Who's an A/V Expert?
Please help, and feel free to taunt

OK, so I've got some issues with my home entertainment system. (Now is where you laugh uncontrollably at me calling my crap an entertainment system)

I have what I believe they call a "tube" TV. An unfancy TV with no internal digital converter. I do not have cable; I use an antenna. I bought a digital converter so I can still watch TV in a month, or whenever that switch is occurring. I successfully hooked it up. So what's the problem, you ask?

1) My TV is a TV/VCR combo. As far as I can tell, I can't set a timer to record anything. The TV has to be on, and I have to manually push the record button. Which kind of blows, since the only time I generally record anything is when I won't be home. I tried looking up solutions online, but nothing seemed to help or relate directly to my situation (TV/VCR combo). Anyone know anything else about this?

And now for the bigger issue(s)...

2) Lack of sufficient AV inputs/plugs/things

My TV is apparently so crap that it only has three inputs: one for the coaxial cable, one audio (white) input, and one video (yellow) input. It doesn't even have a second audio (red) input. Previously, this wasn't a problem. I only needed to plug one thing into my TV--my DVD player. And not plugging the red audio cord in didn't seem to matter.

But now that I have the digital converter, I do have a problem, as I have two things I need to connect to my TV, but I only have one set of inputs. I thought to myself, "No problem, I'll just route the digital converter through the DVD player." No can do. My DVD player doesn't have any AV inputs, only the outputs to the TV. And the converter doesn't have any inputs, so I can't route the DVD player though the converter. Son of a beeotch. That's what I get for buying the cheapest crap out there. Stupid government making digital TV madatory.

Complicating matters more:

3) I got a PS2. Which connects to the TV via (you guess it) AV inputs. So now I have three things I need to plug into my TV that only has one set of inputs. And whereas not plugging in the red audio cord didn't seem to matter before, I have a feeling it does matter with the PS2. Because I was playing SingStar and could hardly hear my voice through the mic even with the mic volume turned way up. Is this due to me only having monosound, or whatever? Is there a setting I can choose on my PS2 to fix this (I haven't looked for this yet, because I'm lazy)?

Problems in a nutshell:
1) Can't record on a timer with my TV/VCR combo and a digital converter box.
2) Complete lack of AV inputs for all my peripherals (2 sets short).
3) PS2 sounding wonky...due to only plugging in one audio cord??

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions for me? Other than buying a new modern-era TV, that is. I'm cheap, and it would piss me off to buy a new TV with an internal digital converter when I just bought one (albeit with the $40 government coupon, but I still had to pay $20).

AV input-wise, I know I can just switch which plugs are plugged in depending upon which peripheral I'm using (watching TV vs. watching DVD vs. using PS2). But that's seriously annoying. I realize that my PS2 also functions as a DVD player, so I could just get rid of my DVD player...but I'd still not have enough AV inputs and I'd have to buy the stupid PS2 DVD remote which is way overpriced.

Is there some sort of cheap(ish) AV hub you can buy? Would buying Y adapters help, or would that just cause other problems (my TV only has one "line out" button, so I can't toggle between AV1 and AV2, etc).

Does anyone have a TV or DVD player with multiple AV input/outputs that they want to give me? ;)

Life is so hard.