It's not lively because nobody ever tries to answer the question without the tired old cliches of, only you can decide and what channels do you like blah blah blah. I am Assuming that the majority of people coming here to ask this question are considering the Hopper or the Genie. What little I know of the Genie is that you for sure want the HR44 and not the HR34. There's a reason "D" has replaced the HR34 so quickly (many upgrades in the HR44). If you go with "D" make sure it's the new HR44. Some say PQ is better with "D" but I can't tell a difference. You can save money over the length of the 2 year contract if you switch because of incentives. Who's DVR is faster, Hopper or Genie? Well, the HR44 is faster than the HR34 but is it as fast as the Hopper? I don't know but a head to head shootout would be interesting. The Hopper has three tuners with some options to record more than three show (and an OTA attachment). The Genie has 5 stand alone tuners. Both have 1TB hard drives ("E" has 2TB if you can use the extra 1TB). "E" is light years ahead of "D" when it comes to implementing the use of an EHD (this is a very big advantage to many). Hard to compare the Guides but I think they both look way too busy and I know the Genie only allows a handful of channels (5 I think) to be shown at once and only goes out 90 minutes which makes programming very difficult. I forget if the Hopper is any better but it may be the same. The HR44 has a very modern looking new remote and the machine itself is more compact, wireless, and has an external fan. But, and this is huge. The HR44 does not allow you to turn on and off a AVR. That's all I can think of to help your choice. After looking at both I decided to stay with my 722 with OTA being heavily used. Hope this helps a little.
