An alternative which costs money but works great is a vcr with built in remote capabilities. I just biught a Panasonic VP-VS4820 vcr. If you use a cable box, it will send out the appropriate signal at each recording time for a channel change on the cable box, just as if you were there doing it manually. Fantastic feature. I even used it to change channels for a second vcr when I knew first one would be out of tape when I went away.