Timmernator:
I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I've posted a few times about my experience having now switched from Dish almost two weeks ago, but I can't remember the thread. (I've actually posted on a couple of them.)
In any case, I have two 8300's in the house now -- one HD and one non-HD -- as well as a high-def 3250 box. I'm so far impressed with the 8300's. On one occasion a recording had a half-hour break in the middle, and on another occasion I had a soft reboot. Otherwise, I've had no problems recording, no problems tuning into any channel I want, and I've never had a hard freeze -- things I don't think any owner of a 921 can say.
I haven't paid for the multi-room DVR service to be activated, but I've gone through the manuals already to figure out how it would work and it sounds pretty slick. The DVR broadcasts a "DVR Channel 1999" that the other receivers in the house pick up, and when you tune to that channel, you're presented with a list of programming on the DVR you can watch.
The only thing I see the 8300 really lacking right now is in playback of DVR material, there's no real way to do a fast scan of material -- say, jump to the one hour mark in a two hour movie. You either have to fast-forward your way there, or it has to be the last thing you watched in which case it'll start playback from the same moment where you stopped watching before.
--Kyle