TiVo Community Forum Archive 1 (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/index.php)
- TiVo Underground (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=8)
-- Subscription (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=73028)

If you have a Series 1 TiVo that originally came with software v.1.x, it can be used in "Dumb VCR" mode, in which it can be set to record by time and date, but will have none of the TiVo service features such as program data, program search, etc.

Other TiVos can do almost nothing w/o a subscription, any more than you can receive cable or DirecTV without subscriptions, unless you are a very clever and unprincipled thief.