[updated:LAST EDITED ON 02-Nov-01 AT 12:53 PM (GMT)]You can also follow these issues at the Satnerds site (see the forums: they include specific forums for these receivers)
http://www.satnerds.com
The Nokia 9902S is not comparable to the Echostar DVR7000. The Nokia is apallingly slow, has no positioner, no analogue tuner, no magnetic/polarotor polarisor drives, only one CI slot, no MP3 player, and by comparison to the Echostar a primitive interface & software which is also by all accounts less stable.
If you don't need the positioner & analogue, you shouldn't even be looking at the 7000. Look instead at the 5000. It's much cheaper (two-thirds the price of teh 7000)
HDD recordings are stored in MPEG form, and there is additional encryption applied. There is no way of getting it "out" to a PC or VCR. This is the case with ALL HDD-enabled receivers, and it is pimarily to reduce the risk of exposing what is essentially the raw data stream. If that were to be hacked, then the whole edifice of encryption would come down in one fell swoop.
The main power plant of the 7000 is a new IBM Risc processor that runs approximately three times faster than even the fast RISC chip in the ad3000 series. Don't know the spec off the top of my head.
2old