can this be done? it does have a 40GB or 160GB HD (consumer's choice).
my roommate and i are interested in purchasing Tivo but we are reluctant to due to its $14/month service charge.
it does make sense that apple should include this feature.
No, not unless you hack the AppleTV to run OS X and then load it up with TV recording software. Even then it might not be powerful enough. Also, it does
not make sense for Apple to integrate a TV recording feature. They sell shows for $1.99 on their website; if they let you record shows for free, why would anyone buy them off the website?
In addition, the state of recording TV is kind of in a weird place right now. You can record SD easily, but the AppleTV only works on widescreen, high-definition televisions so SD will look pretty crappy. You can only record HDTV over the air; CableCard hasn't made it's way into consumer systems (only 2 companies that I know of offer systems with CableCard in them), plus not a lot of cable companies offer that service yet. So there are a lot of recording issues there. I would say if you want to record on a Mac, get an EyeTV system:
http://www.elgato.com/
Their software and hardware is really nice; they do a great job as far as TV recording goes. I have an older Plextor tuner and EyeTV 2.0. It's a nice combination, but I mostly use it to flip tapes to dvd. I prefer my TiVo. The TiVo is cake to use and if you really want to archive the shows you can use Toast 8. The monthly fee is something of a hassle, but I've had zero problems with the TiVo. It's like a Mac, only freezes up about twice a year.