I did a search for cheap personal video recorders and found the site
http://www.Free.TV

Is this site for real?  They have a verisign seal, but do not accept
credit credit cards  ( I guess cuz they are FREE)  -
Do they use Windows XP Media Center Edition on the HP or Linux like
the video disk recorder at http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/?

I guess my real question is the viability of these entertainment
products.  My buddy had a Tivo, but heard a rumor their business is
shaky and they chage monthy service fees. The new HP with Windows XP
Media Center Edition looks great but EXPENSIVE!

www.Free.TV looks like a great deal, but I do not know anything about
this company.
I found

zackthom...

FreeTV is for real. They do not, as yet, seem to be very
popular. They are using the same concept which worked
(for some) to provide free internet access via a free Internet
Service Provider - that is, it is paid for by advertising.
The FreeTV general terms, below, elaborate on the ways to 
satisfy these advertisers, including viewing, voting on,
and answering questions about the ads while watching TV, and
ads which will appear in your internet browser.

Free.TV Terms  
   
1.  These terms are subject to change and modification  
2.  These terms are not legal qualifications. They written 
in general language for better understanding, and are not 
meant to be legally binding for you or Free.TV. When you 
sign up for the Free.TV service we will send you complete 
marketing package with more specific terms  
3.  No part of the Free.TV web site or marketing literature
is meant to be a promise of services or products, and does 
not obligate Free.TV in any way  
4.  We will work to provide Free.TV to everyone, however 
the Free.TV service may not be available in all areas, 
due to regional laws and regulations, or due to technical 
concerns.  
5.  The Free.TV computer (set top box) must be purchased 
(see our products). We will refund the purchase price upon 
successful completion of the terms. If the terms are only 
partially met, then only a percentage may be refunded.  
6.  The full range of services is based on the deluxe 
Free.TV set top box. Other set top boxes may offer limited 
abilities.  
7. You have to watch a certain average number of commercials
 a day. There are different levels of achieving the required
 average:  
 a. Just viewing the entire ad and not changing the channel  
 b. Vote on the commercial using your remote control  
 c. Answer a few questions on the commercial 
8. Free.TV only pays the regional average for basic 
television services. If you want premium channels or 
live in an area where cable / satellite service is more 
expensive, you have to make up the difference. However, 
because of so many people are signing up for Free.TV, we 
have special packages available at a lower cost 
9. Whenever you use Free.TV Internet service, we will 
display special ads just for Free.TV customers. The 
Free.TV internet store will become your new home page, 
where you are guaranteed to find the lowest prices. 
10. The video games and other software are free on a 
trial basis for a limited time, after which they may 
be purchased for continued use 
11. We do make certain summarized reports available to 
our partners, but we will never sell your personal 
information on an individual basis. We value you as a 
customer and as a person. 

The following are the set top boxes available, but note
that only the Deluxe model comes with all the features,
as noted above. 

Bargain
 ftv01-2000a-bgn01
 Easy to use
 $350
 
Standard
 ftv01-2000a-std01
 Great Value
 $675
 
Deluxe
 ftv01-2000a-dlx01
 All the features + the best deal
 $999
 
Additionally, you must pay for the unit 
up front, and will be rebated only upon competion of terms:
"Free.TV give you a rebate upon successful completion of
 the terms"
These specific terms are not published on the website, but
are mailed with an information package which is sent after
you sign up on the website. Based on similar types of 
discounts, offered by Qwest, e.g., you can expect to be
required to commit to the system for a period of (guessing)
AT LEAST 2 years before receiving your rebate, with a
pro-rated rebate for less than the complete term.

I was unable to find any satisfied customers of the service
by searching for comments in Google Groups. Also, if you
click on the VeriSign logo on their page, you will see that
their status with VeriSign is 'Expired':
https://digitalid.verisign.com/cgi-bin/Xquery.exe?Template=authCertByIssuer&form_file=../fdf/authCertByIssuer.fdf&issuerSerial=8f33b8502f6b48b5fce6c3c16536ff64

Summarizing, I would say this type of service is not for 
everyone. You would have to have an astonishing tolerance
for commercials, and $999 up front to invest for a couple
of years. I suspect there are other inconveniences which
would be revealed upon reading their mailer materials.
It is also highly unlikely that you would have access to
the contents of the built-in hard drive for the sake of 
archiving recordings you had made, but that's just an 
educated guess. And they don't seem to be doing well enough
to update their Verisign status, which isn't a good sign.


Searches done, via Google:

service site:www.free.tv
://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=service+site%3Awww.free.tv

via Google Groups:

free.tv
http://groups.google.com/groups?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=free.tv&sa=N&tab=wg

If you need further assistance, please feel free to post
a request for clarification BEFORE rating this answer.

sublime1-ga

There were some things at the free.tv site that might give one pause.

http://free.tv/signup/how_does_free_tv_work.asp
"You even get to exercise your patriotic duty and vote how much you
like each ad, so that the bad ones are shown less!"

I don't believe it is anyone's patriotic duty to vote on advertising. 
While one might consider it a patriotic duty to vote in elections for
public officials, it does not follow that it is a duty to vote for
beauty pageant particpants, American Idol contestants, dog show
winners, M&M colors, advertising, or anything else.

This raises concern because a company that is willing to make that
rhetorical leap may be willing to take other liberties with their
offering.  It may be the case that the item is "free" in terms of
dollar cost, but what about non-dollar costs?  Just be careful that
you aren't giving up anything important to you, like your privacy or
your time.

You also ask, are products like Tivo or Windows XP Media Center
Edition viable.  I think it is clear that people want to record shows,
and apparently find short-term recording easier with Tivo or other
Digital Video Recorder than with a VCR.  It is likely that DVRs will
continue to develop and decrease in price over time.

The Windows XP Media Center is a little different, in that it is
offers DVR features and regular computing.  The product manager for
Windows XP Media Center says that subsequent releases of the software
may not require the purchase of a particular computer, meaning you
could install it on an existing computer provided you have the minimum
hardware requirements.  That might bring down the cost substantially. 
You can add similar DVR features to your computer now by purchasing an
ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder video card.

They range in price.  The All-In-Wonder have "Video In" and "Video
Out".  Make note of this since other models have "video out", but you
need "video in" for DVR functions.

All in Wonder Radeon Base Model, around $80:
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/aiwradeon/index.html

All in Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro, around $360+:
http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/aiw9700pro/index.html

Check prices at http://www.pricewatch.com/