TV Recording: Bring Me Into the 21st Century

After 14 years of dedicated service, my VCR is acting like a little bitch--not recording shows I've programmed, getting hung up while rewinding, pulling the tape out of the cassette, etc. I'm thinking the time has come to replace it with another video recording device. I'd like to keep up with the times, so I was thinking of getting a DVR or DVD recorder. Don't DVRs require a subscription service though? I don't want to pay for a subscription just to keep up with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Jeopardy. A DVR without a subscription service would be just peachy. A DVD recorder sounds like a decent idea, but you can't just keep recording over and over on the same DVD, can you?