I am contemplating getting a Tivo or a Cox DVR. I was wondering if they are pretty simple to transfer the shows onto videotapes.

Also if I unplugged the DVR or Tivo from my TV and took it to my girlfriends house, would I be able to watch the shows from the DVR on there?

I don't know about Cox, but TiVo has a "save to VCR" option. Click on that and you're given a few seconds to hit record on the VCR. Easy.

Technically, yes. However, the DVR tends to have a long period of reset. Also, I think it might be easier with a standalone than a DirecTiVo. It's not like bringing your DVD player with you.

Yes and yes.

I know from having my DVR with cox, I hate the thing, it's very buggy, and not as easy to manage as my friends Tivo. Don't know if they've imporved it at all or not.

What problems do you have with the Cox DVR?

I tried my cable DVR for about a weekend. Crappy piece of equipment. When I tried to use both tuners to record, one would stop after a minute or two. Programs disappeared. It would freeze up and require a hard reboot. These are all likely software issues and may of been fixed by now, but I no longer care enough to find out.

What about those Digital Media Recorders that don't require subscriptions? I think RCA makes a 40 gb one.

I have had reboot issues as well, but the most annoying thing is how long it takes to change channels with the Cox DVR. I never had this issue with Dish PVR. Sometimes you wonder if you actually hit the arrow up, then it changes. Another BIG annoyance for me is that you can go into the channel menu and select what show to record, but when you try to edit the time that it stores...let's say 8:00-9:00 nad the show always seems to start at 7:58, well you go to edit the time, but it never saves no matter how many times you change the start time to be like 7:55, it just never saves it....Plus my Dish PVR was smart enough to detect that if you like Scrubs, and the time changes, it picked it up and recorded the show...Cox's DVR has no such feature.