Recording stuff off the box

[Background Noise]

Can heartily recommend a hard disc recorder - its about the easiest medium to use, no worrying about tapes or discs and its always recording so you can 'rewind' live TV. If you don't have a digital tuner or freeview box you can get combined freeview/HDD recorders (a twin tuner model will allow you to record one channel (or sometimes 2) and watch another). Some forums here:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/
http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl
http://www.avforums.com/