My experience in the few times we had to switch to a new DVR (722 or Hopper), either for upgrade or replacement, has been that I could always watch whatever
was already recorded on the Hopper. Unless there is some sort of internal timer or Dish hidden function to deactivate watching of recordings in a month or so, never had an issue for at least a few weeks. I remember recent Hopper changes (I had a Sling unit and also H2K) and one condition I had was I had to keep them for a while to either watch or move recordings to an EHD to put on the replacement DVR before returning. I never had them connected to anything other than plugging in so do not know how Dish could "deactivate" anything on a DVR if it's not connected to the satellite dish or Internet after you cancel (unless as mentioned above). Now, maybe if the Hopper is connected to the dish/Internet
after you cancel service then maybe they could send a quick hit to the Hopper to make it unusable for playback. Do not know for sure, just speculating that technically that could be done if they wanted to and had that built in.
Agree that once you leave Dish the recordings cannot be moved to another provider's DVR, only recorded to a DVD as
Scherrman advised. EHD stuff? That's not able to be put onto another provider's DVR.
DLNA? Who knows. Since you are set on leaving Dish and own the equipment I guess you can try it out. But it is not a very good DLNA as
Hall replied. I never liked it and was buggy.
IMO, disconnect the Hopper prior to deactivating your account, leave it disconnected from anything (including wireless) other than the TV and prepare yourself to lose everything on it. If afterward you find you can watch stuff for weeks afterward, BONUS! Or stay with Dish and upgrade to their ultra-cool new 16 tuner mega Hopper.