You can do this with the limitation that you can't record on one channel and watch another since the receiver has only one tuner. You can record a program while watching it or program it to record when you are away. Click on any program in the guide that is in the future and a menu will pop up which gives you several options. You can also pause program while watching.
My experience was with Bell who uses the same (relabelled) equipment. It was as simple as hooking up the hard drive (with external power supply), turn on the receiver and a menu came up to the effect that "I see you've hooked up a hard drive, press OK to format". Then "hard drive ready to go, press Done". That was about it. There may be an additional "hoop" to jump thru with Dish since they charge a one-time fee for this service.
Some seem to have been able to use a USB-powered HD but I didn't try that. Had an old drive kicking around so I decided to try it. Has been working well for a couple of years with the above caveats/limitations. I use it at home and have found it quite handy, but the real DVR would offer more flexibility at a much higher cost.
