Well, I would seriously suggest you DONT buy one until you DO get to play with it. I just bought another hr-10-250 to use in the room that the hr-20-700 is in. I've been all over the net looking for help (and have found it in alot of places) but basically every site out there is full of excuses for why you should like your hr-20-700, when no one has to try to convince you to like your Tivo powered 10-250, it does it itself with code that works, AS printed. (the 20-700 has released like 8 releases just trying to make it work the way the included manual says it works). It CANT switch between the two tuners unless both are recording, it has NO wishlist feature, its auto-record functions and will record every showing of a show, INCLUDING all the ones on channels you dont recieve. Their is no way to do a manual recording say 8pm m-f except f, you'll have to record whatever is on on friday and manually delete. Its a POS.
Sound like this one post wonder needs to read the manual first.
The HR10-250 is a TIVO unit, many of the funtions from the TIVO unit are TIVO patented, such as the dual tuner your talking about, I would imagine, do you really think they would take away features that people like,IF a lawsuit wasn't pending IF they didn't. They would like to avoid the legal problems DISH is in, and this is a way to avoid it.
The updates are NORMAL for ANY new unit, DISH does it, D* does it the HR10-250 has had plenty, you probably got yours well after they had the majority done.
D* found the wishlist was a waste as most turned it off anyways.
I don't understand what you trying to ask about the auto-record, mine has work flawlessly.
The manual record works as well.
Jimbo