TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder (*TiVo Service Fee Not Included)
Friend's broke after 1.5 years
Lost all of his shows, which he waited to watch so we could watch them together.  Like 6 episodes of Boston Public, gone forever.  I have a replay TV 4504 40 hour I bought with lifetime activation for $350 - 10% techbargains.com discount. Replaced 40 gig with 250 gig HD for $150.<BR>You can send shows from replay TV to computer using a special program.  Your friends can download your shows from the internet.  Keep in mind tho, I made a concious decision to go with STANDARD CABLE (the kind that your regular TV can change the channels on).  It's the cheapest way to get Fox Sports West to watch the Lakers.  So if you go satellite, get DirecTivo, I think it does not convert to analog before recording to hard drive, so much better quality/memory performance.  If you go Dish, get the Dish DVR, but you have to get at least the $34 package to get the DVR service for $5/month (cheaper packages raise service fee to like $12!).<BR>If you want to watch recorded shows on your laptop on the road or just in the bathroom (hehe), get the Replay TV.  If you have the bandwidth (2 mbit for standard quality) you can watch the show as it streams to your laptop.  This is using free 3rd party software, of course :P