I just switched to Charter a few days ago and went with a Roamio and one mini for now(keeping one Charter DVR for VOD). I switched because doing the Charter triple play would save me about $125/mo over Directv+Charter internet/Phone. However, the issue is, I went to cancel Directv(been with them for 16 YEARS) and they gave me such a great price to stay(for one year, but with no contracts involved... month to month), it would be $30 LESS a month with the new Directv price+Charter Internet/Phone vs the Charter triple play. So now I am completely on the fence for several reasons.
1. Being with Directv for 16 years, I was in shock as to how much FASTER the Roamio(heck even the Charter DVR) was, compared to my HR34/HR24s(I have am HR34+2 HR24s+1 HR20). It's kind of sad how slow the Directv receivers are these days.
2. Charter's HD lineup actually has a several MORE HD channels than Directv in comparing channels.
3. I would actually get my NY Rangers on MSG. With Directv, they don't pay Cablevision for the "outer ring" of viewership, which I am in(the retention specialist said they recently resolved this but I think she was blowing smoke).
4. The Charter channel organization seems like it was done by a kindergartener. Other than the Premiums(which are the same numbers as Directv), the rest of the channels are a complete cluster____. The locals aren't matched to their actual channel(Fox 61 is channel 6, WVIT 30 is channel 4). On top of that, the like channels are not together, so all the ESPN channels are strewn all over the 700's as opposed to being next to each other like Directv. Plus there are SD and HD duplicates all over the map(seems tho all HD is 700+, minus the premiums).
5. Charter's DVRs suck. They are not linked and have an SD guide and menus, but the Roamio helps here.
6. Charter's HD is Mpeg2 vs Mpeg4 on Directv. At times the difference is noticeable.
I guess why I am on the fence is while Directv would now save me about $30/mo, that Roamio/Min make the Charter experience excellent, plus I'd still have my NY Rangers issue with Directv. So it's a tough call.
As a side note, took me only about 10 minutes to get the cablecard activated over the phone with Charter. The issue I had was not waiting long enough on the Tuning Adapter to finally sync the first time... kept calling them thinking there was an issue.