So I did hook up the DTVPal DVR via HDMI, instead of component and it still has the better picture compared to the 722. Nevertheless both machines look better via component than via HDMI on my Olevia LT32HVE TV set. It may be because this TV has a DVI connector, and not a HDMI. But that shouldn't matter, since it's a digital connection anyways. My Philips upconvert player looks better via HDMI than component, because the component doesn't upconvert. The component output of the DTVPal DVR simply looks stunning compared, whether it's set to 1080i or 720p, even though my TV set is a naturally 720p unit. I actually like the PAL set to 1080i a little better.
The 722 has a very good picture, put the PAL via component is better. So I leave it on component for now.
I got the SW update now, but so far couldn't tell a difference. I admit that I miss little things like information about episodes first air dates in the TV Guide, that I have on my 722. This is really helpful, if you don't wanna record duplicates. Now I don't know, if the PAL will record duplicates or not, since there is no option for recording NEW episodes only. The TV Guide goes several days ahead, but there's only info for about ONE day ahead.
The skip forward and back frame by frame works erratic, just as it is on my 722. The frame forward works pretty good, but frame back is not doing it right. It either doesn't skip, or skips back 10 or more seconds. But this never seemed to work right on ANY of my Dish DVR's. I use this feature very often, predominantely on the weather future cast when the future radar animatio runs, and they're usually WAAAYY too fast to follow the timeline, so I usually skip back to the beginning of the animation, and skip forward and back to see what's supposed to happen at what time. I haven't tried the USB port, since I don't know what it supports. There's an option in the menu to test the port, and it tells me that there's no device connected. I wonder if the new 21.0 remote supports it in AUX mode with the remote address set to "2" instead of "1". I have it set to"2" and taught the remote commands in RAW to my Harmony 880 and this works rather well, even though I have to really just blip the buttons quickly, to not get double commands. It happens, that if I was select channel 2, and I push a bit too long it enters 22 instead. Same applies to navigating through the menus.
