Currently I use the internet to watch various shows (itv and bbc programs using a vpn and us shows from nbc, hulu etc). I record them as I stream them to a dvd recorder via a s-video connection from my laptop and then can play them on my dvd player and watch whenever I want.

I would like to eliminate recording on the dvd recorder and just have a wmv or some other common file to play on my wd media player and not have to hook my laptop up to the tv.

I have looked at the various programs and am really confused. Do I want to buy a screen catcher program or a stream recorder program (I really don't want both). The stream recorder seems right but then I would have to convert to wmv, the catcher programs convert as they capture.

What is best for getting programs from itv, bbc, nbc and having it in a common file like wmv so I can play it on my media player?