I'm just back from a week in Paris and had a stack of TIVO programs on the laptop for viewing in both directions. They've done away with lifetime subs now, but you can get an 80 hour machine and one year sub for $19.95 a month, and after the first year you just pay $12.95 a month (same as it was last month). Downloading to the laptop (or any PC or hard drive you have) will only work with the stand alone TIVO model.

The newest software version now stores deleted programs in a folder, so you can sort of gauge how much recording space you have left based on what's in there.