http://www.slingbox.com/

I recommend the Slingbox Pro HD:  http://www.slingbox.com/go/slingbox-prohd

It is a bit on the pricy side, but well worth the initial investment.  Just look at it this way, you won't have any cable bills if you buy the Slingbox!  The only thing you'll have to pay for will be to pay for a good internet connection (and you can't get any better than Japan's connection speed!).  You might also have to foot the bill for an extra DVR player unit through the cable company for whoever is holding your Slingbox hardware stateside, but that's a small expense. 

We are able to pause, rewind, record.....all that good stuff!  We never miss any of our favorite shows.  The picture quality is great!  I have to say the picture quality is about as good as it would be if we were watching television back in the US!  It's unbelievable that we're streaming it from so far away, yet the picture quality is that good!

Picture quility can vary depending on what the upload speed is and your download speed.  You'll also need a pretty decent home computer.  Make sure you find someone in the states that has the best upload speed to house the Slingbox hardware.  You'll get whatever cable channels that person gets, so if they get all the great movie channels or sports channels that you crave, then you'll get them too! 

You might be able to find the Slingbox Pro HD for about $100 less than retail on ebay.  I've seen them go for $200 there. 

It's great to be able to watch my TV shows when I want to watch them....and, I don't have to watch TV shows that are two seasons old!   

If you have a slingbox, let me know what you think!

Well you dont need all that babe. I get all the shows from the US I want like CNN, discovery etc. You got to go through a Japanese company. I got fiber optic in my deal as well.

Ok, so a question for those using sling or hava, what needs to be at the house stateside? We can leave this in one of our parents' house, and basically watch from their cable? One thing we didn't like about moving to Japan was losing a lot of American programming on the few shows we do actually like to watch. We don't want to live on base, so I know we won't be able to watch on hulu. I saw mention of these systems on another thread, but I'm still kind of unsure of what we need to get to use it! (Call me blonde.. hehe).

Sarah

Oh man damn that, hulu, mininova and btjunkie work fine for free chica. iptorrents is the best though.

proxy server works too and there are some good free ones out there