{{smack forehead}}..

Look.. if you have a VCR hooked up to a digital cable box already, you NEVER use the VCR to change channels anyway.. you leave it set on channel 3 or 4 (whichever isn't used in your area), and use the built-in program guide your cable company feeds into your cable box to pre-set shows and movies you want to record ahead of time.. then you set the VCR's timer(s) to match..

it's really complicated so I'll explain it so even Joe the Plumber who isn't really a plumber understands it..

- you want to record Championship All-Star American Idiots two days from now at 10pm.. the program is two hours long
- shove a tape into the VCR that has at least two hours of free space on it..
- select your record mode.. SP or "Standard Play".. (which will use an entire tape at high speed / high quality, for a single two-hour recording), or EP (also known as "Extended Play"), the slow mode which can record six hours on a tape whose cardboard sleeve says "six hours".. FF or RW until you find something you can either record over, or FF to a blank area of the tape that'll hold two hours of new recording, without accidentally erasing over your favorite episodes of "Hot Babes Who Won't Give You The Time Of Day Even If You Shave Your Head and are Covered with Tattoos and Piercings".. (you, not them, although these days, it could be either or both..) ..
- if you're using a fresh, blank tape, straight out of shrink-wrap, just shove it.. into.. the.. VCR.. :) .. don't forget to take it out of the box first!..
- program the VCR's timer to start recording at DD:HH:MM and to stop recording at DD:HH:MM.. don't mess with the VCR's channel changer.. just leave it set to 3 or 4, wherever it's already set.. "But the show is on channel 199!".. yeah, it is, it doesn't matter, Einstein..

(if you don't know how to program a VCR timer, buy yourself a box of crayons and a pad of paper and just sit quietly in the corner and draw pretty pictures.. leave the high-tech stuff to people with IQs over 50..) ..

- over at the digital cable box, find Championship Idiots on the cable system's program guide and press the correct button on the box's remote to change to that program on that channel at that time.. even if it's a couple days from now.. yeah, you can do that.. no foolin'!..

Then.. magically..

At DD:HH:MM, the cable box will switch to the channel showing Championship All-Star American Idiots, and the VCR will start recording..

Wow.. pretty difficult, huh..

Ya don't NEED to tell the VCR to change channels.. just tell it when to start recording, and when to stop recording and make sure there's a tape in it with enough blank or recordable space to record what you want to record.. it doesn't matter if the VCR was made last year or ten years ago.. as long as it has co-ax inputs and programmable timers.. and I don' t know of ANY VCRs made in the last ten years that don't have those things..

Ya don't have to go buy a DVD recorder, a new $1000.00 teevee.. shave your head some more.. or anything else.. IF you already have digital cable, and your VCR is connected to your cable box with a co-ax cable, that's all ya need..