Can I use a DVR with basic cable and without a monthly fee?

If it's basic Time Warner digital cable, you can probably trade in your cable box for a DVR without any additional charge, depending on where you live. You don't need a flat screen, all Time Warner Cable boxes and DVRs have standard video outputs like you would hook up to a VCR. You cannot have or buy a Tivo and get it work without paying the monthly fee. That's known as Theft of Service, not allowed in TV recording land. If you have a recent newer model computer, you can buy a TV tuner card for it and with a lot of different cables, connect your cable box to the computer and use it as a DVR. Another option would be to buy a DVD recorder with an internal hard drive. The only models left in the U.S. are made by Magnavox, sold by Walmart and Amazon.com. It's much more complicated than using a VCR, but once you get used to it, the process becomes fairly simple. You can record many hours of TV shows to the Magnavox hard drive, make DVD's or NOT make DVDs, it's all up to you how you want to use it.

For cable, all there is is HDD based DVD recorders,PC based DVRs, or TiVos with Product Lifetime or TiVo Basic service