I hate to tell you, but there's no comparison. Don't get me wrong, that rant was not against the Tivo player at all! It was more of a rant against a small little thing the company was doing.

I have an ATI AIW Radeon (not 8500), and I think it's a fantastic card. For a while (last year before I got Tivo) I tried using its Tivo-like features to record some shows. I wasn't too pleased with the outcome and the program that came with it was absolutely terrible (something about it not receiving program info from my area and not letting me change my area's info or something).

Tivo has much more features than you see in the commercials. The power with which you can record our programs is incredible.

Lastly, the advantage you hae with Tivo which everyone who owns an empeg knows, is UI. The user interface of the Tivo has to be the best I've ever seen. This is extremely important for a device as potentially complicated as this. As a result, many of our parents own Tivos and love them

Get a Tivo!