I think some points are being missed.
The Dish DVR can only record the digital transport stream from the dish. It cannot record any video stream because it does not have ADCs (digital-to-analog converters) need to convert analog into digital to be stored. ADCs are found is some Tivos but generally only for SD, IIRC.
Most DVDs and DVRs do not accept HDMI or Component inputs and only S-Video, Composite, or RF for DVDs. There were a few DVD models that could record Component but they are hard to find and were more expensive. (I've only seen one scratch-and-dent one at BB maybe 2 years ago.) Generally the bandwidth recordable would not be enough for true (720p or 1024i) HD and would not be much better than S-video--only say 720x480i.
I don't know if there were any reasonable HD-DVRs that could record but that option is basically gone. Blu-ray would be good but the cost of one-time recordable disks is unreasonable (much more than HDDs) let alone re-recordable ones, yet.
My worry is having useful HDD after cutting back on Dish services for the cost.
-Ken