I know you pay to pay an up front price for a TiVo but I was wondering if there was a monthly charge to have it.

12.95

http://www.tivo.com/1.6.4.asp

or if you get the Directv DTivo it's 4.95 / month.

Yup, a LOT cheaper when you get DirectTV's DVR (Tivo). It's only got 35hr capacity, but you can easily upgrade it yourself. Check out weaknees.com

does the the directTV DVR have the same features a regular TiVo?

yes it does and more besides.

If you can get a dish it's the only way to go.

The biggest advantage is the ability to record 2 channels at once.
It has 2 built in tuners.

Actually, it doesn't. DirecTivo does not have the Home Media Option (HMO) and perhaps some other things as well. I don't have a Tivo (I prefer ReplayTV), so I don't know all the details. It definitely doesn't have HMO though.

BTW, DirecTivo (and Tivo itself) is likely in real trouble since DirecTV has cut many of its ties with Tivo and will likely introduce its own DVR soon. See http://print.google.com/print/doc?articleid=ymvSC00CI5I (an article from Variety).

Toshiba SDH400 DVD Player with 80GB Hard Drive and TiVo at OneCall

It's $199 (+ $18 s/h) and comes with FREE basic Tivo service (which basically means NO Season Pass and only 3 days, not 14 days, worth of listing). Also comes with a $50 MIR if you order Tivo Plus service.

This unit has also been at BestBuy for this price twice in the past few months. Usually runs ~$270-280 at BestBuy and OfficeDepot.

Be advised, there is a reported flicker problem with many of these units; details at the usual Tivo, HT, and AVS forums......

JM is correct, my bad I forget about HMO all the time, not having a standalone Tivo.

DirecTV Tivo box is still widely considered the best on the market. No worries about TIVO and DIRECTV. They will continue to serve TIVO users for many years to come. They may stop producing the boxes themselves and if they do, YOU SHOULD GET ONE NOW. They may become rare and valuable (or very hard to get) if DirecTV stops making them. Remember, TIVO as a service is 2nd to none. When DirecTV and TIVO stuff was rare 2 years ago the boxes regularly went for OVER $1000 on Ebay. Why? Because they are worth it.

In addition to two tuners, DirecTiVos also record the MPEG signal straight from the satellite. That means you don't have to choose a recording quality. So your recording will be exactly as good as the signal you receive from the dish. Of course it also means you don't have an MPEG encoder in the box and can't use it without DirecTV service.

There's no HMO. That's true. But I'll take two tuners over HMO any day of the week.