Recording new episodes will record any episode of a program that was first aired during the current calendar year, repeat or new. Dish name-based recording does not have a setting to record only new episodes. The feature is mis-named.
The difference between a name-based timer and a dish pass is that a timer is limited to a single program on a single channel. For example if you set up a name-based timer to record Law and Order on your local NBC channel, it will record the program on that channel whenever it is aired. If you set it to new episodes only, it will only record episodes that were first aired sometime this year. That may be a new episode or one that was first aired in January (last season). The 'new' option isn't terribly clever. This timer will not record any episodes of Law and Order that are on other channels, regardless of whether or not they are new.
A Dish Pass can be set to search for key words in either a program title or description. It can also be set to find programs on a single channel or on all channels. It cannot be set to record only episodes that first aired during the current calendar year. For example, if you create a Dish Pass for 'Sean Connery' using 'Info' on all channels, the DVR will record any program that has his name in the information, such as the older James Bond movies. If you create a Dish Pass to find 'Law and Order' in the title, with an exact match on all channels, it will record all episodes on all channels that you receive, such as your local NBC station and TNT (assuming you receive it).
There can be some overlap. A name-based timer to record all episodes of Law and Order on your NBC channel will record the same episodes as a title-based, exact match Dish Pass for Law and Order restricted to a single channel (your local NBC channel).
All of these work the way I described provided that you don't have conflicts in your timers and Dish Passes. The current version of the software is not terrible clever when it comes to conflicts. It seems to forget, from time to time that there may be a second tuner sitting idle when a conflict occurs. Using the Record Plus feature doesn't always help resolve the conflict.