We just switched when we moved to our condo in March, so we are newbies too. We bought an HD LCD television, and I insisted on the PVR--I'd been waiting for it! It's taken us months to figure it out, but I love it. I arranged to book my favorite shows while I'm up here at the cottage so I can watch when I get home. We are also getting the hang of recording a show in realtime, then delaying watching it for about 10 minutes so that we can zip through the commercials.

I also like being able to search for shows and take advantage of time-shifting.