You can't watch a live TV channel while recording another with a TiVo that old, but you can watch something from your Now Playing List while the unit is recording something else.

You can get a splitter for your coaxial cable and run one cable into the TiVo and one directly into the TV. Usually the cable provider will provide the cables (and possibly the splitter) at no charge rather than have a subscriber use substandard accessories that cause a problem.

That way you can change the input selection from the remote and watch TV live while you record on another channel. You won't have the TiVo functionality of pause, rewind, etc....but it does give you some additional flexibility.

Watching without TiVo features once in awhile makes you truly appreciate the joy of watching what you have recorded.

Barbeedoll

Right, but with many newer systems (like Verizon FiOS) the raw coax cable no longer supplies any analog channels. So this may not work.