The Toppy (Topfield TF5800) is a PVR roughly comparable to the Humax. It has a USB port that can be accessed by a PC or Mac. 

Have now got a netbook (HP Mini-Note 2133). Since this is slightly more portable than my main machine (it doesn't have a slew of wires and a USB hub connected to it) is there a way I can set it up to talk to the Toppy? Can make nothing of the descriptions on this webpage:
http://toppy.org.uk/downloads/linux.php

The netbook runs SUSE Enterprise Edition 10, or that's what it says on the sticky label.

I have an entire series of Heroes that I haven't watched yet, for example, so if I could move it I could format it for iPod and save it on a DVD, which would allow me to get all that space back.

Regards, Ruth