PVRs are cool, but it's all about the software.
Well, and HD capability. But barring that, how cool, friendly, and stable is the interface used to schedule recordings, view shows, etc?

I agree software is major, but hardware is important as well. Especially when comparing hardware-encoding vs. software-encoding. I have Plextor's PX-TV402U and love it for the Divx-certified hardware encoding, which works great with Snapstream's BeyondTV. I can't say how this particular model might be though, but it is without hardware encoding (but is still supported by BeyondTV).