Why would I buy a Tivo when I can buy one of these Hannibal devices? I understand that a Tivo has advantages of ease-of-use for many users—but if I’m not in the least bothered by a command line, why not buy one of these? It looks like CLI interaction should be quite rare—that this really is an appliance. What does Tivo offer that this system won’t have? Is it worth a subscription fee?

It’s nice to see some competition starting. When CableCARD tuners are available, I hope to see more of these devices.