stupid question from an illiterate female here... we have dvr on our upstairs tv but not on our downstairs tv (both have satellite).

how much would a separate dvr recorder for the downstairs tv cost? are there different brands? where can i get one/does it have to come thru dish network? can you rent them--if so what is the benefit of renting vs buying?

i dont need it to be synched with the upstairs tv, just able to record programs downstairs.

thanks for any help!

I'm assuming you already have Dish from your post. That means you should get another one of their DVRs. Pricing is going to depend on whatever they are charging today, it shouldn't be too much for a non-HD model. You can easily check it out on their site or with a phone call. (if not HD, I think it is probably $0) It won't cost any more per month, either, because you're already paying extra for the 2nd sat receiver. The DVR would just take its place.

Also, Dish offers 2-room DVRs (one DVR, 2 rooms). That could even be what you have already. You could, theoretically, drop to only one sat box and run a line from it to the downstairs. These 2-room boxes allow you to watch different things in different rooms at the same time. They do still only record 2 things at once, so if you are looking to record more things at the same time you would still want 2 separate DVRs.

That's the DVR625, what I have. One receiver with two outputs, and each can record / playback etc on the single 100-hour DVR, and each TV can watch different sattelite channels. There is no $5 second receiver charge (though the receiver must be plugged into the phone line to avoid this $5 fee), and there is a $6 DVR fee (well worth it in my opinion).

Here is a link to the brochure for the DVR 625 (.pdf file)