Does anyone think create-a-track will actually be useful? It's something 1% of users will use (well), and will be a forgotten feature for almost all casual players.

How could you mistake the skip button for guide, it has a knub on it so you can tell where your finger is... just like the keyboard you used to type this article.

I've used my Harmony 880 for 2.5yrs and can honestly say its one of the best pieces of technology I've ever purchased. I can understand why the customization interface may turn off some non-tech people (I programmed my parents 570 for them), but if you consider yourself even remotely geeky, there is *NOTHING* that can't be done w/ the Harmony interface. If you spend some time to tweak the remote, you can fix pretty much every complaint I've read in this thread. Perfection comes at a cost, the wizard can probably get you to 90%, but a 100% perfect setup takes some tweaking.

I'm a big proponent of standards based solutions like cable card which are 1) cheaper and 2) don't force all that extra crap on you, plus you can use your tv's channel buttons.

I had one in my Samsung HDTV for 6 monthes with great results, but then suddenly the HD service crapped out. Cable company said it was the TV, but it ended up being a dead card. Replaced it for free, but 3 weeks later it died again.

I'm fed up and switching to a box, the cable card standard just wasn't done very well, and 2.0 is no where in sight. We're slaves to the cable companies, sigh.

IMO cable card is important because it keeps the cable monopolies from sticking it even more to the customers. I much prefer my $2/mo cable card to a $10/mo STB which requires yet another remote.

w/o a CC alternative, cable companies could try to roll even more useless services into their HD packages and jack up the price. My cable company charges $10 for the STB, $10 for HDDVR which also requires $7 for program guide and 2 way services. Not worth it IMO

But cable card is pretty poorly supported, mine died last week and made my HLR5067 act completely crazy. Cox swore it was my TV, but upon replacing the CC it went back to normal. I just hope 2.0 is implemented better.

A DVI->HDMI cable only costs $8, and HTPC's don't get the benefit from using 1 HDMI cable for video and sound because those are done by 2 different cards on the PC. The 2 cable solution I have now, 1 optical and 1 HDMI/DVI, is good enough for me.

"Not quite perfect. It has a DVI rather than HDMI video port, which limits its potential usefulness as an HD PVR. That's not necessarily a deal breaker for many users, but worth noting."

DVI is compatible with HDMI, I'm using a $8 converter cable from my PC HTPC and it works flawlessly. You don't get sound over the HDMI, but you have digital audio, so the only thing you lack is the 1 cable solution, instead you have 2.

You don't need a keybord or mce remote if you plan to stream to an Xbox 360

At this point I'd pay most anything for a PS3 if it blows the Xbox 360 out of the water

I got some cables at monoprice as well after a recommendation from fatwallet. Everything came nicely packaged and quickly. Very nice prices, scored a bunch of component and optical cables plus a DVI->HDMI for my HTPC

dumb question, how does one tell what a show is being broadcast in?