Poor man’s PVR
So I wanted to get Tivo, but did not really want to pay the monthly fee. Instead, I found the poor man’s solution (well, poor if you already have a computer). I ended up getting a Plextor PX-TV402U converter which encodes the cable signal into MPEG4 format and passes it to the computer over USB. On my computer, I use EyeTV 2.0 which allows for easy recording, viewing, and editing of live television.
If you are in the market for a PVR and have a fairly up-to-date computer, I would highly recommend this setup for it’s flexibility and ease of use!