I bought this device to replace one that failed after several years of use. To my knowledge this is the only product that works with Windows Media Center which itself only works with Windows 7 or 8. This box requires an M card provided by your cable company and all of this stuff combined enables the watching and recording of cable TV through your computer. With that combination you can record hours of TV programming limited only by the memory of your computer including memory sticks. This box can record two channels at a time. I use two boxes to record up to 4 channels at a time. While watching either live or recorded programs, you can pause, or back up to see something that you may have missed. You can let it be recording a program and then watch it delayed a few minutes later and skip through the commercials.