Buying a PVR that Doesn't Require a Subscription?

vchew asks: "I have been looking high and low for a decent PVR ala TiVo which doesn't require subscription, since I don't live in the US, and I don't need my PVR to call home every now and then. I can't find one! I don't want a Do-It-Yourself type like WinTV PVR, but a box which I can take home, plug in and just work! Tell me, is there no way for me to buy a digital equivalent of the 20 year old VCR? Well, if it lets me pause-live-TV, that would be cool, but I am willing to live with a digital VCR which does not call home, allows me to select air/cable input, PAL/NTSC output, and allows me to enter record timing slots like every other VCR instead of phoning some central master server to download some TV schedule (and maybe some personality change to go along with that)! Does this have anything to do with TiVo's recent patent?"