With regard to watching something that is still recording...
Yes it can, but have you seen the daft way it goes about it?
Take the scenario, for example (and this actually happened to a 'Toppy' owner), where you are recording a big football match and want to start watching an hour after kick-off - while the match is still being recorded, maybe because you were putting the kids to bed.
You go into 'Play' and the first thing you have to do is 'Rewind' all the way back to the beginning of the recording. This you do with your hands over your eyes so as not to see the score. Once at the beginning you can start playing the match. Great. You settle down to what turns out to be a great game.
Then (and this is the icing on the cake) as the live match finishes, and the Topfield stops recording, you are thrown out of 'Play' mode and back to live TV, only to be confronted with the final score! I expect there was a promotion for the employee at Topfield Inc. who thought that one up.
So why not do it like the Pace Twin? As soon as a recording starts it is entered into the Library as normal. In the Library listing there is a small red dot and an increasing duration time, along side the programme title, to show it is a recording in progress. You can treat this entry just as any other. You can Play it (from the start, and at any speed), 'Resume' it from where you left off, FF or REW, create and delete bookmarks on it etc. etc. When the live recording ends, all you know about it is that the red LED on the front of the machine goes out.
One day, all PVRs will be made this way.
Spok.