OK Hardware / Horrible software

The PVR 660 seems like an acceptable tuner. The picture is excellent given a good video signal (e.g. cable). It doesn't do a particularly good job of tuning in weak signals from an antenna.

The downside of this unit is that it comes with Arcsoft's TotalMedia software which seem like a bad beta version and, as far as I can tell, isn't supported by anyone and can't be upgraded.

The software is slow and inefficient, at least on my HP notebook with 1.5 gig processor and 512K of RAM. That should be plenty to run a simple video processor (A typical two-tuner Tivo has much less) but the program still has occasional video dropouts and can't handle playing and recording at the same time on my machine. Fast-forwarding through a commercial, for example, results in a maddening period of confusion where the software plays the same section of video three to five times in a row before settling down.

You can't control where the recorded programs are stored and you can't play recorded programs or access the scheduler or electric program guide unless the unit is plugged in. There's no progress indicator to tell how much longer a program has to play. The navigation within the program is reminiscent of a badly designed web site. You actually do much of the navigation by clicking on the "Back" button.

The EPG can't be stored so you can only use it when you have a live internet connection.

Because it is bundled software, there appears to be no hope of a software upgrade -- ever, so it appears that the bugs and frustrating design features are permanent.

I've read a suggestion that Windows Media Edition will support this hardware but haven't been able to verify it.