There is a free Dish Network plug-in for the Archos 50x portable media players which would work for mpeg-2 SD programs. The Pocket Dish is impossible to find these days, but the 50x's are still plentiful (though obsolete). Archos devices are mpeg-4, and the latest/greatest Media Tablets can play back 720p HD programs. But the annoying fact of the matter is that there is no such plug in available, either for the mpeg-4 SD, nor any HD programs on Dish. Seems like Dish and Archos had a falling out.
Anyhow, that digital transfer would be good for only one portable device, since it gets encrypted in the transfer. Harshness also mentioned that the Archos can record analog audio and video, so that might do double-duty to capture the programs in real time, if that is what you decide to do. Incidentally, 4th gen Archos players (and later) cannot record video without an additional docking station to add all the I/O ports.