The main problem was that Comcast's scheme for numbering upper-level digital channels and the numbers TVCenter displayed bore almost no correlation. In fact, each cable company has its own numbering scheme. You have to figure out what they are.
Likewise, the "premium" electronic program guide, from epgData.com, is nonintuitive with some holes and occasional inaccuracies in the schedule. Given those problems, it still doesn't take much effort to schedule a recording, either by finding the program title or the old-fashioned way, by entering its date, time and channel.
The quality of the hard drive playback was good, although it's hard to compare with the real thing because it's displayed on a monitor, not a TV screen. Just make sure you have plenty of hard drive space if you like to keep recordings for a while.
