My main problem with DS is the amount of - well - something else that rhymes with civil really. Plus the admins are over-zealous and there's no real rapport with the members.
Amstrad boxes... we have one. Records when it feels like (the record light is arguably an ornamental feature), crashes when it loads planner with a message "for your information, please wait" ad infinitum - i left it for half an hour once. Plus your recordings are plagued by video and audio breakups
even though every time I check it both transponder units are getting a full-ish signal strength/quality. The noisy fan is guaranteed to kick in at a quiet time :S
The Thomson boxes are better (but noisy) and the Pace ones are the tops but the Amstrad ones are cheapest. We've had 2 Amstrad boxes and 2 dish/receiver units fitted and the same problems...
HTH