episodes while still in the list. Very nice.
- Picture quality is great
- After a reset (and possibly a software upgrade) no problems with freezing or locking.
- Saves your recent searches
- Picture in Picture - lets you view current content while using the guide, searching, etc. You can press pause to pause that at any time if you want to browse or search in silence.
- Very cool blue light. Kids love that.
Not So Great:
- Complex UI, not as simple as TiVo
- Hard to find the 'To Do' list.
- There's no 'Season Pass Manager' equivalent that I can find
- Navigating through everything requires a lot of extra button clicks that could easily be eliminated
- Many buttons on the remote are function specific, labeled with text, hard to see with my older eyes in the dark and hard to memorize. (Backlit remote would be nice)
- Remote is, long, awkward.
- Having trouble programming the remote to control my AV system. My Tivo remote does it without having to switch switches. Suggestions welcome.
- No OTA (which has been hashed out over many life times in this and other forums, I'm sure.)
- No cute mascot like the Tivo. (Hey, the kids' opinions count too!)
As a supplemental DVR it's been stellar, but I'm still not giving up my Tivo (HR10-250) as the primary DVR. It's simple enough for da kids and my wife and it has OTA, which I just like, darnit. Subjective, yeah, but there you go.