Is there a way to tranfer programs recorded on a DVR (rented from cable co.) to DVD? I have a DVD burner on my iMac, but I'm not sure if there's a way to do connect the two devices. Maybe I need another piece of hardware or some specialized software?

The easiest (and lowest quality) way is analog video capture--instead of plugging it into your TV, you would plug into a video capture card or some kind of external video capture device.

To retrieve a digital copy depends on how open your DVR is, and that depends partly on the manufacturer of the DVR and partly on the cable company (for instance, some DVRs have firewire out but the cable company may glue over the port to prevent it from being used). You should be able to find out about your DVR by searching Google for the model number.

--Mox