Use Apple TV to Cut Cable Cord

Question

My wife and I are frustrated by the arrogance and greed of our local cable monopoly and looking at the plusses and minuses of Apple TV using Hulu and various other streaming sources. Dish TV is not an option for a few reasons. Our only cable usage would be for high-speed Internet (they advertise 15 gigs, but we only get about 5).
She and I watch different stuff.  She tapes shows using the TWC-provided DVR so we can FF through commercials. If I want to watch something different when she is watching/taping I go to another TV set.  Our home is fully wired with Ethernet and Apple Express Wi-fi. We’re an all-Apple household two iMacs, one MacBook Air, two iPhones (what else!!!). This scenario brings forth following questions about Apple TV and streaming:
Can streaming video be taped for later viewing and FFing through commercials? Good shows often come on after our bedtime.
Does one tape these to an external hard drive, or….?
If wife is taping or streaming on the principal TV controlled by the Apple TV, can I watch some thing else on another TV simultaneously? If not, what’s the solution?
Maybe many of these hurdles may be overcome by Apple TV-4 and A7 chip, for which we’ll probably wait.
Sage advise greatly appreciated.  Many thanks.

Answer 1

AppleTV has no tuner - you watch one thing at a time.  One AppleTV would be needed for each TV.
AppleTV started as a vehicle for playback of iTunes store material, photos and music.  Subsequently in the black models participating 'channels' have been added from various providers however many of these require separate subscriptions to those channel provider's services.
You can rent movies from iTunes or buy them.  TV Shows can only be purchased - rentals were iniotially allowed but no longer.
AppleTv is a mish mash of things these days but it currently has no PVR capability so if you need that it would not be a good option.
Current model has no storage, original did.  Only purchases from iTunes store can be archived by downloading in iTunes.
As far as the streaming services go they vary by country so you need to check exactly what is on offer in your country (US I assume):
http://www.apple.com/appletv/whats-on/
You watch the streaming services live - we have fewer in the UK but Netflix for example is rate adaptive so quality is proportional to internet speed - slower speeds get worse quality - I'd imagine you are getting 5Mbps not 15 Mbps (check at speedtest,net in a browser).
AC