davec is right. I read the AVS TiVo forums almost as much as this board. The Series 2 Tivos are likely going to have somewhere near 70 Hours capacity (80GB drives), USB ports, and PiP. The standalone Series2 is already out in the form of the AT&T Tivo, its just lacking the greater recording capacity and final software. There are many rumors floating around about what the Sony DirecTiVo (SAT-T80) will consist of, but it seems it will exist. You see, there has been talk about TiVo branding their own equipment now since they have built a name.

If your friend has DirecTV, it is imperative that he gets a DirecTiVo. You lose a lot of great functionality, integration, and picture quality when using a standalone with DirecTV.