Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been following this product since it was first promised earlier this year. I read all the gotchas, problems, etc, and thought I would be able to use that knowledge to help when I finally got the product myself and installed it. I also have an HDHR so thought it would be similar. Here's my experience: I received it today (wonderful one-day shipping from Amazon), and had picked up my MCard (CableCard) at Cox yesterday. Hooked everything up, plugged everything in, and went through the install - so far pretty straightforward. The setup did upgrade the firmware to 20110830, however, on SiliconDust's website they've released 20110920beta1, so I went ahead and upgraded to the latest. Finally get to the part where you call your cable company, and that's where things started getting interesting. The first call activated successfully, and I thought it was done, I said thank you and goodbye. But I only got basic channels, not extended (no ESPN, CNN, etc). So I called back, and she sent "hits" and "INITs", to no avail. Finally she had me unplug the Prime, pull out the CableCard, plug it back in and re-insert the CableCard. Then she re-paired it. But in my error, I gave her the wrong codes (you give them three ID codes). I didn't know that when you unplug, remove and reinsert the CableCard, it generates a new ID for the Data code. The other two codes are static. She couldn't get it to pair up again, but strangely, I started receiving all the channels! So we assumed everything was fine, even though it wasn't activated. Sure enough, in a few minutes I lost the channels again. A third call to Cox, and I gave him the correct codes (even though he was on the verge of saying he would just as soon send a tech out), and finally, it all worked! My recommendations: 1. Get the setup and card activation done before even going into Windows Media Center. Use the SiliconDust Setup and QuickTV to verify things are working. Get familiar with the Prime setup web browser, so you can get the codes and see the status of the activation. Check the logs to see if the channels are subscribed or not. 2. Be prepared to give the cable company what they need - the three (correct!) codes from a web browser pointing to the Prime. Cox didn't need any special instructions for this product. The last tech kept referring to my Tivo (I didn't correct him). 3. Once you've verified it all works from the Setup/QuickTV, close all of the HDHomeRun windows so you won't get tuner availability errors, then go into WMC and configure your TV Signal. This part actually worked great for me. I've been watching TV for a few hours now, both on my computer and on my Windows Media Extender, with no glitches or hiccups. Will withhold final judgement until I've gone a few weeks. (ETA, just want to say that Cox was very helpful, this was all done on a Saturday night, and the second tech even called me back after giving me some time to find the codes and so she could do some research on it.) Update 3 1/2 weeks later: So I was missing a bunch of channels, and after several calls to Cox and an onsite visit, they said I needed a tuning adapter for Switched Digital Video (SDV) channels. The tech that came onsite didn't have any, so another trip to the Cox store, and then I hooked it up at home. The TA wouldn't lock on the signal, so a few more calls to Cox, and another onsite visit finally resulted in the SDV channels coming in, but no cable channels! Finally one more call to Cox, and now I'm getting all the channels I should be getting. Other than the channel problem though, I have been recording several shows a week, sometimes two shows at a time, and have had zero problems! It has been very reliable.