DirecTiVo!
My dad gets DirecTV, but he prefers the ReplayTV units from Panasonic, simply because the "download programming" feature is free. He also gets a kick out of hacking it. I know you can do that with TiVo too, but he seems to enjoy this more. Silly guy
What I want to do is get one and record shows, then dump them to my PowerMac, edit them together in iMovie and burn them to DVDs - have a season of a show for $20 and a little bit of work, archived on DVD's for your viewing whenever. DVD's are down to $5 for the Apple-branded media, which ain't too bad.
Anyway, I think you'll enjoy it - DirecTV is a good service and its prices are very reasonable when compared to cable. We've been really happy with them.