On Wed, 7 Sep 2011 05:41:05 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

The downside is that it isn't cheap. To get the
prgramming schedules, which is essentially
necessary to use the unit, requires a subscription
to the Tivo service. That is available monthly
or for the lifetime of the Tivo unit. The unit
with lifetime service is about $550. For me
it's well worth it because being an existing
customer I got it for around $400, it's saving
me about $8 per month compared to the
cable company and will pay for itself in 4 years.
The Tivo Premier storage can be expanded
with an external HD too, they have an XL that
stores 150 hours of HD, etc. But for me
the 45 hours works fine.

This is where I get lost. If I'm just connected to an antenna, I cant
get the service. All I want to do is be able to record something off
the air, either by pushing a "record" button, or setting a program
timer. Why would I een need a service to do that? I can look up the
local tv station websites to find out when they are going to be
showing a movie I want to see, or whatever..... I'd also like to be
able to copy a movie or segement off the local news to save as a file,
or burn it to a dvd.

This is why I asked about using an old computer to do this. I can add
a big hard drive, and imagine I need some sort of card, and some
software (not sure what)?
I can sort is see using my DTV converter box as the tuner, but not
sure how to connect it to the PC. Yea, I'd only get one program at a
time with the DTV box, but that's plenty.