I am quite satisfied with VIP 722 and HD absolute from dish network, but HD absolute supposedly $29 plan ends up $74+ for 2 dual tuner receiver(hint: being nickled and dimed).

Verizon has been bombarding me with triple bundle for $99 and free upgrade to HD package for 6 months(10+ after that). It should save some dough.

I know V supports cableCARD. I have personally never tried TIVO but always heard positive reviews. but on other hand:

I love Vista media center with its sleak interface and NO FEE advance DVR functnality and recently CableCard tuner have been cracked to use with any Vista PC. I already have Xbox as extender. more can be scored under $100

so my question:

- What are main cons and pro of going with verizon with VMC or TIVO? has anyone tried both setup? liked one over another?

- Any known buggy issues with cableCARD?

- How is dish compares overall with above verizon setup? I know dish hardware is better but their HD-lite is ....lite.

Thanks for feedback.

P.S. reason I posted in war zone so I can get hopefully unbiased feedback as compare to dish or verizon section.

CC, there are plenty of us former Dish Network and DirecTV folks who post in the FiOS Forum (http://www.satelliteguys.us/verizon-fios/). Also, lots of great information in the FiOS and Tivo thread (http://www.satelliteguys.us/verizon-fios/164975-fios-tivo.html). Except for Vista Media Center, your can find a lot of unbiased information in the links I provided.