I have been a TiVo fanatic for many years. I have personally purchased five separate units, and three are still in very active use even as I write this. I love the DVR concept so much that I also built two "homemade" versions using products from Snapstream Media (BeyondTV) and El Gato (EyeTV). Getting on board with TiVo, or any digital video recorder, is easy - it's when you try to leave that world that things get tough.

I'm not talking about the trip to a friend's house or an extended hotel stay where the pleasures of time-shifted programming are irritatingly absent. There are some fine remedies for those scenarios. No, I'm talking about upgrading to high-definition, the inevitable next step for any serious TV watcher.

For the TiVo-less households, the decision to add HD to the lineup may seem like a simple upgrade problem. But for folks obsessed like me, there was really no chance I was going to revert back to the days when I had to be home in time to watch a show, even if it was in high-definition.

The cost of upgrading to HD is one barrier. And you have to acknowledge that there is not really that much good high-definition programming available today, which makes the HD upgrade decision all the more difficult. But when you factor in that, until recently, there was no TiVo-like option for time-shifting high-definition content, then the move to HD seems improbable.

But thankfully, TiVo (actually Hughes) has come to the rescue. I am now the proud owner of a Hughes high-definition DVR, which enabled me to step up to HDTV without losing the power and glory of TiVo.

In fact it works exactly the same as my other DirecTV TiVo units. I can pause, fast-forward and rewind, search for shows, create wish lists, etc. But this new unit had a few additional surprises:

• Four Tuners - Now, in addition to the two DirecTV tuners that is common to most DirecTV TiVo units, it includes two additional over-the-air tuners to pull in terrestrial high-def signals. With four tuners in all, I can double my high-def recording possibilities and still virtually avoid programming conflicts.
  
  
• HDMI Output - It would have been fine to include
  a component output and even a DVI output to deliver the best HD signal to my TV, but the folks at Samsung went one better by adding an HDMI port as well! This provides three separate options for increased flexibility. I currently have the unit connected to a HD television and an HD projector in the same room, and it works beautifully.
  

To be fair, though, I feel I must also point out a few downsides:

• Pick One - You must choose to output either a standard signal or a high-definition signal from the box - you cannot do both. In my case, I find myself switching back and forth all the time as I look to save shows to the VCR or portable video jukebox, or to send the signal over a home channel to other TVs in the house. It was nice of them to add a new option on the remote to make the resolution switch without walking up to the device.
  
  
• HD Programs Are Space Hogs - While they were kind enough to stuff a massive 250GB drive in the unit, it will still only record approximately 30 hours of high-definition content. This can be quite sobering if you are used to a long list of shows. Before the Olympics came on this summer, I had close to 100 programs in the list, and for a brief moment, I felt like a king (there was no way I was going to find the time to watch all that content of course, but that is irrelevant). Without warning, though, I quickly lost everything after several 5-hour blocks of the Athenian sports broadcast muscled their way onto the hard drive.
  
  
• No Series 2 - There is no Series 2 version of the HD DirecTV TiVo which means all those cool media sharing options are still out of reach.
  
  
• No Hacking - At this time, there doesn't seem to be the same fervor over hacking the HD TiVos that exists for previous generations, but perhaps that will happen with time.
  
  
• One Word: Price - Oh and in terms of the price, let's just say I shelled out more than what I paid for my other three TiVos, combined!
  

Despite these drawbacks, I would still highly recommend the purchase. Upgrading to high-definition is an expensive proposition, but for die-hard TiVo owners there is now one less excuse for not taking the plunge.