A:Answer Yes - it does replace your cable Company's DVR. Instead you will need to get a cablecars from them (Verizon $5 per month). As for "What else it does", that depends on what features your cable company's DVR has. The Tivo Bolt is excellent at streaming Amazon, netflix and Hulu and lets you search across all services in one interface which is nice. This unit also works great for being on the road and use your phone to add events to record.