Capturing images from my TV

Okay, what I want to be able to do is record directly from whatever's showing on my TV, be it a VHS tape, a game or just a program that's on at the moment, and record it onto my laptop (or PC, whatever) as I wanna try making a few game-related videos, as well as recording TV shows in a format that's way easier to store.

Thing is, I have absolutely no idea what any equipment for doing this might be called. I've tried searching for "TV Capture" or "TV recording" and similar stuff, but all I get is USB addons that would enable me to watch TV on my computer, which isn't what I want, dammit!

Ideally I'm after something that's external too, as I'm more likely to use it on my laptop. Anyone able to advise me on this?

You can get a receiver with a HDD. That'll allow you to record the channels and allow you to transfer the files onto your PC via firewire or lan. Just make sure it has a port.

Alternatively, you can get a TV card. You pretty much stick it into your PC like any other component. That'll allow you to record everything the TV's showing and decode the scrambled channels (which an honest person would never do:p).

Never used either myself, but those are the two alternatives I can think of.