This isn't that hard, and I know that I've set up my TV this way before, but it was four years ago...
I have analog cable and want to be able to record one channel while watching another. I'd also like to be able to record multiple channels (so that if I'm away, the cable box channel setting isn't necessarily the channel being recorded). I'm about ready to give up the cable box, but wanted to see if I could figure this out before I do that.
Currently, my TV has two RCA inputs. I'm using one set for the DVD.
I tried using coax cables to go from the wall to an A/B switch, then half to the TV and the other half to the cable box -> VCR -> TV, but that didn't do the trick. It would allow me only to record whatever channel the cable box was set to. Thoughts?
As an alternative you could wire the VCR to basic cable and use the cable box as well.
Use a splitter (not an A/B switch) on the incoming cable. One side would go to the cable box and out from there into the TV's antenna input.
The other side of the splitter goes into the VCR and then the VCR's line outputs into the second RCA input on the TV.
The VCR would record whatever its tuner will tune in totally independant of whatever the cable box is doing. And you could record different channels via the VCR's timer.
Ditching the cable box as David suggests would make your life easier, provided you could live with the possibility of losing some of the channels the box gives you now.