This one doesn't look half-bad at least. I'm actually kind of excited about getting some use out of my PVR now - timeshift from broadcast to VCD on CD-RWR. We're usually in bed at 9ish now (because of freaky schedulish things) so I haven't been able to watch a couple of shows that I really like for quite some time. Dropping "Law & Order" onto a CD-R means we can watch something remotely decent in place of "Jeopardy" and "Entertainment Tonight".

This might now sound like a big deal to Tivo owners, but Canadians don't really have any great options as far as PVRs go - most of it is homegrown or unavailable up here in the Great White North.

As far as your parents tuner woes go, they should use a cheap stereo VCR as their tuner if they have one kicking around. My one beef with DVD players nowadays is that they don't usually include tuner technology...