Thats true I have a Motorola Box but my computer doesnt have firewire so I just use my pinnacle dazzle and virtualdub.
I Agree with Tucker001 with the exception that it really depends on the make and model of the DVR. With that said, I have a dish network model 522 that has a USB port on the backside but it is somewhat useless because it is not connected for any transfer! It's their for some jack-ass future use, GO Figure!.. I've had this DVR for over 2 years now and every time I ask someone from DishNetwork when will they have a model that will allow the USB to be of some use, They go into La la land, don't know jack about their products. I was however, so many months ago able to remove the drive and copy the large Linux type video files to my PC and later convert them to normal avi etc. So with this said, I think it's all about choosing the right make models if you plan on backing up some of those funny commercials and good shows .. Unfortunately, depending on your provider or rather you purchased your own DVR, choices of backup can be quite limited or not possible at all.. Good luck.
Well dealing with any Dish DVR you can pull the HDD and conect it to your computer... there is a program you can download from the net that will let you take all of the recordings off of the drive so they can be stored, burned, converted or whatever.... you will just need to know what to search for on the net....