Are you using a cable box?

yes, to get digital here, there must be a converter box, otherwise my cable comes directly into my house.

Well, the cable box only outputs one channel so if you hook up the vcr in between the cable box and the tv you will only be able to record the channel you are watching.

If you connect a splitter to your incoming cable, then run one cable from the splitter to the cable box, and the other to the vcr, you could record one basic cable channel while watching a digital cable channel at the same time.

Since your VCR does not have a digital tuner you might only be able to tape what you are watching. However many cable companies still send the analog signal into your house. If you connect a cable line direct to your VCR you still might able to tape from the analog signals. That is how it is where I live.

Thanks. I guess I will just move the VCR to another TV and limit my recordings to basic cable!