[chicken]

probably the best gadget ever (if you like TV).

To add to what everton said, you can record two programmes and watch a third at the same time. You can also set it to record the whole series of a program, which doesn't get phased when it gets moved to a different day.
Pausing a live match to make a cuppa and restarting when you get back is also nice.

I've heard of people swapping the hard drive for a higher capacity (as it is a standard PC drive). My solution is to get a DVD recorder (getting cheaper by the day) and archive stuff when it gets full.

cheers, Chi