between pausing and cancelling the account is that when you pause it, it keeps your existing recordings when you start back up.
The thing with pausing though is that it takes effect at the end of your existing billing cycle. So if you pause it and you still have three weeks left to go on your billing cycle, you'll get three weeks of tv before it stops. You can restart anytime though. So you can't really pause for a week at a time, unless it's the week between the end of your billing cycle and the time you restart.
At least that's the way I understand it.