said by rradina :

Still don't need a VCR. Buy a $75 Hauppauge WinTV board (or equivalent) and either hook up RF or composite video to your PC. Record the RF/composite directly to MPEG2.

The only issue: Do the VOD/DVR devices employ classic MacroVision copy protection? If so, then you'd need a small "black box" in the middle of the video to trim the MacroVision encoding. I believe they use "off screen" video scan lines to overwhelm the automatic gain governing circuits on recorders. Although your TV's presentation of the signal is unaffected, a recording ends up with wide swings in brightness which makes it too irritating to watch.

said by BillTager :

You talking about this? I use this in between my STB and my Hauppauge PVR250 tuner using MCE. It works for the MacroVision, but I think that VOB uses a different mechanism to set copy protection and expiration dates.