508 vs 501

[cfisher]

Would someone mind running down the differences between the 508 and 501 recievers? I get the impression it's just the size of the HD that's different - correct?

I've read so much about 501 problems that I'm questioning whether to skip the 508 altogether and get two 721's for main and secondary TVs...

[Mark Lamutt]

40GB hard drive vs 80GB hard drive. That's it. And keep in mind that not all of the 501s have had problems - I've had mine since day 1 and I have never had any of the issues with it that you may have read about. Im my opinion, the 501 is pretty solid and stable at this point.

[HTguy]

Mark is exactly right. However, it seems that some 508s have been shipped with 2 remotes & 2 sets of batteries, some with only one. We're not sure if it's by accident or design.

In 9 months I've had to reboot my 501 twice & last week I had a glitch that required a memory dump. My showroom unit has had a few reboots, too. Out of hundreds of custs, 2 or 3 had to exchange (or thought they had to) their 1st 501.

So I would say that overall it has been a pretty reliable & stable product.