Edit: from one of the Amazon reviews:
"It does let you pause live TV (temporarily recording to the hard drive just like the DVR does). However, unlike the DVR, this unit does not automatically record anything so if you missed something and want to see it again, too bad - unless you had previously entered into "Timeshift" mode by pressing Pause. Therefore, assuming you have enough hard drive capacity, it's probably best to press Pause then Play at the start of watching anything to let the thing start saving to the hard drive- then you will be able to Rewind, Pause and Forward through content that was buffered. (all the more reason you should use a big hard drive and not USB stick). While in Timeshift mode, you cannot change channels until pressing Stop."
That's true, but is as simple as hitting pause, I don't really think of it as a special mode.
I haven't tried the pausing TV (or recording TV) yet. I think this coment will inspire me to try out the recording and pausing.
I might tolerate that shortcoming at that price, though.